Duty to God

Well hello again! Looks like it's  Monday . I'm still losing my mind at how fast time moves. It's definitely accelerating. I love all of it though. I wish it would slow down a bit. It's going to be over before I know it.  The weather this week has been exactly what the weather is heaven is going to be like! Slightly humid, cool breeze, spotty clouds, and all at about 75 degrees. It's been incredible.  As far as the work, this week has been pretty unique! We were teaching a lesson on a porch  this Tuesday , and this guy drove up super slow, got out of his car, and walked right up to us. He was so slow and old... I thought he might crumble to dust if I bumped him... But he walked right up and cut right into our conversation. It was so weird. He proceeded to tell us that he was a country music star, and started to show us a bunch of screenshots of actual country artists, telling us how he knew all of them, dated Dolly Parton, hung out with Elvis, taught Brad P...

This week was crazy. I don't have a ton of time to write a ton of details, but I'll give a couple highlights!  Last Monday we came home from p-day to find our apartment in total disarray. Turns out our landlord decided to give us new floors. So we slept there that night, got it under control. Talked with him the next day, and found out we would be able to sleep there on Tuesday night, but that we weren't supposed to be in the apartment all day, and Wednesday night we needed to find somewhere else to stay. It was pretty rough. As missionaries, your apartment and the church are your home bases, but now we didn't have an apartment, and the church is 30 minutes away. It was exciting.  SO, on Wednesday, we went to Centerville for exchanges! I was able to go with Elder Aird, all of two weeks old in the mission, and he is so cool! He's already developed into such a strong missionary! It's still so weird to me that it's been a year since I was at that point...

Wow.  I'm half done folks.  It's super weird. I don't feel remotely like I've been a missionary for a year. It wasn't really that weird at first, till we were sitting in district meeting and somebody starts singing happy hump-day, and I realized I was the most experienced missionary in the room. That was the beginning of my midlife crisis. Later, we drove back to Creston, and since we were on exchanges, Elder Aird drove with me. He's a brand new missionary, fresh out of the MTC, and he just kept asking me questions, like I was some wise experienced missionary. It reminded me of how I acted back in Quincy... Midlife crisis part two. When we got home I ate a rather large amount of rocky road ice cream. I'm doing better now though.  That aside, this week has been AMAZING! It has been absolutely full of miracles! It would take much longer than I have time for to tell you about all of them, but I will share one of the most powerful.  On Monday  n...

Hello Friends and Family! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer!  Transfers happened! Elder Fuller has taken off to Dubuque, and I stayed! My new comp is Elder Hebbert, fresh out of the Peoria stake! In case you missed it, the Chicago West Mission was dissolved, and the Peoria Stake is now a part of our mission. It's craziness. Our mission cultures are VERY different. For example, they could listen to pretty much any music they wanted to, we have about 80 approved songs. They didn't let Elders and Sisters have p-day together, and in the last 10 months Elder Hebbert has only had 1 district lunch. I've had more than 40. It's been fun to see all the differences. It feels a little like training again.  Anyway that all aside. This week has been SOOO long, SOOO fun, SOOO exhausting, and SOOO worth it! I love being a missionary!  We had an exchange with Centerville this Monday before Transfer calls. Usually that Monday is super stressful, and I hav...

Hello again! The corn keeps getting taller, and time keeps moving faster! Two years is not as long as it sounds, at least it hasn't been this last year. This week has been a great one! We had a lot of time with other missionaries, and did some unique things, but a day by day description of this week would be pretty boring. I'll spare you the monotony. We had district p-day again, which was a riot! Think mud, hammocks, frisbee, and a wheelchair. Good times. Following pday, things got super crazy. We had two exchanges in a row, which was nuts, but also super fun! In keeping with our theme of creative finding this transfer, we made a lemonade stand, a bunch of signs, and jumped up and down, offering people free lemonade and copies of the Book of Mormon. We didn't have a ton of people pull over, but we did get a ton of "honks for Jesus". It was a good time! They went home, we got ready for the next exchange in the morning, and headed to Indianola! Ther...

Wow. We all expected this week to be the longest week of the transfer. It turned out to be insanely fast. I cannot believe it is pday again.  Last Monday was pretty great. We had a district pday in Osceola, which was great. It's hard to everyone to be alone on pday, so it was nice to have have people to see.  Then we drove to Waukee to stay the night with the Walnut Hills elders. That was a good time.  Tuesday was Zone Conference! Definitely one of the greatest ones of my mission. They just keep getting better! This one was particularly unique though, because the people who were as old as I am now when I started my mission all gave their departing testimonies. To see all these people who I've gotten so tight with over the past year share their thoughts and feelings about their missions, was a very bittersweet experience. With the exception of Elder Fuller, every missionary from my original Quincy squad will have gone home this transfer. It's unreal.  ...

Hello friends and family! The corn is about 3 feet tall. I'm still a missionary. Today is p-day. Life is great!  I am frequently blown away how green it is here, and how many kinds of green there are! Y'all know that I used to make fun of the midwest, and how boring it must be... And it definitely is boring, but that doesn't mean it isn't beautiful! I love it!  This week was quite an adventure!  We were in Waukee for p-day and had a riot. Elder Fuller and I made shirts for everyone, it was great! Then we were able to have supper with the Drummonds in Des Moines before heading home. I just love them!  On the way home we got caught in a knarly storm. The lightning in Iowa usually stays in the clouds, and just looks really cool up there. Not so this time. Add to that a torrential downpour with the greenest sky I've ever seen. We were scared. Thank goodness for prayer. We are still alive.  Tuesday  was great! I tried to make a training, but it...