Monday, December 21, 2015

"He" Is Why I'm out Here - December 21, 2015

WHATS UPPPP!!!

- snowed!!! so we spent almost a whole day shoveling drive ways. Dang cold but still lots of fun!

- went to Valier and played some chess with one of our investigators... He beat Elder Asbury in 3 moves and destroyed me.  Cool guy, LOVES football, had a good chat about bowl season.... And the gospel of course.

- found a SWEEEET wooden toy gift shop outside of town. Dude sounds Italian and is dang good at making toys. If his name isn't Gepetto it should be.

- went to a families home to decorate Santa Claus hats. Not gonna lie, the sly drum and feather and mouse I slipped on there was pretty good. LOTS of fun, love experiencing all of these holiday traditions.

- Elder Asbury wears jeans and a beanie to morning basketball for personal exercise.  He's a crack up, funny guy. A lot of laughing and goofing off this transfer but we still get work done.

- Christmas zone conference rocked!!! Pretty bummed Bozeman went to Billings for theirs and I didn't get a chance to see Elder Christensen and the rest of the BROzeman Elders but it was still awesome. Was able to see Elder Walgren!!! Some things I'll never forget in life, such as holding Z for the first time, stealing the pylon from the 2012 holy war, breaking down space mountain, @pettbryan threatening to break my brothers hand if he didn't give him the Mrs Fields cookie .........Seeing President Wadsworth come bolting in yelling that Santa was there can be added to that list. Never seen that side of President Wadsworth before.

****Direct quote from president - "dignity and decorum goes out the door during the holiday season"

- While on the subject of dignity being thrown out the door during the holiday season, I did indeed break out the Darth Vader footie pajamas this week. Realized I left my name tag on my suit coat in the car so I went outside.... With my light saber (obviously).... To retrieve the special cargo. S/O to Abby, Kurt and Diz for the Elder Vader get up and to Elder Walton for introducing me to Star Wars last fall in the bunker, good times. We're gonna have a full on Star Wars marathon in the cave when we all get back and I still wanna wife Padmè. <3

Wanna start off with a birthday shout out to one of my best friends, I love ya Grandpa. You have taught me so much. You are a warrior, a fighter, a leader, but best of all, you are my grandpa. I'm so blessed to have 2 sets of amazing grandparents in my life. I'm so blessed to not only represent our Saviors name each day on my name card, but to represent your name too. Thank you for every 9 holes at the Parkway, for the Mickey Mouse caramel apples, and teaching me what it means to be a Utah Man. If Utah Athletics only knew how dedicated you have been throughout your life. I aspire to be as loving and caring as you everyday I serve, love ya grandpa. Can't wait for the next 9 holes.

It was a good week! Was able to give another blessing and that was no doubt a major highlight of the week. The prompting hit hard and would not go away that this missionary needed a blessing. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had. The priesthood is real, just.... Wow. Wish I could just blurt out to you what happened, but President Packer warned against sharing such experiences too openly so I'll hold back. All I gotta say is experience the priesthood yourself.
Blessings are amazing, THE PRIESTHOOD IS SO COOL, and the veil is thin when you are doing the Lord's work righteously. Very grateful for the experience I had with this missionary. I love the priesthood, Really gaining a better understanding of it and how to use it, I know that knowledge is something I will need in the future.

Ya, good week! Saturday night I was sitting next to our heater (it was actually working, #AchievementUnlocked) thinking about what I was doing last year on the Saturday before Christmas. It was the end of an awesome week in Vegas, sooooooo much fun. Freakin miss my job. Utes played CSU in the Vegas bowl. I let @BPett23 (that's a cute format for your Twitter handle, where'd you get that idea???) wear my Vegas bowl hoodie out of the kindness of my heart, and I remember standing on the field watching the seconds tick by that 4th quarter (#ULegacy trailer
1 reference) thinking.... "Well this is it... Where am I gonna be the next time the Utes take the field." (Had NO clue it'd be Montana....) Utes win, start playing Utah Man, and I have an entire bus ride home thinking about the awesome season we had, Christmas is next week, Disneyland the day after, and a trip to the Mouses kingdom the week after that. Life is dang good.

Now we fast forward a year. Instead of staying in the Mandalay Bay suites playing Xbox and opening bags of MOAR Ute gear, I'm staying in the Staaf apartments opening Christmas letters from home. Instead of being on a bus ride back to Salt Lake jamming to some Bob Seger and Motley Crue, I'm driving back into Conrad jamming to some Archie Christmas album with Elder Asbury. Instead of thinking about spending Christmas at home or going to the mouses kingdom, I'm thinking about that face time call home and transfers coming up shortly after. It's pretty different, but the result is the same. Life is gooooood.

Saturday was a good day, Utes won. 5 in a row !!! Got a email saying we are up 35-0, come back from a lesson to find out we won 35-28.... Win is a win, scoreboard doesn't lie, neither does riseandshout.net .I'm freakin proud of my Utes. That's one heck of a season and one to be proud of, Utes upheld the legacy. One more of those and #UReturn is gonna be.... Mmmmm.

As great of a time it is to be a Ute however, it's even a greater time to be a missionary. Saturday was a good day, but not because of the Utes. Someone we had been teaching back in Belgrade got baptized.  The first time I met him I was told by others he would never want to be baptized, but I knew he would. I was able to develop a strong relationship with that family, and Elder Christensen coming along only made it that much better! We were his friend, we'd go over and talk with him about hunting or cars or country music or Talladega Nights.... Or Anchorman.... Or the Other guys (Brother Farell was present at most lessons ;), then out of nowhere he asks us about baptism.... That teaching method isn't exactly recommended in Preach My Gospel but it worked! I was stoked, that's another day Elder Christensen and I will always remember. Then the next week I get the call saying I'm going to Conrad. That's reason 1 of 1,000 that made it hard leaving. I'm so proud of him and his family. Never thought I'd say this.... But that mouse and drum and feather, which I love so deeply as all of you know, have nothing on the joy I feel for him, and the Robisons, and for Oscar and Nora. One more name onto the list of mansion neighbors at the end of Enos 1:27.

I was happy a year ago, it was a good feeling riding that bus back home for Christmas and the mouse, no bus ride home this Christmas, but for some insane reason I'm just as happy now. It's a great time to be a missionary. You really only get 2 years to experience this type of happiness. It's hard being away, can't argue that, but the experiences out here are worth it.

--- small example. We go tracting the other night. Plan was to go to Ohio street, but during the prayer we got the prompting to go one street over to Indiana street. About an hour in and absolutely no success at all, we weren't spittin fire on door steps this time....#Humility. I'm not sugar coatin this one, it sucked. Crisp maybe 9 degrees outside, NO ONE wants to talk to us, "we have no food, we have no jobs, OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF" is the best way to describe how we were feeling. then we get to the last house. Sweeeeeeeet old Chevy in the driveway so that's my "in" for something to talk about (gotta have a "in" to talk about or else #Tracting🚜💨 takes on a whole new level of awkwardness) . Find out it was her husbands who recently passed away. She was super friendly to us and told us she's been struggling during the holiday season. We told her we don't know exactly what she's going through, but that we too were away from our loved ones for Christmas. The conversation we had with this widow made the whole hour of tracting in frozen darkness worth it. Being able to testify to her that she'll be with him again, made that hour worth it.

Did she commit to baptism and read the entire Book of Mormon that night???? No. But I know We were sent to that house for a reason.

Missions really are something special. Don't know why I love something so difficult, but at the same time I do know why. These past almost 6 months have beaten the crap out of me. Physically, mentally, spiritually. When it sucks out here you don't have some headphones and a basketball, you can't make UVids, you can't go for a ride in the panther, can't Arnold Napalm a ginger bread house #OperationCarbonFreeze, can't even call your mom. You have a companion, alright that's nice, but staying within sight and sound

24/7 doesn't mean you wont ever feel alone. It's hard. But, I've had one person who I know I can ALWAYS turn to to help me. And Friday we get to celebrate His birth. I've said before how my perspective has gone from "if I serve a mission I can do anything" to "through Christ I can do I anything". It's true, I know it. Serving a mission has taught me how badly I need Christ in my life. The atonement is untapped power and potential for US. We can not comprehend how powerful it is, but I have felt a glimpse of its power. It's helped me change. See things that I need to be better at. It's comforted me.

It's why I'm out here, He is why I'm out here. He is why I love something so difficult.

Weird that I get to FaceTime home on Friday... Wow. Remember saying "Merry Christmas" to my mom before hanging up and getting on the airplane in July and thinking that day will never come. Time is weird out here. Same dang thing everyday which feels slow, but looking back it CRUISES by. Every second that ticks by its running out. Doesn't feel real I get to actually talk to them!!! I love all of you so much.

The Christmas cards and gifts mean so much. So blessed to be surrounded by such amazing family. "Have a Merry Christmas ya filthy animals".....

--- Someone watch home alone for me. ---

------ do some jumping jacks Lala, he's got 3 days ;)

- Elder K






 



2 comments:

  1. I always thought of you as McKay but after reading this, Elder Pett is right. I get it. Merry Christmas Elder Pett!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always thought of you as McKay but after reading this, Elder Pett is right. I get it. Merry Christmas Elder Pett!

    ReplyDelete