WHAT'S
UP FAM.
Hope
you're ready for this one... This is all over the place.
Happy
Gilmore. ZZ Top. Nuclear war... And Carnies... All in one. #BuckleUp
-
Had apartment inspections. Didn't "fail miserably". #NeverForget
#BGrade
-
Some members take us out for dinner one night and this restaurant must have had
the Kenney Chesney Pandora station on or something. Shed a manly tear thinking
about @TeamBetaAlpha when "Anything but Mine" came on.
- So
can't remember if we told you about Sam but he is this older Native American
man we met while biking. Was a member like 40 years ago but hasn't been back
since. We have been working with him a little, really cool guy. We were on his
porch and I'd shoot the ball at the mini hoop on the other side of the yard and
his dog would soccer dribble it back to me! It was awesome. Basketball and
soccer coming together, anything is possible. No ties or flopping from the dog so
I was fine with it. Ted Lasso would be proud of me.
- We
go have a correlation meeting with Coach and his family and my stomach made the
most gnarly growl ever!!! Coach asked if it was a fart and I told them that I
honestly wasn't sure. Reminded me of the interview scene in Stepbrothers.
-
Had another service opportunity doing a lady's yard. While we are doing it her
neighbor comes out and offers to pay if we do hers. We tell her we do it for
free and then went over and did it. Afterwards we get a chance to start
teaching her. She was so nice, a sweet elderly lady from Hawaii. Her English
isn't too strong so we had to really simplify, it was awesome. Already said she
believes the Book of Mormon is true and it makes sense the Gospel would need to
be restored. She said "this is the church, this is the one". Pretty
cool for someone who hadn't even heard about it 15 minutes earlier and barely
speaks English! We'll see where it goes, really grateful to have the Lord place
us in her path. She reminds me of the old lady in Happy Gilmore...
"heeeeeeey you don't want breakfast?"
-
while on the topic of Happy Gilmore. The previous night we had a Cinco de Mayo
taco fiesta at the Koerner's. Somehow Bro Koerner and I started singing the
song Happy sings to the old lady through the speakers. It was beaut. Bro
Koerner is like a foot taller than me and 3 times my size, he's awesome. I love
the Koerner's. As we are leaving Kyler walked us out with his sword and
whatever Rafael uses armed and ready to go in the back of his shirt. Love that
kid. How we teach them is usually whichever Elder isn't teaching is
entertaining Kyler so the rest of the family can pay attention. I was letting
him play with my quad and it flipped open to D&C 100 where the picture of Z
and I walking to Toon Town is book marked. He picks it up and says "look,
it's me and you.". Didn't want to go full on @pettbryan right there in the
middle of a lesson but it plucked my heart strings. That entire rest of the
night no matter what he did (eating sour cream with a spoon, praying, yelling
the female chest body part, sword fights, burping) I was trying to imagine
that's how big Z is too.
- We
have a new investigator we got from the lemonade stand, his name is Doug (I'll
explain more in a bit). Every time we plan for Doug or talk about him I start
singing ".. And then we're gonna find our best friend Doug and then we're
gonna give him a best friend hug".
-
Did service again at the place we did the chicken wire fence. (104 year old
Montana farm house, it's unbelievable, mom you'd love it). No kamikaze chickens
this time but they did have a baby duck hatch! We were in the front yard
working this time, Metcalf was mowing and I was going hard with the weed
wacker. They had this brick border around their big tree and wanted all
the grass and weeds on it gone. I'm not the most effective in terms of accuracy
with a weed wacker but I'm good at straight up destroying everything with one.
And this task was simple, terminate everything. #OperationWhirlWind. I get going and
turns out this border is actually a full on brick path covered in weeds and
grass! It comes out like a good 6 feet! They had no idea, it was sweet. Then
she fed us pulled pork sandwiches and it was beaut, I love Montana. Husband
isn't a member and she's a less active, we're making good progress with them.
That's a family I'll be tight with.
-
exchange with Elder Angle in Corvallis. Total stud, love that guy. We met this
guy who has family in Murray. I ask who and he says "they live across from
the Jordan River and the golf course, names are Brad and Julie"... He
knows the Stenifeldts! Pretty sweet. Small world.
-
met this dude sitting outside his apartment and we somehow got on the topic of
Marvel and the nerdness was spewing everywhere from our mouths, oh man I love
Marvel. Awesome guy. He has a young family and we are going back next week.
Told him he can't spoil Civil War for me.
It
was just an awesome week. I don't know exactly what it was, but it felt good.
My mind is all over the place so I'll share a couple of the big highlights and
we'll call it good for the week...
All
started with the lemonade stand. For the most part this one was almost a bust
actually. Had like 4 people come up with what felt like the sole intent of
trying to condemn us to Hell. Alright I'm going to get real with ya for a second
here... This is my Clark Griswold rant of the transfer lol.
That
kinda stuff makes me mad, I'm sorry. We all have different beliefs and
backgrounds, that's fine, but we don't go up to people and say "I don't
mean to come off confrontational but God is going to punish you for what you
are practicing". Bruh, do you honestly think I'd be doing this if I didn't
know it's true??? Give your family a call and tell them you love them, probably
pretty nice to be able to do that more than 2 days a year huh? But what do I
know, I'm apparently just some kid from Utah that doesn't know anything and is
going to Hell for trying to serve others like Christ did.
*Those
are things I'd like to say but I'm really trying to get better at this whole
being Christlike thing.
Heck,
If I had a dollar every time someone whipped out the Book of Revelations on us,
the south end zone at Rice Eccles Stadium would be under construction, some
people just love to argue. If you don't believe the same as we do, that's fine,
I respect that, but call it both ways and respect us. We're just trying to hand
out some freakin free lemonade. Rant over. Where's the Tylenol.
So a
good 2 hours later with some bite marks in my tongue we pack up. That's when 2
high school kids walk by and I hear...
Next
up. Splits with THE Bishop Hawkes. Not gonna lie. Probably the greatest night
of my life, Bishop is a stud. I couldn't sleep the night before I was so
excited for this split. We go see a less active guy we are working with and
this brother says that grizzly bears are the only things that scares him.
Bishop
responds with "there's only 2 things that scare me... And 1 is nuclear
war... And the other is carnies..."
While
this member and Elder Metcalf are looking at him with the "what on
earth?" Look... I have my hands down in my palms trying to contain my
laughing. I look up to see my smiling bishop and all I say is "small
hands" and he nods at me. I gotchu Bishop!!! You know you have a
good bishop when he's quoting Austin Powers in lessons with a less active.
Super fun night, he's a great bishop. He brought a really strong spirit into
the homes. The Hawkes are definitely a family I want to stay tight with. I told
them I'll drive to Logan if it means seeing them whenever they fly in on their
plane, I'm not scared.
(I
have officially adopted "beaut" and "I'm not scared" into
my everyday vocabulary. Bishop says one of those 2 at the end of every
sentence, it's beaut.)
On
the drive back Bishop tells us he would feel like he hit the lottery if his daughters
married guys like Metcalf and I. I'm not saying this to try and boost my draft
stock or anything, but not gonna lie that plucked my heart strings a little
considering how protective he is of his girls. He's a good bishop, and he's an
awesome dad, no doubt Dad #Goals. He looks out for us.
Then
you have Sunday... It was a special day. My hands were shaking bad hitting that
call button lol. Seeing Eli was awesome, he's a tank! Bay and Diz are
huge! And Z TALKS!!! When I left it was a big deal if he said anything
other than "desth" or "nana" and during the Christmas call
he didn't say anything so you can imagine my excitement when he straight up
told me he wants me to shoot monsters with him and go on Small World!!! I kept
it together for the most part, couple tears. Then at the end when I saw the
reason why @pettbryan wasn't talking was cause he was emotional it was game
over and the wheels fell off and I broke down but mama J gave me a hug after so
it's all good.
40
minutes isn't enough, but I'm so grateful for it. It's enough to remind me how
much I miss my family and how much I love them. When that call ended and the face
time app went back to just showing me. I sat there for a moment looking at some
teary eyed blondy wearing a name tag, and it was one of those moments where it
hit me that I'm really doing this. Some do a pretty good job being away from
their family, but I'll fully admit it eats me up being away from mine. A
mission teaches you a lot. From the gospel to removing a tick latched on your
crotch. But it's especially taught me how much I love my family. I can't wait
to ride Small World with Z, or sit in the cave with @pettbryan, especially
can't wait to show my fam the Big Sky, or even be able to just sit and
talk all night long with my mom, but deep down there is nothing else I'd rather
do for the next 14 months. Because I know this is where I gotta be and the Lord
continues to teach me and show me miracles.
Example
of a miracle, later Sunday night we go do family history with our Native American friend
Sam. He hasn't heard of his parents or any his family in a really long time and
we told him about family history. Brother Smith (he has an eye patch and is the
Steph Curry of family history, that's all you need to know about him, I freakin
love him. #GOAT) helps us out and we found Sam's parents. He knew they had
passed on years earlier but didn't have any real information, He got a little
emotional reading their obituary's and looking at pictures of them and
afterward told us "once I saw my family on that screen I couldn't stop
myself from crying".
Sam
and I aren't too alike. He's 65 +, Native American, has a pony tail, carries a
sweet staff/stick, etc. we have all these differences and circumstances.
But I had a pretty good idea what he meant when he said that in his wise Native
American accent. "once I saw my family on that screen I couldn't stop myself from crying".
Can't
even put it to words what it was like those 40 minutes with my family and what
it was like seeing Sam so happy to find his mom on Mother's Day. It's difficult
for me. I ain't gonna sugar coat that, but those moments make it worth it. All
about families.
Sorry
if this was all over the place, just know I love ya fam! Here comes the 7.5
month stretch till I get to talk to ya again.
"I'm
not scared".
Love
ya, the Church is true.
- Elder K
Pics
-
Tractor Tipping. All we got left is Guido, Luigi, and Frank I think
-
some members got puppies
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