Monday, December 19, 2016

Elder Cave - December 19, 2016

What's up Fam!!! 

Been a weird week. Not really sure what to share. Here we go. 

- new missionaries came in, did training with them. It was a good time. Solid group. 

- got sick. Training is all a blur. Felt like MJ. #FluGame

- had transfers going on too, also a total blur. When everything was finished I went to take a fat nap on our office floor. I don't think I have ever been that tired. 

- Thursday/Friday was one of the craziest snow storms I have ever seen and Saturday gave me a new definition of cold. Wind chill got it down to -48 I think. President didn't want anyone leaving their apartment so we just chilled inside. 

- 48 hours of being stuck in an apartment as a missionary. No NBA2k. No Nerf wars.

- we did have our projector we use for trainings in our apartment so I made an Elder Cave and hooked up "Meet the Mormons". Rewatched the Navy football part a few times while pretending I was watching college football, it was great, made me shed a manly tear thinking of @pettbryan in the Man Cave.

 
- haven't seen Rogue One yet #AchievementUnlocked #HumbleBrag cc: @yokester74

Highlight of the week was Mark's baptism on Saturday. Days like that remind you what it's all about out here. A truly remarkable family and I'm grateful I have had the chance to know them. Seeing the joy and light in their lives is a great example of what this gospel does to families. 

Can't believe Christmas is this week... what the crap just happened, #TheRad feels like yesterday haha. Grateful for this time of year and what it means. I'm so grateful for a Savior. Continually blows my mind as to how much he loves each of us and how patient and willing he is to help us be happy. 

Thanks so much for all the cards and stuff. You all rock. 

Love ya fam, talk to ya in 6 ;)

--- over/under for how long it takes till @pettbryan is crying on Christmas is currently set at 12 seconds. 

- Elder K

Pics 

- overlooking the rim rock 

 
- #ZoneOfEnoch reunion 

 
- temple Wednesday morning 

- fat nap 

 
- how Elder Christensen and I do transfers 

 
- my happy place #ExtraSteak

 
- hook - "it's snowing" gif 

 
- our boy Tag! (Mark and Jessica's boy). He's hilarious. 



 
- when you are snowed in but your Mom is the G.O.A.T and orders pizza from Utah. #RealMVP 

- Elder Cave
 

Monday, December 12, 2016

Hide and Seek - December 12, 2016


What's up Fam! 

- Winter finally hit... lots of snow... Roads were sketchy driving to Wyoming.

- it's cold! When you get in your car your Gatorade shouldn't be frozen. 

- we walk into the gym before one Christmas conference and President is doing imaginary lay ups at the hoop. His Euro step is on point. 

- Lovell Stake Center... So huge!. Several floors and 2 chapels. I turn to President and say "this would be a fun place for hide and seek". He responds... "I was thinking the same thing... or a paint ball war..."  #ThatEscalatedQuickly so then he and I went exploring looking for good hide and seek spots. 
 


--- hide and seek in a stake center with your mission president = #AchievementUnlocked 
 
- at one conference I'm talking to a group of new missionaries and they are asking about what it's like to serve in the office. I tell thjm some stories and one says "wow I hope I can serve there one day". 


--- you know in Billy Madison when the 3rd grader says he can't wait for high school so Billy grabs his face and responds "don't you say that... stay here... stay as long as you can. You gotta cherish it." Yeah. That's no joke What I did. 


- it's fun and I love helping out President and the office staff and the bacon mints and the #TrunkFests but great odins raven I have never been so tired. 

- President has adopted two of my sayings... "do you have your exit buddy?" (Aka find your companion and get in the zone picture) and when I fail or mess up on a task he tells me "you had one job". --- This occurred when I was conducting a meeting and forgot to mention something so he leans over while we are on the stand and whispers "you had one job." Then starts laughing. He's a crack up. 

- Christmas Zone Conferences were fun. Good seeing the missionaries. Friday we had the departing missionaries #TrunkFest2k16 come in and we babysat until we took them to the airport on Saturday. 

- used Transformers to teach the Restoration. #AutoBotsRollOut

Yeah that was the week. Total blur. I'm tired. New missionaries come in tomorrow so we will do training with them for the next few days, that's always fun. I like new missionaries. They don't radiate trunkiness like what Wells and I dealt with Friday and Saturday. That was a solid group that went home though, gonna miss them. 

Favorite part of the week was using Finding Nemo to teach about why Heavenly Father puts us through trials... Marlin wanted nothing bad to EVER happen to Nemo... but Nemo never learned to truly appreciate his father until he was in a rough situation. Heavenly Father doesn't give us trials because he doesn't love us, rather so he can help us and we can see how much he loves us. We'd never truly appreciate his love if life was always sunshine and rainbows. 

Mosiah 24:14 - And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

Pixar + Gospel = #AchievementUnlocked 

That's all I have for ya. Lots more sweet stuff happened but we'll call it good there. 

I love this Gospel... a lot. I've been thinking about how far my testimony has come and I'm so grateful for that. It's been battled more than ever but because of that it is stronger than ever. When I left on my mission I didn't know much about the Restored Gospel... only that it led to my growing family to being happy... which is kind of ironic because the family I loved was the fuel that made me want to leave them. I knew that there was something to it all, I wanted to help others get there. I had a testimony of the end result, but out here I have learned why that is the case and how to get there.  

It can be hard to understand everything, but look at the big picture of it all. 

Love ya family. Sorry this was all over the place, so much more I wanna share. I'm going to take the fattest nap known to man kind today. Most stressful December ever haha. Merry Christmas. 

- Elder K 

QOTW (Quote of the week)  - Sister Brown - "Tag... no hunting during sacrament" 
Love that kid. Mark is getting baptized this Saturday also, super pumped for that family. 

Pics 

*#WelcomeToMontana with a train pic for Z


 

 
* hide and seek 

* did a temple session Saturday with the departing group, temple looked super pretty in the snow with the rim rock. 
 
* Apple Pie - Whipped Cream - Pres #Big 3 

 

Friday, December 9, 2016

Petting Whales - December 5, 2016


 What's up Fam! 


- driving around one night and saw a group of people throwing flame sticks in their front yard. #WelcomeToMontana BillingsEdition™

 
- Office staff got our stockings put up... most savage stockings ever... I got a Y picture in mine and Wells got a U one in his. #WellPlayed 

 
--- Also got a picture of a girl "petting a whale" in our stockings... I took it one step further and did some slight photoshopping... don't know if I ever have seen the office sisters laugh so hard. I'll agree with Sister Wadsworth that it is a little strange seeing my head on a female body.

------  today's prank was us getting "bacon mints" in our stocking from Sister Baird... and we gave some to President and Sister Wadsworth, it was priceless. It's #SavageCentral in here. Those mints are disgusting lol. 

 
------- Seems like something Jim would do to Dwight and Michael... they could honestly make a reality TV show of the office staff, they are so funny..."The Mission Office". It could be like The District but actually entertaining #ShotsFired 

- so... the "Petting Whale" photo edit is officially our Christmas card and is hanging up in the mission office. #SorryMom

- Tender Mercies of the week were hearing "Old Time Rock and Roll" and "Anything but Mine" while at a gas station.  "cause in the morning I'm leaving making my back to Cleveland and tonight I hope, that I will do just fine. Baby I don't see how you could ever be, anything but mine".

 *I think of Elder @teambetaalpha every time I hear that song. #OCM

- Christmas conferences started last week. We travelled to Helena for that and this week we will go to the two in Wyoming and one here in Billings. 

- Elder Wells and I do a lot of driving... and I think we have consumed roughly 4.8 trillion sunflower seeds this transfer. #LifeIsAHighway

- Helena Christmas conference rocked... the Bozeman Zone was there and it was a great reunion. I have missed them all a lot. If you guys only knew the adventures we had in the #BozeForce Zone. 

--- while I was sitting on the stand, Elder Bennett and Elder Hunter were on the back row trying to force choke me. I struggled acting mature up there with stuff like that going on but my goodness I am so proud of them. If the only legacy I left in that zone was light saber battles and force chokes than I'm satisfied. #BozeForce

- yeah, I really love this mission. Going to these zone conferences is a good reminder how much fun it is with these missionaries. I have some solid family up here. 

- 3 hour drive back from Helena was fun. We were going on an in depth analysis of Interstellar and the Gospel then our heads started hurting too much so we stopped. Also, going through the Livingston Pass in a blizzard was a lil sketchy but we survived #AchievementUnlocked.

- Friday was a piano concert that missionaries got free tickets to... I'm sure he did great but quite frankly when it comes to musical performances Elder Wells,myself, and @pettbryan have about the same attention span. 

--- We were about to start a "USA USA USA" chant during his patriotic song part but then Wells and I remembered it's not the '96 Olympic Basketball Dream Team and/or Trump Rally we were watching so we refrained. We will stick to sports. #SorryMom. 

That's it for last week. The 2 baptisms mentioned last email are being pushed back a few weeks, both are still good though. Then Mark Brown (not my uncle) is still set for baptism on the 17, he's awesome. His wife bore her testimony yesterday and they are one awesome family. QOTW came from their home this week as Sister Brown had to tell 3 year old Taggart "Tag, no hunting during the prayer." #WelcomeToMontana. Tag is a boss. We hunted monkeys, tigers, elephants, and dinosaurs this week after our lessons. Funny kid. He's helping me overcome my fear of raptors by killing them all. Next up: ticks. 

Like I said. This week we have some more Christmas conferences and I'm pumped for those. Then we babysit the departing missionaries Friday and Saturday #TrunkFest2k16. Won't be in our area much but I'm excited to see all these missionaries. We are losing some great ones this week as they get drafted into the NLW (normal life world). 

It's my favorite time of year. The traditions are different, can't watch Christmas Vacation and no camping in the cave with @pettbryan watching Bowl Season but the Christmas message is the same. 

It's all about the Savior. 

Everything we do in this church is because of Christ. There's a lot of stuff piled on that sometimes gets us to forget that He is the foundation of everything we do. At the end of the day every meeting, every commandment, every principle, every prayer, every scripture study, all of it, is to help us become more like Him. It's why we are on this earth, to follow his example. Focus on being more like Him, it's what the gospel is here for. 

I couldn't help but think of eternal families all last Thursday and it wasn't till the end of the day that I realized it was the first of December. Eternal families are real, I'm so grateful for that. I wonder why I love and defend the Book of Mormon so much, well it's the foundation that upholds the knowledge and revelation that we can be with our family forever. 

Love ya fam. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ABBY - thanks for being an awesome sister and giving me Diz and Kurt and soon to be mini-female Kurt number 2. 

and of course happy birthday s/o to uncle Walt. ️️🐭🍗

- Elder K 

Pics 

* weekly selfie taken by Kayden 

* missed those elders so much. 

* Hunter and I 

* Splash Elders 


* Livingston Pass
* office stockings

* this tree reminded me of @pettbryan 

 
* hunting raptors with Tag. Sorry it's blurry. The kid never stops moving.