We are the Splash Elders - August 17, 2015

 

HEY HEY EVERYONE! WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS!

- The exchange with Elder Potter... I'll explain later... #SplashElders

- Got a cute pic with a lil kitty. #CougarsDontRoar (check pics)

- GOT A CARE PACKAGE WITH MY MOMS SALSA!!!! GREAT ODINS RAVEN. First thing to go into the new fridge. Thank you for the peanut butter balls and everything else! The notes were great! No doubt the beautiful artwork from Z and Diz were the best!

-New apartment is sweeeeeeeet. But I miss the fresh chicken eggs and morning jogs in the middle of nowhere. As we left the trailer I felt like the dude from "Interstellar" when he's crying as he drives away. We had the dirt road and everything. Just needed some Hans Zimmer (just for you @PMarti)

- members gave us some stuff for the new apartment...we got a grilled cheese maker!!! I promise I'll take better care of this one than the one Jared and I destroyed last year while living in the bunker.

- ate deer for the first time, pretty dang good

- TOY STORY 4  IN JULY OF 17 AND DISNEY ANNOUNCES STAR WARS LAND!!!

Journal entry for that day is a good one. #MMDH

- played a game of 21 after grabbing some Mickey D's for lunch. This is after I saw on Facebook that Michael Jordan died. I was heart broken. Other elders were around 12-18 points  I was still at 0....Then I told myself... I'm doing it for Space Jam. Made a stormin comeback, hit a 3 to get me to 20 then had the free throw to win it. Elder Potter, Schneider and McMahon were getting their taunting game on. Was told I had my zipper down... It wasn't... SO I ZIPPED IT DOWN. Pictured the mountains behind the hoop, moon in the sky, spot light to my left, sex panther to my right, punch bag down at my feet, "I go back" by ma boy Kenney Chesney in my ears.

.... Swish! Most inspired ball I have played, Just for you MJ. I still think you pushed off but I hope you enjoy ballin up in the spirit world, you are no doubt the GOAT. RIP MJ.

- had another wonderful elders quorum. This weeks topic - talking about how Belgrade PD needs to start carrying bows rather than guns...

Like I said, one does not simply walk out of elders quorum with faith in the Belgrade police department. These guys are straight up like the Manns, Jared, Team Beta Alpha, the Leprechaun, and myself.... I think that's why I love elders quorum

Another pretty sweet week. No doubt the main highlight being the exchange with Elder Potter.

We both have a month of experience out here so I was kind of nervous but oh man it was awesome!!! First great experience being at dinner with a member. The Richards. I got to meet Ratchet. the most awesome puppy ever, our selfie game is strong. Elder Potter and I were about to start our lesson then they stopped us, said that we are still teaching but they want us to try a different teaching approach. They had us pull out a BoM and flip to a random page and put our finger down and pick a random scripture. We next read the scripture out loud and had to teach a lesson tying the two scriptures together. Scripture roulette. They said we are at a disadvantage cause we are on exchanges and haven't had much experience with each other... They had obviously never heard a lesson from the #SplashElders

I picked Helaman 5:6 (so close to Helaman 5:12!!!!)

6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.

Elder Potter picked Jacob 2:21

21 Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever.

That's right... Both picked scriptures on commandments...

#ChurchIsTrue #SplashElders

Eventually led to a complete on the go lesson about keeping the commandments and following the example of those who came before us.

"Representing the name on the back of our jersey" - Splash Elders always tie it back to sports - anyway for an on the go lesson it freakin rocked!! 

I turn to him as we are walking back to the car that night and say "bro we were like Steph Curry in his prime... HE HASNT EVEN REACHED HIS PRIME YET!!! Then he says "we are like Klay and Steph.... We are the splash brothers"... I stop walking and turn to him.....

--------- WE ARE THE SPLASH ELDERS!!!!!! -----------

- and it stuck!

You know in Step Brothers when Brendan is like "did we just become best friends????" That's pretty much what it was.

The greatest experience we had was tracting into Troy and Jason. Just 2 guys kicking back on the porch sippin some beers. We get up there and start talking, total downpour starts so they invite us up to sit with them. We talk about Christ and religion and some pretty hilarious rumors about Mormons. It rocked. Next day we went over, they wanted to learn more. Elder Potter and I taught about prayer and at the end Troy wanted to pray, hadn't prayed in over 3 years. Most sincere prayer I have heard. Spirit was so strong, you could see it in their eyes. A lot more happened that night, but I'll leave it at that (sorry I'm pulling a Nephi on ya)! I know someday they will be baptized, whether it be a month or 5 years, and the splash elders can sit back and proudly say we planted that seed!

It seriously rocked with Elder Potter. We just click, we get each other. For the first time since the night time slip n slide in Murray Park, I thought to myself "I don't want this night to end" as we were heading back to the trailer. We have plans for a Kenney Chesney road trip in the summer of '17 and getting matching t shirts with our heisman pic on the front, "splash elders" on the back. Crazy that what started off as following each other on Twitter a few months ago has led to! What we really need is the trifecta, getting Elder Schneider in there too (we picked him up at the airport and he and Potter were comps in mtc). He's the one kissing my hand in the district pic. He's companions with Elder McMahon, who I also did an exchange with, McMahon is a stud. We had some fun! We didn't feel like companions on these exchanges, we felt like friends and that showed in our teaching and finding. We got work done!

Another good week out in the field. Tough grasping the concept that I have been gone for over a month! Once again, I challenge all of you to pray... Pray a lot! Give it all up, give the Lord everything you got, and tell him to guide ya. It's tough, it requires faith and it requires sacrifice. But like a favorite hymn of mine states (#27 -Praise to the Man) - "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". I love that hymn, especially love that line. Seek to help those in need, sacrifice whatever it may be to bring others closer to Christ, or even bring yourself closer to Christ. Give Him everything you got, "all in" as Coach Whitt would say, and he will guide you. The sooner you realize that, the sooner your life will be changed for the better.  Give up whatever is holding you back from coming closer to Christ and serve others to help them become closer to Him. Elder Martino of the 70 is speaking to us Thursday (pretty excited!!!). He asked us to study up on charity and I want to share something I studied.

In Moroni 7. Verses 46 and 47 talk about charity.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Something I did was replace "charity" with "pure love of Christ" in verse 46. Check out how cool this is.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not the pure love of Christ, YE ARE NOTHING, for the pure love of Christ NEVER FAILETH.

Wherefore, cleave unto the pure love of Christ, which is the greatest of all--

So powerful. We have been commanded to have the pure love of Christ, think of how much Christ loved others, we have been commanded to be the same, how cool is that! Quote I thought of and try to live by  is "don't be the person that looks down on others, be the person people look up to." Replace "person" with whatever role you are aspiring to magnify or perfect. Could be "player" "teacher" "leader" "coach" "parent" "sibling" "elder" "sister" whatever, and I encourage you to live and act with that mindset. Be an example, be a leader, show others the pure love of Christ. Don't look down on em. Rather be someone others can look up to.

I'd like to end with a quick shout out to my best friend who turns 2 this week. I look in my picture book and one picture on the left is of me holding you for the first time in the hospital, and the one on the right is of me holding you as we go to pet the farm animals in frontier land. A lot has changed in those 2 years, and a lot will change in the next 2 years. But you'll always be Z and I'll always be Uncle K. Love ya buddy, you're gonna be an Awesome big bro. Have a happy birthday Ezra.

I bought a bigger photo album so all my pics could fit in one haha.

Opening page has 3 pics. First, the 6 of us in Australia at my baptism, then the 9 of us at Abby's wedding (I was 9th wheeling hard core), then the 13 of us before I left. Soon it'll be 14 (referring to Zeus here not a spouse, #sorryMom). I look at the pic of us In Australia... And try to imagine what life was like before kasey, Kurt and Britt. Then I look at the pic of us at Abby's wedding and wonder the same thing... How did we live without z, Diz, BayBay, and Lex?!?.

I continue to think our family can't get any better, or get any happier.... Yet It seems like we do.  Last week I got a pic sent to me of Z flipping through the Book of Mormon and a selfie the family took as they started my Book of Mormon challenge, for a split second I was homesick, but then I noticed something.

They're happy.

I see pics of how big BayBay is and videos of Diz saying "Hi K" (that plucked my heart strings) and Z balling up at Jungle Jims (future splash elder), apparently Zeus is already kicking too. I love getting all these updates, seeing how happy everyone is at home. I didn't think we could be any happier, yet once again... here we are. The song "I'm on Top of the World" came to my mind (oh I miss normal music).

I'm so very grateful for them, so very grateful that the Lord continues to bless us with experiences and trials that bring us closer to together, closer to Him. So grateful the Lord continues to defy my thought of "we can't get any happier, life can't get better".  

 

That's what the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. Magnifying what joy we have into something MUCH greater. With this gospel, It's not "I'm on top of the world" it's "we're on top of the world", so get up now, get up now, get up now, cause we're on top of the world.

Give everything you have to the Lord. Devote all your heart might mind and strength, and I promise you, you too will think "can life get any better" ... then Heavenly Father comes in clutch and blesses you even more. Pretty good cycle if you ask me!

So ya.... Pray, serve others, all that fun stuff, you'll get blessings. Seek to help others, help your own family.

Well that's all I got! Kind of all over the place. Quick spark notes summary.

- Splash elders

- Turn to Christ and share his love with others, give up whatever is holding you or others back

- my family is awesome - Heavenly Father just keeps on amazing me. We just get bigger and happier. Let the gospel of Jesus Christ magnify your homes.

 

Love ya guys!

 - Elder K

-- it wasn't till the next day we discovered the MJ death vid on Facebook was a hoax. I swear whoever made that did it just to screw with elders cause they know that's the only news access we got. Oh well, still had the 21 comeback of a life time. #SplashElders

 

 

"Through Christ I can do anything!" - August 10, 2015

Wasssupppppp everyone! Here are some Highlights from the week!

- Hiking the M was sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Got a new wife requirement - better like weekend trips north.  

- Saw the other elders were at the church so we decided to mess with them. Elder Jaques asked what we should do... before he could even question what a "stealth op" was I was back to acting Director of Field Ops for @TeamBetaAlpha. Noticed two Tangos inside the main congregation room. Attempted to retrieve visual Intel using my iPad camera but it was too risky so we barricaded the doors instead. Long story short we got them pretty good haha! ... I also felt like Jack Bauer out there running around with my satchel/man purse.

- Working service in the thrift shop, "turn down for what" came on... started reminiscing of the dirty Disney vid.... #MonoRailPoleDancers

- My dad sent me screen shots of some of those "Go Fund Me entries". FREAKIN HILARIOUS. That one from Roscoe was gold, good work Ute Nation. After we get the field house done we need to get a banner on the psych building, look up pics from the Olympics to see what I mean. A giant Ute proud banner or something would look siiiiiiiiick. That buildings exterior is hideous... But it is a good place to film a time lapse...  If you know how to get on the roof.... #ULegacy

- The throwbacks made me cry tears of joy. Absolutely beautiful. About friggin time they start listening to Dahl (assuming that was his design since it's awesome).If they release what game they are for will someone tell me????  I said before I left that if serving a mission brings blessings then 1. RES will be under expansion when I return. 2. Dahl will be running unis. 3. NCAA Football will once again be hitting the shelves in July. #ChurchIsTrue #PresMonsonIsAUtahMan #CollieTears 

- Still waiting on someone to get the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack mission approved. Even started thinking of potential gospel related remixes.  Pina Colada song - "if you like preaching the gospel.... and tracting out in the rain..." All I have for now but not a bad start. The song has "write to me and escape" In it... It's practically already mission relatable. 

- Met a guy named Joey while tracting. Awesome guy, wants to meet again. He's been prepared for the gospel, I'm pretty pumped about him! He's also a big UCF Knights fan so we talked about last season and beating the Cougs in o.t. He liked that! --Also had to pee bad that night while tracting. But every time we started teaching about the gospel my urge to piss excellence went away.
----- #ChurchIsTrue

- Elder Jaques attempted to make homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken. After further review we decided it tasted and smelt more like fish than chicken. #MissionaryProbs

- Went on an exchange with one of my zone leaders, Elder Kennedy. Cool guy, great elder. Pretty dang serious haha. I had to get a feel for him so I told him about the time I was getting trolled on Xbox live about being Mormon. I was in the lobby for COD and a guy was calling me a gay Mormon (gamer tag was UtahMan3) I responded with "what's so gay about having 8 wives." THE LOBBY WENT NUTS WITH LAUGHTER!  One of my top moments on Xbox live.. So I told Elder Kennedy this and he was all... 😒 ya not impressed. Also let him look through my little picture book. He saw a pic of @pettbryan flipping the bird and closed it like it was a book of a Satan. Haha good guy! I learned a lot!

- HAD THE BEST huckleberry ice cream sandwich while getting our tire fixed. #DirtRoadLYFE #WelcomeToMontana

- Saw Elder Lucas Mann had an encounter with a German Shepard and ran. Bro, we were teaching  a lady to pray in her front yard and her freakin devil puppy started biting me during the prayer! Can't let a dog stop u from missionary work! I kicked it off so all good.  (this is why closing your eyes during prayer is important for investigators) 

- Met a lady tracting that doesn't believe in god... Only goddesses... That was a new experience for me, definitely adding that response to the tracting bingo card.

- Spoke in sacrament meeting Sunday, that was cute. Subject was on families... that's practically my - Steph Curry... cross over... behind the back... step back 3 - of gospel topics. I quoted the last verse of "Love at Home"  in it... Guess what the intermediate hymn was after I spoke.... LOVE AT FREAKIN HOME! #ChurchIsTrue.

- Elders quorum is freakin awesome. Just a bunch of men telling stories. We have 2 cops in there and they have some awesome stories... No One in elders quorum has much faith in the Belgrade police department anymore... 

- Met a lady tracting that went to NC but is a big Duke fan. Talked about her team breakin my heart in the sweet 16! Good talk, awesome people. Said they don't want to convert but are interested in hearing our message. We talked about the plan of salvation and about her dad who passed away at a young age. It was sweet, she had lots of questions! 

- Found an apartment while tracting. Pretty sweet. We move in Friday so I'll have more deets on it next week. Right now we have no furniture but we have a washer/dryer/ which is sick!!! I'll miss the trailer, but looking forward to moving in! 

- Well that's the weekly highlights, a lot more awesome stuff but I can't remember it all! I'm going on an exchange with Elder Kade Potter tonight and for tomorrow. Super pumped, we talked on Twitter before we left and hung out at the mission home so I'm looking forward to serving with him... We only have a few weeks of in field experience but I'm excited. We'll be running a Stockton to Malone pick and roll both on the court this afternoon and in the homes of investigators tonight! ❤️👌🙏🔥🏀

I've learned a lot this past month, A LOT. I knew I had a rockin family but you don't truly learn how awesome they are until you are away from them! They are my strength, my "rock". I miss em, I have this ability where I can look at anything and I can tie it back to my family (this is especially true when volunteering at the thrift store, lots of random stuff!) For a while I hated this, it made me miss em too much. It wasn't until I was lying in my trailer bunk one night that I realized something...

Christ turns our weakness into strength while Satan turns our strength into weakness. I'm blessed with a family that is no doubt the most awesome family out there. I got an email from Lala saying She found Z praying ... ON HIS OWN!!!  "Nana. Dada. Tay (McKay) prayers. Amen."

That made me shed a manly tear but it also motivated me to get out and work, work harder than I ever have in my life. Put my shoulder to that wheel and press harder than I ever have in my life.

My family is my strength. Those memories we have of each other, make it so easy to see anything and think about them, is my strength. So when I see those little things that remind me of what I have back home, I can't get discouraged, that's what Satan wants, to turn my strength to a weakness. So rather than miss them, I see those little things and it reminds me of what we have and what this gospel can bring to other families.

I have only been out a month, but like I said I have learned a lot. I'm still @MPett3 and Uncle K but my entire outlook on life has changed. Coming out I had heard that a mission was the hardest thing I will ever do. When someone serving in the navy or someone who has been through a fall camp with coach Whitt tells you that, makes you wonder how hard it really must be. All along I told myself "if I can do this I can do anything". While that may be somewhat true, I've learned it's so much more that that. It's not "if I can do this I can do anything" it's "through Christ I can do anything".  This is hard work. And I know for a fact there's no way I could do it on my own. It took being set apart and being sent ALL THE WAY to Montana for me to figure this out, but you don't have to wear a name tag or live away to know that through Christ anything is possible. So pray always, study the scriptures, look for service. I PROMISE you it will bless your life. Cannot believe that a month ago I'd only pray once a day and maybe read a chapter of the Book of Mormon if I was feeling super spiritual, how did I get through life back then!  I promise you if you put all your faith in Christ, you will experience miracles. You will experience the love of Christ. 

I really do experience amazing things out here. Can't even describe what it's like knowing you are a foot soldier for His army and he is guiding you, straight up feels like the Holy Ghost is playing the Sims with me. Small example, we found some lady smoking on her porch, felt prompted to go talk to her. Introduced ourselves, talked for about a minute, then offered to pray with her. We barely met her, yet we could feel in our heart what she needed to hear in that prayer. -  could also feel her puppy biting a hole into my pants, but that's besides the point. 

I guess what I'm getting to, is Christ loves us. If we really do our best to give everything we got, He will pick up the slack and guide us. I know that. He will turn our weakness into strength. 

Focus on the teachings of Christ, and I promise you, your families will be blessed

- I myself am getting Pretty friggin stoked to have FHE with my own family someday, it'll probably end up just being a Book of Mormon nerf war reenactment...  -aaaaaahhhhhhh ya that's happening. -

   Like I said, it took serving a mission for me to figure this out, but experience it for yourself! Pray, pray for whatever you are struggling with! Pray to say hello, I don't care! Just do it, I promise it'll help. Every night at 10:00, My family and I get on our knees for family prayer.  I pray to my Heavenly Father simply telling him how grateful I am for my family and that I get to be with them for eternity. For about 7-10 minutes, I go down the list. Dad, mom, Brady, Britney, BayBay, Kasey, Lala, Z, Kurt, Abby, Diz, Lex, then I wrap it up with baby Zeus. Telling each of them how much I love them and what I'd say to em if they too were sitting in that trailer with me. For a few minutes the gap between Murray, Utah and Belgrade, Montana is gone.  Pray with your families. If I'm way out in the middle of nowhere and away from them and having spiritual experiences imagine what'd be like kneeling all in the same room! I promise praying as a family will close the gaps that are in your own home and you will all be brought closer to Christ. 

Well that's it for now, thanks for everything! Sorry if I don't respond to all emails but know I love ya all!!! 

- Elder K  

40 Degrees & a Dog Named Stella - August 3, 2015

Highlights or random things that happened this week!

- Dropped to 40 degrees one night... meaning our trailer was about...40 degrees! .... UA infrared is amazing! Was not expecting to need it in July... but #WelcomeToMontana. Mountains already have snow! Shout out to @pettbryan for prepping me for this experience considering he doesn't turn on the heater in the winter, I feel right at home!

- We got a Little Caesar’s pizza, the owner is a member so he hooked us up!!! It was not the same without @TeamBetaAlpha but still good! It was weird saying a blessing on a crazy style...

- I got a giant box of "green" food from my mom. Elder Jaques said "give it 8 months and she'll lose interest".... Bro, there's a freakin Fat Head of me in our living room, I don't think my mom will lose interest.

- Met the coolest dog ever (actually meet a lot of awesome dogs. They seem viscous but are super friendly!!!) Her name is Stella, we are practically best friends! Check the pics! Her owner is hard Catholic but is taking us to hike the "M" today. Pretty stoked, awesome guy! It looks like a sweeeeeet hike! Unfortunately you will all have to wait until next Monday to see the pics!!

- I spent an entire day walking around while missing a belt loop. It was a side one too, not sure how I missed it! This is what happens when you don't have a mother with you and you only have 6 minutes to get ready. I told an old lady at Walmart that it's the trend now days, she laughed! I decided to just keep it the way it was because a-too lazy to change it and b-A lot of people came up to tell me... which led to talking! Sometimes you just got to swallow your pride and look like an idiot to meet investigators!

- Ate dinner with an awesome member named brother King. Reminds me so much of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons! Awesome guy, has some crazy stories! Served in Berlin so he and I spoke a little German, he said I sound like a true German! Great guy and a big Aggies fan (hates BYU). I told him to watch the game for me on September 12 (I think that's when it is)!

- I met a dude while tracting with Elder Haskins (exchanges). I asked if he liked football... He said "nah.. I like a real sport"... He then showed me these medieval weapons he has!!!! Cross bows, spears, swords, U NAME IT! He's in some competition thing where he and his buddies travel around and beat the crap out of each other! None of that scripted stuff and not for the publics entertainment either, just some old fashioned medieval battles! He has some gnarly battle wounds too. This guy was awesome, got a return appointment set but unfortunately I'll be back in Belgrade when that happens. Hopefully he gets going with the church so I can duel it out with him in the Celestial Kingdom.

- The exchange I did was in Bozeman and it’s starting to feel like football season over there! I talked to some people about the upcoming season. Told them my dad is already wearing Bobcat gear - good work mom, they liked that. Downtown Bozeman is like Fargo, North Dakota where game day went last year, loved it! It's almost here!!! Saturday I was singing "we're coming to your city" in the shower. Didn't even fully realize it was Saturday till a couple times through the big rich rap solo!!

(If it's not a Sunday or Monday than all the days mesh into one out here!)

-- Even if I can't watch games I'm still pumped, honestly the greatest time of the year! Heart starts beating a little faster every Thursday around 6:00! Good luck to Ute Nation as fall camp gets going this week. Hopefully Twitter doesn't get too nuclear about the qb battle.... Actually go ahead and get nuclear! I'll watch for the mushroom cloud!

-- also heard there was another #AskCoachWhitt type thing going on and someone said to tweet coach if I can write his daughter. I was laughing pretty hard when I read that from my dad! Good work Twitter!

- I had access to a washer but not a dryer... meaning we had to get creative with finding places to hang our stuff... check the pictures.

- While tracting I saw a huge US map on an RV so I went to look at it, took up most of one side. They had pictures in each state they had visited, really cool!

-- We tracted a house where there was an inactive  lady who drives race cars in the weekly tournaments (Maybe one day we can do some tracting at one of those things, THEY SOUND SWEET! you can hear the cars racing even from the trailer, which is in the middle of nowhere!) She opened the garage to show me a gorgeous blue - green - purple Camaro.

- THE CHURCH ROCKS! Members are awesome out here. We talked to a girl who was visiting and just graduated from Texas A&M and she knew football. DIVISION 1 FOOTBALL. No offense Big Sky Conference but you aren't the same. Felt good talking football even if it was the SEC, I told her I #BackThePac but wouldn't feel bad if they beat the crap out of Todd Graham in week 1.

All and all it was a pretty rockin week! I love Elder Jaques and I am grateful for how much he has helped me grow. Can’t imagine how it would be to be a companion with Elder Mann, the other Elder Mann, Elder Walton, Elder Lightfoot, and Elder Wall, and so on. I miss those guys.

Also got to go on an exchange! I was with Elder Haskins in Bozeman 1!  Freakin love him. Pretty shy, quiet, humble dude, but his testimony rocks. He's been out six months longer than me. He let me drive. I really tried to help him to boost his confidence and I think I did! It was so much fun with him. We even prayed that we'd have fun before tracting and boy we did! Didn't necessarily get a lot of boxes checked off on the iPad, but we made a lot of good friends (like medieval battle man) and planted some solid seeds! It was great, my testimony certainly grew that day.  I even introduced Elder Haskins to Famous Daves!!! SOOOO good.

That was an awesome day. Ok fun story. We tracted in a trailer park for at least 4 hours, fun experience! Met this sweet Hispanic lady in her front yard and asked if she'd like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. Not only did she say yes, she invited us inside too! So we walk in and Elder Haskins and I notice the picture of Jesus on the wall.... We both grinned a little. In my mind I'm thinking, “WE GOT THIS”! My soul started doing Tiger Woods fist pumps. She has been prepared to hear this message, Heavenly Father has stuck the tee in the ground, put the golf ball on, and handed my comp and I a driver. We taught a restoration lesson and mainly focused on Christ and his love for us, it was GOING REALLY WELL! Then she throws a curve ball at us....

Says that she hopes to see us in church on Sunday... She's a member!!!! She's a part of a Hispanic ward so her records didn't pull up on our iPads. Haha I was bummed, good thing I didn't ask her to commit to baptism! It was still a good experience, got some good practice. Awesome family! She didn't speak much English so I was doing my best to be like my boys/sisters serving south... I'll stick to English! Like I said, lots of fun tracting. Had some other really cool spiritual experiences but I can't share them all. I genuinely felt like I helped people that day, including elder Haskins. It was fun!

We got back to the apartment, did our planning, and ran down to eat some ice cream with Elder Okerlund and Elder Rose from the next door apartment... Really great guys! We joked around and told stories. That's the type of day I want to have as a missionary, work hard, help others, have some fun!!! This day taught me how grateful I am for Elder Jaques and what he has taught me. He has a strong desire to be the best missionary possible.

Well, I still see a lot of cows and I still think about my family a lot. Not much has changed since last week in that regard! As we drive to the middle of nowhere each night I watch the sunset, and I know that my family is seeing that same sunset too, just mine is much, MUCH better and is in a much Bigger Sky! I miss them, but I know they're alright...

"Your family is well, they are in MINE HANDS, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power”. …”Therefore, continue your journey and let your heart rejoice; for behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end"

There's a picture of Z and I holding hands on our way to play in Toon Town, I keep it in D&C Section 100 along with those 2 scriptures highlighted. I miss them a lot, I really love my family if you haven't noticed yet, but I know that for the next two years they are in the Lords hands and He is leading them to someplace far better than Toon Town. It still feels like I see them everywhere I look, but they're my motivation for being out here so maybe that's a good thing. They are why I serve. Only a few things fire me up more than getting a pic of Z wearing a future missionary pin.

Thanks for all the emails! Remember, I can check them throughout the week which is awesome, I just can't respond until Monday but know I think about you all every day! Thanks everyone!

Cya later!

- K