What's
up FAM!?!?
I
have a ton to talk about, just a heads up, this is going be a narrative
today.
-
Alright... S/O to Elder @teambetalpha on the sly #ShotsFired in his last weekly
email. Don't worry, I'll never love a girl more than I love you and the
mouse <3 . #WellPlayed
- we
spent a solid 5 minutes watching in amazement as ducks were flying around... I
finally turn to Elder Metcalf and say "this is what our lives have come
to." I honestly feel like Bubbles in Finding Nemo... Who ever knew 2
twenty year old dudes could be so easily entertained.
- we
rock up to the Jessop's late Monday night. Notice everyone is upstairs so we go
up. Metcalf is in front of me a few steps and when he gets to the top he says
"nope, we gotta leave." I'm a few steps behind and not gonna lie I'm
thinking oh dang the Jessop's are practicing black magic or something for
family home evening. I come around the corner and... I understood what Metcalf
meant... 49-46 with 12 minutes to go in the championship game . Remained calm
and we quickly got out before my heart became unlocked. ---
I think that "Lock Your Heart" talk is centered on Elders
checking out females but for me it's Camaros and college sports and Naps
burgers. #NoRegrets #SorryMom. Sounds like it was one heck of a game.
-
went and did some yard work for a lady in our ward. I never thought I'd say I
miss yard work but oh man I have missed it!!! Something about wearing normal
people clothes and getting dirty just feels so relaxing haha. Plus serving your
neighbor is good too. But ya, lot of fun. I was able to trim without throwing an
@pettbryan temper tantrum when the weed- wacker stopped working so that was
good.
- A
5 year old proposed to me. Ring only fits on my pinky but hey it's the thought
that counts.
-
every time we drive past a field of cows I say "see you at Naps" and
wave my hand out the window. My zone probably thinks I'm an awful person haha,
I'll admit I feel a little bad when there's cute lil calves out there but THOSE
NAPS BURGERS THO!!! #ImAMonster
-
walk into the Jessop's one day and Mama J said "family on 3". Caught
me super off guard not gonna lie. She watched the "I Bet My Life on
U" UVid. Can't believe that was a year ago!
-
Koerner boys have started playing ball with us in the mornings so we are up to
having 3 on 3 between the Elders, Koerner's, and Brother Poulson and his son Darin
(aka cheese pizza) being there. It's not quite the same as the 5:30 days but
it's still awesome. Half court only rule still breaks my heart but the church
is still true. You wanna get Bro Poulson and I fired up just bring up how you
can play full field football and soccer and no one bats an eye... Play full
court basketball and the world loses its mind. He's awesome haha, we quote Ted
Lasso and Key and Peele. Super fun group to play with, I'm slowly bringing the
5:30 tradition to #HamTown.
-
transfers were on Wednesday. Made the 3 hour drive to Helena and dang that's
pretty. Helena Stake Center on transfer day is the biggest cluster I have ever
seen. But it was super fun seeing missionary's I haven't seen in a while.
Sister Dayes passed a message to Sister Freeman who passed it on to me about
Utah getting blown out by Gonzaga... #ShotsFired x3. Elder Rose and I were
reunited, haven't seen him since transfer 1 in Brozeman. He goes home next
transfer so I won't ever get to serve with him but we are tight haha. That hour
at Olive Garden with him, Elder Okerlund, and Elder McMahon was possibly the funniest hour
of my life. Can't believe that's been 9 months! I saw my boy Elder Jaques there
too! I'm gonna be super sad when all these elders start going home.
-
Something came up where only one elder was coming into our zone which led to 2
areas being combined (1 of which was already covering 2). And the Zone Leaders
get to sort it out! Good thing I had Elder Metcalf or else I would have had no clue
what to do haha. So now we have a tri-panionship! Elder Bills is the new elder
to the zone. He's cool. Super pumped to have him here.
---
On the Way back we are asking him about his life, he's From the Richfield area
and I asked if he's ever had a punch bag... His response.. "All the
time"
*turns
around
*gives
him high five
*insert
Step Brothers "did we just become best friends"
- we
get to Stevensille and Elder Meinhardt is telling Elder Bills the boundaries they
cover... It's 3 wards so they cover practically half the valley.
---
Meinhardt says "everything the light touches is our area..."
*Elder Meinhardt is quoting Lion Kking!!! No one caught the reference, I couldn't
leave him hanging... I obviously gotta get in on this.
I
turn to Elder Bills... "Except that shadowy place... That's the sisters
area... You must never go there Elder Bills."
Elder
Bills along with the rest of the elders had no clue what Meinhardt and I were
talking about but it was awesome.
-
#HamTown does this sweet thing where the second Friday of every month Main Street
gets lit!!! The street is full of vendors and stuff and the shops stay open
till 8 #TDFW. It's way fun. We were walking around the booths and it was kinda
weird having people want to talk to us for a change.
- ate duck... It was interesting.
- we found a less active and were
telling him about testimony meeting on Sunday. He loves testimony meeting and
it was pretty clear how excited he was by some of the explicit terms he used.
Never heard those words used when talking about testimony meeting but he showed
up!
- We
were hanging out at the park with the Koerner family before dinner. Kyler likes
to think the wood chips are knifes so he's showing me all of his
"knives" that are wood chips. Well he brings one up to me that is red
and has a white cross on it... He found a Swiss Army knife on the
playground! I slyly retrieve it from him and gave it to the mom. The kid is 2
years old and he already knew how to work a Swiss Army knife... Not gonna lie I
was impressed. Reminded me of all the times I'd come home to find Z in my room
going through my drawers and he'd have all my pocket knives out haha.
Alright
so I have noticed that I don't exactly share too many spiritual experiences in
these emails... I think it's because that it is all in my journal and this is the one
time I can just let loose and tell people the random stuff that happens
throughout the week. But I'm gonna try and share some spiritual experiences
like my journal haha.
-
The Koerner's are a recent convert family that I absolutely love. We go over
once a week to teach the new member lessons and each time I walk out of the
house I'm reminded why we are out here as missionaries. They are such a special
family, I just love them.
- at
a dinner with them this week and it really just turned into a Q&A with their son who
is thinking about a mission. "How do I leave my family, what if someone
passes away?" "What about school and work?" "What if I suck
at teaching", just question after question and we are answering them.
Midway through I realized those questions sounded all too familiar, because I was
asking them a year ago. Kind of hit me in the moment how much the Lord has
taught me and helped me grow, because a year ago that was me. A year ago I would
have NEVER imagined I'd be bearing a testimony about how much I love this work.
It opened my eyes that's for sure, and also got me even more desperate to teach
mission prep one day.
-
during weekly planning we decided to pray for new ways we can find investigaors. We pray and
both stay on our knees for probably a minute or so to tune into the spirit and
receive the revelation we need. In my mind I'm thinking of things we could do
and sarcastically think to myself "heck, let's just do a lemonade
stand!" So we get up and kind of sit in silence... Then Metcalf turns to
me and says... "Why don't we try doing a lemonade stand?". WOW! This
may sound dumb to you but it's no coincidence we both just happened to dream up
an idea that we haven't even heard of before. Missionary work is cool, Holy
Ghost is powerful. Pumped for this lemonade stand.
- so
last week we tract a trailer park that has been on our mind. We had gone a
couple times and had absolutely 0 success but we kept on feeling like there was
something there for us. We find a 23 year old single mom who grew up going to
church with her grandma in Helena but hasn't been in a while since she moved to
Hamilton. Sweet! We found a less active that we can get reactivated! So we get a
lesson set and head back over with sister Della Silva. Her grandma was their
too it was sweet! Her 3 year old daughter trusted me enough to let me color in her
Hello Kitty book so that was nice. We get teaching and the mom tells us...
"I was never baptized... Am I too old now???" I was trying hard to
contain my excitement haha. She wants to get baptized and we are shooting for
May 7! Pretty good Mother's Day present. #LightTheU
-
Then Sunday rolls around... I absolutely love Sunday's, even more than
Monday's. The sacrament and being with the ward helps me feel closer to my
family than emailing does. Ward Council was good, Bishop Hawkes is a total
crack up. We are going through the ward list and he says "Dan Smith...
BYU.." Coach and I were the only ones that got the reference and busted up
laughing. Next up, testimony meeting... And guess who shows up!!! Our boy
Greg!!! (60 year old black man that has a black widow for a spider and is the
#GOAT of chess). We have been trying for a long time to get him to come and
there he was! It was cool because so many people already knew him from chess
youth night and the Jessop's came in clutch and sat by him. Testimony meeting
gets going. Then we see the grandma of the girl we put on date start walking
up. And she shares her testimony on prayer. How she was praying for someone to
be sent to her granddaughter... And how the 2 elders in the ward knocked on her
door shortly after. Oh man it was powerful. This obviously gets Metcalf and I
up there. As Elder Metcalf is talking Kyliegh Koerner comes and sits by me because she
wants to go up! Domino effect of testifying about missionary work! I had no
idea what to say so I said what I knew, that God loves us. Gave Kyliegh a fist
bump Then she bore an awesome testimony, then her brother got up there, then
the mom got up and talked about her conversion and her love for us! It was a
testimony meeting I'll never forget.
And
to wrap it all up. I wanna share with you the analogy Coach (Brother Jessop) shared
with his Gospel principles class yesterday. How sometimes all we see is the
ESPN highlights but never see the rest of the game, or what goes on leading up
to the game. (His lessons always come back to sports, I love it.)
"
Sometimes in the gospel we only see the highlights, and fail to see what's
going on the rest of the time" - Coach Jessop 4/11/2016
Making
videos was kinda the same way too. No one really saw what I was doing to make
the video, don't get me wrong I love doing it, but it's not always easy.
Thinking up new ideas, the frustration of being told a certain video wouldn't
appeal to recruits and the fan base. No one saw the digging on YouTube for
footage cause that's all I would be able to use. The late nights working at the
library, the #StealthOps that took place for some of those time lapses. Heck, I
didn't care though! Because there was something about seeing the reaction of
that final product that made it all worth it. Not the fame or credit
necessarily, but how happy I made people! Seeing Twitter blow up over a
video that "wouldn't appeal to recruits or the fan base", seeing how
hyped players got. Walking through the facility hearing that video being played
down the hall in a coaches office. Or getting home late at night and hearing it
being played in your parents room. Making a Disney video that would be used as
the go to move when one of the babies are crying. Or when you are only 20
seconds into the dirty Disney and @pettbryan and the rest of the family are
already crying they're laughing so hard. Seeing that happiness makes the work
worth it.
Missionary
work is the same. I've got highlights, oh man do I have some highlights haha.
But sometimes I have to remind myself that it's not always highlights. You
gotta work to lead up to it. It's pretty dang hard on me sometimes, but a
sacrament meeting like yesterday or seeing Brian Robison baptize his family,
those highlights make it worth it. Like Coach said, the gospel itself is the
same. We can't expect highlights all the time, but they'll come if we work for
them.
...
Well that was pretty much all my email time haha, if I don't email you back just
know I love ya. I just gotta rant some times that's all. When something gets in
my mind I better talk or type it out or else it's gonna be locked in
there.
Another
week ahead... We have our Austin Powers World Defense Council thing on
Wednesday in Helena... And they need someone to drive the car that used to be
used in the pre-combined area up there... You know what that means...
#TheyBack. It'll be weird driving a car alone but I'm sticking that car 5 mph
under the speed limit on cruise control. Hamilton is straight up gorgeous right
now. Like wow I'm loving this weather, "summertime" by Kenney Chesney
has been stuck in my head all week as you can imagine but MoTab will have to do
for now.
Happy
b-day to BayBay this week, can't believe you are 1!!! I love ya Baylee. I have
2 words for the rest of the family going to Disneyland this week but you enjoy
it little girl! I love you!
- Elder
K
-
buffs
-
German shepherd/wolf/husky mix. #IWantOne
-
found Lil Sebastian at Hamilton tonight
-
moon
-
selfie after putting someone on date... Started by elder Christensen and I in
Belgrade
- he
was so happy to get a Utes banner in there. Told me if anyone brings in a BYU
one he'll place it in the corner away from the pac 12 schools. #ShotsFired. He
said it, not me.
-
challenger
-
Kasey, probably my favorite dog ever. She's huge.
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