Bye Dad!

What's up everyone?! I hope you all had an awesome week, our week here in Waverly has been pretty great! So on last Tuesday we found out that Elder Sjoblom is getting transferred, so my trainer and I have parted ways and he's been replaced by my new Companion Elder Madsen! Elder Madsen's a stud, he trained my MTC homie Elder Van Haren. It was pretty funny as we were leaving transfers I rolled down the window and yelled "By Dad!" to Elder Sjoblom the members we were with were pretty confused lol. I'll miss my trainer a lot he's so awesome! but I'm excited for a change up.

This week has been pretty slow work wise mostly because transfer weeks are weird and we were getting everything settled in. We got to meet with our investigator DeAngelo, he's hilarious! He always gives me crap for having slim dress pants and calls me Freshman cause he found out I'm pretty new in the Mission. But he is doing okay so far, he is struggling to keep commitments but we hope we can help him get to Church this Sunday! 

Not a ton to report on this week, but one funny/awkward thing happened. We were teaching a lesson to this lady on the street and we were talking about Prophets, I brought up how we recently just had general conference and was talking about how important it is. I get pretty into it sometimes, and I was really feelin this one. So I'm pretty much halfway through testifying, and the lady stops me and is like "You know you seem really passionate and that's great, but I just don't really care."....life. I got so awkward I was trying to hold back the laughter. Pretty funny I was just like alright my bad lady lol. 

I hope you all have a great week, I want to encourage you to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with someone. I've been thinking a lot about how big of a responsiblity we have as members of the one true Church to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others come unto Christ. I love you all! Go share the Gospel!

Love Elder Milligan

Elder Sjoblom and I having a Harry Potter wand duel. A member in the branch actually makes and sells Harry Potter Replica wands. He gave us some as a going away present.

The Curse of the Dogs

What is up everyone?! I hope you all had an excellent week, the weather here in Waverly is awesome right now! I never thought I'd actually say those words but it's true. Iowa in late April is the place to be it is the bomb! It's a great feeling when you go out to tract and your first inclination when you step outside isn't to roll over and die. Missionary work this week was pretty hard. We went to go have dinner and teach a lesson to our most promising investigator Sarah, but when we got there her grandma informed us she that she had relapsed and overdosed on methamphetamine. She's in the hospital now and will most likely be in rehab for the foreseeable future. That was pretty hard for us to swallow, it is always sad to see the consequences that come with drugs and unfortunately Iowa has a big problem in that respect. 

We have been working with this couple named De'angelo and Amy, De'angelo is straight outta the hood. He moved to Iowa from Chicago cause some of his friends got killed in gang stuff. He's got some insane stories. But we have met with them a few times and he is a talker and it's hard to get a word in. But we gave him and his wife a Book of Mormon and he promised to read so hopefully he comes through. He really wanted to come to Church but was unable to because of work so that was a bummer but he's got potential. This past week we did a lot of work with less active members and that was very rewarding. Awhile ago we went and gave a blessing to a guy in the branch named Vic, he played football for Oklahoma and played in the NFl. He's a really nice guy and hasn't been coming to church for a while. But he called us because he had been going through a bunch of health problems and had to go in for surgery and wanted a blessing. It was awesome to be able to give him a blessing and feel God's love for him. And yesterday he brought his whole family to Church! It was great to see him taking those steps back into activity.

This Sunday my companion and I gave talks on the Apostasy and Restoration of the gospel. It was pretty funny, we totally forgot we had to do them until Saturday night so we went to the church early and morning and wrote them in about 2 minutes. I think they went pretty well for having 3 bullet points each though haha. 

Ok so we tracted this trailer park on the outside of town on Sunday, and trailer courts are always good for stories. The first one requires some back story though; so it's a belief of Elder Sjoblom and mine that every missionary has a curse. Something that always goes against them or that they struggle with. My curse is dogs. I loved dogs back home, but since I've been on the mission dogs have been the bane of my existence. I've been puked on, peed on, I've stepped on countless piles of dog poop, and I've gotten bit by dogs like 20 times. I got bit 4 times last week lol, nothing too bad but still annoying. So anyways we walk up to this trailer and I hear this big dog barking and the guy lets him out of the door (tool move) and the thing charges right at us. The thing runs around Elder Sjoblom and comes towards me (Cursed) and jumps up to get me. But I'd had enough of this all week and I straight up 'falcon punched' that dog out of the air. Right in the schnoz, the dog hit the ground and looked at me like "What the" and then just ran off like nothing happened. It was super funny, my companion was just like looking at me trying not to laugh lol. 

Second funny story; we ran into this old lady who was a total basher. And she just starts ripping into the Book of Mormon and prophets and the plan of salvation. So she brings out one of those NWT bibles, which are just bibles that are in like modern English. We call them "Bibles for Dummies" (no offense to anyone who reads them) and I asked to see her bible to find a verse about the priesthood and I totally asked if I could see her "Bible for Dummies" on accident. It just slipped. She just looked at me with this super offended face, it was hilarious looking back. I just kind of went with it, I mean we shouldn't change the word of God in the first place so I really didn't feel bad at all but she just was speechless lol. We had a good laugh afterwords.

That's about all I have for this week. I also want to wish my amazing Dad a belated Happy Birthday!! I'm so grateful for him and all he does for me. If you see him make sure to tell him Happy Birthday for me! I love you guys, go share the gospel!

Elder Milligan

Baptisms and Bronchitis

Sup fam?! I hope that the past week was a good one for all of you! This week started off pretty rough but it really picked up towards the end. Halfway through the week we had to drive an hour to district meeting and I was feeling pretty under the weather, but I didn't think much of it and we went about the rest of our day normally. The next day I woke up and couldn't talk at all, and my throat was on fire. Then the grossest thing happened I started coughing up bloody snot during comp prayer haha! I felt like I had the plague and my companion had to call the doctor. I had to go in and be checked out, luckily it wasn't the plague, it was Bronchitis. So I got some antibiotics and had to stay in for two days because Sister Jensen said we couldn't go out if it was below a certain temperature. Safe to say, Elder Sjoblom and I had a bad case of cabin fever by the end of the second day. 

But I got better by Saturday and we were able to go out and do some work. And on Sunday my homie Quentrell was finally baptized! It was probably one of the best days I've had on the mission thus far, to see this young kid so full of faith finally get to enter the Lord's Kingdom on Earth was an incredible feeling for sure. I had the privilege of confirming Quentrell as a member of the Church and it was one of the most spiritual moments of my entire life! One of the best parts of the day however came after the baptism, Quentrell was talking to his Grandpa on the phone and I overheard the him saying "Grandpa I got baptized, do you know what that means? It means I'm clean again and can start over! And that Jesus and the Holy Ghost will always be with me!" Hearing such a powerful testimony out of ten year old kid who couldn't even pronounce the word "Nephi" when we started teaching him was such a humbling experience for me. It was really hard not to get emotional listening to how happy and enthusiastic he was about his baptism. People like Quentrell and his mom Sherry are the driving force behind what missionary work is all about. I had probably a hundred doors shut in my face before we found Sherry but I'd knock on a thousand more doors just to find a family as faithful and prepared as her and her kids. One of the first things we teach in the first lesson is that the Gospel blesses families. That's the truest statement you'll ever read, the gospel has done wonders for Sherry and her family and I'm so grateful that lord led us to her so he could bring her home. 

I Love you all, have a great week. Go share the gospel.

Elder Milligan

We're Not Moving

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed General Conference and that you were able to receive some revelation pertinent to you. I personally thought the sessions this weekend were off the chain. So good, wow. There was so much power packed into each block it was straight fire the whole time! I really loved my man Neil L. Anderson's talk, about families and the importance of the temple. One of my favorite messages to share out here is that through the Gospel we can live with our families for all eternity and Elder Anderson really killed his talk on why it is important that we help others be sealed to their loved ones. There has been a lot of funny things that happened the past week, most of them have to deal with our investigator Quentrel. We have been teaching him a lot this past week to get him ready for his interview, and we came to the law of chastity. Trying to relate this lesson to a Nine year old boy was pretty interesting and it just so happened that it was my turn to speak when we got to this subject. So we start talking about chastity and I basically tell him that he can't date till he's sixteen and he asked what "Adultery" meant and I was just like "Uh, it means no hurting your wife's feelings or making her feel bad when you're married. Just don't break her heart Quentrel." He took it pretty well. The funny thing that happened was the next day we went over it again and I brought up no dating till your sixteen and he's like "No, but I already have a girl friend!" And I was like "Tough luck man, it's over." And he like jumped on floor and looked up and was like "Elder Milligan, I'm not goona commit adultery! I can't break my girl friends heart!" I laughed so hard I started crying almost, this kid is hilarious. It was probably the funniest thing an investigator has said to me thus far on the mish. Luckily we were able to alleviate all of Quentrel's "concerns" about the Law of Chastity and he is all set to be baptized this coming Saturday. HOLLAH. I'm pumped for my homie to finally be baptized and to receive the Holy Ghost, working with Sherry and her kids has brought so much happiness and joy that I've never felt anything like before. Missions are great, I highly recommend one. 

Well I have to come clean, I lied about us moving. President pulled the rug out from under us at Zone Conference this week. Appartnelty he doesn't think two missionaries need a three bedroom apartment with a dining room. I told him "We need extra room for all the Spirit we have with us!" but he just laughed lol.  

Well I hope you all have a great week and that you continue to feel the spirit that conference brings .And I hope Villanova destroys those baby blue wearing fools.

 I love you all, go share the gospel. 

Love, Elder Milligan