Greetings from Nauvoo

Hello Friends and Family!

So big news guys, transfers were this week! So I am no longer in Ankeny, I'm now in the great city of Burlington, Iowa! I'm so pumped because Burlington is the closest Area to Nauvoo so we'll be spending a lot of time here and I'm actually emailing from the family history center right next to the Nauvoo temple! 

But yeah B-Town is pretty tight, pretty ghetto which I'm pumped about as well. Most of the people that live here are "Chicago Refugees" that came over here and brought the hood with them haha. But it's awesome here. Cool old city right on the Mississippi river. 

My new companion is Elder Gundersen! He's a homie, it's a blast serving with him. He's from Bear Lake, Idaho and he's like 6'9! He's goona play ball in college in  Wyoming. He's way cool!

We've been in the car a lot together the past few days going to the different district meetings and meeting all the cool people we'll get to lead and work with in our zone. But yeah we're the "Nauvoo Zone" so there's goona be lots of opportunities to see some church history sites and hopefully I'll get to go to the Temple for the first time in about 17 months...haha yikes. 

But yeah not a ton more to report. I'm so excited for the next chapter here in Burlington. Hopefully I'll have some people to write about next week. 

I'll send some pics as well!

Love you guys! 

Saying goodbye to the Zoeduahs:

Tracy, Margret and Mufasa lol:

Last P Day in Ankeny:

Madi, Our awesome investigator who WILL be baptized someday!:

Nauvoo Temple:

Elder Gundersen and I, featuring the Nauvoo Temple!:

Heck Week

Yoooooo!

What's up everybody? 

This week has been really good here in Ankeny. We have been meeting with all the awesome people we met last week and setting baptismal dates with them. Everyone we've been working with have been progressing super well. We're still trying to get them to Church but so far they've all been reading and praying so that's progress.

Also exciting news is that we should be having another awesome baptism this coming Saturday! Tracy and Margaret are doing amazing. They are both reading and learning more and more and have been coming to church consistently. They have been taught everything and are ready to be baptized this weekend. We are still working with their mother Hawa. But she has been harder to meet with so it's going to take a little longer to get her where she needs to be. We're hoping she'll follow her daughters example though! 

Other than that we've been working hard to find more people to teach. Every day is an adventure in Ankney/ Des Moines there's so many interesting and diverse people around here. I never thought I could go from teaching corn farmers to African refugees in less than a 30 Minute drive through our area. 

Okay once again gotta say thanks to every one that emailed me after I got off for my birthday! You guys are awesome! I love ya'll. I got pretty spoiled on my birthday we got a cake from the Sisters in the zone, a member family and our african investigators made me cup cakes! Birthdays in the Mission are the best, I've never felt more fulfilled than spending fun times like that with people that are trying to find their way back to God! 

I love you guys!

Have a good week! Pray for Tracy and Margaret!

My birthday cake(s):

Sisters in our Zone made a cake for my Birthday 

Our African Investigators/Member Family bought me some nice cupcakes as well haha

The Johnson Family we stopped by and played games with them and taught their cousins (Margret and Tracy) for My "Birthday Party"

 

All I Want for my Birthday is a Big African Family

What's up everybody?!

Ok first thing is first. Big Shout out to everyone who emailed or sent me stuff for my birthday. You guys are all true homies ("You Loyal"-DJ Khaled Voice) haha but yeah thanks guys I have the best friends and family out there!

So this week was great. Like really good, especially for Ankeny, Iowa. We saw a ton of blessings from our hard work this week. Most of those blessings came in the form of tons of new people to teach and an one, big, awesome African family that is super awesome and prepared!

So we have basically been working our butts off the first half of the transfer looking for new people to teach and help come closer to Christ. The first weeks were DRY but we kept grinding and Heavenly Father came in clutch as usual. This week we were led to 6 really awesome individuals who are all ready to progress in the gospel. 

So the first people I'll talk about are our investigators

Hawa, Margret, and Tracey: They are an awesome family from Sierra Leon, Hawa is the sister of an African member in the ward that we were told to go stop by a member. Hawa and her daughters Margret and Tracey are all awesome and super prepared to be baptized. We set a baptismal date with them for February 11th! Awesome stuff. They shouldn't have any problems, super great family.  

Eladia: Eladia is a really nice lady, she's living with the son of the Hawa's sister. Kind of a complicated story. But we went and gave her son a blessing for his seizures and she loved it. We taught her the restoration and she accepted a baptismal invite. I'm excited to teach her.

Jamie: Jamie is still doing great, working with her on stopping her smoking. But she's coming to church this week and she is super focused on her date for Feb. 25th.

We found a lot more awesome people this week as well. Tons of blessings. 

Another crazy thing that happened this week was the Mission Department came out and changed our whole key indicator system. It's tons different now but it's exciting and way more effective. 

They also made our P-days longer. So the first super P-day is my B-day ;) Thanks Elder Oaks ;)

Alright I love you guys! Thanks again for all the birthday wishes! You're all awesome!

Jake, the 20 year old lol...yikes.

 Me and my homie Chris: