General Conference and Babies

This week was awesome! General conference is always a breath of fresh air on the Mission. It's also 5 different opportunities to get someone to Church and feel the spirit so we are all about that haha. We had a lot of good things happen this week, we have been working hard and teaching a ton of people which always feels good when your work yields a lot of results. 

This week we have been teaching Edward a lot, getting him ready for his baptism this Saturday! He's a stud and he's doing really good. His interview is tonight and he should be all good to go. Edward is such a funny guy, the other day during our lesson he told us he had a question but he wouldn't come out and ask it. So we were trying to get it out of him and finally he says "So my buddies want to go to the Strip club this weekend, and I'm always the designated driver. How do I tell my friends I can't go to the strip club anymore cause I'm Mormon now?" haha it was so funny. I love Edward, he is the most chill guy ever. 

This week we had exchanges with one of the DL companionship's in the zone. I went with Elder Lovin, he is a stud missionary. I remember when he first came out, he has grown a ton and is a great DL. I learn a ton from going on Exchanges with younger missionaries. It always helps me stay focus and realize how much I can improve on. We were able to teach our investigator Cynthia, she kind of dropped off the planet when I first got here so I've never met her and neither has E. Lovin so we went in there kind of blind but it turned out great. She had some concerns that we overcame with here and she is back on track for baptism which is awesome. 

We watched the Saturday afternoon session in mission home with the Badgers, it was kind of trippy. I felt like I was back home watching it. We watched the Sunday afternoon session with our African investigators Even and Romeo! We found out romeo turns 8 this month and he asked to get Baptized for his birthday! Isn't that precious haha? But it sounds like we are goona baptize him and his aunt for his b-day ;)

Other than that we've just been finding a lot and trying to get more people at Church. The work is awesome here I love DM.

I gotta end this email by giving a shoutout to my Sister Kristen and her Husband Eric! Congrats on the Baby! My nephew Hank looks like an absolute Baller! If you see my sister give her a hug for me!

Love you all!

Emergency Transferred

Hey everyone! This is a little awkward. I'm writiting from my new home in the East Des Moines area! Some stuff went down in Iowa City and long story short I got sent out here to after the transfer was over. Pretty crazy stuff but I'm just glad it's over.

Just kidding!!! Shame on any of you who thought I would ever get ET'd lol. I did get transferred though, I'm out here in the Des Moines ward now! It's lit! I love being back in Des Moines this place is poppin. I've only been here since Thursday but we've already been seeing a ton of blessings in the work. My new companion is Elder Obray! He's a STUDDD. He's from Layton, Ut and is a total baller, plays piano, and guitar, basically the full package. 

Des Moines is a blast though, there is so much work to be done and it's so diverse here it's insane! The Ward has a ton of people from Africa and Burma! I love it, the atmosphere at Church is very unique because of it. 

Right now we are working with a ton of people it's awesome! We had 7 people at Church on Sunday and have 9 on date for baptism in the coming weeks. Our main Guy right now is named Edward, he's so dope. He is really chill and super laid back, his family is from Mexico and they are all super nice. He's been learning for like 4 months and he's pumped to get baptized on Oct. 7. He's super solid. 

We are also teaching a guy named Junior, he's a really cool guy as well. He is working through a lot of stuff right now. But he's doing great, he came to a baptism on Saturday and really enjoyed it. 

There's also a family that we are teaching from Liberia we are working mostly with them Even and her son Abraham. They are really cool and fun to work with. They have a crazy life story and are kind of famous in the IDMM. They should be getting baptized Oct. 21st. 

Last guy I'll talk about right now is named Usufu, he's cool guy. Super solid, after our lesson he asked us if he can come out and teach with us after he is baptized, he's from Liberia and is super fired up about the Gospel. He was torchin it up in Gospel Principles, just spitting fire about stuff he learned from reading the BOM. The whole time I just kept looking at Obray like man is this guy for real??

the work is awesome here! Please pray for our 9 investigators that they will keep progressing and be able to get baptized. 

One of my favorite things about serving in Des Moines is that we get to drive "Heather". For those of you who are uniformed, "Heather" is 2017 Ford 15 Passenger Van. She's beautiful and I love her. It's pretty fun navigating the streets in down town Des Moines that were built for Mopeds I'm pretty sure, but she's a beast. If people didn't think we are weird already they probably do now seeing us roll up in this Silver machine. 

Well that's about it for this week. Still getting used to the new area, I'm pumped to be in Des Moines though, it should be a party these last 3 months! Let's Go!!!

Love you all.

Jake.

PS: Big news here, I am a Great-Grandpa. My Grandson began training this transfer. I'm stoked I got to see my lineage continue for another Generation! 

PICS: 

1. Pic with my Grandson and Great Grandson

2-Infinite. Lots and Lots of goodbye this transfer.  

Iowa City; Where The Grass is Green and The Girls Are Pretty

Greetings.

I'm emailing from my new home and hopefully my last area, the BEAUTIFUL Iowa City!! Yes the dream came true and Elder Zinn and I got our shot at serving together in a college town, yes! I'm super pumped to be here in IC it feels like I'm back in civilization after spending 6 months out on the frontier in Nauvoo. One of the things President Badger said while telling me I was going there was "Elder Milligan, I believe they have a Huhott in IC, I knew you'd be excited for that." He knows me to well.

So Iowa City is lit. There's college kids everywhere and school is about to start up, so everyone is moving in. Sometimes when Elder Zinn and I are sick of knocking we will just walk by the dorms and offer to help move people in and invite them to institute and Church lol. 

My New comp is Elder Zinn, we came out together and he was in our district in Nauvoo so I know him well, he's one of my good friends in the mission so we were stoked when we found out. Our zone is a party and we've had a lot of fun so far. He is super creative and abstract so it's funny being his comp. 

So I just got here and our teaching pool is kind of trash right now lol. So I don't really have anyone to talk about but that will change by next week cause we are goona build this place up right quick. Sunday was cool though, we cover the 2nd ward here which is all the famalies that moved here for residency at the med, dental, and law schools. So a lot of young families and doctors so I love talking to them. Our ward is diverse to there's families from Africa, China, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Scotland and more, it's sick. 

That's all I really have for this week, I'll send a lot of pics I took saying goodbye to the families I loved in B-town and some final pics from Nauvoo. I love ya'll have a good week. 

That's What I Like

What's good friends?

So this week was really busy once again. So this week we had P-day and then after that we had a few hours to work. Then the Quincy ZL's came and stayed at our place because we had MLC the next night. So we drove like 1.5 hours to Iowa City for MLC we sat in the gym from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm so that was great. We didn't get home till about 9:00 that night. So after MLC we had another busy day on Wednesday getting President and the AP's and our training ready for ZTM. Then Thursday we spent in Macomb Illinois on exchanges trying to help the Elders find some solid people to teach. We had a good day there and found 3 new investigators for them so hopefully that jump starts their area a bit. On Friday we had a good ZTm and everything went as planned so that's always good. President Badger's training was all about being sanctified and consecrated which is always good and something we as missionaries should always be working on. 

This weekend was really good missionary work wise though. We taught a lot of really cool people. The highlight of the week was that our RC Kara came back into town from her work trip! It was great to have her back in Church and to see her get a calling and everything! She's solid! We got her kids to Church as well and will be working on getting them all baptized on May 6th! So pray that we can help them make their date! 

So I think a new thing I'm going to put in my emails are some stories about my crazy Hawaiian Companion who goes home in 10 weeks. It's pretty entertaining to see him at the end of his rope lol.

Story of the week:

Watched Elder Anitok climb on to the roof of our apartment and start dancing and singing "That's What I like" by bruno mars. (He thinks that cause he's from the Island as bruno that means he can dance and sing just like him..)  and people walking by literally stopped to watch him act a fool. 

But yeah that's all I got for this week!

Love you guys

Conference and Such

What's up Loved ones? 

So this week was transfer week, like I said last week we found out what was happening early by accident lol. So no huge suprises there. But it was still exciting cause I'm with my bro E. Anitok! Hailing from the Marshall Islands. He's so tight. It's been our dream to serve together so we're pretty pumped.  

This week has just been busy. We drove a lot again. We had to drive to two district meetings, we also had to drive down to Quincy Illinois for one of Elder Anitok's baptisms. Also tomorrow we get to drive up another hour and a half to Iowa City for MLC which will be good. So this week has just been spent in the car. But Anitok is pretty entertaining so we are getting by haha. 

General Conference this week was dope. I loved it. I especially loved Elder Bednar's talk in the Priesthood session. It's was probably my favorite one! Really nothing that exciting has happened so far this week. We have just been running between meetings. Hopefully I'll have some good stories this coming week haha! 

I love you guys! Keep it real. 

Driving, Driving, Driving

What's uppp loved ones?

This week was really good, Burlington is full of insane people and lots of crazy things happen everyday. But it's a party, I love the Nauvoo Zone all the missionaries are straight homies so it's great to be a part of all the action down here on the Mississippi. But this week was awesome like I said, the whole zone worked hard and saw a lot of blessings for it. 

Here's some Highlights of this past week:

-First and foremost, our investigator Kara came to Church again this week! This time she brought 3 of her awesome kids as well! They are all excited to work towards being baptized on March 25th! The kids are all awesome and loved Church as well, the Ward did a great job of bringing them in and fellowshipping them! With those 4 people on date in our area, the zone has a total of 9. That's the most this zone has had in a longgg time. So we are pumped. 

-We had interviews with President and Sister Badger this past Wednesday it was awesome. Interviews are always kind of a stressful day trying to get the whole zone through the process in a timely manner. But it was awesome to be able to talk top them one on one. They took Elder Gundersen and I out to lunch afterwards and it was great to talk to them just us four and get to know them better.

-I think one of my favorite things about being the Zone Leaders in Nauvoo is the fact that we are responsible for like 8 Senior Couple Missionaries. They are literally so funny, like the other day one of them called me asking me to help them figure out their Microwave..Old people lol. Just kidding though they are tight, and so wise and spiritual! I love it. 

-We were at dinner with a member who's an EMT. He was telling us about the crazy things that have happened in Burlington this week. My two favorites were aq crazy guy with an Ak-47 was running through a neighborhood shooting at house randomly. Also there was a shootout between two gangs in the middle of Downton. "You can take the people out of Chicago, but you can't take the Chicago out of the people"- Every White person in Burlington's favorite one liner to tell us. 

-So this week we will be spending a LOT of time in the car. Today we drove 30 Minutes to Nauvoo through Illinois so we wouldn't have to take the toll bridge. Then we will drive an hour to Macomb Illinois for a baptismal interview after P-day. Then we will drive an hour and a half back to B-town. Then Wednesday we will drive an hour to Keokuk for a D-meeting. Then an hour back to Burlington for another D-meeting. Then On Thursday we will be driving 3.5 Hours to Des Moines for exchanges with the AP's. Then 3.5 hours back. Gundy and I are goona know each other real well after this week lol. 

-On Saturday Elder Gundersen and I wrecked two ghetto guys from Chicago at ball. And when I say we I mean, I sat back and shot some three's while Gundy beat them two on one down low lol. #WhiteBoyPower

-Last cool thing about this week. I got to go inside a temple! For the first time in like 16 Months lol! I got to help clean the temple it was awesome. Then the Lady took us up to inside the tower and we could see like the whole Mississippi river with a thunderstorm going on it was tight! 

But yeah that's pretty much been our week here. Hopefully we don't die of boredom in the car this week. Love you all! 

Okay Idk if I mentioned this at all with all the crazy stuff. But two weeks ago after MLC I was reunited with my brother at the Iowa City Mall. I've never been so happy to see someone. 

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!:

Welcome to Des Moines (it's been waitin' for ya!)

What's up everyone! Hopefully someone gets the T-Swift reference I slipped in the subject line lol.

 

So this week was awesome, like really really good. This area was Dead at the beginning of the week. Our only investigator on Date was our girl Madi. But outside of that we had no one. But that's all changed now! This week we found two awesome African families,they are so cool! One of the families came to church and we have a date to baptize their three daughters; Laverta, Larvetta (12 year old African twins, brutal.) and their little 8 year old girl Faith. They are the cutest little African kids I've ever seen. I literally can't wait to adopt black children. They are going to be baptized on November 19th!

Our investigator Madi is doing pretty well. Her mom is still being a hindrance in the whole baptism process but we have a lot of faith that she can be baptized on the 12th of November. Please pray for Madi, she's so awesome and wants nothing more than to be able to be baptized!

A lot of funny things happened this week and it was really easy to find happiness in the work this week. One of my favorite things that happened this week was that our African family came to Church! Yesterday was the primary program which is always fun to watch, but it was even better this time because the Primary President came up to the younger african kids and invited them to come up and participate in the program! They gave them parts to read and everything! I was blown away at how well this ward does at fellowshipping new comers. I love the ward here it's like an actual fun, loving, real Ward that you'd find back in the West. I feel really at home here it's great actually having fun at Church and at member dinners lol. 

My new Comp Elder McCain is really funny, he's like a female version of Hermana Annie Johnson, totally granola, tree hugger, kind of Liberal. But really chill and funny. We also just found out that two girls we kissed at College are roommates now so that's building our comp unity as wel. Lol.

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you guys!

Jake

Ankeny

What's up friends and fam, I'm writing to you from my new home, Ankeny, Iowa! (Every time I try and type it, auto correct tries to change it to Kenya.. yeah not that cool.) But it Ankeny is a great place. It's basically the "Eagle" of Iowa it's a really wealthy suburb of Des Monies. I was kind of sad when I found out cause I thought Ankeny was like only rich neighborhoods and all that jazz. But luckily our area actually has a ton of North Des Monies in it so it's super ghetto there. So I'm way happy ;)

My new comp is Elder McCain, he came out with my son Elder Esplin so I'm "Breaking" him. He's a stud! He's a really solid missionary and he loves the work. I'm really excited work with him. It's funny he's like 6'5 so when we show up at all the tiny African doors they are always like "Ohhh Mormons, always so tall! Like giants!" it's hilarious. 

So I don't have a ton of stuff to write about because I've only been in this area a few days but I'll just make a list of some cool stuff that's happened. 

- We set a date with our Investigator Madi! She's awesome she's 15 and wants to be baptized soooo bad! I've only met her once but I just love her to death, she's so brave. Her mom does not want her to get baptized at all but we are working with members in the ward to help fellowship the mom. We had a super intense lesson with her after Church when we extended her baptismal date and I was so drained afterward, it was arguably one of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my Mission so far. 

- My investigator in CR Jasmine is all set to be baptized on Oct. 29th! So I should be able to go back and be there to baptize her I'm way pumped!!

- We taught this crazy drunk guy who was in the Military and the night before, he had to clowns try and break in his house and he shot one of them in the arm! Iowa is insane.

- Back in CR Esplin and I met a less active who wanted us too help him move (classic.) and he showed us his Machete he keeps by his bed and his loaded pistols he keeps under his pillow. "It's all just for protection though don't worry!"

Well that's all I got guys. I hope you all have a great week. PLEASE PRAY FOR MADI'S MOM TO SOFTEN HER HEART! 

I love you guys! 

Jake

Bickin' Back Bein Bool

What's up everyone? I hope you all had a dope week. This past week has been really good, Elder Esplin and I are starting to get a lot of lessons and find quite a few people to teach which is always exciting, especially with a brand new missionary, it's always a lot of fun! Two really cool things happened this week. First our awesome Investigator, Omar from Jerusulam came to Church! He really liked it too, I was so pumped for him to be there! He made a lot of great comments in class too which was good to see. Second I got to baptize an awesome lady Geri, she was working with the Sisters in our Ward and I did her baptismal interview, she asked me to baptize her and I was honored! She's a great lady! 

My mind always goes blank when I sit down to write these emails, probably cause I live in a watered down frat house with 4 other Elders that go crazy on "P-Day eve" and keep me up all night lol. I've been using the list approach lately so Imma stick with that.

1. So I've been noticing this trend, whenever we are in or near the Ghetto, all the ghetto folk will roll up next to us at the stop. So I can here that their music isn't that loud coming up but whenever they stop next to us they are just Bumpin'. Then they drive off and they turn down the music, I don't know if they are trying to mess with us or they just feel bad cause they know I miss my rap. But anyways these two ghetto dudes roll up next to us and start blaring their music and look over at me and I just started vibing to the music and they just lost it, one of the guys is like "Oh (explicit) nahh mannnn!", and he pulls out his phone and I'm pretty sure he took a video. So if any of you are on Vine and see some video of a missionary dancing on the side of the road it's probably your's truly. :)

2. Elder Esplin and I almost died in a crazy micro burst-tornado-typhoon-Iowa Storm. It was probably the craizest storm I've been in to date. Pretty awesome, we were going like 40 down the freeway trying not to crash it was dope. 

3. Elder Esplin and I got hit on by this girl at the Community College, it was his first time being hit on as a Missionary, he got all flustered. So cute. 

4. I lost What Are The Odds and that's why my subject line is the title of a 2chainz song, thanks Elder Davis!

5. I also lost the same game and now I have to use katy perry lyrics in my homecoming talk. So that gives you all something to look forward too in the next year and a half!

Ok that's pretty much all I got, shoutout to my awesome Nephew Parker for getting baptized this past Saturday! So proud of you dude, you're my HERO!!

Love you guys, God bless.

​Add this to the Email I totally forgot! 

6. So we were sitting outside watching the bands play at the bar on Friday night (Lol) but anyways Elder Davis was like "Man you know what sounds good, Pizza." Then we were like what if we just ordered pizza guys? Then this domino's car drives up and we were like "Guy's it's for us watch" (totally jokingly) then this African guy gets out and says he has a pizza for me! Shoutout to the Grieves for coming in clutch and answering our Prayers! I love you Curtis and Andrea!!

Children of the Corn

Pizzaaaaa

The Boys

It's a Boy!

How's it goin everyone? This past week was pretty crazy, my head is still spinning a little bit trying to figure out my life right now. So a few changes transpired this past week. First off I lost my bff/companion Elder Hansen; we got the sad news on Tuesday during transfer calls. However I got some exciting news as well, I found out on Tuesday that I'm "Expecting". Aka I got the news that I would be training a new Missionary, I'm now a proud Father! My traniee's name is Elder Esplin! He's from Sugar City, Idaho (Idaho Boys for the win amirght?) I'm super stoked to train, it's been a dream of mine to get a boy, definitely wasn't expecting one this fast though haha. Also I got called to be the new District Leader in Cedar Rapids as well, but that's not very exciting lol. 

But yeah! I'm way excited to work with Elder Esplin, sometimes I feel like I should still be a trainee but I guess the Lord works in weird ways sometimes haha!

Some other straight up crazy stuff happened this week, probably the craziest was the disbanded my old zone (the Cedar Falls Zone) and combined it with the Cedar Rapids zone. To put this into perspective, our new zone is Bigger than some of the Eastern States lol. It's HUGE! It's about a 4 hour drive from one end of the zone to the other, and now there's 28 missionaries in the zone! Pretty crazy stuff, President Badger told us it's one of the largest Zones in the United States now. Our ZTM meetings are going to be like Zone Conferences now I'm way excited. 

In other news;

My trainer Elder Sjoblom went home this past week, he's back in the real world now.

Luckily I was able to get a 3 Generation picture with My "Dad", me, and my "Son" haha.

I forgot my camera cord today so pics to come. 

I had my first District Meeting as a DL, that was an adventure.

My boy had a hot first day pounding the pavement. It was 101 degrees with 100% humidty. Yikes.

Our Recent Convert Kayla taught someone about the Word of Wisdom while she was driving for UBER. Proud Missionary right here. 

Every single one of my short sleeve white shirts has a perfect out line of the Oakland Temple on the pocket cause I carry my planner in it, and the humidity made a stain of it on my shirt. Thanks Iowa.

Well I hope you all have a good week! Shoutout to my family for sending me pics of going boating with out me, much appreciated ;) I love you all you guys! Keep the Faith, God Bless!

Elder Milligan

Elder Hansen and Elder Milligan vs the World

June 13, 2016

What's up everyone?! This past week has been C-R-A-Z-Y!  So this past week I found out that I would be leaving Waverly, Iowa and be going down south to Cedar Rapids! I also found out that my new companion was going to be ELDER JESS HANSEN!!! I flipped a biscuit when I found out, actually at first I got mad at the AP's cause I thought they were pulling my leg, but then I realized they were telling the truth and I freaked out! I'm beyond excited to serve with my bro, I've never been so pumped about Missionary work. 

I would say I was sad about leaving Waverly, and it would be partially true. I met a lot of wonderful people there and was blessed to be able to see three people get baptized in that tiny area. But I was way to excited to be sad about leaving lol. I did get to say goodbye to all of the people I taught and that was pretty hard, but I'm very excited and happy for them to continue to progress in the Gospel!

Saying Goodbye to Elder Madsen was way rough though, I love that guy he is an amazing missionary and I know he'll keep killing it in Waverly. 

The work here in CR is off the chain! We have met a lot of cool people! and I am literally living my dream because there are tons of Africans in the Ward here and they are great at fellowshipping and finding us new Africans to teach! The Ward is multilingual and there's tons of different cultures that come together, it's pretty neat to see. This past week we had our investigator named Siraj come to Church for the first time. He's really cool, he's like 4'10 and is from Nepal he's super humble and awesome! We also have a few other investigators including a guy named Sunzu from Africa, he should be getting baptized soon. 

I don't have a whole lot to say this week mostly because I've only been in this area a few days. But I'm super pumped to be serving with such a sick companion. Cedar Rapids 3rd East better watch out, cause Elder Milligan and Elder Hansen are here to do work. 

Elder Milligan Out. 

Here's a Pic with Hansen and I with a dead bunny lol

Twister

What's up fam? I hope you all had a good week! This past week in Waverly has been pretty interesting to say the least. We had a pretty good week this past week but also have run into a number of people who don't exactly fit the friendly Iowan stereotype. I don't think I've ever run into so many anti's in one week! But luckily we had the privilege of educating quite a few of them on what our faith is all about. :)

The past week has been awesome teaching wise, we taught De'Angelo and unfortunately we found out he "Smokes that Green" occasionally... But whatever, I know he'll overcome it as he gains a greater testimony of the Gospel. But he told us he believes in the Book of Mormon and wants us to come to his Family Barbeque and teach his whole Family! So we're pumped for that!

We haven't met with my home girl Sister Kerr this week, she has been gone visiting Church history sites with President Kerr (She's so Golden I can't take it). We will meet with her tomorrow and set a baptismal date with her! I'm so pumped!

 We taught a ton of first lessons with people this week and got some solid return appointments so hopefully we will be able to get some more investigators next week as well.

My favorite thing that happened this week was going on exchanges with Elder Tekarika, he's one of my favorite Elders in the Zone. He's from the Kiribati Islands by Fiji and has Learned three different languages while out on his Mission! He's hilarious and he doesn't speak English super well but we always get along. The funniest thing happened, I was driving us to an appointment out in the boonies and we all of a sudden get a tornado alert! Literally the most excitable I've been on the mission, I was so pumped. Elder Madsen called and we were yelling through the phone to each other about how we're finally going to see a tornado. And meanwhile Elder Tekarika is just flipping out like "Whas Tornado?! Whas Tornado?!" in his accent it was so funny. I told him it was like a hurricane but on land instead and he got all freaked out and was like "Elder am I goona die? Elder are we goona die??" It was hilarious. But sadly we never saw the twister, it touched down by some other town not even in our area :(

So I have run into a ton of bashers on my Mission thus far and I've decided to start keeping a list of all the funny lies and stories they try to hit his us with; here is what we heard this week: 

Anti Mormon Lies of the Week:

1. The Church owns Coca-cola (Not true,  also confusing as to why that would matter)

2. The Church owns all the Vegas Casinos and Strip Clubs (This guy was drunk I think, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt)

3. Brigham Young killed everyone he came across as the Saints trekked across the plains. (Yeah they were in Great shape, definetly all strong enough to go out and commit some murder when they weren't starving and freezing to death. Oh and no dates, times, places, or names could be provided for some odd reason :( )

All joking aside this week was great. It was frustrating at times when running into people who feel the need to try and tear down others faith in Christ. But I know that the Church is true and that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us. And no amount of bashing and hate can take that away. 

I hope that you all have an excellent week, I love you all and hope you enjoy the start of your summer! Go share the Gospel!

Elder Milligan

Elder Tekarika and I on exchanges

Rehearsing for my role as Satan in the primary Reader's Theater. Somehow Madsen got to read Christ's part.

My First Frat Party

How's it going everyone? I hope you all had a great Mother's Day and that you all told your Moms how much you love them! I know I definitely love and miss mine and it was great to be able to talk to her and the rest of my amazing family on Sunday! Past week in Waverly has been pretty awesome! Elder Madsen and I have been trying to spend as much time outside as possible because the weather has been awesome! We have been doing a lot of finding the past week, trying to get in doors and share the gospel with people and we have had a lot of success in the past few days. One of the best parts of it being warm and sunny outside is that Waverly comes alive when the sun is out! All we have to do is walk down the main street and there are tons of people out and about, so we have done a lot of street contacting recently. One of our favorite activities is to go and walk around sorority and frat neighborhoods because people are always out on their lawns chillin, like the other day we talked about the restoration with these three bros who were just sitting on a couch in the middle of the lawn lol. They might have been a little under the influence but they were really nice and invited us to "come thru" whenever we wanted haha. 

This week we have been trying to meet with De'Angelo and Amy regularly to keep them focused on their baptismal date. But De'Angelo got the flu and Amy has been working a ton so it has been hard, especially since they live about 15 miles from Waverly. But one of my favorite things about De'Angelo is that he'll call us all the time. Usually at night when we are in for the day and he just checks up on us. He's convinced some one is going to rob us because he thinks Iowa is dangerous lol (I think he's got serious PSTD from living in Chicago) but we always have good talks about his baptism and what it means for him and his wife and he gets really hype. It's great to see him get so excited about this awesome decision he's making!

So we've had a lot of funny experiences with people this week as per usual. But one of the more memorable ones was with our potential investigators Brittnay and Gregg, they are a nice couple and they have twin daughters who are about five or six. So we were over at their house and they were telling me about their daughters' dance recital they had just been at. Brittnay was talking about how cute they were and all that jazz and was like "Girls show them your dance you did!". So these two little girls get up and and their mom turns on the song "Blurred Lines" and these little girls just start dancing to this song. And their dances moves are a little too "mature" for six year old girls in my opinion lol, but the whole time my companion and I are just trying not to laugh and look at each other. It was pretty awkard, but hey they are pretty good dancers!

Another experience we had was we were walking down "Frat Row" on Sunday night and there was a large gathering of college kids and the tunes were bumping so we thought we'd just walk by and see if we could start a conversation with anyone. i think we got invited to come to the party like 20 times, everyone we talked too was like "Well I'm actually headed to this party, but you guys should totally come, it's supposed to be pretty lit!" As tempting as it was we decided a frat party wouldn't be a good place to try and preach the Gospel so we had to pass lol.

Well I hope you all have a great week, I love and miss you all keep doing your thing. Go share the Gospel!

Love, Elder Milligan

We Wrecked the Sube

What's up everyone?! I hope you all had a bomb week. Elder Madsen and I's first full week together has been one of the funnest of my Mission thus far! We have been teaching a lot of people and have had some pretty funny experiences. We have definitely received a ton of help from the Lord as we have been trying to blow this area up (spiritually). 

Over the past Month and a half we have been working with our Investigators De'Angelo and Amy. They have always been interested in the Gospel and have loved having us over to discuss topics related to Jesus Christ. However they haven't been progressing very much and they weren't keeping commitments, but that all changed over the course of this past week! So Elder Madsen and I went to visit De'Angelo Friday night and we talked to him about the Priesthood and baptism for quite a while, then at the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized again and he got really excited and accepted the invite with fervor! We were pumped, then on Saturday we stopped by again and taught Amy as well, Amy is very quite and reserved. But we extended the invite to her as well and she got really excited and said yes as well! It was a huge testimony builder to me of how the Lord blesses us for our efforts. We have really been pouring our hearts and souls into trying to help Amy and De'Angelo progress towards baptism. We had been praying and fasting a lot for the Lord to help us get two people on date for baptism this week and through him we were able to accomplish our goal! We gave them a Baptismal Calendar with certain commitments and dates for lessons on it to help keep them on track to make their date. I've never been so pumped about Missionary work as I have this week. Even though the weather here is the most depressing thing ever and has more mood swings than the girls of Eagle High Class of 2015, nothing could bring us down this week. Yesterday it was 40 degrees and was pouring all day. Like I've never seen so much rain in my life, some of the streets in Waverly were flooded after an hour! But we loved every minute of it, and plus a lot of people let us in when we walk up to the door in our soaked and now see through short sleeve shirts, because they feel so bad for us lol it's the best. 

A lot of funny things happened this week. Most notably was Elder Madsen wrecking our car... Just kidding it's not wrecked, we just tore off the mud guard on accident. Elder Madsen was driving through a neighborhood and we hit this bump (The roads here are complete trash, thanks Obama) and we just hear this grinding noise. So we pull over and I open my door and the mud guard from under the tire swings in and lands in my lap! It was so funny. Luckily we called our vehicle coordinator and he sent us to a shop and it will cost like $25 bucks to fix. And we didn't even get an aggressive driving on the Tiwi lol. 

Another neat experience this week was Elder Madsen and I got together with a member and made a plan to start a family history class at the Waverly Library. We are pretty tight with all the Ladies there and they agreed to give us their conference room for free to teach the class in! We even got an add in the Newspaper, we taught the class on Thursday and about 14 non-members showed up it was a great opportunity to help them learn more about family history and plant some gospel seeds! The class went well enough that we decided we are going to do it for the next 6 weeks, we are pretty hype about it.

Well I hop you all have a great week! And that you all have a Happy Mother's Day! Special shout out to my mom Kerrbear! I love ya and can't wait to talk to you on Sunday!

Elder Milligan out