Let's Go

Greetings Loved Ones.

This week was amazing. Literally all of the work we have been putting in this whole transfer is finally amounting to something and it feels real good. We had a ton of miracles happen and we saw a ton of blessings come from it.  It's 7:00 pm and I've been in the car for 6 hours and I just ate like 4 pounds of roast and sweet potatoes, so if none of this makes sense I apologize. Just know that E. Zinn and I are goin hard out here in Iowa City. 

I'm just going to make a list of things that happened this week:

-So I'm not sure if I've even mentioned this before, but for the entire month of August our zone has been in a competition to hand out the most BOMs. It was the IC stake vs the Nauvoo Stake. So throughout the month we have been keeping track of how many BOMs our zone has handed out and really been emphasizing giving a BOM to everyone we talk to. Our zone ended up handing out 628 BOMs in the month! Which was ton compared to usual, and we won the competition ;) 

-Last Friday we had Zone Conference it was pretty sweet. Lots of good things were learned. 

-THE KUROSAWA'S!!!!! Okay this is actually pretty sick, we got a whole family to church! It was awesome, we have been working so freakin hard to get people at Church this transfer and nothing has been working. So I've been getting really frustrated, during studies one morning I was kind of just fed up and in my prayer I just put it all out there and asked Heavenly Father to help us get people to Church, cause obviously whatever we were trying was not working. Honestly probably the hardest I've ever prayed for anything in my whole life, but anyways. We were out knocking, nothing going through, all our investigators being shady, all our potentials peepholing us,etc. So we get back in the car and I was about to lose it and all of a sudden we get a text from the referral system. The referral was for the Kurosawa family, they moved to IC a week ago from Japan! They were taught a little by the missionaries there and we went straight to their house and met them. They speak like 0.005% English, but they are the nicest people ever. We got there and they were freaking out to see us at the door and they gave us a ton of Japanese candy. Then Sunday they came to church and it was lit, I was on cloud 9. A member from Japan and a member who served in Japan translated for them and helped them at Church. We haven an appointment to teach them Wednesday Night! Pray for them, my favorite family of 5 Japanese people ever!

-Other Miracle this week, KRAIG went to the temple! Yeah boiii! We got to go do baptisms with him this morning at the temple! (hence why I'm emailing in the dark.) It was so cool to be there with him and my former comps Butterfield and Hansen! I got to dunk Jess like 10 times it was way cool ;) We took some pretty lit photos on Kit's phone so I'll send some of those. 

So this week was just blessings on blessings on blessings. I have a real testimony of hard work, I feel like God has been stretching me this whole transfer. My whole mission things always kind of seemed to fall into place perfectly, but this transfer has just been a battle. But I think sometimes God does that too us to let us prove that we are willing and worthy to work for the blessings he wants to give us. 

All in all it was a good week! I love you all! Have a good week!

Hol' Up Fill The Font'

What's up Everybody?

I hope you all had a great week! Not goona lie though, it probably wasn't as good as ours here in Nauvoo. ;)

This week was the GOAT cause we baptized Kraig and Kraig is the GOAT. Look at his stats. 

-Has Read BOM completely twice.

-Has read all of D&C

-Has read all of the Pearl of Great Price

-Studied for Over 4 months

-Been inside the Nauvoo Temple (lol, whoops)

-Confounded a Basher

Kraig is basically the Micheal Jordan of Investigators. He's as solid as a rock. He's a man of few words, but his testimony speaks for it's self. I love this guy. I was honored that he asked me to Baptize and Confirm him. Such a sweet moment to share with a guy as cool and humble as my man Kraig. 

So the Baptism was definitely a highlight of the week. We had a lot of other awesome things happen as well. 

Monday- We had P-day in Nauvoo and played ball. 

Tuesday- We had another good day, we taught our investigator Jazmine with a member and it was one of the best lessons I've ever had. The spirit was so strong.

We also had Stake Coordination with President Badger and President Church the Nauvoo Stake President. We discussed the Missionary work in our Zones and in the Stake. IT was a great meeting. Those two men are spiritual giants!

Wednesday- We had our last District Meetings of the Transfer. We had testimony meetings to end both meetings and there were some powerful experiences share and testimonies born. That night a member took us on exchanges to the Nauvoo hotel, probably the best buffet in the world. After that we interviewed Elder Esplin's investigator for baptism it was awesome! Then we went to pageant after with our investigator!

Thursday- We were on the grind all day finding new investigators and getting people ready to come to Church. We met with Kraig and got him ready for his baptism as well. 

Friday- We cleaned the font and worked hard throughout the day to get people at church and invited all of our investigators to the baptism. That night we went to the British pageant again with our Recent convert alex and his mom. It was awesome, the British pageant is so spiritual and teaches a ton of doctrine. It's awesome. 

Saturday- BAPTISM LES GOOOO!

Sunday- Our investigator Jazmine came to Church and brought her 3 kids as well. The ward did a great job of welcoming her and fellowshipping her. One family even invited her over for dinner, it was awesome. The Burlington ward is lit. 

Jazmine is now on date for Sept. 9th so I'm pumped. Pray for her she's the bomb! 

On a sad note this will be my last time emailing from the Nauvoo Zone. It's been a party here and I've loved every second of it. The last 6 months have been the best of my life, NOTHING beats serving here in Nauvoo. 

We find out where I'm transferring to tomorrow morning. But there's a rumor that a return to a certain city could be on the cards ;) we'll see next week.

Love you all!

Pageants and Protestors

Hey, what's up, hello?

How's it going fans? Hope you all had a great week, this week was pretty awesome. We got a lot of work done and had tons of fun along the way and that's always a bonus. We did a lot of cool things this week so I'm just going to make a list for you to peruse as you skip to the pictures and exit out of this email and move on to the next! 

-Monday we had another dope P-day down here in Nauvoo, kind of sick of all these tourists trying to use my gym. But that's a rant for another day. 

-Tuesday, okay so this was a sick day. So we worked really hard on Tuesday and had a lot of miracles happen, we taught a lot of our investigators that we found last week and tried to get people to church. It was a good day full of hard work. Then that night we were able to finally see the Nauvoo Pageant! We took our recent convert Alex, and his mom. Man that Pageant folks, it's something else. I'd encourage everyone to see it at least once. It's amazing, at the end of the show the whole cast sings "The Spirit of God" and they turn off all the lights and in the Background the only light shining  is The temple up on the hill. I think that might have been one of the most spiritual things I've been apart of on my mission. 

-Wednesday was a total grind day, we found 4 new Investigators and just tried to tear things up while we were in our area. It was a good time.

-Thursday was a lot of fun, I got to go on exchanges with my son, Elder Esplin. It was great being back with him, it felt just like Old times. We found a lot of new investigators together and argued with a few people as well, just like the good ole days ;) Then that night we went up to Iowa City again to stay the night before Zone Conference with my homies Elder Zinn and Elder Cook. We ate at T_road that night so that was probably the highlight haha. 

-Friday we had Zone Conference in Iowa City! It was really good, we talked a lot about getting people to Church. It was awesome. I got to see my homie/ former comp, Elder Gundersen before he goes home in a week. I'll miss that gentle giant.

- Saturday. Saturday was the bomb. (Even though we were outside all day and it was 101 degrees and 109 with the humidity and heat index)  It was Elder Butterfield's birthday and we spent the whole day in Nauvoo! We went down at 8:00 to go through the temple with some recent converts! Then after we had lunch and went and saw some of the sights. Then that night we got to see the Nauvoo Pageant again! It was funny, So there was a ton of us missionaries going to watch the pageant and we were walking across the streets to the Pageant grounds and all the protesters just went crazy. All just yelling and swearing and telling us we were going to hell and jesus hates us. It was pretty humorous. As I was walking by I saw one of them holding a "quote" from Jesus. It was funny cause later on in that quote the Savior says, "Blessed are those they which are persecuted righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I just thought that was some good food for thought.

-Sunday we had a good day at Church. We planned for Kriag's Baptism next Saturday, and he asked me to preform his Baptism. I'm so excited for this guy! I love him!

I love you guys have a great week here's some pics:

1: I'm a pretty big deal here in Nauvoo, as you can tell by the sticky note, reserving my seat. 

2.  About to March through them Bashers.

3. Exchanges with the hamilton Elders.

4. Saying goodbye to grandma and grandpa Beyer

5.Nauvoo Pageant

6. Temple after the Pageant.

7. Eagle Homies reppin in Nauvoo

8. Goodbye Gundy :/

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!: