The "Evenic" Covenant

This week was really awesome!

We witnessed yet another awesome baptism here in the Des Moines Ward. Even Gbaba and her nephew/adopted son Romeo Yarlee were both Baptized on Saturday and it was awesome to be a part of. 

Even and Romeo both have an awesome story. Even used to live in Rhode Island after she came over from Liberia, but one day she felt prompted that she should move to Des Moines to help her sister Agnes with all of her young kids. A month after she moved here, Agnes was shot and killed by her fianance and all of her kids were left without a mother. So Even has stepped up and basically adopted all 5 of those kids and taken them into her home to raise them. She works at Hyvee and supports a family of 12 off of one small income. She's awesome and I'm so happy she found the Church. 

Romeo is awesome as well, he is a super bright and happy 8 year old boy. You would have no idea he saw his mother get murdered, but he has such a happy spirit. He is one of my favorite people I've taught, just a happy 8 year old boy that loves primary and learning about Jesus. 

The Baptism was awesome, we had a ton of people there and the Ward trunk or treat was right after so it was like a big party to celebrate their baptism. 

It was pretty funny after the baptism Even grabbed me and Elder Obray and Said she loved us and blessed us to each have 30 kids and lots of money. We were joking that it sounds kind of like the Abrahamic covenant so we called it the "Evenic Covenant."

That was the big news from this week. We are working hard to find more people to teach and get to Church. Hopefully we will have some solid people to talk about next week. We did find our long lost golden man Usufu this week. So he should be coming back to Church on Sunday!

Alright this is getting long. I love ya'll. 

Have a great week.

Two Men and a Van

What's up everybody? 

This week Elder Obray and I have started thinking about starting our own moving company after all the manual labor we've been preforming. We got called to move people like 4 separate times this week, which was a big time suck but it happens. 

One of these moves we had to do was ridiculous / life threatening. This member from Utah asked us to help his great uncle with dementia move a bunch of stuff out of his basement. Turns out this 'stuff" was 2700 lb Leathe and a 1800 lb rifle barrel machine. It was insane, we had to take apart this leathe and the head with the drill in it alone weighed 200 lbs. Then we took the bench off and it weighed 600 lbs. So we put these things on a dolly (this is all in a nasty basement by the way) and we ratchet strap this bad boy down and we get a rope and tie it around me and Elder obray grabs the dolly and some elders push from the bottom and I was just running into this semi trailer while Obray was pulling the dolly up the stairs. Then Obray well and the dolly almost broke his leg. It was pretty lit. 

We also helped another non-member move which was good, and we had to give the Hermanas in our zone new beds. So we are pretty much everybody's slave labor right now. 

The work here is going good though. We have two baptisms coming up this Saturday which will be awesome! Even and Romeo are getting baptized at 10:00 on Saturday right before the trunk or treat ward party so hollah. It will be awesome, they are ready for baptism. They've been waiting forever and I'm really excited for them to finally enter in this awesome promise with our Savior. 

We also have a few more people that are in the beginning stages that are doing pretty well. We are trying to build up the teaching pool because we've been working with Even and Romeo for a while so we are goona have a lot more time to teach and find other people after their baptized. 

That's all for this week though. I love you all. Today marks the start of my Last Full transfer as a Missionary so mixed feelings about that. But I'm very excited to make the most out of these last weeks. 

Love ya'll

Flu Shots and Dog Bites

What's up world?

This week was pretty good and we worked really hard to help our investigators progress and make their baptismal dates. We had a lot of cool things happen and we saw some cool blessings come our way which is always dope.

So I'm way tired right now so I'm goona make a list of things that happened this week.

-So on Tuesday we had Zone Conference on Tuesday and it was pretty fire. Elder Obray and I gave a training on overcoming investigators concerns. It was pretty lit not goona lie. We made our training into an equation and trained on how we can follow certain steps to overcome any concern an investigator may have. So a funny thing that happened during ZC was that Sister Badger texted us the night before and told us that we needed to tell all the missionaries that the Red Cross would be there to give free flu shots. So we had to get flu shots and then the next day I got super sick. So shout out to the Red Cross. 

-This week we also taught the Yarlee/Gababba family (Even & Romeo). They are doing good, Even is really awesome. She's this old African lady that basically adopted 4 of her nieces and nephews after their mother was murdered by their father. So she has a lot on her plate, but she's a super humble lady and wants to follow Christ really bad.

-So my dog curse was reignited this past Saturday. So we were trying by this referral and this dog comes out goin like mach 4 and it's running at Elder Obray and I'm like man this ratchet dog is goona run right by him and bite me. That's exactly what happened too, this dog bit me on both legs lol. It got be on the thigh and the calf. Probably the worst one's I've gotten wrecked my pants and got me pretty good haha. 

-Church was good, the Des Moines Ward is good for at least one fallacy/false doctrine taught every Sunday. But this time we were going good nothing bad had been said yet. Then we get to Elders quorm and we were talking about missionary work. Then some how the topic got changed to cannibalism in the Book of Mormon and they went of on a 10 minute tangent and it was pretty wack.

Well other than that we had a pretty mellow week. We are building up the teaching pool cause we have a lot of baptisms coming up so it's goona get depleted pretty quick. But we'll find some more here. Well I love ya'll. I hope you guys have a great week!

Jake

Pic: Modeling for the Ford Calendar 

"Solve for Baptism"

What's up everybody?! 

This week was sick, because our homie Edward got baptized! It was a sweet service and the spirit was way strong. Edward is a dope guy, he has changed so much since he's started investigating I love that guy. 

There was like a million missionaries at the baptism it was pretty funny. This ward is pretty whack and there's only like 3 members that support the missionaries and recent converts, but it was still good. Our Ward Mission Leader is a baller at least. 

So the baptism was good, Edward's grandma came and she is a sweet old Mexican lady. her name is Norma and I told her that I have a grandma named Norma and she was like freaking out and saying all this stuff in Spanish I couldn't understand but I think she liked the baptism. 

Some other cool stuff that happened was that our investigators Cynthia, Even, and Romeo all came to church. Cynthia even got up during sacrament and bore her testimony it was awesome and super spiritual. 

So this week was sick and we had a lot of good things happen. We should be baptizing our African homies on the 28th, that'll be awesome. 

So tomorrow Elder Obray and I have been working on our Training for zone conferences and it it's pretty lit not goona lie. We were asked to train on "Common Concerns" and we kind of took like a mathmatical approach and made a formula and are using a ton of examples from PMG and Alma 18 it should be pretty good. I'm excited to give them. 

Other than that, not a lot to report on. It's been a real good week. Everyone is progressing good, and Edward got baptized, he's one of the coolest people I've taught out here. I'm way happy for him.

I got to go back to Ankeny for a few hours the other day and it was pretty cool. I miss the Ankeny wards like none other. They are the GOATs.

I love ya'll and hope you're doing great.

PICS: Mostly Edwards Baptism

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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!

"You ever read the BOM?"-ME "Ahh yah, that book is LIT"- Black Guy

What's up everyone? 

This week was so busy, it seriously flew by. We had a ton of things to do and we were just slammed all week. We moved apartments this week and that was a total chore. We didn't have a truck so we ended up taking out the seats of the our Big Girl Heather and loading up stuff in the back of the van. It took us like twenty trips I swear it was so annoying. We also had to clean out the Hermana's old apartment that got whitewashed so some how that responsibility got put on us to clean it out for them. So that took a few days and many trash bags. 

On Tuesday we had MLC which was awesome as usual. We learned a lot of good things and Elder Obray and I got to drive our van packed with 12 other Elders for 3 hours it was pretty fun. I got to revisit my old area in IC it was bitter sweet. 

We had a lot of great lessons this week, our main Guy Edward is getting baptized on October 7th! I'm pumped for him to get baptized he's so funny. He's by far my favorite Mexican. His baptism was announced at Church and everything so it's official! We had a few of our other investigators at Church as well and they are progressing nicely. It's a lot of fun having a ton of people to work with here in DM. 

Our new Apartment we moved into is a student housing apartment complex for Drake University. Drake is a pretty sick university, it is one of the oldest in Iowa and it's a really pretty campus, there's a ton of preppy kids running around cause it's a private school so it's fun to talk to them haha. I also met one of our neighbors who is from Boise, I saw his 1A license plate and started freaking out and chased him down lol.

Another crazy thing that happened this week is that the Bishopric in the DM ward changed out, and a member I knew from the Ankeny ward is now the Bishop here! Also they announced  that the ward boundaries changed and part of the Ankeny 2nd ward is now in our ward! So a huge chunk of the area I worked in last fall is now in our area I'm stoked, a ton of my recent converts from Ankeny will now go to Church in the DM ward I'm stoked to see them! :)

Well that's all for this week, me and E. Obray are just out here grinding, DM is lit, life is good. 

Love ya'll

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.