I dream of pink elephants...cue Walt Disney...Elder Edwards has left the building and water is helpful.

Howdy! 

As dad goes home...

So I'm gonna share a few good stories from this week.  So on Tuesday I went to Greenbrier with Elders Anderson and Andreasen.  They both came out together.  Well we called up this place that I guess they do service for and went to go help.  They ask us to move a bunch of plants into a greenhouse and as we were going that, Elder Andreasen moved back a bit too far and fell into a cactus and got needles all up in his butt haha.  Poor kid.  But after that we took a few pics (I sent them already) and hung out with some elephants haha.  We got some pics and then got the once in a life time (hopefully) of scooping up the poo.  That was an experience haha. 

...as new son arrives.

Wednesday we picked up the boys!  My second born in the wilderness is Elder Cundick!  Good ole boy from Herriman, Utah.  We get along great!  He's a bit quiet, but I'll get him out of that shell of his!  So we went out to eat with Cabot one more time before we headed to Batesville.  When we got there, we come to find out we had no water, no service, and no mattresses.  But we hacked it and slept on the floor.

LUCKY!!

Thursday we tried to meet a few members.  We met one old guy named Brother Traylor.  He's fun.  Saw someone the sisters referred to us named Christopher.  He's cool.  We tracted a bit and went to the church to look at the area book and call the office for water.  We called and the guy goes, "Wait you're in 1515?  Crap.  Guessing y'all don't got water?"  They shut it off earlier that week hahaha.  But we went on with the day and went to spot out some places to find.  We had sports night at the church and met some people.  One of the members gave us some camping mattresses haha.  That helped a little.  We met our Elders Quorum President.  He's a college guy who's playing football for the college in town, he's awesome!  When he heard we didn't have food he went and got us each 2 McChickens and a Big Mac meal!  When I told him he didn't have to he says "Don't worry, it's her (pointing to his wife) scholarship money!"  I laughed way too hard. 

Trunk 0r Treat fun!

Friday morning we decided to be men and went and got a gallon of water and dumped it on ourselves for a shower.  Water wasn't on still so we chose to be men.  Then as we were heading out to weekly plan at the church, someone knocked on our door and told us the water was now on haha.  So we planned and then came back and took a nice long shower.  That was the best feeling ever.  We shopped a bit to get some stuff and then we tracted again and tried to see some more people the sisters gave us.  No luck.  We had a little correlation meeting towards the end of the night with our Branch Mission Leader.

I bet these burn coming out...

Saturday morning we knocked doors again and tried to see some less actives who weren't home.  We saw a member who then gave us hot coco and shared their conversion stories with us.  Their names are the Kistners.  They're dope!  Super nice and love missionaries!  After that we knocked again and then went and got ready for the trunk or treat.  I was a democratic cowboy cause I had no guns, and I gave my ninja turtle costume to Elder Cundick.  We had a great time setting up and then we had a chili cook off. We met a bunch of non-members there, it was huge!  We were expecting like 20 people, but like 70 or so came.  It was awesome! 

More fun with elephants.

Sunday was a little lazier than I had hoped.  We went to church and we blessed the sacrament cause there's no priests.  Only 20 or 25 people came to church.  We went and tried to find after studies but not much success at all.  We came to the church and watched our technology training videos and ate dinner (tuna in a can).  I mean, we made some transgender waffles.  I call them that cause it was waffle mix but we made them into pancakes.  But besides that, we didn't eat too much haha.  At night, a lady rang our doorbell asking about our landlord and we talked a bit and we invited her to meet with us and she was so excited to meet.  We're gonna see her tonight!

It was a good week!  I'm so glad to be training again and can't wait to kill this area and see the success!  Also, sister Mauldin has 2 non-member daughters who live up here!  So when they move back, we're gonna see them and start teaching their daughters!!!

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

feeding pachyderms...

I call this...deep in thought...or posing...

Just because...more elephant!

Seriously, why all the poses???

Criss Cross'll make you jump...

A sad goodbye to Searcy and a hardy hello to Batesville!

Amen to that!

Hey y'all!

Monday we just emailed all day.

Tuesday we went to Jacksonville for Cabots district meeting.  At the same time, President was interviewing missionaries for their departure and so I got to hang with Elder Edwards and Hall and Thurgood for a while!  We had a great time catching up and joking around.  I exchanged with Elder Andersen.  He's a quiet guy, he's from Highland, Utah.  We saw the Fousts for a bit.  Haven't seen them in a hot minute (Dad edit: Is he turning southern or what???) so we caught up before we had to leave.  We then met a dude who had a great door.  I'll send a pic.  He has read some of the Book of Mormon before, but has had 2 strokes since then and can't remember anything about it haha.  Nice guy.  We then saw Louis again!  Really great lesson!  He had questions about the gift of the Holy Ghost cause we read 2 Nephi 31 with him (chapter on the doctrine of Christ, or the Gospel) and we had a discussion and got to get some good questions from him.  Saw the Mauldins and talked for a bit.

Pet possum anyone?

We exchanged back on Wednesday and literally no one answered.  We went to dinner at the Lagomarsino's and had a great time talking about scouts and stuff.  We had Book of Mormon class and I interviewed a woman for baptism.

Thursday we had our last district meeting and then practiced for our musical number that we were asked to do for Sunday.  We saw Monica, a recent convert, and she told us her conversion story...Elder Ogaard fell asleep so we laughed at him until he woke up.  We talked to the apartment owner of Dominic's place for a bit cause he wasn't home.  He loves Mormons and he took our number.  We saw a few Mexicans and then went to dinner with the Ryan's.  We went to see Steven but he wasn't home so we saw a few home teaching families with our Elders Quorum President.

Swinging for Jesus.

Friday wasn't anything.  We weekly planned and got dropped by some people and then towards the end of the night we saw the Gonsers.  While there I got a call from President Hansen sayin that I'm released from ZL and training (Dad edit #2: what he meant to say is "released from ZL and WILL now be a trainer.  I fear for this generation's ability to type coherent and complete sentences, but I diugress)!  I'm going to Batesville. AJ gave me a cowboy guitar. (Dad edit #3: Do you like how he just casually mentions he is transferring, and he left out he is also the District Leader in Batesville.)

Saturday we had a baptism for the sisters.  Elder Ogaard baptized her.  Her name is Sue Hamrick and she's awesome!  Again, every appointment fell through until we saw Steven.  We brought a member named brother long and the lesson was AWESOME!  We talked about praying and reading as a family and coming to church.  It's was friggin dope.

Unicorns unite!

Sunday I confirmed Sue as a member of the church and then we sang a musical number of half Spanish half English "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and i guess it was good!  Steven came to church and he gave me a double thumbs up as I sang haha.  We said bye to everyone and it was super sad but I found out that the Mauldins have a daughter, who isn't a member, in Batesville and she wants the missionary lessons! So I'm gonna teach her!  We got dating advice from Sister Ryan too.  We saw the Duncans for dinner and had a nerf war with Brodie, the son.  Those were some sad goodbyes.

I said bye to the Mauldins this morning at 6. Haha I'll send all the pics.  But I love y'all and can't wait to hear back!

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

The dynamic duo!

Treehouse fun time.

Sue Hamrick's baptism.

Serious photo...

...goofy photo.  I may have that backwards.

Halloween fun.

And I have no names for these captions...sorry everyone! Blame Kai...er...Elder Adair.

A change is a brewing...and of course lots of awesome missionary work continues!

Hey Y'all! 

Monday was eventful.  So after I was done emailing, I sprained my elbow punching a basketball out from being stuck between the rim and backboard haha.  Leave it to me to do that right?

Tuesday we went to Brinkley for an exchange.  I went with Elder Hall!  He's a hoot let me tell ya.  He went to Davis but lived in Layton.  We saw Dominic and he's excited to be baptized!  We did a lot of busy work and writing emails for the Stake and Zone and stuff so not much happened.  Lots of appointments fell through and it was tough.

We exchanged back on Wednesday and Elder Ogaard was super sick.  We stayed in and while he slept and died basically, I called a bunch of people and tried to set things up.  We had a meeting with the Stake president and President Hansen and a few other Stake people.  So many meetings this week.  We went home early cause Ogaard was dying.

Thursday was better.  Ogaard was still sick but we had district meeting and saw a bunch of people.  Lots weren't home so we went Finding for a bit and found some cool people!  We saw Braxton and had a breakthrough lesson!  Basically we asked how much he would lay down for the truth, including school and family stuff.  It's a tough situation he's in.  I feel so bad for him but we're gonna fast with him next Friday for an answer to know what he needs to do.  We saw Steven as well!  They're absolutely my favorite family, and I'm not just saying that cause they told me they read these letters every week!  Hahaha shout out to the Hester's!  Steven agreed to be baptized with his 2 sons, Dathan and Leland on Christmas Eve!  All I ask is prayers this way for help that it'll happen! 

Friday we did a long weekly Planning again.  But, sneak peak, that's the last time we're using Preach my gospel for weekly Planning...I'll get into that later.  We found a bit and saw Russell.  That was fun.  He gave us pizza and we left.  Not much else cause he had to give his son a bath.

Saturday we had MLC bright and early at 9 where we got a lecture from a guy from Salt Lake on how we have a new weekly and daily planning guide, so we don't need chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel any more for planning.  With that being said, there were some missionaries who ripped chapter 8 out of their Preach My Gospels.  I'm not gonna lie, it was, for the most part a confusing MLC.  Lots of confusing and irrelevant comments were made and it didn't help me much at all.  But what I did get out of it was great.  We're changing the mission culture.  We had a good discussion on how to do that.  It's a work in progress, but we want all the
new missionaries coming in to see that we talk to everyone and are bold to the max and are out with a purpose.  So I gotta step up my game a bit!  Everyone we had planned to see that day wasn't home except a couple.  A Hispanic lady that Elder Ogaard taught and a less active named Chance. 

Sunday was good.  Church is always good.  Dominic came and made sure everyone knew how pumped he was for the 28th of October!  Haha I'm so excited for him.  The sisters' investigator named Sue is being baptized this Saturday and Ogaard is doing it.  He's also giving a talk at the baptism so that's cool!  She's really awesome and loves all the missionaries.  We went out and tried to see some less actives and gators but not much was home.  We went home teaching and we ran into some pretty cool people! 

Good week!  Thanks for all the love y'all sent me this week and for all that y'all do! 

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

Birthday, big dog, Mormon Bible hysteria, and bike troubles...another week in the life of an LDS missionary.

He's not horsin' around here...

Hey y'all!  This week was a good one!

Tuesday - I went with Elder Cepeda on an exchange.  He's dope!  He's from Mexico and he was out in this mission before but went home for a few months cause he tore his ACL.  So he's back!  We saw a bunch of people and saw Dominic.  He was very emotional that he couldn't get in touch with us cause his phone broke.  We saw a less active who's the son of our last relief society president.  He has an English mastiff who weighs 170 lbs. so in other words, my head could fit in his mouth no problem.

Churchin'

Thursday - Here's a story for the ages.  I exchanged with Elder Sandman and he's in an all bike area, so I got to be test out my leg endurance!  Well we ride to a less active who's pretty dope.  Shared a message with him and talked.  We rode away for about 2 miles and I saw a curb that looked like I could get some sick air.  So of course I hit the jump!  And of course my front tire popped...so we called that less active and he came and picked us up and took us to Walmart to get a new tube.  Stud of a guy let me tell ya!  We get back to his house to change the tire and all was well and done, so we rode off...and literally not even 5 seconds later I turn to elder sandman and ask if he hears something and as soon as I say that...MY BACK TIRE POPPED!!  So I was pretty salty.  We went back to the member and he laughs his head off haha.  He took us back to our apartment and we ate something and planned out the rest of the day.  So we just start to walk and we go to their baptismal dates house.  Well as soon as he opens the door, this dude says "let's go back over the lessons" so in my head, I'm thinking "wonderful, he got anti'ed."  So we start teaching and all is well until about the great apostasy...this dude just starts to argue and bash and then tells elder sandman to not use his Bible cause it's in "kahootz" with the Book of Mormon...well I used my bible, which is an old baptist bible but he's still not having it!!  So I'm sitting there like "for realsies?" So we start to tell him if he just wants to bash and argue we won't come by anymore.  That scared him haha.  He apologized and said his way of learning is to argue.  So I tell him how dumb he is and we left (dad edit: I am certain he didn't really tell him this).  So yeah, that was my Thursday.

Birthday boy...at first I wondered why he had a snorkel...

Doing the Lord's work.

Saturday - We had a meeting with Elder Kleibengat again!  He came with Elder Anderson in January.  But he threw down on obedience and taught us how to use the Book of Mormon.  So that was pretty cool.

Sunday - We had to find a ride to Conway (an hour away) for a musical devotional.  Well we asked and asked and finally found a ride there and a ride back.  So that was dope!  We sang and I got to hang out with some mission buddies.  It was awesome!  Great birthday 10/10!  Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!!  I love y'all so much!

Kings Do King Things

Good dog...don't eat me!

More 'Murica!

Horses need religion too.

I don't think he has ever seen one before...

More churcin'

Still in the church...

Church posers.

Shameless selfie

HARAMBE!!!

I am going to go out on a limb and say he is lost in the work...his words are few.

We know him as Kai Bear, this is his brother.

Hey y'all!  Not too much to write about this week.  A lot of meetings and exchanges and just lots of driving!  The temple was a blast!  I went with Elder Edwards and Pickering and it was just awesome!  I loved Conference!   Not going to lie, my favorite one was Joni L. Koch.  We have absolutely 0 right to judge someone else.  I loved the quote "we have no right to portray anyone as an unfinished product."  There is absolutely no way to justify our evil actions in putting someone down or trying to make someone feel as if they aren't good enough.  We ourselves are unfinished and have flaws.  Oh what need we have to look upon others as we do ourselves!  In Matthew 25:40, Christ himself says "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  Everything that we do or say or even THINK towards one another is directly the same thoughts you are thinking towards the savior.  Our words about others reflect our words towards the savior.  I beg and plead of y'all to please look upon others through God's eyes, as HIS children.  I love y'all so much and pray for y'all nightly.

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

I hope the Elders aren't the cause...

Joyful Temple Leaping

We be ridin...

Let us all press on...

...in the work of the Lord.