the one where he lost his dad

Sorry for the late email! I'll explain at the bottom! 

Monday we did some grilling for our district P Day and other than that had a pretty chill and regular day

Wednesday night we found out that Evans is getting transferred this week on Friday. He was pretty excited to leave because he's been here 6 months. 

Thursday Evans packed everything up and went around to lots of different people so he could say goodbye. And to explain the email title, your first trainer in the mission field is considered your Dad since hes teaching you everything and now, I'm losing him.

Friday morning Elder Evans headed off to Omaha so I spent the morning with some other elders that were close by and at noon we went to go pickup all our new companions. I'm back in a trio now! My comps are Elder Memmott and Elder Benson. They are super dope and were gonna have a party. Elder Memmott is the new district leader of our new district. They split our old district up and rearranged the companions in each district. We also met this super dope dude named Darlington and he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. He made food for us when we came by and we had an amazing lesson with him. He was the very last lesson of the day and when we got home, he gave us a call making sure we got home safe. Such a dope dude.

Sunday we had a tough time getting our friends to church but we had a fire meal from a member so it all evened out.

Monday was what we call "Miracle Monday." Its called this because instesd of having P-day it was just a regular day and so you’ll often see tons of miracles. We didnt have p day because of Halloween, instead of monday, we get a full P day on Halloween instead of ending the day at 6:00 like usual. It was pretty fun and my oldest sister had a baby so I got to call her and see the new baby. 

So it was a pretty sick week and I really like my new companions. We've had a blast together so far and it'll be a fun time however long we are together. 

Feel free to send emails! 

Context for pics:

- District P Day

- This Vietnamese dude we are teaching named Lanz's apartment...pretty sick right XD

- Evans's last day with Thet, Minn, and Aung

- New comps so new pics at the Gorilla

the one where Tim got baptized

Sorry but I got another long email...

Monday we went to Sam's club for lunch which was absolute fire and sooo cheap which is clutch. Then we went to the church and played lots of fun games and sports. We ended the day with teaching that one suuuper elect dude named Patrick. He's such a sick dude and I love teaching him because I can really see that he cares about what he's learning. It's the best feeling seeing people like that. After each lesson we've had with him I always just take a minute and really realize that this is what missionary work is all about. Ever since I've been able to see that, its really hit me that I can do this for two years, no sweat. I know it'll be difficult but even the lowest of lows are worth it to see people like Patrick. 

Tuesday we had district council and played some football with one of our recent converts, Eric. Hes actually the first person I ever taught, my companions told me that he was a non-member and that I was to teach him all by myself and after inviting him to he baptized, he told me he was already a member XD.

Thursday we had some more african food from Suzannah (this time with shrimp) and that was a TOUGH meal to eat. Hands down the worst thing I've eaten in Nebraska. My comp ended up throwing up later that night and we're pretty sure it was from that. We also met with Tim and got him ready for his baptism on Sunday! He's super dope and we are pumped for his baptism. 

Saturday was crazy! We started with doing some service for a member in our ward. We helped him dig out a rotting fence post and then re-cement it in. That was from like 9:00-12:30. Then right after we helped another member rip apart an old shed as well as move some cement path squares and then helped him with some other random things and that was from 12:30-3:00 then at 3:00 we helped a member's friend move. And apparently you cant help someone move unless they have cats because this is my 4th time moving someone in Nebraska and they have all involved cats, or in this case two cats and a dog. And that took us to 5:40 then we went straight from that to our church because they were doing a chilli cook off with cinnamon rolls. Weird duo but its super big in Nebraska. And then we left straight from that to go play basketball as we always do on saturdays at 7:30. Super fun day and it flew by but man we got no prosoliting done XD. 

Sunday it was Tim's Baptism! We started out with spending the whole beginning of the day getting everything ready and find rides for people to church. Then after church we baptized him and did a font side confirmation. The very first thing Tim said to me after we baptised him was "Man I feel different." Which was awesome to hear and I can tell that Tim is very excited for his fresh start. After all that, we met this sick dude named Chris who is a friend of one of the members in our ward and is dating a different member and wants to start taking lessons from us. Because our week was so busy and full of lessons, we didnt get a lot of time to find people so Sunday night we commited an hour and a half to just find people and it worked pretty well because we found 4 people! 

Overall this was such a good week! It was great to see another person enter the waters of baptism and receive the holy ghost! And it was very refreshing on Saturday to do something other than prosoliting, and instead, just serve people all day.

Feel free to email me any day even though I can only Respond on Mondays! 

Context for pics:

- How To Train Your Dragon meme 

- A sick flick of a bunch of us Elders at District council 

- The hot african food that made my comp puke his guts out 

- Tim's baptism  

the one where the baker baked

Man did this week fly by!! Sorry in advance... kind of a long email this week.

Monday we went pawn shopping and didn't find anything too good. We did debate on getting a dope pistol crossbow so we could kill squirrels but we decided against it (for now). The rest of the day we spent doing fun things at the church with other missionaries.

Tuesday we played basketball with Aung, Minn, and Thet which was fun and we ended up killing them so that was nice. 

Wednesday we had district council and interviews with President Bailey! It was great and me and him had a good talk about Japan and how he knows I'm gonna love it. 

Thursday we took Sheila out to dinner for her birthday and ended up putting on her on date for baptism so that was pretty successful.

Friday we went on exchanges with the ZL's (zone leaders). It was a really good day and a ton of fun. When we go on exchanges though, at the end of the night you just stay at their apartment.

When we got up on saturday we packed up the ZL's ENTIRE apartment because the rent just got raised so they were getting moved to a new apartment. So we were lucky enough to be there and moved them into their new apartment. After a long morning of moving we got back and made a birthday cake for the nice member that does all of the laundry for our whites (her birthday was last saturday but she never told us). So we dropped off our laundry and gave her an excellently crafted cake (I WAS a baker and cake froster before coming on the mission 😎). Then we went and played soccer with Thet, Minn, and Aung which was a blast. Right after, we met with this super awesome lady named Suzannah and she fed us some SUPER hot african food (at least it still tasted good). Then we had a lesson with a guy named Tim but this was no ordinary lesson... he really wants to come to church but he feels he doesn't look nice enough and he wanted a haircut so my comp said he knew how to cut hair (he's buzzed elders heads and cut one elders hair with kitchen scissors) and here we were getting ready to cut Tim's hair. By the end it actually looked pretty good and now hopefully Tim can make it to church! 

Sunday we had a stressful beginning of the day trying to get lots of people to church but we ended up getting more than expected so it all worked out! After church we looked at a new house for Sheila (shes getting kicked out of her old apartment) and it was AWFUL. It used to be a trap home and so its full of so many nasty things and the celing, walls, and floor are all moldy and falling apart. The fridge has old food in it that hasn't been emptied in a couple years. Its not insulated and just a dump. So we spent the whole time there convincing her NOT to get it. (who would've thought it eh??) Then we went to a member meal and had some amazing breakfast casarole and crepes. We ended the day with finding the most elect dude of all time!! And then had two really great lessons where we put 2 new people on date for baptism! 

Overall this was probably the fastest week I've had so far on the mission. Every day just flew by and it was a ton of fun and lots of good things happened. 

Feel free to email me!

Context for pics:

-A couple fire flicks on top of a pretty high building with a sick view

- Us cutting Tim's hair

- Us with Suzannah eating the HOT food

- A super dope member took a bunch of us missionaries out to dinner to D'leons

-I was debating on getting this sick jacket we found at the thrift store we volunteer at

the one with sheila

"Another day, another Doug"

-Korg (the rock dude) from Thor: Ragnarok 

Had another great week in Nebraska! 

Starting on Monday we went golfing and then we were going to go to this mexican food truck for lunch which we've been meaning and trying to go to for a loooong time but it was closed so we went to a place called runza instead (most disappointing meal of my life...and thats counting my mom's butternut squash soup). Then spent the day at the church playing games and stuff as usual.

Thursday we had zone cenference! It was a ton of fun but like a 2 hour drive away from us. And of course we went to texas roadhouse again for dinner (such a good tradition). After, we went to some other elder's church and played basketball with them. And got back to the apartment pretty late.

Friday we went to that mexican food truck we had been meaning to go to and it was well worth the wait...which made runza that much more disappointing. 

Every other day this week was pretty normal. 

There is this one chick named Sheila though and shes been... interesting to be around. Basically her sons are all drug addicts and she's been letting one of her craziest son's (Derek) friends live with her for 6 years (Ashley) whos also a drug addict. And its a long story but one of dereks friends has been slashing Sheila's tires on her car like 3 days a week (feels bad but also kinda funny) so she is just pumping through tires. And now her landlord is pissed at her and wants her to move out (a whole other story). Because of this, we've been spending a lot of time with her and she calls us almost every night and just rants for like an hour. She's really funny though and we always make fun of her sons and Ashley together because they've been stealing money from Sheila and stuff. 

I honestly think Sheila is like 90% of the reason this week went by so fast. Its been fun to talk with her and we had a pretty fun and heated conversation with her landlord. The whole situation is ridiculous and soooo funny XD.

Anyway, that was my whole week...not to much to report but it was a quick week which was super nice.

Feel free to email me!!

Context for pics:

- I got a sick Obi Wan action figure and he can do flips

- A video of me jumping off the top loft in our apartment (it had to be done)

- An epic torta that I got at the food truck

the one with the cops

Hey guys!! Had another good week and finally something exciting happened in Nebraska!!

Starting on monday we went out for lunch again. This time we went to a REALLY good BBQ place called phat jacks. After that we went to the church and spent lots of time playing some fun sports. 

Tuesday we had a lesson set up for a guy at like 7:30 and when we went to his apartment it was completely surrounded by cops. We started asking around and apparently there was a guy that was hiding out in the apartment and the police had a warrant out for his arrest. He must have had some serious weapons because the cops were staying outside. As time went on, the cops got replaced by swat and dogs. There were probably 20-25 swat police surrounding the building all with ARs. Then a massive armoured vehicle pulled up and they cleared the streets. No way we were going home now, we were way too invested. We pulled around to the other side and camped out for another 45 minutes or an hour. Every 30 seconds they would yell at him to "come outside with his hands up and empty to insure his safety." Finally we hear *thunk* followed by a window shattering. We dont know for sure but were pretty sure it was tear gas. Then after another minute we saw the cops finally pull him out and all the cops and swat cleared out. It was a pretty dope night and I was so glad we happened to have a lesson so we could see that.

Wednesday was exchanges so I spent the day with an Elder named Elder Griffeth. We had a party and taught lots of Hispanics (he speaks spanish) which was a fun change of pace. 

Thursday my comp, Elder Evans, got mouth surgery. He had some big infection and he needed to get a bone graph. So we did that in the morning and spent the rest of the day indoors. I spent pretty much the whole day reading the Book of Mormon and later in the day we played lots of card games. 

Saturday was General Conference! Sadly I didn't get to watch much of it...we spent the whole day finding people and trying to get them to watch it. We did have some time to watch it with some of our friends though. We would go to their house and watch like 20 minutes of it with them and then tell them to keep watching it until it ended XD. 

Sunday was pretty much the exact same. We went around all day turning it on for people and watching bits and pieces of it throughout the day. 

Overall the week was good but SOOO slow. Tuesday was a party and I'm hoping to have some more days like that XD. One of the best parts of the week was that we had a member meal every single day this week! It was soooo nice to not really have to worry about food. Funny thing is because Elder Evans had surgery, he couldn't eat real food so I got LOTS of food. There was always some leftovers in the fridge.

Thats all for this week! Feel free to email me!

Context for pics:

- The BBQ place we ate at on Monday

- A little kid named James whos been outside almost everytime we go and see Thet, Minn, and Aung

- More snowcones 

- videos of the cops