The Sword of Truth.

Hello! what's up? I didn't write last week because I had a pretty busy p-day.......

......after we taught John the law of chastity he hasn't responded to us in like 3 weeks, but he does post on Facebook every day.......the last 2 weeks we have just been doing lessons with our members to try and help them grow their small branch that hasn't had much growth since the air force base closed in 1990......the problem is there is only 8 or 9 active people so the world is all on them and they got a little burnt out over the past 10 years,  kinda difficult to get things done.....many here are either divorced or disabled so our members call every day to get their mail and salt their steps, and we take the sacrament to 3 or 5 sisters each sunday.

....Jason is finally getting the priesthood next Sunday after being baptized November 14th.  We will finally have in person church again!!!!!!.........I am excited for Jason because, elders quorum made a ministering list that will get him some responsibility.......we have mission conference this Wednesday, I'll probably be leaving once this transfer ends.  I'm happy for that......I am thankful for the time I've had here, and I have learned so much, but I'm ready. It's only been 3 transfers but it feels like it's been a year......here are some sweet pics that I took after district service in Danville......the guy in the pic next to me is this super cool man we met at the food pantry, he volunteers there.....he came all dressed up last time because he said we inspired him to stop looking like a bum. He asks a lot of questions about the church and church history. He is not willing to be taught, but maybe we are planting seeds with him. He has so many amazing stories he tells us that are probably all fake, but it makes the 3 hours we volunteer at the food pantry go by fast.

....still no news on Mexico, adios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And Nothing Shall Offend them".....

Hello what's up,  didn't write last week because honestly I didn't want to. I'm out of training and my trainer is finally gone.....off to ghana!! My new companion is a great guy, he's really good at voice imitation but he can only do cartoon characters like Disney movies and stuff......he hasn't seen any Harry Potter, star wars, Jason Bourne, or james bond or anything so he is kind of limited. He grew up in idaho his whole life working at his dads cow milk farm who took over the business from his dad who took it over from his dad. He got up at 5 everyday and milked all the cows for 5 hours then milked them all again like 12 hours later.....sounds horrible to me but he's going back to do all that again. The crazy thing is, is that he doesn't even get paid....His high school graduating class was around 40 people. so you can see he kind of lived in a little Idaho bubble. He's an awesome guy tho, and he knows the gospel and lessons so well. The good thing about him is that he thinks of all the stuff I don't. So when we are planning a lesson he has lots of good ideas.

....we had a super spiritual lesson with this guy that left the church a couple years ago. The main thing that I've seen that can bring the spirit into a lesson is when you get personal and share personal experiences. The spirit was so strong and I know he felt it as well. If I have enough time here I'm positive my companion and I can be instruments in the Lords hands and bring him back to the fold........theres this talk I'm eventually going to try and get him to watch.....it was given by elder bednar in 2006 called "and nothing shall offend them"......its really good and it basically says "are you really going to let who or whatever push you away from the church and the blessings of following Jesus Christ"???.....the answer we should all have is no.  I want Gary to realize that because that's why he left the church, his old bishop was apparently super rude to him......anyway check out the talk.  the church is perfect, but the people aren't, and no one is or will be in this life...

....saw my parents and sister because they were driving back from Utah so that was a cool treat. Feels like I just saw them a couple days ago because we talk or facetime each p-day......aside from everything written not to much is happening in little old Rantoul. we are grinding Facebook and the area book to find a "new" meaning a new person to teach, but that is slow going at the moment......hope you're all doing good.  

I still haven't heard anything about going to Mexico but I know it's open, so we will just have to wait.....alright adios!

"Help Me Fight a Good Fight"

What's up....its transfers this week and my companion and I are both staying....he's leaving the 7th for ghana so we will be in a trio till then. It's pretty crazy he's finally going.....  Rantoul and the MSLM are cool, but I really do hope I'm able to serve in Mexico. 

We will not do anything for like 2 weeks straight, then have a super spiritual lesson and I'll be like, that's why I'm here..........For Christmas my companion and I watched a couple of those church cartoon movies made by NEST or whatever. We watched "Saul of Tarsus", "the Stripling Warriors", and "Mormon and Moroni"..............I used to watch all of these every sunday with my family, and as a little kid you don't really get what's going on, but now I can feel the spirit so strong when I watch them. In saul of tarsus theres this song that is so good called "help me" it's worth looking up on YouTube......anyway I can 100% relate to it, and I know if we rely on our Savior he will help us fight a good fight. I love this gospel, my testimony has grown so much even since the mission has begun.......I had to give a talk via zoom for church and it was a solid 25 minutes (yes I timed it) bullet point method worked again....I'm basically a general authority....if you use bullet points it's more personal and it can be more spirit led, which will make people more engaged.......can't think of anything else to write adios!!!!!

Personal Study W/ The BofM is the Best!

Hey guys had a pretty eventful week. P-day is on Tuesday again because we had a tri-zone mission conference 3 hours away in St Louis. The Christmas conference was spiritual. We had an awesome 50 minute period on Jesus Christ and what he did for us. 

A week before the mission conference we were told that every district had to make a skit and that it had to be performed live at the mission conference. That was definitely not what I wanted to hear because I've never been a fan of plays and stuff. Most of the skits were super lame, including my districts but a couple elders did a recreation of when Kip and Napolean Dynamite go to the fight class.  It was pretty funny, I could probably get the video if it is really wanted. The elders that made that skit are in my zone so I had to drive to their house then drive down with them since their car is a mom van. They wanted to go all out with the skit so they brought a bike and roller blades. They crammed the bike in the trunk but they had to put a seat down for the bike to fit and I was the one sitting next to the bike and I kept hitting my right elbow on the bike chain so I messed my white shirt, up which was a bit annoying.  We had to give 3 more blessings and one of the sisters asked for a blessing of healing. We asked what it was for but she wouldn't really say so it was kind of weird because my companion didn't really know what to bless plus she recorded it and I'm not sure if you're allowed to do that or not.  It's not our priesthood, and we gladly give them, but it gets to a point ya know, like these ain't candy man, and you're not supposed to have multiple blessings for the same thing. 

My testimony of the gospel has grown a lot, in every aspect/subject. My favorite part of the day is definitely personal study. I restarted the Book of Mormon at the beginning of my mission when I got to Rantoul, and I have learned so much. It is actually really nice to read, like the Book of Mormon is a real story that is actually very interesting. For example Alma the younger actually fought in a couple battles and killed the Amlicites general/king and somehow I didn't know that haha.

We had exchanges with the Zone leaders and we brought them to the Alpaca farm.....Apparently another one died.  just got sick and died. So she was sad again.

.....today for p-day we went to the fighting Illinois stadium and just threw around a football and played some spike ball. It was awesome and my football passing skills are actually pretty fire, not going to lie, I was hitting 35-40 yard spiral throws to guys starting off the line at full sprint which doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually is for the average joe............

...........A sister in my district is going back to Mexico the 29th so I might be going back in like 2 transfers, she only has 6 months left on her mission so I am assuming they are sending the older elders back first..............Honestly so much happened this week but I can't think of anything else to write.......Adios!!!!!!!