Welcome Home Elder Cluster

Goodbye MIM (Last Email)

Monday- We had an awesome P- day! One of the best that I've had in a long time. So the bishop of the Parkville ward, Bishop Laudie, owns a gymnastics gym so we went down there with eight missionaries during the open gym time. It was great! We messed around on ridiculous trampolines, played some sports, and had the most intense game of tag you could ever imagine. The day went on, and by the time we got home at night I wasn't feeling very good at all. It came out of nowhere and hit me like a train. Long story short I ended up puking a lot and going to bed.

Tuesday- The next morning we both work up and felt horrible. I don’t know if I have ever felt sicker in my life. Going so hard at P day probably didn't help too much either. Elder Robinson was feeling pretty bad too so we must have caught something somewhere. We both slept for a good 18 hours that day. We got up to keep our dinner appointment (I hope we didn't get them sick) and then had our final lesson with Danetra. The spirit was super strong as usual. She was feeling nervous, but still ready to go. Considering we didn't get out of bed until like five o'clock I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to sleep at all that night, but by the time ten o'clock rolled around I was out like a light.

Wednesday- So about a week ago we found a new investigator named Mike. We went back for the return appointment and he had completely forgotten about it so he rescheduled for today. He said it would work better for him just to meet at our church or something, so we set up a church tour! I was so excited! I had planned church tours in the past with other investigators but none of them had ever really gone through. We had such a spiritual lesson with him. We were about to open up our exchanges with Elder Walker and Elder Call so they were both there to help us teach too. The lesson went so great. It’s amazing to just watch the spirit work. This truly is God’s work and his glory, and if we just let him help us he will change people's life through us. After the lesson I started my final exchange with my good old district leader and old companion Elder Walker. We had a great night together. He sure has grown a lot since the time I was serving with him this time last year.

Thursday- We went up to the church with Danetra and Elder Walker to take care of her baptismal interview. Before anyone is baptized they have to be interviewed by a missionary who wasn't involved in their teaching. It’s usually the district leader in the area. I think giving baptismal interviews was one of my favorite parts about being a district leader. It’s like you get to swing in and put the cherry on top. It all went really well, and afterwards we helped Danetra find a baptismal jumpsuit and showed her how the baptism would be performed.

Friday- We froze our butts off today! It was so ridiculously cold! It was horrible! In the morning we biked a few miles to the thrift store where we do service every week. By the time we got there I couldn't feel my face (not good for helping me get over being sick.) When we got back home we decided it was far too cold to bike so we made it a day of walking and boy did we walk!! You know, it really wasn't that bad either. I kind of enjoy walking. It was cold but we were all bundled up so it wasn't too bad. We had dinner at the Hoyal’s house. Brother Hoyal is the best Chiropractor on the planet. He's adjusted us a couple times just at his house, and it feels like heaven! He is a magic man! After a long day of walking it felt fantastic to be adjusted.

Saturday- Danetra's Baptism was Amazing! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. She was really nervous and antsy leading up to the moment that she was baptized, but as soon as she came out of the water you could tell she was a new person. The spirit was so strong through the entire service. I had the chance to give the talk on the Holy Ghost after the baptism. It went really well, but I almost feel we could have learned more from the Holy Ghost by just sitting there in silence because He was definitely there. Her kids were all there and they really liked it. On the drive home we asked her youngest son Gage if he wanted to get baptized soon too and he said YES! To top it all off our new investigator Mike was even there! Everything was perfect!

Sunday- My last sacrament meeting as a missionary was fantastic. I was a little nervous at first because Danetra was late! I was getting pretty uncomfortable by the time it was ten passed and she still hadn't showed up. We got a lot of snow that day though so just about everyone was running late. She was confirmed by the bishop. It was all really powerful. Something else that was really cool was Jeremy Guthrie brought two nonmembers to church with him. They were two Muslim students from Turkey. They were like eighteen and nineteen and on some sort of school program through their church. They were almost like too little missionaries themselves!.. but not really. All the same it was great, and they really liked church. Afterwards we went the Horrock's for lunch. They wanted to have us over for dinner before transfers but our calendar was all filled up so they just had us over for lunch instead. They are such a great family. I'm so very grateful for all that they've done for us over the months. After dinner we visited the Halls. I've really loved working with that family too!

The Horrock Family

... It’s sad to think that it’s all about to end. I have lots and lots of mixed emotions right now. It’s been quite the ride for the past two years with all the ups and downs along the way. I have learned and grown so much in the past 730 days. It’s been a lot of hard work but in retrospect the only times it was really hard is when I tried to do it my own way. My favorite verses in the bible are Mathew 11:28-30 where Christ asks all those who labor and are heavy laden to take his yoke upon them and he will give them rest. He says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Christ has promised that when we take his work upon our shoulders it will be light, the only way that that works though is if you let him help you. I've come to know that when Christ is there to help you, no burden is too heavy, no task is too daunting, no storm too long. We are truly the children of God and he is pleading with us to let him help. I have seen him mold and heal so many souls. I know that this is Christ's church. I know he leads it through priesthood power. I have been so blessed over the last two years and I will never be the same because of the things that I've learned, done, and seen. Thank you so much for following me week by week across my mission. If any of want to hear from me one last time please please please come to my homecoming talk this coming Sunday at 9am. It will be at 300 Gramercy Ave, Ogden UT. I love you all and I will see you this weekend. God speed.

Love, Elder Cluster

Last Full Week!

Hey Everyone!! Thanks for tuning in! This is my last full week as a missionary! This past week has been a good one! I'll tell you all about it! Actually you'll be getting the abridged version. It's been a great week but well I only have two p-days left, and I can tell you all about my mission soon enough either way.

So there were two really great highlights of the week. The first one has been working with Danetra! She is doing really well! We met with her a good three times this week. One of the times we went over for dinner and made her fajitas! Elder Robinson is a good cook! It was an awesome way to get to know her kids. Afterwards her three kids went to the youth activity and they loved it. She's doing fantastic. We have one more meeting with her and then the baptismal interview and then she'll be good to go for this Saturday. The other great thing that happened this week is we had an amazing lesson with Brother and Sister Guthrie. We taught Israel and his family. (Do you remember me bringing them up in the past?) We went over the restoration with them and the spirit was so strong in the room. The Avalos family is so prepared! All they need to do is make it out to church and they'll be good to go. The Guthrie's are the perfect fellowship for them too. What else was fantastic this week? Barbecue! Barbecue was awesome. The Morenos, a family that we are working with, work at a fancy barbecue restaurant. They gave us a big discount so it was only like five bucks each and it was fantastic! We had Ward counsel. That was really good. Pray for Danetra! Her baptism with be Saturday at 1:00pm. Love you all! Thanks for reading!

Elder Cluster

Happy New Year from Zion

Hey everyone! I don't have too much but if you read this email all of your wildest dreams will come true!

 Monday- there was a bunch of kids at the stake center because everyone was off of school. They were playing dodge ball so we just joined in.

Tuesday - We had a great appointment with a part- member family. We were on team ups with our Ward mission leader!

Wednesday- District meeting was good! We had a member from our Ward show up to it! He was coming for institute but it turns out that it was canceled so he just joined in with us. After that I went on exchanges with Elder Walkers son Elder Call. That was so great! He is an awesome missionary! We did a lot of snow tracting and walking because we ran out of miles.

Thursday- We did missionary work!

Friday- Happy New Year's Eve! We had dinner with the McCarters and then they came with us to an appointment with Danetra. We talked about the priesthood, it went great!

Saturday- We went to the Liberty Jail with Danetra, her son, and sister McCarter. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong. Afterwards I was talking to Danetra about what she felt and , and she said that now she knows for sure that Joseph smith was a prophet. It was a wonderful day for all of us.

Sunday- Last fast Sunday of the mission. We had dinner with the Guthrie's! They are great missionaries! Jeremy Guthrie gave me a signed baseball card of himself!

Thanks for reading! Love you! Email me!

The best Christmas of my life!

I hope you all had a great Christmas week! I know I sure did! Everything was perfect! Christmas as a missionary is just the best. 

Monday- We had a good P day. Oh man, we played dodge ball and I just got wailed on. Ha, I guess everyone did though. That game is a little bit more painful when you're playing with a bunch of 20 year old guys who are forced to be polite to proper all week while people slam the door in their face. Blasting someone in the face with a dodge ball just makes you feel better. As long as you're not the one getting blasted anyway. For the rest of our evening we made our rounds and shared Christmas messages to a list of people that the Bishop gave us. 

Tuesday- Santa came early this year and gave me an extra special present. I woke up sick as a dog today. It had been going around the District and I thought I was in the clear, but I guess it caught up to me. I knew it was a bad idea to finish Elder Wood's French Dip sandwich. So yeah I felt pretty cruddy today. It probably didn't help that we did a whole bunch of service today either. We finished the Charlilton’s floor, moved a giant sectional couch into a member’s basement and then helped the Halls get ready for their Christmas party that they invited us to. But hey, we got it all taken care of! We had a lesson with an investigator named Dave but honestly I was so far gone by then that I could tell you how it went. 

Wednesday- We had a great appointment with Denitra in the morning. I still felt super sick so that sucked, but besides for that it was a good day. Denitra has been really sick lately too apparently. She's doing well though. Starting in the new year we move to 9 o'clock church, and she'll be able to start coming to church with her work schedule. 

Thursday- Merry Christmas Eve! I felt a little bit better today. Still not good, but better. A member family took us out to an all you can eat pizza place for lunch. It was there big extended family so there were a million little kids running all over the place like a family reunion should be.  And thus begins the two day feast. For dinner we joined another family reunion feast. I dare say there was an even bigger collection of screaming kids at this one. It was fun though! Oh man, the food was so good too! It was great to meet all the different families too! A good half of the people at the get togethers that we went to on Christmas and Christmas Eve weren't members, so don't worry, we weren't just eating. We were doing missionary work too! After dinner we made our rounds and dropped off little Christmas cards and what not to the members of the ward. It was fun!

Friday- Yay! Christmas! What a great day! I dare say that this was the best Christmas of my life! That’s  pretty big because I've had some pretty awesome Christmases! Elder Robinson and I did our morning studies and opened our packages and then took off to The Horrocks's house for Breakfast and skyping. Oh and thank you so so much to everyone who sent me cards and packages and all sorts of great stuff. You're all the best! I felt so loved and cared for! Anyway, breakfast was awesome. Elder Robinson Helped make Crepes! There was bacon and eggnog and hash browns and eggs and all sorts of breakfast glory! Oh man, I love breakfast. Skyping was awesome too! I even got to see my brother Brycen! He's in Scotland on his mission right now so we all got to three-way skype together! It’s so nuts to see him as a missionary! He's just like me! It’s weird to see someone else in an Elder Cluster name tag. I know he's giving it a good name though! My first Christmas was definitely a lot harder than my second so I feel for him. Seeing my family was great! Knowing that I'm going to see them in a couple weeks made saying goodbye pretty easy. After Skyping we went to the Halls house for a giant Christmas lunch! We had the ham and turkey and potatoes and the whole nine yards. It’s crazy how different each Christmas party was. Really everyone was doing the same thing, just getting together with a whole lot of people and a whole lot of food but each family is just so different. It was great though. We got to join in on their white elephant! I got a digital picture frame to display my mission pictures and Elder Robinson got a Holiday scratcher! He won Twenty Bucks! (This party had far fewer members than the other, which almost made it that much more fun. I know the word of wisdom frowns upon it, but a little alcohol at a family reunion sure spices thing up! Finally we made it to dinner number one. The Stocks, an older couple in the ward, invited over a non member couple and a super awesome recent convert. We chose not to eat too much this time around but it was great to meet their friends! We talked a lot about the different church history sites around the area, and some of how the church started. Next we went to dinner number two. This one might have been my favorite of the day. Not because of the food but the night was just so.. Christmasy! We all talked about different mission stories and then sang Christmas songs and shared a message about receiving the gift of Christ and then turning around and finding a gift within yourself to give back to God. It was great! Then last but not least we went to dinner number three at Denitra's. Oh man, that one might have been the best food of the day. She barbecued up a whole bunch of ribs and all sorts of great meat and we had baked beans and green beans and Mmmm! At first I told her I was way too full to eat anymore which was a very true statement but I went forward with faith and tried to eat just one more time and I'm sure glad I did. Food aside we got to meet her oldest son. Apparently he had met with missionaries quite a bit in the past and said he would be interested in meeting with them again so we passed the referral back on down to Raytown. Wow, that is a long explanation of my day. I hope you all made it through. That about sums it up though. After that we went home and slipped into a food coma. 

Saturday- Phew, this is a long email! I'll wrap it up soon, I promise!  We had one more appointment with Denitra and it went fantastic! It’s been hard to meet with her before this week, but we talked about setting up a regular twice a week meeting schedule. We taught about tithing and fast offerings today and guess what! She's on date to be baptized! Wooo! January 16th! It'll be my last Saturday of the mission! What a perfect way to wrap things up!

Sunday- We did Church stuff and stuff. We taught the gospel principles class on exaltation. By now I'm mostly feeling better. It all moved into my sinuses so I'm ridiculously congested but besides that I'm feeling well. 

Welp, Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a happy new years eve! This is my very last 2015 entry. Talk to you all next year! 

Love, Elder Cluster 

Sent from Zion 

Merry Christmas Week/

Hey Everyone! I hope you're all having a very Merry Christmas season! Four more days! It’s been a good week. Thanks for tuning in! 

Our cute little Christmas tree

Monday- After P day we had a good appointment with a former investigator named Mary. She is a great lady and has met with missionaries a lot in the past. She's become good friends with a member in the ward so we brought him with us. Mary wanted to talk about the "Geological Proof" of the Book of Mormon. Our team up knew a couple cool interesting facts but I guess what it came down to in the end is the fact the proof can't build faith. Cool stuff to talk about but not what it’s going to take. She's doesn't have that real intent to know right now but maybe someday it will come.

Tuesday- We put more work into the Charelton’s house.... Yikes!  We did finish the living room though. That’s looking really good. 

We are learning all kinds of home improvement skills.

Wednesday- District meet went well! Since they took the sisters out of our district its kinda small now. We did some great tracting today too! We found this Huge indoor apartment complex that’s perfect for winter Tracting! If they don’t answer you can just waddle a few steps over and you're to the next door! No freezing rain, no sketchy pitch black nights (which comes by like six o’clock now) just lots of people to talk to! We had some appointments fall through in the evening but the Elder Quorum were getting together to go caroling and take cookies to some members in the ward so we joined in. It was fun! I love Christmas!

Thursday- We went on team ups again with Jeremy Guthrie again! What a stud! I love that guy. We visited a part member family that he home teaches. Oh I forgot to mention that we went to his house on Pday and his wife gave us and another set of missionaries haircuts. We look great, but it gets even better than that! So I guess people just give brother Guthrie free clothes all the time with like business logos on it and what not, so he can advertise for them. He was going to take a big box of it to a thrift store but he ended up hooking us up instead. There’s a lot of good stuff in there and it’s all brand new! 

Thank you Brother Guthrie

Friday- The ward Christmas party was great! The food was awesome, all the little skits and performances and what not were fun. It was just a great experience all around! Jesse made it. He has cerebral palsy so we had to help him eat. Taking care of him has been such a great experience. It makes you appreciate all the blessing that we have in our life that we take for granted. 

Saturday- We taught a new investigator named Ashley! It went really well! People are just more open to listening this time of year. It’s too bad it’s almost over!

Sunday- I'm not going to lie, church was kind of a disappointment this week. We had five people tell us that they were going to be at church this week and we didn't even get one! I mean come on! I guess that’s how missionary work goes though. At least dinner was good though. Ha, I think food is always my fall back positive comment when everything falls through. But regardless, we had Kansas City Barbecue Ribs! It was Fantastic! 

Well, that’s all I have for this week! Have a very Merry Christmas! I love you all!

A beautiful week in Zion.

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had as good of week as I did! It's been a warm beautiful week in Zion!

Monday- P day was fun. We went back down to the shopping outlet Legends again! That free southern food at the member’s restaurant is just the best stuff you could ever eat! That and we needed to go repent of some impulse shopping and make some returns. We also met a really cool guy named Taylor. He was house-sitting for a member that we went to visit, so we ended up talking to him instead. He made a lot of friends who are returned missionaries through being a pest control salesmen. He doesn't live in the ward so we won’t be able to teach him, but hopefully we'll be able to get some of his info from the members to send missionaries his way. If nothing else it was cool to learn about being a pest control salesman. Sounds like there’s good money in that!

Tuesday- So remember a week or so ago when I talked about ripping out a
members carpet so they could get it replaced? They decided that they want to fill it in with vinyl tiling and that they wanted us to do it so... We did.. Or we tried at least. It was a much bigger project than we anticipated and elder Robinson and I aren't exactly professionals. We'll let you know how it turns out when we finish. Later that night we went to the Horrocks house to make Gingerbread houses! It turns out I am a natural architect. It was a lot of fun!

Wednesday- We got transfer calls!!! Elder Robinson and I are staying in
Parkville together for another six weeks! Looks like this is where I'll be dying! Since it was the last day before the transfer the zone all got together in Leavenworth to have lunch and say goodbyes! It was fun! Goodbyes always suck though. Elder Stallings, my zone leader and mtc buddy got transferred into independence. That’s alright though; I'll see him soon though. Besides for that we've mostly just been working hard. We've gotten so much tracting in this week! I love it. I know they say it’s not the smartest way to work but I love just getting out there and working.

Thursday- So there was a set of sisters serving up in Leavenworth who just got taken out of the area and the car got left behind. Guess who got moved back up to full time car! We got a ride up to Leavenworth and drove back down with a car all of our own! Man, having a car is just so helpful! No more long sweaty bike rides for me!

Friday- We worked a little bit more on the Chareltons floor again. Besides for that, a lot of things fell through and we did a lot more tracting. Tracting is good though. We found a new potential investigator named Andrea.

Saturday- We did missionary work! It’s been kind of a slower harder week to be honest. But that’s okay because all of our hard work paid off on Sunday

Sunday! - It rained a whole lot today. It was also Stake conference! It was good to see some of the members that I met when I was serving up in this Stake way back when. So a return appointment with Andrea and her family was tonight. It went so well! I don’t know if I have ever met anyone so prepared in my whole mission! We have another return appointment Wednesday, then they are coming to the ward Christmas party on Friday, and then to Church on Sunday! It’s going to be great! We are so blessed to be trusted with such a prepared family.

Well thanks for tuning in! Hope you have a great week! Talk to you next week!


~Love Elder Cluster