44 oz of Spiritual Glad Tidings

Enjoying 44 oz of diet Pepsi after a week full of miracles.

I'm a little bit excited to write this email right now.  The week filled my heart to the brim like a frothy cup of hot chocolate.  I think I had the greatest moment of my mission right before I drank a 44 oz Diet Pepsi.  The Pepsi was the reward for the day. The church was true this week just like the week before.  We spent a day in Gresham this week and we spent a thanksgiving dinner with a couple of awesome families.  Some serious turkey, some serious stuffing, some serious apples to apples & a lot of gratitude.  Miracle story number  1:  Upon spending our day down in Gresham with a couple of Elders we celebrated one of the Elder’s birthdays.  We went out to lunch and had the greatest miracle of all my life.  We went out knocking doors that night (it was raining pretty hard and only about 40 degrees. ). No biggie for us missionaries, but most people don't want to come outside and talk. We knocked about 10 or so doors and eventually we found a door with the "Jesus fish" sticker on the front door. Seems like someone that would want to talk?  We knocked and no answer... as we walked away the DOOR OPENED!  A little dog ran out as a middle aged man yelled, "SICK EM!"  Honestly I got a little scared but realized he was just  kidding.  I also realized the dog was nice and we went to talk to this guy.  He invites us in and we meet his wife.  They sat us down and gave us pie, sparkling water and told us how much they loved our church.  Pictures of Jesus covered all the walls.  Kinda dawned on us... if you love Jesus & you love our church why haven't you joined?  So we asked and an hour long discussion commenced.  No joke she told us every concern she had.  All of which were minuscule. We read John 7:17 with her and invited her to read the Book of Mormon.  A long pause followed... the spirit you could tell literally penetrated her soul!!!!  It was so great and she kept trying to think of things to say but after a few minutes she just said, "Okay I can't promise you much, but I will read the whole book once and pray about it.  You also have to let me feed you soon and we can read together".  No one in 20 months has told me they would read the whole Book of Mormon as a commitment.  Greatest day of my life.  I have never seen the spirit work someone over like that.  She told us to call the next day and sent us off with goods & told us she can't wait for us to teach her whole family.  WHAT IF we had given up after the first few doors?  What if we gave up when she told us all her concerns?  This family is going to get sealed together!  MARK MY WORDS!!!  Miracle number 2:  We had a great thanksgiving.  We played in the turkey bowl all morning long with the ward.  Tons of less actives came out to relive their glory days back in high school.  No injuries but we got creamed.  I definitely was reliving the high school glory days because we always lost anyway.  After that we raked leaves for 2 hours in the rain.  It was a lot of fun because we knocked doors to find a rake and find some trash bags.  After some trench foot and a broken phone we cleaned up for dinner.  Turkey , good times, good spirits and I won playing apples to apples.  Taught some lessons on thanksgiving too!  People still wanted to meet.  We had 8 people we are teaching come to church.  Before church we visited everyone and told everyone we saw to come worship & found some success.  It was a good time sitting back and looking at our peeps gathered at church. We kind of felt  like momma & poppa hen with our chicklings gathered at church.  Good week.  Good times.  Feeling thankful to be alive.  It's going to be a white Christmas in the McLoughlin Ward with some baptisms.  I'm trying not to be too preachy, but this week I learned a lot.  I woke up this morning with some serious revelation.  To slow down... just slow down.  The spirit cannot be in the midst of anxiety and stress.  If you're life is filled with both of those take a little time to pray & listen.  Actually listen.  I'm talking spend a few quiet moments with the spirit.  Being busy all the time isn't something we should strive for.  You don't want to miss the precious moments with the still small voice.  Things will still get done  I promise.  OKAY I CANT STAND THE SERIOUSNESS.  I GOT A HAIRCUT today from a lady who had a pet marmot and the blonde hair is falling all over me.  I am about to go win the NBA P-DAY Basketball championship.

The Weekly Roast

Saying good-bye to Elder Iler.

New companion Elder Pabst.

Here we go for the weekly roast:  I might hit you up with one really great story for this week & then send some pictures.  I am sorry for my neglect of email lately, but uh I just have sore fingers from lesson reports this week. The work is always good and I bought eggnog this week to supplement my days and kick off the holiday season.  Okay here's the weekly story - get ready.  Buckle up and batton down the hatches:   Many months / moons ago I served in the Clark Young Single Adult Ward of Vancouver Washington.  The sun was bright & the vibes were chill in the Clark YSA.  We received a referral for a young man named Andrew & we visited him weekly.  He lived with a few other roomies and together they rented a home together. The other fellas usually smoked various things and grilled various meats while we taught Andrew.  They typically sipped on some booze while listening. We asked a few if they were interested and got some smoke blown in our faces and a few laughs but no hard feelings.  After many months and many moons I have wondered what happened to those lost souls of our Heavenly Father.  Well…let me tell you what happened with one of them. This last Saturday night our lessons cancelled.  (Always my favorite thing because it means miracles happen).  So here's what we did.  It's really complex.  We prayed, we followed the spirit, and we worked to find who we needed to see.  We decided to visit Beth a potential investigator living next to a member we know.  We showed up at the apartment complex and to our dismay... none of the apartment numbers were posted.  What the heck?  So we decided to just start knocking.  The first door we knocked on... guess who opened?  Yep, one of the guys from the old YSA smoke-house.  He opened the door and let us in immediately.  Just last week his daughter was assaulted.  He needed some comfort.  Now he is a new investigator. HEY, there is a lot of people in Vancouver.  You tell me the odds of us showing up at this house with the same guy I met months ago?  He had just moved here two weeks prior.  The church is true friends & family.  I really like it.  Some members fed us some chili last night, and I woke up feeling like I had a kidney stone to pass.  First experience getting some food poisoning out here in the Vancouver.  Other than the chili incident, things are pretty calm here.  No more riots in Portland from the election results. 

Bosnia

Mission training with Elder Kopische.  November 2016

Check it out:  this week Elder Iler is leaving and I will be brief today.  You better believe we had  miracles all week long and I'll write some of them here.  A member of the seventy came to visit this week to teach us the doctrines of the kingdom.  Elder Kopische is his name and he hails from Germany.  He believes German is the celestial language and his humor was really great.  It was like a miniature President Uchtdorf with us for about 15 hours total.  Alright, miracle time.  Miracle #1:   When Elder Kopische hosted ZONE conference he taught us to ambush people spiritually when we go contacting and knock doors.  This technique goes against everything my HUMAN NATURE says... I just want to have a fluffy conversation with everyone about the patriots or the Seahawks to be all nice... We tried his technique and no joke the minute we got out of the car we found a man interested in the church.  We told him the message of the first vision of Joseph smith within 2 minutes and he said "GOSH, that story was touching". Now we will be teaching him on Friday.  Miracle #2:  I have been updating you on the miracle investigator named Aleta that opened the door to tell us she wanted to be baptized. This week we tag team taught her with our mission President for a little bombing run / raid.  Our mission president invited her to baptism, she accepted and then showed up to church on Sunday! Yep.  We just knocked on her door and now she is accepting the gospel.  Miracle #3:  On Sunday morning we went out to rally the troops for church and invite everyone we see to come and no one was home.  For the last three months we have done the same thing and visited the same people but this time no one was home... a little dismal in our spirits, we went to church.  Sitting on the back row by ourselves,  we were looking pretty lonely when a less active member we have been working with for 6 months shows up and sees us.  He puts a big smile on his face and comes to sit by us!  He said he is planning on coming every week now.  Right after he walked in, another one of our investigators slipped in the back and waved at us as well.  I really apologize for the lameness in this email but just know the church is true, I just got a snazzy haircut, I had three protein shakes today and we are going to have a great pday today and tomorrow welcome 19 new missionaries to the WVM.  Elder Pabst is my new companion he likes cars, lifting weights and laughing.  It will be a good 4 months.

Elder King's quote to live by.

Up At Dawn With the Roosters

Check out the cyborg eye!

My goodness you ready for this week’s goodness?  I've got the weekly roast for you right here.  My pupil is the size of a grape right now, my hair looks great & a few mighty miracles have been wrought in the land this week.  Tune in.  #1 check this out:  I went down to Gresham on an exchange this week and Elder Gosar & I were feeling a little bit adventurous so we set a goal to find a man with a mustache that wanted to hear about the Plan of Salvation.  No joke... we looked high and low for this man.  Unfortunately, we did not find him.  But, we worked our butts off and taught a bunch of lessons trying to find him.  Then, I get a text the day after from Elder Gosar that you can read at the bottom.  I took a picture of it because it was priceless.  I think our goal we set just made us work our butts off to try and find a miracle and that's what Heavenly Father wanted.  #2:  you ready for a little late night miracle?  Elder Iler & I had some cancellations on Thursday this week and we hit the streets to find a little something something / someone to bless.  We knocked and knocked until it was 8:58.. 8:59... just about 9 o'clock and we knocked one more door just before we got to our car.  The apartment manager opened up and she told us to stop knocking doors in the complex, especially that late.  Well, she wasn't getting away that easy.  We started teaching her and by the end of the conversation she asked if there was a place where, "young single adults could meet". That is something we surely have to offer.  Pretty soon she took a BOM and will be meeting with the young single adult missionaries. #3: my pupil is the size of a grape still today.  While teaching a lesson this week, an eyelash broke off & assaulted my contact.  I took a jog to the bathroom and the kind people we were teaching offered me some soothing eye drops.  I threw about 6 of those drops in my eye and before you know it I was good to go.  My companion told me that as the lesson went on, my pupil increased in size.  When I got home I could barely see any blue!  I took a pic so you can see I am cyborg man for the day. Still ended up being a great lesson. Now wearing my sun glasses inside and outside of buildings.  Been really thinking about a story I read this week.  Let me share it with you.  People felt encouragement from President Hinckley, not just because of his inspiring words but because of the way he lived.  President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve recounted: “While [President and Sister Hinckley were] going from a chapel to an airport in Central America, their vehicle was involved in an accident. Sister Nelson and I were traveling behind them and saw it occur. A truck [that was] loaded on top with unsecured metal rods approachedthem at an intersection. To avoid a collision, its driver suddenly stopped the truck, launching those iron rods like javelins to pierce the Hinckleys’ car. Windows were smashed; fenders and doors were dented. The accident could have been very serious. While shattered glass was being removed from their clothing and skin, President Hinckley said: ‘Thank the Lord for His blessing; now let’s continue on in another car.’”  Have the best week and have a glass of egg nog on me.  Oh yeah went to a Peruvian restaurant with a Peruvian missionary this week too.