Week 7 9-8-14 Nauvoo Temple Trip!!

Am I in Heaven?  No you're in Iowa.

                                                                              Nauvoo Trip w/ Elder Hollan

                                                                        Nauvoo Temple!

Dear Family,

So once again, this week was pretty much amazing and a total blast as always! OH MAN TUESDAY WAS SUUUUUCH A DAY OF MIRACLES! Ok so we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders (Elders Belliston and Parry) and I was with Elder Parry (love that guy he is a total boss!). So first off, we went and had an awesome lesson with this guy named Christopher who is my age but he is like crazy smart and making big bucks and we taught him about the doctrine of Christ and he was super open and he really liked it! Yesss!!!! Hahaha when he first opened the door he was just in a pair of boxers and we were like "do you wanna put some pants on bro?" and then he was like ".......yea i suppose i can do that." Hahahaha it was hilarious and we were all just laughing about it. :) We knocked a bunch of houses around that area and no one was really receptive but thats ok it was still fun trying. :) Haha at one of the houses we knocked a teenage girl opens the door and is like "i'll get my dad" and then she went back inside. Random fact about Waverly is that like half of all the houses have a dumb sun porch thing in them so its like: The steps up to the sun porch door, then the sun porch, then the actual front door. Anyway, so this dude comes out and sees us standing just outside the sun porch and he goes "OH NO!" and runs back inside his house and he slammed the door so hard that i'm sure something in his house totally broke. :) It was pretty funny but kinda sad at the same time. We then went and had dinner at the McAllister's house (member family who lives in Janesville, they are super legit!) and that was a blast because they are so fun! Hahaha for dessert Brother McAllister brings out this massive bowl just filled with all kinds of candy bars and there were like FIFTEEN BUTTERFINGERS! I loooooooove butterfingers! Anyway, we then shared a really awesome video called "I'll go where you want me to go" with them (its about member missionary work) and then we had an awesome discussion about it. :)

After that, we knocked in Janesville and got three new potentials! WOOT WOOT!!!! We then went and dropped in on Brad+Angie Hjemeland ( its pronounced "jemelend" i think?) and that was awesome cuz we've been trying to get into contact with them for like two weeks! We had an awesome discussion with them on random gospel things and on the three kingdoms and now they are FINALLY interested in meeting with us for the teaching the gospel part not just because they love us! No joke, the Hjemeland's looove us they are always trying to do things for us and buy us stuff and whatnot and we're just like "Agh stop! Why are you so wonderful?!" Hahaha its a lot of fun! :D When we got back to our apartment that night, we were talking with Elder Belliston and Elder Hollan and we found out that they were able to have an absolutely awesome lesson with Chelsea and Cody (two of our investigators who dropped us last week) about the Plan of Salvation and they ate it up! And they were able to get a hold of Kevin (who we have been trying to get into contact with FOREVER) and he totally broke down and opened up to them saying how he was so ready to get rid of his alcohol and tobacco addiction cuz it was destroying his life and he needed our help with that! No problem we can help!!!!!!! And Kevin's atheist wife Paula said she would try to pray!!!!!!! Yesssss!!!!!!!! The Church is true!!!! Amazingness!!!

On Wednesday, we were able to go see Kathy again (with President and Sister Winter-our branch president+his wife) and we had a super good lesson with her on D+C 121-123 (you should read those sections they're amazing) and we got to change her little mobile wheelchair wheels and that was actually a lot of fun! hahaha i totally threw away all of her old wheels and parts and then she was like "could you guys put the old parts back in the box?" and then we were like "oh yea no problem!" and i had to dig through all this DISGUSTING fettucine alfredo and old chicken and i totally almost barfed like three times and Elder Hollan was crying cuz he was laughing so hard! My hands smelled like chicken for THREE hours! Anyway, we then went and saw Kevin (even though he told us not to cuz his wife was sick we felt like we needed to so we just did) and we were able to have an awesome lesson on faith and repentance with him and I was really touched by the Spirit and nearly crying at one point cuz I was sharing a really personal experience and it was awesome he was really touched. It was truly an awesome experience. Then we went to branch council and shared a syllabus with them that we'd made about a missionary class that the stake wants us to start teaching and that was good to get a lot of input from all of them. And then we went and had an epic dessert (scotcheroos!!!!) at the Larson's house and that was awesome cuz Brother Larson showed us this purple wood wand that he is currently working on and it is waaaaay cool! Thursday we had a really good district meeting and that was awesome and then we gave a church tour to Kevin and it was fantastic and he is going to come to church this Sunday!!!!!! Hahaha when we were cleaning up the church before the tour, we went to clean out the font and it was just naaaaasty!!! I killed at least fifteen spiders (one of them was huge!!!!) and a couple crickets and then we destroyed cobwebs and picked up mouse droppings in it. Obviously the font hasn't been used for some time but we're gonna change that. :) 

Friday we went and taught Nicki about faith+prayer but she still kinda believes the same as before. Basically, in her eyes all humanity is "fallen" and God is a big jerk. But hey we're meeting with her again this week so thats good. :) At the Community Gardens that night, me and Elder Andrews had waaaay too much fun destroying rotten melons all kinds of different ways (haha spearing them, splatting them, dunking them, shot-putting them, etc.) and that was a blast!

We then went with Anders Larson (pronounced "awnders") to Tripoli and taught Helen and Brian Milius and their family (we tracted into her last week) about the Restoration and they were really accepting of it and now they are new investigators!!! WOOHOO! Oh yea and a random downside, we got a text from Chelsea asking us to leave her alone cuz its starting to creep her out how we always wanna talk with her and cody. We think she might have gotten "anti-mormoned" so thats really sad. So we're currently unsure what to do with them. :/ Saturday we got to go with Brother Larson and Anders to Nauvoo for the branch temple trip!!!!! It was awesome!!! I've missed the temple so much even though its not even been two months since i last went. But we got to do two sessions and wander around Nauvoo a bit! Sunday we had church (which was awesome as always!) and we studied and did some weekly planning (that always takes the longest) and then we went with the other elders to Lorelei and Dave Dilly's house in Shell Rock for burgers and s'mores it was awesome they are so fun! (Lorelei is like the chief staff person at NorthStar) I wish i'd gotten some pics of their house cuz its very unique i have to admit. :) Thats bout the week though!

Love

Elder Logan Flake