Transfer #3

So my new companion is Elder Daines, he has been out for 21 months. That means I will be here for at least 1-2 more transfers. My companion was a Zone Leader in Lincoln before he came here to be a District Leader. He started his mission in Council Bluffs so he has an idea what is around here.

So this week I had to wait for a temporary companion, Elder Linn came down from South Dakota and was my companion for a few days. He was really funny. We have this house that is across the street a little bit from us that has broken windows and is just really scary looking. I guess it's been left like that for 2-3 years now. Anyway, Elder Linn really wanted to knock on the door, so we went over at 8:30pm and he knocked on the door, then he just walked right in...there was no way I was going in but then he freaked out and told me to come in, so I did. You could tell animals had been there, the stove had about an inch of dust and crap on it and there were boxes of food that had been eaten by something! There were bullet holes through out the house, so that was pretty sketchy...Late night tracking on a house that has been abandoned, isn't really that great of a thing to be doing, but it was fun!!

I spent pretty much a day and a half at the mission office waiting for companions. I was there all day Friday and half of Monday, so we really didn't get much teaching done this week.

But we were able to teach Keowa twice this week, we also played ping pong with him and Miranda, which was really fun and crazy. They also fed us so we were there for a while. We taught him about the commandments and that went really well. After we went and tried to visit some people across the street, then we headed home. On our way home, Keowa pulled out on the highway too, so we kinda decided to race him, I got an RPM violation from the Tiwi box, lol, but it was worth it!! ( mom sent an email about this to him...boys!)

This is pretty much my week, sitting at the mission office, going into abandoned houses and racing people, it was a good week!!

Love Elder Searle

More Pictures From Council Bluffs, IA

Pictures From Council Bluffs, IA

Good-bye Elder Cortez (2-17-14)

So today, Elder Cortez took off for Brazil, he was so excited to finally go, he has been so nervous these past couple of days. I'm going to miss him.

So this week has been kind of different, just because Elder Cortez knew he was going to be leaving, so we started doing things that he wanted to do. BUT....he made me make all the choices since I will be in charge of this area for a while. I did get a new companion for this week, his name is Elder Linn, he has been out for a few months now. The area he came from was up in South Dakota, so he said it's a lot different here so far.

So we did a lot this week with Keowa, we taught him 3 times this week and one of those times we went to the Trail Center. We also watched the Restoration video with him, which is a whole hour long. They took us downstairs and we watched it on the huge projector so it was like we were in a movie theater, so that was kind of cool. He has told a few people that he really wants to be baptized so we might move his baptism date up, right now it's planned for March 22, but he has been learning so fast and we have been seeing him so much lately, that he is just learning so much.

We also met a new family that moved in a month ago. We had no clue that they were members, we just happened to knock on their door. The father answered, he's a big, buff, scary looking guy with Playboy bunny tattoos on his arm. He is super nice and friendly, they have 2 daughters, one of them has Down Syndrome, she is super funny and friendly. They were baptized 3 years ago, so they are still kinda new.

We knocked on a lot of doors this week, we found about 15 potentials in one apartment complex, that area is just crazy with people!

Other than this, nothing crazy or exciting really happened. Elder Cortez has just been packing and we have been eating at his favorite places before he took off, we have also been going around and saying good-bye to people.

Hopefully this week goes well, it will be soooo different not having Elder Cortez around and now having a new companion, so hopefully it all goes well.

Love, Elder Searle

Hot Week!!!

So on Tuesday, we went to Quackers for lunch and we pigged out on all the wings there. The hottest sauce there is the Triple Atomic Sauce and you have to sign a waiver before you can even order it, and you have to pay $1.50 extra because the sauce just comes in a little bottle so you have to pay for the whole thing. Anyway, last month there were some Elders that tried it, so this month, I decided to try it so I can say that I did it! So ya....Hottest Thing Ever!!!!! I had one of the other Elders record it with my camera so you guys can watch my face turn bright red and the tears going down my face. It only burned like no other for 10 min. then it was fine...except the 2 days following. ;)

Elder Cortez was sick all of Tuesday, so after Quackers, we just went home and watched some movies that we have, like the Restoration and Legacy. It also snowed like crazy this day and I got to be the driver since my companion was sick and another Elder had his driving privileges taken away and the other Elder doesn't like driving in the snow. I behaved for the most part, did some drifting in a parking lot. :)

Wednesday we taught Cody- 15 year old boy again. We mostly talked about what he read in the Book of Mormon, which was Lehi's dream, so we talked about the iron rod and the tree. It went pretty well, he also stayed for the young men/young women combined activity, they played Minute To Win It games and Elder Cortez and I stayed and watched them play games.

Thursday we had splits so I went and taught the Kozack's again, I felt like we had a decent lesson, we taught them about the Book of Mormon and how she could receive an answer. A lot of crazy things happened while we were there. Their daughter was yelling and swearing at us and her husband was drunk and drinking, so we had to deal with that for a little bit. We went back on Saturday to check on them, she said she'd call us if she needs help with anything.

Friday we went and taught Keowa, he is 18 and we talked about how the Book of Mormon is the evidence we have that we can find out for ourselves if this is the true church. They also fed us dinner so we were there a while.

Saturday no one let us in most of the day. We did have an appointment with Daniel so we were able to teach him again. I felt like crap this day, but I still went out.

Sunday we had Cody and Keowa show up for church!!! It was nice because we haven't had anyone show up for a while. Cody really seemed to enjoy it and he was telling us how he will have to get a white shirt and tie for the next time he comes!!!

So Elder Cortez leaves Monday, February 17th. :/ He finally got his Visa and that is the day he leaves. I will be staying with the Kanesville Elders for a day or two until I get my new companion.

So there's my weekly report!!

Love Elder Searle

Weekly Report of Important Missionary Stuff

So this week has been different. To start off, we had exchanges on Wednesday with the Zone Leaders. That meant that I had to run the mission for a day and a half. It was really hard and I clearly didn't do the best I could have done. I learned that I need to learn my area a little better. My companion got his Visa and will be leaving the next transfer, in 2-3 weeks. I'm going to miss him. He has had to be senior companion and I have been "trying" to make all the choices, I don't really like it but it's starting to help me.

We had our chili cook-off on Friday. It was super good and we were the judges so we got to try all the different kinds. We only had one investigator come. He's 65 years old and he came to the ward Christmas party too. He is really funny and we kind of had to leave him for a little bit while we judged the chili. He was going around shaking everyone's hands and was cleaning up everything afterwards. He is a really cool dude who lives a hard life. He mostly walks around all day looking for pop cans so he can turn them in for money. His son and girlfriend live with him and they smoke and do drugs all the time, but Juan doesn't. So most of his money goes to his kids and they just spend it on drugs.

We also saw Daniel again, we finished up teaching him about the Restoration and he likes what we are saying. He says that for him to get his answer, he just has to go around and try out all the different churches. He also said that in his scriptures, it says if someone comes to your door step and talks about God, then to let them in. So we're not sure if he just let us in or if he really does want to change. As far and I think and know, I really think he wants this church to be true.

We also went to see Mike and his wife. His wife just got out of surgery a few days ago and wasn't feeling too well still. He was drunker than drunk and was pretty out of the it the whole time we were there. We shared Mosiah 18 with her. It talks about how we are there to mourn with those that mourn and to comfort those who are in need of comfort. She said if she needs help with anything, she would give us a call.

Super-Bowl Sunday....that was an interesting day. We knew no one would let us in and that no one would invite us over for dinner. One of the members brought us pizza, chips and salsa, root beer and a bag of M&M's and said we could throw our own little Super-Bowl party, which we did! We pigged out on everything mostly because it was Fast Sunday and we were hungry! Since no one would really let us in, we upped the family mission plans with the older people in our ward and the people that we knew wouldn't be watching the game. So it was Meet The Elderly Sunday for us! The member we live with, when he came home after his Super-Bowl party, he told us how bad the game was. I'm glad that I got to miss a terrible game.

Anyway, those are the highlights for this week.

Love, Elder Searle

Investigators (1-27-14)

So I'm going to talk about some of our investigators that we found and are teaching-

One guy we found outside working on his car. We got to talking with him and he told us he just got laid off of work and his car broke down. He said his faith in Christ wasn't very strong, especially since he just lost his job and all these other things that are happening to him. So we went back and taught him a little on the Restoration and he said he'd read the pamphlet we left him. We went back on Sunday and taught him again! He was telling us that the day after we stopped and talked to him, that his week just got so much better! He got a call and he most likely will get a new and better job than he had before. He found a new engine for his car that was super cheap and he was really happy about that. He wants to learn more and liked how things got so much better for him after talking to us. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and about Prophets, we plan on seeing him Wednesday so hopefully he is reading.

Another person we are teaching is a 15 year old boy, I've talked about him before and he's a pretty cool kid. We taught him on Thursday night, and that's when we do splits so I got to teach him with a High Council member and it was nice to have him with me since I'm still not used to teaching. But we set baptism for the end of February so hopefully he can work towards that.

We got to teach another family, she didn't know anything about our church but she said we could come and teach her. She really likes how we have different programs for the youth and she really wants her daughter to go to them.

Another man we found, we found him while we were shoveling driveways. He came out and helped us finish and said we could come back and see him. We tried a few times to see him but he was always busy, but we finally got in and we were able to answers their questions. They wanted to know if this is a school that we are doing and just questions about our mission. They said we could come back.

Anyway, there's some background on the people we are teaching. We have 6 people set for baptism and not a single one of them came to church on Sunday. We do have a chili cook off on Friday and we invited a lot of people to that, so hopefully they will come to that, THEN we can take them on a tour of the church, so they won't be lost when they finally do come to church.

Overall, it was a pretty good week, take luck!

Love, Elder Searle