Fireflies!!

So I've got to keep this email short, don't have a lot of time. Today for P-day, we played volleyball for like 4 hours and it was awesome. Elder Chappell in the Council Bluffs Ward is going home this week, so we had a lunch party after playing volleyball, so that was fun! We then went fishing at the Stake Pres. place and that was awesome! They took us out in a 9 seat Razor and he had some different cars in his garage this time. I didn't have my camera on me, so that was sad, he had some older cars that were decked out in there.

I saw my first fireflies this week!! They are awesome! Elder Martinez and I were waiting for the Kanesville elders and he was like "why are there green lights flashing everywhere?" Then we realized they were fireflies, so that was cool. More and more are starting to come out and they are awesome to watch!

I poked a cactus and got those pointy things in my fingers, that wasn't the smartest thing to do but we were able to teach Keowa a bit because we stopped by his place and I asked him if he had some tweezers I could use.

We also had a full day of service on Saturday with the Kanesville elders, we helped someone move in and someone move out and that took all day, we then helped someone move a piano.

Pretty much this was my week, in just a shorter version. :) Well got to go, sorry it was so short today, I will do better next week! :D

Love, Elder Searle

7 Month Mark!!

Dear Family,

What's up everyone?! Hope everyone is doing well and hopefully you guys haven't had crazy weather like we are having. I have no clue where the storms are, since we can't watch the news, but you can tell they are around us..somewhere. It's been super dark today and now the sun came out it is SUPER humid...holy cow it sucks! Everything just sticks to you and you can literally feel the humidity, you can rub your fingers together and just feel it...it's strange.

On Monday mornings we play volleyball with the bishops fun, crazy, out of control wife, and some of the mom's in our ward. We have the Council Bluffs zone leaders, young single adult elders, the Kanesville elders and sisters and then us and our sisters. Most of the elders have been given a nickname by the bishop's wife, the nickname is usually the first thing that comes to her mind when she first met us, then we are stuck with it. So just some of the names are...Elder Chappell is Church, Elder Linford is Lamb, Elder Tatafu is Hokie Pokie, Elder Stinikie is Steinmark, Elder Martinez is Elder Cortez and I'm Captain or Captin' Crunch. It's always funny because we just get our names yelled out the entire time we play volleyball. We usually play volleyball from 10am to 12:30 ish, and it's pretty fun!

So last week was kinda meh...the first couple of days nothing really happened at all. But on Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Bellevue Elders. I went there with Elder Jenkins and that kid is a goof! I'm one transfer older than him, which was really strange to think about when I was there, but he is just awesome! I Had a great time out there with him.

We found a new investigator in a strange way, we were walking from a gas station and this van just stopped in front of us with her flashers on. She said she was having car trouble and she had some brake problems. She got talking to us about her faith and everything and we are going back there on Tuesday, so hopefully that goes well.

Anyway, that's pretty much my week, all is going very well, there is a 50/50 chance I could transfer in 2 weeks, but we are pretty sure I will be here one more transfer....but just a heads up there.

Love you guys! Hope you all have a good week!:D

Love Elder Searle

storm pics

No idea where he got this from

Hello World

Dear Family,


I'm going to keep it short and simple this week because that's always the best way to do things. The weather got super awesome again. We actually got hail this time but only the size of ping pong balls here, up in Blair they got baseball to softball size hail that wiped out all the Ford trucks at a dealership, that just goes to show those trucks suck. :P We actually got caught in it because I like to storm chase. We spent like 2 hours at a members place who fed us dinner, right when we showed up, their power went out and we were stuck there for a bit until the storm calmed down. Right when it calmed down, we just high tailed it home, we went to bed early, which was super, super nice.


So people we saw this week, we saw Keowa and taught him about patriarchal blessings, he is doing awesome and he will get his when he is done reading the Book of Mormon. He is almost done with it, which is awesome! We also met with another couple and we hooked them up with the No Smoking Program to try to help them stop smoking and to stop chewing. These were really our only cool things that happened this week. Kinda a slow week, we did meet a new investigator so hopefully we can get back with him.


Yep, that is about it...today for p-day we got together with a bunch of other missionaries and played volleyball, it was super fun and I'm actually starting to get ok with at it. We played that for 3 hours and then at the library here, only a few computers were working so we had to wait until one of them opened up.


Well, gotta go!! Love ya!


Elder Searle

Crazy Week!

Dear Family,

Here is my week-

Monday-We had the Glenwood Elders come and hang out with us at our super hot house. It was over 90* outside and no A/C AND you add the humidity to that and you just want to die. We played Munchkins with them, super fun! We then had dinner at a families house which was awesome, you just feel like you are a part of their family, and every time we are over, they usually have their family over, so there are like 12-14 of us each time we go.

Tuesday-We went and tried a referral, they liked to talk and talk and talk :)

Wednesday-We helped a lady move, we did this after a district meeting that day. We helped move for over 7 hours. Her brothers and sisters didn't help at all, we helped them unload everything at her parents home and her brothers were just drinking and smoking away while we helped move them.

Thursday-We were walking around trying to teach people, with no luck, so we decided to stop at this guys house. We wanted to cool off and see him, so we knocked on his door and he told us to come in. We went in and he had already fallen asleep. We were just standing there and he was out! So we were just chillin' there then we finally kinda yelled and woke him up, he told us to come back in a bit when he was more awake. We went back later to visit him and he was still out, it was kinda funny.

We then went and saw a really cool LA family and they were so fun to visit. We talked about trusting God and the mom was like "Swiper (my nickname) you really can teach! Look how much better you are now!" so that was super cool to hear! :) We then had dinner with another family and they are HUGE hunters and we had elk for dinner, it was super good! :D

Friday-My companion and I need to learn how to communicate better with each other, we worked out some problems we had. After that, we went and helped a family move out of Village Green, that was fun! A lot of members were there helping, a lot of them live right in Village Green but it was good to show the members that we are there to help.

Saturday-We saw a good amount of people today, they all went well. We then went and had dinner, some YSA ward members slipped $20 in my pocket so that paid for dinner. We then gave the YSA Elders a hard time because they rarely get fed and here we were getting fed.

My comp and I got dropped off and were walking around when we saw this homeless guy sitting in an empty parking lot. I waved at him and he called us over. We got talking to him and he was saying how his house used to be there and he just rides around on his bike now. We got talking about the Book of Mormon and he was showing us his Bible, that he stole from the library. He has a little pull behind thingy for his bike and we noticed he had all of his stuff in there, we saw he had a guitar. He said he was selling it for $25, he asked if I wanted it and I was like no, I don't know how to play, he asked my companion if he wanted it, but he said he didn't know how to play either, but he gave it to us anyway. It is missing a string but it isn't a bad guitar. It was pretty sweet we got a guitar from a drunk homeless dude. We walked around, waiting for our ride to pick us up and we had to pass all these bars with a guitar. I took some pics for ya!  lol

I gotta run, tell everyone hi!!

Love, Elder Searle

Pics!

Holy Hot!

Dear Family,


Hey hey, what's up everyone? So this week we are starting to get the feel of what summer will be like. It hasn't been super hot yet, but the humidity has been getting up there. Everything just starts to stick to you a bit and I hate that feeling.


This week has been a good mix of service and seeing the same person over and over again. One of the service projects that we did were we went and helped the Kanesville Elders move someone out. I have never seen this flight of stairs in my life...their garage was on the road and their garage had an upstairs, and looking at the house from the road the house was only a few feet higher up than the top of the garage...and on top of that, they asked which one of us Elders was the strongest and everyone just looked at me...I'm not complaining about that, SO, I ended up helping one of the dudes there move all the heavy stuff out like their treadmill, exercise bike, big dressers etc. We got doughnuts for our service and it took a good 7 hrs. to move everyone out of their old house into their new house. Good thing their new house hardly had any stairs!


We saw Keowa like 3 times this week. The first time we were just talking and getting to know each other and by that I mean Elder Martinez and him. We then all got together again the next day and had Maranda come, it was fun to go back to the good old days with all of us together again.


I can't think of anything else awesome that we did this week, we did a good amount of walking, I finally had to go buy new soles for my shoes...seeing how 1/4 of it wasn't even there anymore. So yep, I guess this is some of what we did, I'm sure there is more but I can't think of anything off the top of my head...


Love, Elder Searle