Meet the Mormons/Monster Truck

Dear Family,

This week wasn't quite as adventurous as my past weeks. We were finally able to go see Meet the Mormon's, it was really strange to be in a movie theater, as a missionary. It was good. We went with our ward mission leader and a non member. The non member said he always gets popcorn at the movies and that he is so far in debt, but he got some anyway.lol  He only ate half of it and then gave me the rest, so I had some popcorn while we watched the movie!

We only have one investigator right now and that's the pastor at the Lutheran Church, but nothing is really going to change there, we don't think. But this week, we were knocking on doors in this neighborhood and saw this dude getting out of his car and he looked like a normal college student in his 20's. So we started talking to him and after a little bit he said "oh you guys know I'm the pastor for the Southern Baptist Church?" He had like 20 different Bible's and he had our Book of Mormon. Then his wife pulled up and out comes 3 little girls and a baby....the dude was 30 years old but totally looked our age, but with a nice beard. We talked to him for over an hour and he said he would call us sometime this week and we can go talk to him again. I don't know why we keep running into pastors. :)

We finally made our dinner appointment that night, good thing that family is way chill. He said he'd feed us, but only if we help him with a project. He had to make a video with us for his job and had to ask some questions as if we were just walking into a Dr's office. (I think he's going to be a pharmacist)  It was pretty funny because he kept messing up and had to keep re-doing it over and over again.

We had dinner with another family this week and it was really good and we had a fun time. Then we went to another member's house because he wanted to show us his new truck. It's a 2012 F250 with like a 5 inch lift! It was mean, I have never sat that high in a truck before. The member just got a new job and needed a new big truck for work. It was so nice and had a nice roar to it. :)

We went fishing this week with some other elders and that's pretty much my week. This week is our Ward Halloween Party so that will be pretty fun and today we are going to the mission office and then playing some volleyball and dodgeball with the zone. :)

Love you all!!

Love Elder Searle

Watching Meet the Mormons!!

Be the Type of Missionary.......

Dear Family,

We had a zone conference and the goal that all the missionaries came up with was "Be the type of missionary your mom thinks you are." Isn't that awesome!!

Last Monday was pretty sweet, we went to the zoo and I got video of a gorilla trying to attack us. We all got peed on from the bats and the Bellevue 1st Elders got pooped on. lol

Tuesday we helped a guy set up a new bed for his 5 year old son and we helped clean up his place. He then took us to dinner at Sam's Club and we had those really cheap hot dogs, they were pretty good! We then went shopping with him and his 5 year old. His little boy wanted to walk with us missionaries and he was being so goofy, it totally looked like we were kidnapping him, but we were just trying to get him off the floor. We talked to a guy that was selling phones and his name was Ken S, I was like "that's my Papi!"

Wednesday we met with the Pastor at the Thanksgiving Lutheran Church, it's right next to our apartment. He is a pretty good guy and he didn't bash us at all. Everyone in the office was really nice to us. We talked to him for about 40 min. He gave us each a yellow Bible and told us to prayerfully read it....we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to prayerfully read it. :) We are gearing up to go back in 2 weeks.

Saturday we did service all day, we dug dirt all day long. We helped move dirt at one house, then went to another member's house to move dirt and then we went and put up a retaining wall that was 20 feet long at another house. It took a while and it's a good thing we had 6 elders helping us at that house.

Then we had dinner in the projects, it was kinda gross. There were cockroaches in all the sinks and nasty crawly things everywhere. My companion said that was probably the nicest house there.

That was pretty much my week, we are going to the store today for P-day and we were going to go to a pumpkin patch, but it's been raining all night and still raining today.

QUESTIONS

Best food you've had there??  White Chili Enchiladas and I did have 3 steak dinners in a row one week.

How is the missionary work going in your area?  Super Slow! This area hasn't had an investigator for 5 transfers, so that equals 7 months. I wouldn't be surprised if this area gets closed down soon. Just really hard and the ward isn't doing very well either.

What has changed the most about you?  I'm starting to become cool! lol   A lot of stuff has changed about me, like when I come home, I want to do things that will help me in my life and not waste it. I'm starting to get better at talking and I can actually carry on a conversation now.  :)

Can you believe next one month you'd have been out a year?!  It's so crazy to think that, it is going by so fast! There is still so much that I need to improve on and I don't have that much time. I still don't consider myself a great teacher yet, but hopefully I'm improving on that.

Will your mission get to use iPads soon?  President Weston mentioned we might start using them in February, first starting with Facebook. I do hope I get to use one on my mission.

I do want to bear my testimony....I have a testimony in the Holy Ghost and that has grown the most. I went through a time where I was trying to teach and do things without having the Spirit with me and you can really tell a difference. Nothing really happens if you don't have the Spirit with you.

I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, I have read the Book of Mormon more than I ever have out here. President Weston challenged us to read it as a mission and to finish it in 3 months. So if we read 5 pages every day, we'll finish it in 3 months. Right now I'm ahead of schedule. We are to mark every word that says God, Jesus Christ, Atonement, Repentance and we are to circle the word Heart. It has been so cool because every page talks about Jesus Christ and how the Book of Mormon really is another testament of Jesus Christ.

I also have a testimony of the Pioneers now. I have learned a lot more about them since being here at the Winter Quarter's Temple and The Trail Center. All the films I've been able to see about the Pioneers have been great. All I know is that a mission is hard, I can't imagine what the pioneer's went through.

I also have a testimony of our Prophet, after watching General Conference, it was really neat to listen to and get insight from President Monson. I feel like a couple of the talks were just for me and that was really neat.

I know that this church is true and that Joseph Smith really did see and do the things that he did. I know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and that you really can draw nearer to Him by reading it. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Love you all!!

Love Elder Searle

 Biggest hill I've seen so far here! lol

Meet the Mormons!!

Dear Family,

Guess what we can watch this week!!! Meet the Mormons....in the THEATER!!! Yep, you heard right, we are going to find a day and find someone that we can take with us and go see it. We will be going all out, seeing how we can actually go to a theater and not even feel guilty about being there. I'm going to buy myself a big ol' thing of popcorn and a nice drink to sip during it. It's going to be so fun!

General Conference was pretty great! For Saturday's sessions, we watched it just at our church. There wasn't anyone there when we got there, but 3 more people came to the church to watch it. Who knew other people come to the church to watch conference other than the missionaries. :)  I made it through all the sessions....even without a conference packet! :P

In between sessions, we went to Chick Fil A and had lunch, and we walked right past a sister in my last ward. She waved at me and I got to see her little girl that is 2. I went to place my order and some lady was already paying for the 4 of us to eat.  Then another person came up and offered to buy our food and I told them somebody already did, but thanks for offering.  Pretty neat we had 2 offers to buy our food. Priesthood session was sweet, we went with the Bellevue 1st Elders.

Sunday's session was pretty legit. A family invited us over and we had brunch with them before it started, it was super good! Another family we know were there too so we were able to talk to both families. During the break in conference, this family dumps out all their storage water and fills them back up. They do this every October conference because it's a good time to remind them. So we spent the whole break bringing up these giant water jugs and then taking them back downstairs. We watched the last session with them and then had dinner with them. 

On Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president, he wants us to be perfect and I'm clearly far from it. lol

We are going to the zoo today, that is always fun!!

Thank Up!!

Love, Elder Searle

 Our home

 That super straight tree I talked about last letter

 To show you how much weight I have lost!