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!

Going on an Adventure

Dear Family,

Had a pretty good week last week, I had a few adventures that were pretty fun and awesome. Fall weather here has been really strange.

On Monday we went to the mall so my companion could get his watch fixed...again.

Tuesday wasn't really too exciting, we mostly walked around and were told to go away multiple times. We finally just sat at a park for a bit and we took a picture of a tree because it was really straight. So that should tell you how the day went.

Wednesday is where our adventures start. We started out the day by having a Rubik's Cube race, which I totally got destroyed. We did it twice and the second time, my comp did it twice before I finished once, so I will need to practice on that. We went over to a sister's house, she's the lady who knitted me my hat and we go over every week and have lunch, we take our landlord with us and we're able to talk to both of them. After we walked around the neighborhood and decided to stop at a less active recent convert who has turned anti. It's not fun to be a part of and he wants to meet with us and the bishop about some concerns, but I know he'll just try to prove his point and not have an open heart so that meeting might not happen.

After that, we walked home to get a drink and Elder Quayle got his trunks in the mail, they are the papers he needs to fill out in order for the church to start working on his flight tickets for when he goes home soon. After he got those, he went a little crazy.

We left our place and started walking our normal path around the Lutheran Church and my companion was like "let's go talk to the Pastor!" I thought he was totally joking and I kept walking on the other side of the street...but he wasn't kidding. He opened the door and walked right in so I had to hurry. We asked if we could see the Pastor and the lady said he was in a class but to come back at 8. So we went back at 8 and all the classes were over and people were leaving. So we were just standing inside this church and everyone was looking at us and were really friendly with us. The Pastor came out and was really happy and full of energy and talked to us for a bit. He told us to come to his office sometime to set up an appointment. We haven't done that yet, but this whole story was a great story. We told it at district meeting and said that we are really trying to talk to everyone! lol

Thursday was our district meeting, our district is full of sisters now. There are 4 elders, including me and my companion and 7 sisters. All I can say is the room for district meetings smells dang good now. :)

After the district meeting I went on exchanges with Elder Wamsley in the Cottonwood area. We had a really good time. We met a guy who is a Sudan Warrior, when he was old enough to become a man...like 11-12 years old, he went through training to become a warrior and they cut 8 lines across his whole forehead.

On Friday we had a ward camp out that was pretty fun. We had a good time.

Hope you all enjoy my letter, it's a long one for me!! lol

Love you all!!

Elder Searle

Transfer Week

Dear Family,

Not much happened this week because of transfers. Elder Quayle and I are still together but our district got moved around. We spent one day saying goodbye to people, we also went to the departing testimony meeting which was really cool. We all wore our matching pink ties again and one of the sisters really liked the ties and she took a picture of us. We had to say goodbye to Elder Abad, he is going home to the Philippines.

On Monday we did a zone activity and we went to the park and played games like sand volleyball, soccer, basketball, Frisbee and kick ball. It was pretty fun and most of our zone was there so that was awesome. It was something different for us to do and it was fun!

On Friday we went to the Trail Center since they do firesides on Friday nights and for this one, they were watching Ephraim's Rescue, and this was like the only time we could watch a movie so we went. Most of the Elders were there so I got to meet up with some old friends and it was really fun.

On Saturday we were knocking and knocking on doors and we knocked on this one house that was a bit run down and a dude with an eye patch opened the door. He didn't want anything to do with us, but he looked just like a pirate. :)

Sunday was a good day, that night we got a ride home with a dude that just put a brand new engine in his Volkswagen because he blew up his last one after installing a brand new turbo charger and it blew his engine up.

This was really about it this week with transfers, I have been practicing the Rubik's cube and I keep getting better at it.

Hope all is going well with everyone, I am doing better. Getting along better with my companion and we are starting to have a good time together.....so that's always good!!

Love you guys!! Have a great week!!

Love Elder Searle

Chilly Week

Dear Family,

I actually had a really good and enjoyable week and a lot of good stuff went on. So to start it off, on Monday we went to the mall, again...we have gone to different malls like 3-4 P-days now. We found some cool skinny ties at American Eagle and my companion thought it would be a good idea if the 6 of us all had matching ties to wear to Zone Conference later in the week. Then he thought it would be a good idea that since 4 of us wear glasses, that all of us should wear glasses with our matching ties to Zone Training.

After our P-day is over, we've been going over to see a family that moved in when I got here. We bring our free Papa Murphy's pizza and they make a little food and we play games and visit with them.

Tuesday, I made myself a Purple Cow Shake...it made me really happy! :)

Wednesday, we went over to this older ladies house and she is always throwing a party with the older folks in her complex and they stitch hats and gloves and all that jazz that old ladies like to do. She gave me one of the hats that she made! It is really cool, it's blue and black and I took a selfie with me wearing it.

Thursday, I finally solved the Rubix's Cube!! My companion has been trying to teach me for 2 weeks and I gave up and quit like 6 times, but that day...I finally solved it. I was really excited. We had our Zone Training meeting this day and so us 6 South-Siders wore our matching ties and our glasses and we looked really classy. :_

Saturday was a full day of service, we spent 8 hours and laid a concrete pad and then laid bricks down by the sidewalk. They fed us both breakfast and lunch and would have fed us dinner, but we already had dinner plans.

Sunday I had to give a talk in sacrament...yep, even as a missionary I'm still scared to speak in sacrament. They had me as the youth speaker though, so that was good. The highlight of Sunday was being invited to a home and being able to see the Short's. It was awesome!! Nora saw us walking and she ran inside and yelled "Big Teddy Bear is here!" We talked to them for an hour before we had to go but it was really good to see them again. Then when we left, Nora gave me a big hug and that just made my week. :)

This week has been chilly, like I actually had to grab a jacket it was that cold...and it has rained a lot.

Hope all is well with you guys!!

Love Elder Searle

Week of Service

Dear Family,

This week has was full of service, like mowing, tilling, raking and putting up a retaining wall. The retaining wall was pretty cool because I have never done that before. A lot of the missionaries have been sick, the cold is going around, but so far I've been good.  On Wednesday, a set of Elders were suppose to train together but one of them was sick. I was asked to go sit with the sick Elder so that the other missionary could at least train. I sat at his place and since they live at a member's home, I got to play the pinball machine they have in their basement. :)

It's hard doing work out here on Saturday's because of the Nebraska football games. The work here is going really really slow, we do go see a lot of less actives and we do go read the Book of Mormon to Dean almost every day.

The computer is being really slow today, I'll have to try and come back later.

Love, Elder Searle

Soup Kitchen

Dear Family,

So this week has been fun, on Tuesday, I went out to Gretna with one of the zone leaders and spent the day out there, it went well and was packed with lessons. Gretna is a branch so their area is huge, we had to drive to one town that was 30 min. away...twice.

On Thursday, our ward goes to the soup kitchen once a month, so we went to North Omaha and helped serve food. It was pretty cool and I met some really cool people. It was very different to see people just live out of their cars. They had blankets and things covering their cars and they just chill in there. One lady was taking a shower in her car while the passenger was brushing her hair. One of the bishop's kid came and helped and everyone there just loved him! He did a really good job and he's only 9 years old. At the end the kitchen people gave him a big pirate cookie. I was teasing him about it and was like "how come you get something and I don't?" He said "That's because you're a missionary, but there is one thing you can have that is the best".... and he gave me a big ol' hug! He said that was the best thing...a hug from him. :)

We also went a saw some less actives this week, we go over to this one guys house, and read the Book of Mormon to him. He is very chill and lets us eat and drink whatever food we want. :)

We also took a recent convert to the Trail Center, but we never went inside...we just drove all the way there with him and another member and just sat in the parking lot and talked. The convert goes really deep with questions. After, they wanted to stop by the hospital and see a kid they know, he was having some tests done so we went and talked to him. He has gone through so much in his life and there's no way I could do what he has gone through, but we taught him some card tricks he could do when he gets bored, since he'll be in the hospital for a week or two.

We also went to the mall, I bought new sunglasses that look good on me. :P  I gotta run!!

Love, Elder Searle