Sunny, Sunny, Summetime!!

Dear Family,

Hello from the fields of corn! This week has been full of driving, looking at corn, taking pictures, shaving a dog, going to Grand Island, eating chili dogs and meeting Merlin the Train Man.

For my birthday, I spent the whole day in Grand Island which really is clear out there. So that took all day, the zone leaders were the ones that drove us and afterwards took me to wherever I wanted to eat for my birthday, so we went to Olive Garden. So that was fun, the zone leaders left my packages at their place, so I didn't get my birthday packages until just a few hours ago, but I finally got them and the shirt does fit! :)

Met Merlin the Train Man and he reminded me of the train guy that lives across the street from Grandma and Grandpa, but like 10 times more. He has a whole track going around his kitchen and has a 10k train track he is building in his garage.

Met Mark and he collects like...everything...but we were outside talking to him and he was like "my dog needs a haircut like the other one, you guys want to help?" So I helped shave the dog, we forgot to get an after picture but we got a before one.

On Friday's, we help out at the Foodnet and what they do is, they get all the food that is about to expire from certain stores and the food from buffet tables. We help unload them from the vans in the morning, then at 3pm we go back and help set everything up on tables and at 5:30pm, anyone can come in and you can take whatever you need! So while helping, the helpers and us have a box and we pick what we want! So we get free food every Friday, which is awesome!

That's about all the fun we had this week, had a member take us out to see an older lady in a super small, dying town that took about an hour to drive to, then he decided to take the back roads back home and most of it was on a dirt road, so that took a while. Our phones died so they don't work anymore and we most likely won't get one till Friday, so this will be a different week. It was also 90* Monday!

Love you all! Keep on keeping on!

Elder Searle

Welcome To the Land of Corn

Dear Family,

Transfers were a thing last week and I got put in Seward! It is a branch like 30 min. west of Lincoln, I think. Anyway, drove to Lincoln and was like...holy cow this is going to be awesome!! I'm in the big city! Then I got my companion, Elder Hansen, he is the DL and goes home in 3 transfers, he is a really cool dude and we are getting along great! So then we drove to our area and it was just fields...and fields...and fields... EVERYWHERE!! I'm in the middle of nowhere!

We have like 10 towns that we cover, IT IS HUGE!!! We have so many miles! We live in a little town called Milford that is almost a half hour away from Seward. We don't even have a mailbox lol!! It's a PO box, Elder Hansen has been using it and he gets his mail.

Our apartment is actually a house that the basement got converted to an apartment and that's where we live. It's ghetto BUT I fixed the shower! I guess the shower hasn't been working for like months and everyone just thought that's how it was. It was like an old man peeing on you...like no water whatsoever. So we borrowed some tools and I took the head off and the O ring was broken and was plugging most of the holes, so I just took the broken ring off and put it back on and BAM!! Our shower will actually get you wet. The people above us are really loud and have kids every other weekend so it's louder at those times.

Church experience! So my comp took me to go see the church and he was like "wait till you see the gym!" So I was guessing like half court? Half court with carpet? We pull up to the church and I'm like "we don't have a gym do we?" NOPE, it's way to small for a gym and it doesn't have an actual chapel either. It's so small but don't worry, we had 47 people at church! It's so different but everyone here is SUPER nice! One of them is a family that we helped put their new table and chairs together and then played basketball, it was so much fun!

We went to check our P.O box and this dude rolls up in his 8 wheeler tractor, just driving in the middle of town, parks like a normal car, gets out and walks into the barber shop....I'm so not in the city life anymore! :)

I got a pic of a dude moving or getting rid of a trampoline, it was a tiny truck and they just sat the trampoline on the top of the truck and drove down the road. We came into Lincoln on P-Day and saw a Maserati.

So for my birthday on Tuesday...we actually have Zone Conference so we will be going to Grand Island, which is an hour and a half away from us, so that will take our whole day. I'll be able to get my birthday packages that were sent to the mission office, so that will be cool. This next week should be full of adventures!

Love you all!!

Elder Searle

From Elder Hansen, Elder Searle's new companion-

OOOOO and for those of you who don't know....HE IS AN ASSASSIN!! He has killed 3 of his last 4 companions, the last 2 have been in a row....I fear for my mission life with this Elder. I fear that he will slay the Hansen in Seward! But it's ok, if I die by him that would be legit because he is super funny and fun. That was one thing he said "I want to have fun doing missionary work" and I was like...I think I can help with that. So that was awesome!!

New Chapter

Hello Everyone!!

This week has been full of.....packing, cleaning, closing our apartment, pinball machine, late nights, saying goodbyes, getting ready to send my companion home and a BAPTISM!!

The madness for the week started Tuesday night when we got a call saying that we needed to go to the mission office. We went there and the apartment lady gave us a paper saying that the lease on our apartment was up so we needed to pack and clean the place by Thursday. So we pretty much had only Wednesday to do all that stuff. We spent the entire day packing and cleaning, then had appointments from 4pm on. We stayed up until midnight cleaning, spent Thursday morning getting everything ready, had district meeting, then had the apartment people come with the trailer to load everything up. Then right after that, we went to the soup kitchen, then went straight to Shaunna's baptism. So very very busy/stressful day making sure everything was ready to go for the baptism and getting everything done. 

Guess I should mention that they aren't going to get us another apartment, so that means I am being transferred. Looks like they are taking Elders out of Bellevue 2nd, so we have been living with the Cottonwood Elders until Tuesday. I have been sleeping on a couch that is too small and my comp has been on the floor.They live in a member's home and have a pinball machine that we play. :)

Shaunna's baptism!! It went well and had a really good turnout. The Bellevue 1st Elders had a basketball game going on in the gym with 8 non-members and a few less actives and they brought them all in to watch the baptism. We had the whole row in the back filled with basketball players. It was pretty funny and really filled the room. I was able to baptize her and my comp, Elder Bywater was able to confirm her. It was really awesome and a great way to finish off my time in Bellevue 2nd. Shaunna even shed a couple of tears during her baptism and the confirmation. I had to choke my tears back because I'm still not too happy about leaving right after getting a baptism......

Saturday and Sunday were full of good byes to people. We got some awesome pics, one family makes their kids do Harley's (wall sits) as punishment, so we got a picture of all of us doing those. It looks like I will just be living out of my suitcase for a week. On Tuesday I drop off my companion at the mission office and then I will be put in the Ralston La Vista Ward until I find out where I'm going, which will be Thursday. Then I will be heading there on Friday. I am going to have to behave because Ralston is the president's ward. :O

So next week I will be in my new area, I guess it's finally time for me to move on. I have been here for 5 transfers so time to move on and hopefully I won't be killing off another companion. I've had 3 companions that I have killed (went home) and now I'm getting done with back to back ones so I'm kinda ready for a companion that isn't going to be talking about home all the time. :)

Take care everyone and I will email you from a new place next week!!

Since I won't know where I'm going, mom send my birthday box to the mission office. :)

Love you all!!

Elder Searle

missionaries going home, not sure why they call it dying off????

Party and Zzzzzz

Howdy Y'all!!

This week consists of getting a referral for "Papa Bear" at the hospital, throwing a birthday party after district meeting, gave a blessing on a house to get rid of the evil spirits (spooky), helped someone move and getting super sick and sleeping for 14 hours.

Lets start with Papa Bear, his daughter sent us to see him, he had surgery on his toes, like cut off and is going through some other things as well. He is a funny dude, or maybe just the meds he was on?? We are going to see him again tonight, we're just mainly talking to him and keeping him company. His brother in law was there and he is a big dude, like 350 lbs. and he was in a  turbo charged
Wal-Mart shopping cart thing, he kept dozing off on it though and kept almost hitting his head on the steering wheel, we tried not to laugh but then he almost fell off it. We had a good laugh with him. :)

We had a call from a member living in the projects that wanted us to come and bless their house because they have been hearing some strange noises and have seen some evil spirits. I've never given a blessing on a home before so that was a first for me. We brought a member with us and as soon as we started the prayer, we could hear this weird screech, screaming thing...it was so weird!!! My companion heard it too!! I was so spooked. There were 2 guys upstairs in the home while we were downstairs giving the prayer and one of the guys upstairs has some health problems and was in the bathroom, except he didn't close the door and then we could hear him! The member kept his cool but it was so hard for my companion and I to keep our cool. Something strange/funny has to always happen.

Saturday night my head was on fire. I had a terrible fever that hit me like a ton of bricks and my head was killing me! We finished up our lesson and went home and I just crashed, I slept for a long time...or it felt like it and it was only an hour. I had the shivers so bad, it was the longest night of my life. Since we had church the next day I slept until noon, got up and made some chicken noodle soup that my grandma sent me a while ago and got ready and I was feeling much better. I made it through church and had a good time there.

So it was another fun week, this week should be a good one, we should have a baptism on Thursday, we are also going to the soup kitchen, the library and the Goodwill again for service, we will also work with Shauna every day till her baptism.

Thanks for everyone's emails!!

Love you all!!

Elder Searle

Temple Trip

What's up family and friends?!

Had a slower week than I would have liked but it was still good. Going to talk about the main couple three highlights of the week.

Had zone training and the temple trip so had a good time there, especially at the temple. I'm so thankful that I have one close enough that I can go to every other transfer pretty much!

We also got in and are able to do some service at a library that's up by the projects. The lady over the volunteer work is pretty cool and so happy to actually have some strong men to help out that's not your normal high school kids that need service. So they tested us on organizing books and then we just had to go put them on shelves. We will be going there every Wednesday and we will just start doing more and more so it should be pretty legit.

Went over the Ericson's because for the mini missions, they made food from their mission. Since he went to Brazil he made some Feijoada and some Terere/Chimarro. The terere is a drink and it's different but good.

Yesterday was our P-day, we went and played volleyball all day and I was soooooo sore! But it was fun, we just get to email today and then back to work.

One funny little story, we saw a black guy going through a dumpster and cutting wires and stuff and my companion kept walking by so I followed. Then I was like, let's go and talk to him, so as we were walking back to him he started singing and dancing, it was so funny!! He kept singing and wouldn't answer any of our questions so we left. Pretty funny!!

That was pretty much my week, hopefully this week will be better because it's been pretty slow. Grrr!! No one likes a slow weeks but we will keep our heads up and keep pushing through this cold! :)

Love, Elder Searle

 youth in their ward doing mini-missions

 Temple trip

companion Elder Bywater

Bipolar Nebraska Weather

Dear Family,

Welcome to the land of Bipolar Nebraska Weather! Where it snows like no tomorrow one day, warms up, snows a ton again then BAM! A couple three day of wishing I could wear shorts and flip flops. The side effect of this weather is a lot of people have been getting sick and that has hurt the missionary work a bit.

On Wednesday, we decided to go out and shovel snow for hours. We went around and did some driveways for some older people, some less actives, helped a mother in the ward shovel snow because he husband was out driving trucks. We were out for about 5 hours and had fun, and I felt it the next day! My arm muscles were so sore and I slept wrong on my shoulder so that was killing me, I just walked around the next day with a dead arm pretty much. lol!!

I was telling Elder Bywater that I haven't really slipped on the ice yet here, so of course, a couple hours later I slipped on a hill because I thought it would be cool and walk on the retaining wall, then when I jumped down, I totally ate it. Then the other day, we were helping a member move out a desk and my companion and I were going down the flight of stairs when my foot missed the stair and I stepped in the only muddy part on the cement, it wouldn't have been too bad if the desk didn't land on me.

Sunday we helped the youth in our ward. They are doing mini missions this week and it started yesterday. The sisters, the senior couple and us all taught about Preach My Gospel and why it's so important. We had 3 classes that were 15 min. each and it was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed teaching the class because I totally realized that I actually am starting to turn into a pretty good teacher, at least a lot more than I give myself credit for.

Elder Bywater is the quietest companion I've had, I've been stepping it up these past couple three weeks (Nebraska language) since he'll go home soon.

Had a pretty good week and this coming week should be even better. We are going on exchanges with the DL on Tuesday and have Zone training on Thursday and a temple trip on Friday so right there, you know we are going to have a good week.

Hope all is going well with you guys, good luck, have fun and take luck!

Love, Elder Searle

Slow, Snowy, No Church & Superbowl

Dear Family,

Had a very different week this week, started out by having a SUPER slow week, like everyone we tried to visit weren't home or they didn't live there anymore. We were going through some potentials and some former's because the area has been a little slow lately and we just haven't been having any luck. We also got dumped on with SNOW!! Like it was CRAZY!! It started snowing Saturday evening, then on Sunday morning it was just crazy outside! It was windy and we had some huge drifts! Some cars were covered in parking lots and everything.

We got a text that said cars were grounded, then got a text from the ward mission leader that said the stake had cancelled church. That was weird for sure. So we were like, since church has been cancelled does that mean Fast Sunday is also cancelled and we can eat? We were told Fast Sunday and the Break the Fast were cancelled and would not be rescheduled, but you could still fast if you like.

Since we couldn't go anywhere and we couldn't drive, we had the Erickson's come pick us up and we spent the day with them. We played games and had dinner with them and the Leylands came over with funny Teddy. We finally got him to say our names, it's cute how he says them.

Everything is going well with my companion, he has kind of the same personality as me, just chill with anything so I've had to really step it up and take the lead. I was talking to him and said that by the time he learns the area, he'll be going home. I told him that maybe the president was testing me to see if I have ANY leadership skills. lol! And I guess I was right...my companion told me the president called him and said that my comp would come here to help me with that. I'm not sure how I'm doing with the leadership skills, but I'm trying!

The lease on our apartment ends at the end of this month so we will most likely be moving to a new one then.

I'm thankful for the chance I did have to fast on Sunday, it was harder because we were sitting right next to food all day long....but it was worth it!

Have a good week everyone!! Love ya'll!!

Patriots FTW!! (for his mom!! :)

Love, Elder Searle

 A picture we sent Brendan for Christmas and he added himself to it. :)