Thanksgiving 2013

Gingerbread House display at the Mormon Trail Center

 

 

HELLO!!! So it has been a crazy past few days, hopefully I can tell it all with good details and hopefully it won't be too confusing. So the flights were good, the airport in St Paul Minnosota was HUGE!!!! Its a HUGE mall and they had trams that could take you all over the place. So since there were 31 of us new missionaries, and that it was Thanksgiving, we didn't get our new companions until Friday, So we spent two nights in a hotel. IT WAS AWESOME! It was just me and Elder Herda and we each had a queen size bed to ourselves and they were SOOOO SOFT!!! We went to bed really early the first night and our alarm didn't go off in the morning so we slept like 12 hours that night.We would eat lunch and dinner at the mission president's house.

 

They then took us to the Temple and Mormon Trail Center on Thanksgiving day. I got some awesome pictures that I really want to send home soon so you can see them. We had thanksgiving at the Mormon Trail Center with all the missionaries that are there. There were about 60ish + people there.They had LOTS of food and pumkin pie that tasted like it was in the washer... it was gross compared to your AWESOME PIE!. They also had a gingerbread house showing at the Mormon Trail Center. They have TONS of houses all over, I took pictures of some of them since I didn't have much time there. Also when we got to the airport, our mission pres and wife met us there, they are both really cool btw, but two Elders came and picked us up in two HUGE vans and one of them was hauling a trailer which we loaded up with our suitcases. I guess thats how it is done in Nebraska! :D

 

So I am serving in the Greenview Ward which is in Council Bluff Iowa. We will mostly be in Iowa but we do have some houses which we call "Mini Provo" because they are all going into law or doctor school, and they are just across the river. I am serving with Elder Cortez, He has been here for 7 months and he is waiting for his visa so he can go to Brazil. He is a really good teacher and he is pretty chill. Most of my area is in the ghetto, since the sisters here get most of the good parts. Its pretty cool hearing some of the stories that the people have told us. At least the few that actally would talk to us. So my companion and I white washed this area, which meens that both of us are new here.

 

So we really aren't sure where we need to start. The area book hasn't really been updated for a year so hopefully me and my compainion will be able to turn this around. We met with our ward mission leader and our bishop. Our bishops family is sooo cool and funny! He also drives a bright red 2012 camaro that we were able to be in. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Travis should be jelly of me right now. One of the stake presidents here owns most of the Papa Johns around here so every week, the missionaries can go and get a FREE one topping family size pizza which is AWESOME!

 

So since we don't really know this area and we don't know who we are suppose to be teaching, We went and started knocking on doors. It turned out it was an older folks townhome place that we were at, and after knocking on a few doors we noticed that none of them wanted to talk to us. So we decided to go up the street a little further and a cop pulled up to us. Turns out some of the older folks called the cops on us so an officer had to come make sure we were who we said we were. So ya, thats how my second day here went....

 

So on Sunday, we started off by going to choir practice.... yes, I'm in the choir now.... but they only have 8 people in the choir including me and Elder Cortez.... It was really nice to meet our ward, they are all young adults pretty much and they have A LOT of little kids running and screaming all over the place. It is a really nice ward and they are feeding us well. Almost every week is filled with dinners for us so thats good.

 

We are in a car share with another zone here, so every three days or whatever we have to give them the car. We drive a newish chevy cruze which is a nice car btw, and Elder Cortez is the driver which I am glad because the roads here are CRAZY! So many one way streets and the roads are sooo small.. We do have to start riding our bikes soon unless we can catch a ride places. But one of the bikes that were left for us is SUPER nice!  It comes with everything but a helmet big enough for my fat head but I'm sure I can find a bigger helmet.

 

We are living in a members home, we are just in the basement. But it was reallly strange because he wasn't there for the first two days that we were there... So we just made ourselves at home.

 

So about sending stuff, You can either send it to the mission office and they will forward it to me, or you can send it directly to me which I recommend, especially for the packages. The address for the place I am living is-

 

 Elder Brendan Scott Searle

21418 Greenview Rd

Council Bluffs, IA 51503

 

 Send some CDs!!! We can listen to anything that invites the spirit. Elder Cortez has some church music that is redone into more rock type feel to it. I know one of the Elders out here was listening to some Owl City songs. Elder Cortez said any music is fine with him. So send some cool music and some Christmas music since its that time of the year.

 

I am doing well, It was really good to talk to you guys at the airport. I was soo tired and worn out that day, and it was hard because unless I was asleep on the plane, I was mostly thinking about home and about everything so that didn't help out at all. But now that I am busy and  trying to find people to teach it has really helped.

 

It hasn't been as cold here as a thought, I've been good just wearing the inside part of my coat around at night. It has been around the 30s lately. We haven't gotten any snow yet but once we do I bet it will get cold. I DID GET TO WEAR MY SWEATER!!! I felt pretty cool.... :P

 

 

I hope I covered everything and that it made sense, I love you all and hope you are all having a fun time!!!!! :D

 

Love: Elder Searle