Better/Busy Week

Dear Family,

So this week has been better and pretty dang busy. Monday and Tuesday I was with Elder Tauesi, who is  in the Cold Springs YSA Ward, it was their FHE so I was able to go to that with him. It was at the UNO (University of Nebraska Omaha) institute building. Then that night, we went to pick some stuff up at another Elders apartment and Tauesi almost ran into someone! The girl was running across the street, in the dark, with dark clothing on. Tauesi locked his tires up and left a tire mark, it was scary.

On Wednesday, it was Zone Conference so that was pretty cool. I got to see a few people that I haven't seen for a while. Elder Schofield was suppose to be there and I was really looking forward to seeing him. I guess his comp was pretty sick so he didn't come, I was bummed.

On Thursday, I got my first taste of the projects. We went up there to try a referral, who wasn't home. I want to go up there and street contact and just talk to everyone sometime, I think that would be pretty fun.

Friday we had our temple trip, so you know that's going to be a good day, it went well. I got a picture that was pretty funny. It was SUPER humid that day so that's why my camera has a white glowing outline. The dude that photo bombed my picture is actually my companion. He walked really slow in front of the camera and it just happened to be when mine was taken. It was pretty funny.

On Saturday, we did a good amount of service! We helped a kid with his Eagle Project, we sanded and re-painted all the park tables and moved mulch. Then after that, we were going to go help a member in the ward, who had knee surgery, mow her lawn. Instead, they had us wash rocks.I guess she has a rock garden that needed some work and she put all the rocks into a kids pool and filled it with water. It had been sitting in the water for a week so it was all nasty and smelled really bad. We took all the crap off of the rocks, like leaves and little branches. That that night, we went and saw our investigator, he just bought a 2014- 3500 Diesel Dodge Ram and he wanted to show it to us, so he took us for a spin in it. That was fun! :)

We are fed just about every night and I haven't been on my bike yet....not going to unless I actually have to. :P The picture/letter I posted, is from a 7 year old boy. I laughed when I read it because it is spot on to missionary work. I really liked the last part about dinner. :)

Love you guys!!
Love, Elder Searle

Brendan's apartment, he has the big comfy chair 

Monkey from his little sister

Bellevue 2nd Baby!!

Dear Family,

So yep, after almost 9 months in the same area...I finally got transferred. I really didn't move that far, just across the river. Bellevue 1st was in our district and zone so I went on exchanges there, but never here in Bellevue 2nd, which is in another zone. It's a military place here, they are all Air Force and the Offut Air Force Base is in our area.

Let me first start off by talking about my last few days in Greenview. The website went down that the church uses, so getting all the transfer info took longer than usual. It took a while before I heard that I was leaving.

I pretty much spent all Thursday packing, I had no clue that I had collected so much "stuff" while I was there. It was also really strange because I haven't had to move anywhere and seeing my area in the room all empty was really strange. Even Elder Martinez commented how strange it was.

We spent Thursday night going around and saying goodbye to people. Our dinner was cancelled so we went to our Bishop's house and had dinner with the Keller's and had a good time with them.

I texted some people and told them thank you for being legit and everything. I texted the family who has the little girl that calls me "Big Teddy Bear" and told her I was going to miss her. 

I also spent time with Keowa, he was the last person that I went and said goodbye too. We met him at Big Lake and just talked with him and he drove us around for one last time. I'm sure going to miss that kid, but he is pretty dang solid in the gospel so I don't need to worry about him. We talked about the good times we had together...it was hard saying goodbye to him.

So now about Bellevue 2nd, everyone here is either in the Air Force, retired or has family in it. We have this whole military apartment complex in our area that his huge!! We can't knock or talk to anyone, but we can wave to people. It's really strange walking around and not being able to talk to people. But I like it here, it's pretty legit, although I haven't seen much of it yet.

On Saturday, my first full day in the area, we went with an Air Force dude and went and played ultimate frisbee at the Air Force Base. They have an entire hanger that is just for working out. I soooo wish I could get a picture of it, I've never seen more exercise equipment in my life! They have a few basketball courts, tennis courts, a play ground, soccer fields and a smoothie bar! They have a smoothie bar in the place!!!! The moment I walked in and saw everyone...I felt fat and way out of shape! LOL  We played on the huge soccer field and I sure got my workout for the day.

Most of the people aren't Mormons so swear words were flying like crazy and they are all super buff!! They also don't keep the place very cool, it's kept warm so you sweat everything off. 

I live in an apartment, it's actually really nice. They have an office area which is where I'm at right now emailing you guys. They have a weight room and really nice computers. 

I'm also going to ride a bike here....fat man on a bike!! LOL My companion has 2 so I will use one of them. It will take a few days to get used to riding a bike around, I haven't done that in years!! :) We are in a car share, but will be riding bikes most of the time. 

My new ward is pretty cook, smaller than my other ward and older. Elder Quayle is my new companion, he's from Idaho and has been out 18 months. He is pretty chill and is a funny dude.

I'm not sure what we are doing for p-day, I think we're going to play basketball and we need to do some shopping, but that's all I know. :)

Love you all!!

Love Elder Searle

 Telling Keowa bye

 Brendan's 1st baptism and great friend

 Elder Martinez & Elder Searle in their "Jett Powered" shirts for a little boy in their ward

Bishop Kellers family, they took such good care of Brendan and we are so appreciative of them and the love they gave to him. Thank you for taking such great care of him for 9 months, he's going to miss you guys!

Possibly My Last Week in Greenview

So as my header says, I am 97.3% sure that I will be transferred this Friday. President Weston likes us to stay in our first area for 8+ months, and I'll hit that. But I guess there have been people that have stayed another transfer so I guess we'll see what happens. I will find out on Thursday morning, it would be nice to see some place new, but it will be hard to leave some of the people behind....but it's all good.

So I have been asked if we have caught that mouse yet and the answer is....no! We gave up on it because my companion has spent enough money on it. We told the guy that lives here that he has a mouse in the house and he said he'd do something about it, but he was back in the hospital, once again for health problems. Did he tell us that?? Nope, we found out from other members in the ward...this is like his third trip to the hospital, so hopefully he won't have to go back again.

I don't really have any cool stories this week, we did go on exchanges with the Bellevue Elders and Elder Jenkins came here with me, we had a good time.

We had Mike show up to church again! He is a less active and he showed up the last 20 min. of church. Go Mike!!

We had intense lightening and thunder storm Saturday night. It was SOOO loud that it woke both of us up and it scared the crap out of Elder Martinez! It lit up everything!

I had s super good workout today, played a killer game of volleyball and 2 basketball games. My poor companion and I were just swimming in sweat! I'm pretty sure I lost like 4 lbs. just playing! I weighed myself and I keep losing weight. :)

We also got some cool t-shirts from a family in our ward, they have a 2 year old boy with a lot of health problems and isn't going to live much longer. They have set up a foundation and stuff for him. Since he won't be able to travel the world, they give out these free t-shirts that say "Jett Powered" and it has a guy flying a plane on it. All they ask is that you wear the shirt and somewhere in the world take a picture and email it to them. My companion and I took some selfies of us in our shirts....and I forgot to bring in my camera, so I'll have to post them next week.

Love,
Elder Searle