Hot Week!!!

So on Tuesday, we went to Quackers for lunch and we pigged out on all the wings there. The hottest sauce there is the Triple Atomic Sauce and you have to sign a waiver before you can even order it, and you have to pay $1.50 extra because the sauce just comes in a little bottle so you have to pay for the whole thing. Anyway, last month there were some Elders that tried it, so this month, I decided to try it so I can say that I did it! So ya....Hottest Thing Ever!!!!! I had one of the other Elders record it with my camera so you guys can watch my face turn bright red and the tears going down my face. It only burned like no other for 10 min. then it was fine...except the 2 days following. ;)

Elder Cortez was sick all of Tuesday, so after Quackers, we just went home and watched some movies that we have, like the Restoration and Legacy. It also snowed like crazy this day and I got to be the driver since my companion was sick and another Elder had his driving privileges taken away and the other Elder doesn't like driving in the snow. I behaved for the most part, did some drifting in a parking lot. :)

Wednesday we taught Cody- 15 year old boy again. We mostly talked about what he read in the Book of Mormon, which was Lehi's dream, so we talked about the iron rod and the tree. It went pretty well, he also stayed for the young men/young women combined activity, they played Minute To Win It games and Elder Cortez and I stayed and watched them play games.

Thursday we had splits so I went and taught the Kozack's again, I felt like we had a decent lesson, we taught them about the Book of Mormon and how she could receive an answer. A lot of crazy things happened while we were there. Their daughter was yelling and swearing at us and her husband was drunk and drinking, so we had to deal with that for a little bit. We went back on Saturday to check on them, she said she'd call us if she needs help with anything.

Friday we went and taught Keowa, he is 18 and we talked about how the Book of Mormon is the evidence we have that we can find out for ourselves if this is the true church. They also fed us dinner so we were there a while.

Saturday no one let us in most of the day. We did have an appointment with Daniel so we were able to teach him again. I felt like crap this day, but I still went out.

Sunday we had Cody and Keowa show up for church!!! It was nice because we haven't had anyone show up for a while. Cody really seemed to enjoy it and he was telling us how he will have to get a white shirt and tie for the next time he comes!!!

So Elder Cortez leaves Monday, February 17th. :/ He finally got his Visa and that is the day he leaves. I will be staying with the Kanesville Elders for a day or two until I get my new companion.

So there's my weekly report!!

Love Elder Searle

Weekly Report of Important Missionary Stuff

So this week has been different. To start off, we had exchanges on Wednesday with the Zone Leaders. That meant that I had to run the mission for a day and a half. It was really hard and I clearly didn't do the best I could have done. I learned that I need to learn my area a little better. My companion got his Visa and will be leaving the next transfer, in 2-3 weeks. I'm going to miss him. He has had to be senior companion and I have been "trying" to make all the choices, I don't really like it but it's starting to help me.

We had our chili cook-off on Friday. It was super good and we were the judges so we got to try all the different kinds. We only had one investigator come. He's 65 years old and he came to the ward Christmas party too. He is really funny and we kind of had to leave him for a little bit while we judged the chili. He was going around shaking everyone's hands and was cleaning up everything afterwards. He is a really cool dude who lives a hard life. He mostly walks around all day looking for pop cans so he can turn them in for money. His son and girlfriend live with him and they smoke and do drugs all the time, but Juan doesn't. So most of his money goes to his kids and they just spend it on drugs.

We also saw Daniel again, we finished up teaching him about the Restoration and he likes what we are saying. He says that for him to get his answer, he just has to go around and try out all the different churches. He also said that in his scriptures, it says if someone comes to your door step and talks about God, then to let them in. So we're not sure if he just let us in or if he really does want to change. As far and I think and know, I really think he wants this church to be true.

We also went to see Mike and his wife. His wife just got out of surgery a few days ago and wasn't feeling too well still. He was drunker than drunk and was pretty out of the it the whole time we were there. We shared Mosiah 18 with her. It talks about how we are there to mourn with those that mourn and to comfort those who are in need of comfort. She said if she needs help with anything, she would give us a call.

Super-Bowl Sunday....that was an interesting day. We knew no one would let us in and that no one would invite us over for dinner. One of the members brought us pizza, chips and salsa, root beer and a bag of M&M's and said we could throw our own little Super-Bowl party, which we did! We pigged out on everything mostly because it was Fast Sunday and we were hungry! Since no one would really let us in, we upped the family mission plans with the older people in our ward and the people that we knew wouldn't be watching the game. So it was Meet The Elderly Sunday for us! The member we live with, when he came home after his Super-Bowl party, he told us how bad the game was. I'm glad that I got to miss a terrible game.

Anyway, those are the highlights for this week.

Love, Elder Searle

Investigators (1-27-14)

So I'm going to talk about some of our investigators that we found and are teaching-

One guy we found outside working on his car. We got to talking with him and he told us he just got laid off of work and his car broke down. He said his faith in Christ wasn't very strong, especially since he just lost his job and all these other things that are happening to him. So we went back and taught him a little on the Restoration and he said he'd read the pamphlet we left him. We went back on Sunday and taught him again! He was telling us that the day after we stopped and talked to him, that his week just got so much better! He got a call and he most likely will get a new and better job than he had before. He found a new engine for his car that was super cheap and he was really happy about that. He wants to learn more and liked how things got so much better for him after talking to us. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and about Prophets, we plan on seeing him Wednesday so hopefully he is reading.

Another person we are teaching is a 15 year old boy, I've talked about him before and he's a pretty cool kid. We taught him on Thursday night, and that's when we do splits so I got to teach him with a High Council member and it was nice to have him with me since I'm still not used to teaching. But we set baptism for the end of February so hopefully he can work towards that.

We got to teach another family, she didn't know anything about our church but she said we could come and teach her. She really likes how we have different programs for the youth and she really wants her daughter to go to them.

Another man we found, we found him while we were shoveling driveways. He came out and helped us finish and said we could come back and see him. We tried a few times to see him but he was always busy, but we finally got in and we were able to answers their questions. They wanted to know if this is a school that we are doing and just questions about our mission. They said we could come back.

Anyway, there's some background on the people we are teaching. We have 6 people set for baptism and not a single one of them came to church on Sunday. We do have a chili cook off on Friday and we invited a lot of people to that, so hopefully they will come to that, THEN we can take them on a tour of the church, so they won't be lost when they finally do come to church.

Overall, it was a pretty good week, take luck!

Love, Elder Searle

Super Cool Week!!

Hello Family,

 Here is my breakdown of my week-

Tuesday-We were driving around (which I get to drive now!) and we were trying to find some less actives. We knocked on a door and a 15 year old boy answered and he was really interested in what we had to say. He said he went on a weekend camping trip with a church group and how cool it was and how close he felt to God. We taught him a short lesson on the Restoration and left him a pamphlet, we are going back to see him so hopefully he read it!

We also did splits this night, I was able to go see the Durrant's, turns out they are related to the Durrant's and Jones's in Morgan! We got talking about hunting up by the "M" and he knew a lot of things about Morgan, which was really cool to talk about. He has a really nice car collection and when the weather gets warmer, he wants us to help him with his cars.

Wednesday-We had Zone Training today, got to see the new Greenies!! (glad to know I'm not the newest anymore!) It was good and afterwards we all had lunch at Huhot, it's a Mongolian Grill. It's pretty much the coolest place ever.

After we went and saw Steve and taught him a little more. He said he was going to come to church, but he didn't. He helps take care of a 13 year old boy since his dad is in jail. That's nice that Steve helps takes care of this boy.

Thursday, Nothing much happened today, it was SUPER windy and it would blow us around while we were walking.

Friday-We were able to go to the temple as a zone. It was really neat. The temple here is super small, especially compared to the temples I've been to. It was really spiritual and it was a super good day! Too bad we can only go to the temple every 2 months, and that's if you're close enough to go. Anyway...Temple Day was really cool!! :)

Saturday-We met a 19 year old boy that while in jail, became really close to God because he read the Bible all the time. He said he enjoys learning more about other religions and he is really open to learning more.

Sunday-We had an early meeting today, it was really strange because the church was still kind of dark and no one was there. It brought back memories of working at the Elementary School! Anyways, the Primary President asked us if we would teach the Primary kids. Elder Cortez taught them about doing service and I talked about the blessings from serving and how nice it is to serve. It was really neat to teach the kids!

Well, that's my week, most of our lessons that we taught this week are to new investigators, which is super cool!! The work here is just about to really get moving. Just yesterday, we were able to teach 3 lessons to new people!!

Hope everything is going well with everyone and that the weather isn't as crazy as here! One day it was 34 then it got to 70 and then down to 18..crazy!!!

Love all you guys!!

Elder Searle

Transfers (1-13-14)

Hi!!!

So Elder Cortez and I are still in Greenview, he didn't get his Visa so he is here for another transfer. Since it is a new transfer, we use a new planner and I left my old planner, that had what I did for the week, at home. I can't remember everything we did for the week very well...I need my old planner!

This week we got some lessons in, the most we've had the whole time we have been here! We taught most of the lessons just on the front porches of the houses.

It's been pretty warm here, it's like 40 degrees so it's been nice to just wear my suit.

So one of our lessons was with Paul, he was member growing up and then just stopped going. We went to his house to talk with his wife who has cancer. He answered the door and talked to us. He is really big into history and has studied all the different religions. He kept telling us that Moses didn't really cross the Red Sea, it was another sea he crossed. Then he went into talking about dinosaurs and this other stuff. I'm not sure if he'll come back but who knows. :) At least he talked to us.

On Thursday we went on splits so I went over to the Council Bluffs area for the day.  I got to drive, it was really strange because first off, I haven't driven a car for awhile and second....I'm not used to a small car. It went well, until I got an "aggressive driver" by the Tiwi box we all have in our cars. A huge van was parked in front of the STOP sign, and I slammed on the brakes when Elder Riley yelled stop sign! It's all good though, you have to get a few of those in a short amount of time to get your driving privilege's taken away. :)

The 4 people who said they would show up for church....didn't show up, we were really sad about that. :(

Take Luck!!!

Love Elder Searle

CHILLY!!! (1-6-14)

Hi Family!!

So school was suppose to start up for everyone today, but all the schools are cancelled. It is -10 right now and when the wind picks up later today, it will be -30 to -40! Our mission pres says that no weather is too cold as long as you are dressed for it...good thing today is P-day and we won't be out in it too long.

Monday-P-day and we went to Gordman's, we ended up in the sunglasses/cologne section and Elder Cortez got me like 8 times with this nasty smelling cologne, I got him back with some ice smelling cologne, just normal missionary stuff. :)

Tuesday-we had a trainer meeting in Sioux City, which is about a 1 1/2 hour drive. We had to get up at 5:45am and get ready. We met the AP's at the mission office and they took a van full of us, which was nice because we got to sleep on the way there. President Weston and his wife spoke to us for the full 8 hours or so we were there. They bought us all pizza for lunch that was really good. I really liked listening to what Sister Weston had to say, she is SUPER nice and she just loves everyone and everything. She talked about the 10 things we should learn as missionaries and that those 10 things should be used in our lives everyday.

After the meeting and after we came home and had dinner, we went out to find some less actives to visit. We came across a house that we thought were non-members and since we didn't know their names, we stopped by. It turns out they are members and they had just got home about an hour before from the husband having surgery. We were able to talk to them and give him a blessing. They were really nice and were glad we stopped by.

Wednesday- We had a district meeting at 11am and got out at 1pm. Since it was just Elder Cortez and I with all these sister missionaries, we had to go somewhere else to eat lunch. We went to PepperJax again and we just happened to get there during the 3rd quarter of the Nebraska game. We got to watch the rest of the game, since Nebraska won, Elder Cortez wore his Nebraska beanie with pride! :)

We then went and visited 3 less active families

Thursday- we shoveled snow for most of the day, like all day! We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings since Elder Cortez and I were given a gift card there by a stranger. We then had FHE with a less active family and we did a matching game and a game about the Prophet's with the wife and 3 kids.

Friday-we talked to Mike again, it turns out he has read the Book of Mormon 2 times and he is writing his own Book of Mormon and Bible. He wants to go to church where the members have been all over the world and seen different religions and see how others live around the world. We tried to tell him that most of our ward members are returned missionaries but he doesn't think to seem that counts.

Saturday- we talked to Jerry and what he needs to do to get his temple recommend

To answer some questions....church now starts at 9am so we go to church, come home and have lunch and do our studies for a couple of hours then go out and work. We usually try to visit less actives.

YES!! My testimony has grown, it's different now because growing up at home, nobody really questioned my beliefs. I never had to really stand up for what I believe in, and now I do.

Love you all, Elder Searle

Happy New Year!

Hello!!! It was SOOOOO nice to SEE you guys!! I felt bad right at the start because Maya was crying already, but she was better after talking about her Minecraft stuff. Brianna was funny, she would be the one to have a paper with questions on it. Parker was Parker... Travis looked good with his new haircut! I bet he hates it because it is "short". Dad looked like he was actually awake :P You looked good with your warm scarf. :)

 

I got my knee looked at and she said I tore my meniscus. She said it should heal by itself, she gave me some meds that I need to take twice a day for 14 days. She said if it’s not better by then, I’ll have to go back in. The meds I’m on are pain killers and they help with arthritis so its been feeling great! :)  It seems like it is doing better, I might go buy a brace for it still though.

 

Christmas day! We went to the zone leaders house and we opened presents there with them and the Kanesville Elders. We played games and had WAFFLES! I tried my new Great Harvest jam I received from you guys on mine and it was great! We had lunch with a members family at the Council Bluffs church, which is a super small church. It has only one hallway and that’s it. We have been there once before for a baptism and we didn't realize we saw the whole church that day. We then went to another members house so the Kanesville Elders could skype their parents.

 

 

Friday - we saw the doctor.  We also saw Jerry Warren again, the dude that always says he has to put his pants on. This time he said he said he wasn't sure if we could come over because he didn't comb his hair...... I'm pretty sure he is just messing with us. He did come to church Sunday which was great. We introduced him to the bishop!  We had to hurry and find him because Jerry was only staying for sacrament which is first, then he said he had to go home and put his leg up.

 

Saturday - We knocked on doors in the 60 degrees we had. We had short sleeve shirts on and we drove with the windows down. It was a VERY nice day. Then the wind kicked up at about 8pm while we were walking and just blew and blew, we were pretty much running home trying to hurry and get out of that stupid wind. We got a ride to church the next day and someone’s tramp blew in the middle of a field. It was then 6 degrees Sunday AND it was SUNNY ALL DAY! I don't get how the temp can change that fast and that much!!

 

I really enjoy those cd's you sent me, I really enjoy that latest one you sent me with Jerico Road. "Come Thou Fount" is my favorite right now :)  I listen to it sometimes just to have music playing when we are home. It’s sooo strange not having music playing all day like I’m use to.

 

Remember when I told you guys while Skyping that there are squirrels out here? They run all over the place and there are BLACK ones!!! They are sneaky little things and they run all over the road. I bet I see like 30-40 of them every day!

I hope that you guys have a good week, my time is up, hopefully Grandma Searle is doing better. Enjoy spending time with everyone while they are still home. :)

 

Love ya and take care!!

Elder Searle