Weekly Post - 4/25/2011

wow, this has been a week to remember.

So first I got to go back to Des Moines for the week because they had Leadership meeting, and for some reason beyond my understanding they wanted me there! So I got to go back to Des Moines and visit my first area! :D It was so happy, and great, I miss that area even more now! And what was the best part was getting to go back to see my RC- Jesse Cottrill :) My 1 baptism.

That is a cool story too because-

So I walked with two other missionaries who didn't really know the area over to see Jesse, and it turned out that when I got there he was packing with his mom! They were moving back to South Dakota the next day! I had caught them jsut in time to say good bye. It was insane, and very humbling to see the excitement in their eyes when they saw me at their door. I know the Gospel blesses lives :)

We learned a ton of stuff at leadership, it was very cool. I learned how teach more effectively and the importance of inviting people to be baptized, to pray, and to read the scriptures. Oh, and to come to church too. I truely feel blessed to have been at leadership!

The weather here is AWESOME! I love the lightning/thunder storms :) It's so fun. You haven't seen lightning until you've come to the midwest! It's definately different.

So I just wanted to talk about something one of my Zone Leaders talked about this last week.

Close your eyes and picture yourself hugging the Savior for 5 minutes.

If you think- eh it'd be cool.- then you are missing the picture. I love this picture http://timetohealthylife.com/images/journey%27s%20end-3.jpg and how powerfully it depicts the Saviors love for us.

When Jesus Christ came to the America's they had to be cleansed of wickedness because Jesus Christ is so pure, that's why the wicked were killed. Imagine being amongst those who survived, and had the privilege to touch Him, and hug Him! That would be amazing.

Start this study with a prayer, then Read Alma 5. Think about every question asked to you in that chapter. What are your desires? Are they righteous? How will you change? How will you use the Saviors Atoning sacrifice for you?

This Easter season is of far more importance than that of Christmas. This last year there was a extra hard push for people to remember Jesus Christ for Christmas. But what is Easter? Easter is the time of the Atonement, and the resurrection. The most vital thing that could have ever come to happen one the earth, the greatest moment in history! And yet we over look it with bunnies, plastic eggs, and candy.

How will you remember Him?

I know He lives. He is my best friend. He's done so much for me, and only through Him can my spiritual wounds be healed. Take the cup, and drink of the Living Water, take the cup and thirst no more, that is what He asks. He asks that you remember Him, and love Him.

think about that.

P-Trowsers OUT!

p.s. last night I finished my first journal woot woot

Weekly Post - 4/18/2011

So this was my first week with my new companion, and taking charge of the area. I am in fact still a junior companion, but I've been in the area longer so I've gotta kinda take charge there.

We're working hard to get ahold of some potential investigators, lots of investigators have been very busy, but it's all good. I'm glad that we have stuff that is keeping us busy at least! Elder Shelman are certain we are going to baptize someone this transfer, which we are very excited about. I'm ready for things to pick up. I've been praying very hard lately. As I was sitting in district meeting this last week I just felt a very strong impression that everything in this area that is going on is coming down to me, and that I need to change me. I need to remember how much I love the Lord and show that love through my ernest service. Jesus Christ is my best friend! And yet I still feel like I'm slacking in what I can do.

Everyone needs to pretend they are looking me in the eyes right now O-O there's my face. I've been checking Mormon.org very faithfully, and I still have yet to see profiles from friends, family and people I know. Life is hard, we all struggle with time and the amount we have; but yet we all find time to get on facebook for hours. Everyone this week I want to take time out of facebook, go to mormon.org, look at it, watch the videos, read profiles, and share your testimony by creating a profile. I as a missionary am not approved to create one- yet. But You all have the ability to do so. Imagine somebody reading your profile, being touched and blessed by the gospel! You can do that! I know that as you all do this you'll feel blessings in your life. Missionary opportunities are there, you just gotta find them and do it. It's a member's duty to serve our Heavenly Father, by sharing His gospel, forever.

12 minutes left to email...

I'm assuming that a ton of my friends have gotten mission calls too! I'd love to hear about that :)

My allergies have been dumb lately, I'm grateful for medicine that helps them out.

So I've been trying really hard to beat this struggle I have. I've been trying to quit biting my nails. It's a very bad habit I have, cause I do it ALOT. So I bought this stuff to put on my nails that will make them taste bad. hopefully it helps.

So this week is leadership meeting, Elder Redder and I get to go to it. Elder Redder gets to go because he's the DL and I get to go just because they want me to I guess. I'm not really sure. Elder Redder claims me as the Assistant to the District Leader, so that's our little joke. I get to conduct District Meetings. That's all I get to do as Assistant to the District Leader.

Anyways I'm bored, and this post is already lame so I'll go now.

Love you all!

Elder Prows

P.S.

8515 Douglas Ave Ste 19

Urbandale, IA 50322

:) just in case you don't see it up there.

Weekly Post - 4/11/2011

Ok this is big! This is so big! BWAAAAAAAAAAH!

That was big.

 

Ok. So I'm still in Bloomington. That's another month and a half here- which is cool I guess. I've already been here for 3 months so that't cool. I've been here longer than I was in Des Moines, which is weird, but I love it here none the less! I'm excited to see what is going for me here!

 

So my new companion! You won't find out about him until the end of this post- but Elder Unsicker is now in Dubuque, Iowa and that's pretty cool. Elder Redder is now with Elder Scott Nay, who if anyone is actually reading this they'd recognize that name- Elder Nay and I actually have been friends since 2nd grade. So that is rather interesting! He was also in my zone in Des Moines, so I guess we're just gonna follow each other around the mission??? He's been out for a year now though so ya da ya da.

 

This last week was slower, because it was transfer week of course. We didn't teach very many lessons because Elder Unsicker was packing. I cleaned the apartment while he packed, so our apartment wasn't entirely a mess when my new companion, who you will find out about at the end of this email, wouldn't find the apartment as a big pile of garbage.

 

Saying Good-bye to Elder Unsicker was pretty hard. It's difficult when you've been with the guy for 3 months, you know each other really well, get along, and share the same birthday. But that's the life of a mission, and you know what? I made a life long friend! So I'm cool with it, and I will see him sometime again soon.

 

I get to go back to Des Moines in a few weeks! I found out the other day that I get to go to Leadership training! Which is going to be fun, so I'm excited about that. I'm going to go see Jesse, and I'm gonna go and see my members in DM2nd! It's gonna be kick-awesome.

 

Anyways, I can't think of anyway else of stalling my new comp from you. I want to but I can't think of anything else cool that happened in the week.

 

My new comp is Elder Marcus Shelman, he's from Pingree, Idaho and he's been on his mission for a little over 10 months. He like sports such as basketball and raquetball, and his favorite band is Trapt. He is probably the tallest companion I've had so far, and he likes to listen to people when they talk. Love the guy!

 

Anyways, that's that.

 

hope to hear from you too!

 

Love

 

P-Trowsers

Weekly Blog - 4/6/2011

Man, oh man, has time flown by! 6 months in the mission! It's insane!

 

I can't believe how fast these last two transfers have gone by. It's been 12 weeks since I came to Bloomington, and now Elder Unsicker is being transferred. I'm getting my third companion! And then in 6 weeks I'm probably gonna be transferred out of Bloomington, which is way crazy! I can't believe how fast this is all going by.

 

This last week has been full of just getting ready and anticipating Transfers. Stress rose like crazy wondering what was going to happen with transfer calls, but it went pretty much how everyone expected and predicted it would. Elder Unsicker, Pratt and Guest are all being transferred so we're gonna get 3 new missionaries in our district. Which is cool I guess, I just hope that they are cool! Haha

 

This last week was pretty freaking exciting though, we happened to have 4 investigators referred over to us by 2 members! And they are SOLID! :) Yeah, I'm pretty freakin sure that we are gonna get them baptized. Just when is the question haha, but it's way sweet! We have had a lesson with 2 of them and we invited them to be baptized when they find that these things are true, and they were like "yeah! Cause if this is true then that'd be the next step right?!" so that was like WHOA! :) So we're gonna help them get to know the gospel. These investigators are Jennifer McCartney and her boyfriend Ben (I don't know his last name). They're way sweet. And then there is Tony and Nikki (I don't remember their last name) and they have a 8 year old, who I don't remember the name of at the moment. They're way sweet and currently looking for a new church cause they don't like the one they were going to previously, and the path it was taking. They have a 15 month old daughter who had recently serious brain surgery, and they were full of anxiety and the brother who reffered them gave them a blessing and they said they really felt the stress be relieved, so they want to learn more! :) We talked to them briefly on the doorstep the night we got the refferal and talked about families, and how the church is huge into them and they were just eating that up, particularly the dad was- they want to learn more! Yeah, I think they'll do ok ;)

 

The part about these families that makes me so happy is that they are referrals from members. It is so hard to get members to refer people, and this last week we had 2! That was amazing, and they want to have us teach them in their home, and work with them as well! It's sweet! So things are starting to pick up here big time. I'm way excited.

 

So Conference finally came around and that was AWESOME! My favorite thing was the smile on Pres. Eyrings face, it was so happy. It was almost to the extent it seemed like he was hiding something awesome and just couldn't wait to announce it! And he was cracking jokes in Priesthood session! What was with that?! I don't think I've ever heard Pres. Eyring crack a joke, and these weren't just chickle jokes too, they were funny! His talk in Priesthood though, was AMAZING! I loved it! Just to let you women know, Priesthood was the best session this round. The First Presidency gave killer talks, especially President Monson- it was a talk just focusing on how we can be better people. It really put on him for me at that time the image of what a Prophet is. He was fulfilling his role as a Prophet big time- he called out the men who are not getting married cause lots of guys just like to date around and never get married which is super true, so he said GET MARRIED. But the thing I liked was he covered just how to be good people, and be more Christ-like. Go to the Temple, avoid pornography, drugs, alcohol, gambling, listen to clean uplifting music, watch clean uplifting movies, serve one another, fulfill your calling, and live worthy of the priesthood. It was all central to personal worthiness to the Priesthood! It was a killer talk.

This Conference was centered on two words I found- Service, and Hope.

It was a really good conference. I've said that a ton, but it's true. I was just grateful to hear from the Prophet and all the leadership of the church.

 

Anyways, I finally got mail on monday too. I hadn't gotten any for a while, so I was a little worried I'd been forgotten- but obviously not so it's all good haha. It's great to hear from people, so I'm glad when I get stuff. BTW, I still would love to hear from lots of people I haven't yet! So please do write :) Especially if you have some big event coming up, like marriage or a mission call! I'd love to hear about those! I love sharing what's going on with me, but I love hearing about what's going on with you all, because I love ya'all! Plus your adresses are nice to have so I can send post cards and stuff ;)

 

Love ya!

 

Elder Prows

 

P-Trowsers <---That's my rapper name