What A Week

Nov. 3
Hello Everyone,

This week was one of my more stressful weeks haha. It was great though, we taught a lot of lessons  this week. On the 30th we had to be in at 6 for beggars night, which is where people trick or treat in Des Moines. We also had to be in at 6 on Friday. It was hard to do that because Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the busiest days for us. We decided to play ping pong on are kitchen table. (picture is attached) Ping pong turned into sting ping. On Thursday the Perrys fed us dinner. Brother Perry went to Japan on his mission and he fed us real Japanese food. My favorite were the giozias. 

The most stressful part of the week was Sunday. We had 6 investigators at church and it was stressful making sure they new where to go and what they were doing. It was great to see though. Hard work really pays off. 

We also played basketball with some high school aged kids. Terrel and Brandon and some of there friends. We bet them we could beat them to 21 and if we did we could share a message with them. We did beat them. They then said best 2 out of 3 so we played them again haha. We beat them the second time. we shared a message and they really enjoyed it. It was fun. 

On Sunday we went to another church before are church. It was the Regeneration church. We are teaching there Pastor Tony Cook. They are really nice people and said they would come to church with us if we went with them. It was strange cause they had a band playing music and  other things. They had a lot of truth but are missing the Priesthood and Prophets. 

Its getting colder every day. Things are great here in Cedar Rapids. I hope all is well. Love you all be safe! 

Just another week in Iowa

Hi,
We had a pretty great week filled with lots of biking. The weather was in the 40's at the first of the week but for the weekend it warmed up to 70 or so degrees. We averaged about 16 miles per day on the bikes. Me and my companion are very grateful we have the car this week. It makes missionary work so much more efficient!

We found a young couple we started teaching them yesterday. He has a strong addiction to cigarettes, but he has the desire to quit. We will start teaching him the start smoking workshop soon. 

We had a couple great lessons with Walid. We finished teaching him most of the commandments and he is so willing to live them. He is preparing to get baptized on November 15th we might move it up a couple days. His family doesn't want to join the church but they are okay with Walid joining the church. 

We had a great week, the highlight was when we knocked on a door and a lady yelled at us haha! Its always funny to look back after people yell at you. She said "it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Eve and Eves sisters." hahah People can be hard hearted. I hope everything is well! Love you all! 

-Elder Lords

New Companion

Well we had a good week this week. We went to transfer meeting in Iowa City. My old companion Elder Olsen is now in West Des Moines im still in Cedar Rapids with my companion Elder Gowers. He is from Spanish Fork, Utah. He is a cool guy. We get along well. He is a great teacher. He has been out 6 months.

The man were teaching from Lebanon, is doing so good! He is really busy but still made time for church yesterday so that was good!

We are teaching all of the commandments, and this really sorts out the wheat from the tares. So, people aren't willing to follow the Word of Wisdom. We started teaching him the word of wisdom and he said, I will obey the word of wisdom because it is a commandment. I love God and i want to follow his commandments. It was so cool! He is planning to be Baptized November 15th. Im very excited for him. He stopped smoking 2 months before we meet him. The Lord really softened his heart. None of his family is quite ready though.

We also had another cool experience. We knocked into a less active lady that we dont have the Records for. She is a Grandma who joined the Church 5 or 6 years ago. She told us she has been wanting to come to church. This was Saturday night about 8:30 p.m. she told us she would come to church. Thats what every less active says though haha! So we texted her and reminded her Sunday morning. She came to church and was so happy. Its crazy that since I have been here we have knocked into 5 less active members that we didnt have there record for. We have been able to get all of them back to church except a new married couple.  

I hope everyone is doing well. Winter is just around the corner. The leaves are falling here and its getting cold! Hope your all doing well. I love you all!  We got to go on a tour of general mills. It was so cool we got to eat hot koshers right out of the machine. Our ward mission leader, Brother Woods, works at General Mills and took us there.

-Elder Lords

                                                                   General Mills

                                                  Elder Lords and his new companion!

Transfers

Well the transfer calls are in and Elder Olsen is leaving. On Thursday we drive to Iowa City for transfer meeting. I will receive a new companion.
We had a good week. It was pretty interesting. The man that came with us to the priesthood session is on date to be Baptized on November 15th. He didnt attend church it was a little upsetting. He is a great guy he is just busy with Midterms. We also have some new investigators they are a younger family. He is an engineer for Honeywell the company that makes thermostats and other things. He is also the Pastor for a Nondenominational Christian Church. He is a great guy. He hasnt tried to bash with us once. Im positive he could bash he knows the bible well, he chooses to listen and learn. He is a great guy. We helped them build a fence the other day. Things are going great here in Cedar Rapids! I hope everyone is doing well!

Im sad to see my companion Elder Olsen leave, but he is needed else where and im excited for a new companion. We had a very good week. It is getting cold hear in Iowa. We had to break out the Winter coats after church yesturday we had some freezing fog/ freezing rain it was cold! We get the car back tonight for the week so that is exciting! We save a lot of time in travel having the car! AND it has a heater haha! Well take care everyone have a great week! Love you all! 

Elder Lords

Meet The Mormons

We had a very interesting, but good week. We recieved a text from the Assistants to the President on Wednesday about us traveling to Iowa City,  its about 30 minutes from here in Cedar Rapids. We went to Iowa City to watch the Movie "Meet the Mormons". It was an awesome privilege to watch. President Jensen wanted us to view it before the public views it on October 10th. I highly recommend viewing this movie. 

Transfers are coming up this next week on October 16th. My companion Elder Olsen will be leaving more than likly and I will be staying in Cedar Rapids. We had a really cool experience this week. We found a very nice Neighbor hood in our Area. We spent a lot of time knocking. We have several new investigators. We knocked into 2 less active Members. That is just unheard off. Since I have been here in Cedar Rapids we have knocked into 4 less active families that there records aren't in our ward.We were walking through a neighborhood knocking doors and we noticed a Utah license plate, so we ran to the other side off the road and knocked on the door. It was a young married couple who just graduated from Utah State. They moved in a month ago, but had not made it to church. He is a return missionary, and we could tell they were embarrassed they hadn't been to church. What a surprise that we found them. They were shocked when we knocked on there door haha! 

The best part about the week was finding a man from Lebanon. He moved to the United States 2 years ago because of all the political uprising in Lebanon and the war. We meet him at 6:15, 45 minutes before the Priesthood session of Conference. We taught him the Restoration and invited him to the Priesthood session. He said " I would love to come, lets leave now." He came to the church and watched the Priesthood Session. During the last 3 talks he had tears in his eyes. It was one of the highlights of my mission so far. He is
very excited to be Baptized. I cant wait to keep you all updated on him. I enjoyed conference very much! I hope everyone is doing well! Have a good week! 

-Love Elder Lords

LINK About "Meet the Mormons" 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865611988/Elder-Holland-David-Archuleta-promote-Meet-the-Mormons-through-video-free-download.html?pg=all

Iowans Love their football

Well its been a crazy, but good week. This week we worked the hardest we have. We skipped several meals, and bundled up to bike. Last week it was in the high 80 and 90's and this week it was in the 40 and 50's with rain. IT was a crazy change it felt like Idaho, haha. We taught a lot of lessons. We met two new investigators. Saturday was very slow because EVERYONE was watching the Iowa State vs. Iowa football game and everyone was listening or watching and would get mad if you knocked on there door haha!

We had the busiest week of me being out so far. We have a new Elder in our district from transfers. Well nothing too crazy has happened. We are loosing and finding new investigators each week. When I got to this area we had 3 investigators with 0 of them progressing. We have worked hard and are teaching pool is up to about 11 investigators with 2 progressing towards baptism. Well I hope everyone is doing well take care have a great week! I love you all! 

-Elder Lords

The mission life

Well my week was crazy it consisted of our most solid investigator moving. She moved to Iowa city, so the missionaries there are getting a miracle. We were very disappointed about that. The Lord blessed us for getting back to work. It was the hottest day of the summer. The car we rode to the district meeting in said 102 degrees. It was very humid too. I was on exchanges with the zone leaders and we had been knocking doors for an hour or more. So we were sweating to death haha! We knocked into a man. I knocked on his door and there was a loud deep voice that yelled "Who is it??!" I replied its the missionaries. He says again in a loud voice " WHO?". I replied again the missionaries. A man opens the door and he is huge. This man is 6 foot 11!! We set a return appointment with him. He isn't working right now because he had back surgery recently. We had an awesome lesson with him. He said that if we could answer some of the questions he has always had he will join our church. He is an awesome guy. He then took us to breakfast this morning it was great. It has been a crazy week. We also knocked into another man , He is a Born Again Christian or a Baptist. We knocked on his door and was like oh come in! We were so excited and then he instantly started to bash. It took us almost two hours to leave his house. He was the nicest rude person I know. Then on Sunday we came home from church to find out two of the missionary bikes from the house we live in had been stolen while we were at church. We felt bad because one bike was the Ward Mission leaders bike. We called him and told him what happened and told him we were sorry. We left to head to an appointment. You would never guess but we found the bike in our back neighbors tree hahah! We aren't sure if they stole it or what we just took it back and returned it haha! The Navoo temple was beautiful! We also got to meet the last mission president that was here before my current mission president. His name is President Jergensen from St. Anthony.  The Lord is always blessing us. We see miracles everyday! I love you all!! Take care! 

-Elder Lords