May 15
Hey Everyone, 

We had a great week. We got to teach a lot of people. It was good. We stayed super busy. We are always busy. Mahawa and Princess passed their baptismal interviews on Saturday so they will be getting baptized on Saturday at 1:39 p.m. Mahawa will be getting married on Friday at 4 p.m. It should be a great week. 

This week we will be in our area all week so we should be able to teach a lot. It will be good. I want to share one of my favorite quotes. “The purpose of the gospel is … to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature.”  I am grateful for the gospel. I want to be a good man. I make mistakes and sin, but I am so grateful for the optamism that comes from The Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love you all have a good week! 

-Elder Lords

Happy Mothers Day!

May 8
Hey Everyone, 

THings are going great. We had a pretty good week! We travelled a lot! We drove over 700 miles this week all over the mission attending meetings. It was good, but long. We also got to stop in Dyersville, IA at the set where they filmed the "Field of Dreams". It was cool. I will attach a picture!! 

The work is going well. We have a family who will all be getting baptized on May 21st. Hopefully the Father (Prince) will be able to join the wife (Mahawa), and the eight year old daughter (Princess). Prince and Mahawa will get married at the church May 20th, and then they will be baptized the next day! It will be awesome. They are doing well. We are also teaching another family, Justin (12), and Hannah (his aunt). Justin's Mom is a member of the church. All the people that I just talked about are from Liberia. They are wonderful people. 

I am very grateful for Mother's, especially my Mother. Parents play such a essential, and fundamental role in the lives of their children. I am so grateful for the kind, compassionate, loving, and thoughtful Mother that I have. She taught me so much. I am grateful for all the women in my life. I hope you all have a great week! I love you! 

May 1
Hello Everyone, 

Things are going well. It has been a great Sunday. We had a lot of investigators at church. It was a huge blessing. We were supposed to have a lot of people at church, and church started and no one was at church, but at the end of the day we had 13 people at church and 7 of which are baptismal age. It was a huge blessing. We had a mission wide fast that every companionship could have 2 people "On Date" for baptism by May 14th. So hopefully we can see fruits from our fast. 

We got a full work in our area this week. It was great. I love teaching people the gospel. This week we taught people from all over the place. We taught a lot of people from Liberia. We taught, and talked to several people from Thailand. We also taught some people from New York, and from other places around the US. It has been a great week. I love the optimism of the Gospel. The Gospel is all about where we are willing to go with the savior's help, not where we have been. It is about changing and putting the past behind us. I love applying the principles of the atonement in my life, and helping others to apply those principles. 

This week we will have a bunch of meetings.... :/ We will have MLC in Iowa City on Tuesday. Then we will attend Zone Training meetings in Cedar Rapids(Wednesday), Davenport(Thursday), and Oskaloosa(Friday). It will be good. We are stopping by "The Field of Dreams" on Wednesday so that will be fun! I hope you all have a good week! I love you all! 

-Elder Lords

April 24
Hey Everyone! 

This week was good. We had transfers it went pretty well. Three of the missionaries that were coming out missed there flight from Texas to Iowa. So they didn't get here on Wednesday until 10 p.m. They were suppose to get her on Wednesday at 12 p.m. So they had to sit in the Fort Worth Airport from 10 a.m. to about 8 p.m. That would be such a long day! Then we trained them from about 11 p.m. to 12 p.m. It was a long night. They were all falling asleep as President interviewed them and as we trained them haha! 

We also got to teach a few people this weekend. For a while we lost contact with Hala. Angelina, Halas mom, also told us we couldn't teach her anymore. Then this week we got permission to teach her again. So we saw her last night and she is going to be baptized on May 21st. We will have a busy weekend. Mahawa a lady we are teaching is going to be married at the church on May 20th and then baptized with her daughter May 21st as well. They are a really cool Mom and Daughter from liberia. 

I love being a missionary! Life is good. I love you all! 

Picture: On the left in Alex. He was baptized in December, and the right is Dede. He is a man we are teaching. Alex is from Togo, and Dede is from Burkina Faso. 

April 17
Hey Everyone! Things are going well. We had a good week. On Tuesday we went to the Nauvoo Temple with the departing missionaries it was a good time. It will be sad for me to see some great missionaries returning home. I will attach some pictures from the temple. 

This week we spent a lot of time transfer planning. It went pretty well. The mission should benefit from the changes that will be made. We also have a few hours of Pday on Saturday because we work in the office on Monday. This Saturday we went golfing with President Jensen. It was a lot of fun! I enjoy golfing. 

We also got to teach a few people this week. We had about 3 hours each night in our area other than Saturday. We had almost a full day Saturday. My favorite lesson this week was with Kay. She is an awesome lady from Thailand. She came to church last week and really enjoyed it. She wasn't at church today though. We taught her on Friday, and her and her daughter fed us Pho. It is a Thai dish. It was really good. It has rice noodles and beef and a whole bunch of stuff in it. Teaching her wasn't my favorite just because of the food, but because she is just super humble and she understands. As we teach her she just soaks in the Gospel. Most people in Thailand are Buddhist, I think, but she is Christian already! 

This week we will be busy with Transfers. The new missionaries fly in on Wednesday. We will pick them up around 12 or 1. Then we will send the departing missionaries home Friday. We will leave for the airport about 5 a.m. Have a good week! I love you all! 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/in-praise-of-those-who-save?lang=eng

This is my favorite talk from conference! 

-Elder Lords

April 10
Hey Everyone! 

Life is great we had a good amount of time in our area this week! We had meetings in Iowa City Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, but other than that we were in our area all week. It was great! We were blessed to teach 8 new people this week. It was a lot of fun! We taught people from all over. We taught a lady from Thailand, and a lady from Liberia of course. We met a lot of cool people. 

We also ate some Fufu last night. Fufu is an african dish. It looks like a ball of dough. You put some on your fingers then you dip it in spicy soup, then you swallow it whole haha! It is an interesting dish. I kinda like it. The family that fed it to us had just gotten back from buying/butchering a goat haha! I will attach a few pictures! 

This week we get to go with the departing missionaries to the temple. It will be great. I love the temple. We will wake up at 6 a.m. and drive three hours to the Nauvoo temple. It should be great! Elder Gowers one of my previous companions will be going home. He is a great missionary. He is one of my favorite companions it will be sad to see him leave! 

The rest of the week we will transfer plan with President Jensen. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from about 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. we will transfer plan. It is fun/stressful/tiring to transfer plan. It will be good for the mission to have a change though! Life is good. Recently I have been reading back through "The Pearl of Great Price". I really enjoy learning about the creation and all the great doctrine in that book! I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all! 

-Elder Lords  

Pictures: 

The stuff in the sink is what Mable calls "Goat Gut" haha. 

The other picture is Fred and I. He was baptized December 31st. 

The other picture is Fufu and Spicy soup

March 27
Hey! This is going to be short! Sorry! 

Things are going well. I have had a great Easter. I love remembering the Resurrection of the savior. I am truly grateful for the atonement. I am continuing to increase my gratitude for what Jesus Christ has done for us. He makes so much possible. 

This week we have Zone Conference. We will travel to Davenport and Iowa City on Thursday and Friday. We have been preparing our training. I hope it goes well! I am so excited for conference. I love hearing Gods word. Hala is doing well. She will be baptized April 16th. We found quite a few new people this week. We are really excited about a few of them Love you all! 

-Elder Lords