So...until today at approximately 12:30 central standard time I was not aware that my 10 month mark is this week! say what!?!? I don't want to think about it. That is so crazy to me that one month has already gone by and it went like the blink of an eye! Not cool! It has been such a great week! I write these emails thinking each week that there is no way the next week can be better but I always sit here 7 days later so surprised at how great the week has been! It's a weird phenomenon! So this week....we'll start at the beginning....
Wednesday and Thursday this week we had leadership meaning which they have every transfer and all the greenies, trainers, district leaders, zone leaders, and assistants meet up with president and we get trained on how to be better. It was the most spiritual meeting i have ever been to so far. I hope to be able to say that about every meeting by qualifying myself more each week for the spirit. It was great tho. We went through the essentials of preach my gospel and how we can be better teachers. We have been focusing in this mission about the Doctrine of Christ and how it can bless us, our families, and this mission. It has been so great for me. President gave us the challenge to internalize the doctrine of Christ in our hearts. He promised us if we studied it seriously for seven days with sincere prayer that we would be able to internalize that doctrine and have it become a party of us. what a blessing that has been for me. the doctrine of Christ as i am finding is nothing more complex than what Christ taughtaught while he was here on the earth. Or in other words the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. Faith, repentance, baptism (sacrament participation after baptism), gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. When we complete that cycle over and over and over again it is like a spiral staircase. yes we are taking what seemingly feels like the same steps over and over and over but after time we realize we have been climbing and growing closer to our heavenly father. That doctrine as nephi says at the very end of 2 nephi chapter 31 is the only way by which we can return to live with father in heaven. There is no other way. We follow those the rest of our lives and we will be blessed.
Wednesday night when we came back to Knoxville after being in Des Moines for the meeting we had two other missionaries with us named Elder Moses and Elder Roberts. We had some exchanges and me and Elder Moses had the most intense hour and half that night. We went to Sister Thomas's house to give some service moving stuff around, (She is older and hurting bad because she went in for a x-ray of her hip and the ball of her femur is missing...ya ouch a bit) so we go over and she has a handicapped son that it 38 years old named Rick! He is my best friend! I love that kid! I’m sending a picture of me and him home today! look for it! But while me and Moses are over there Rick comes inside and says that "Luck (the dog) is dead". To which Sister Thomas replies "Rick just give him some water, I’m sure he's just hot" about 10 minutes go by and Rick comes back in the room and says, "I think lucky is dead. I put the water by his face and he's not even moving"...at this point Moses and I are a bit concerned for lucky. We go outside and sure enough lucky was dead. We don't know how but she had been dead for a while. So while we are looking at lucky the best thing possible happens of course and princess the other dog runs out the door and down the street! So we rush to go tell Sister Thomas lucky died. We don’t know how to clean up a dead dog. Especially while we are on bikes so we are running, nay sprinting after princess while calling the branch president to see what to do with lucky. We eventually have a square off with princess after running around the neighborhood. Moses sat on one side of this lady's house (and this lady of course is hysterically laughing at the Mormons chasing a dog)...(don't worry we talked to her about the gospel while we caught princess) and i am on the other side of the house and princess take off and like the professional dog catcher i am i dive and snag her foot and she's done for. We carry this sheep dog two blocks away back to Sister Thomas's. Oh, and mind you, it's 93 degrees outside and raining. It was great! I will never forget that night!
Saturday we had Matt's baptism. (Pictures also being sent) and it was amazing! Matt has been meeting with missionaries for about a month and a half and was progressing very well! He is 38 years old and has psoriasis very badly. all over his body and so he has a lot of peeling skin. Any way...great guy and I love him to death! He has definitely been prepared by the lord through his life and was meant to find the gospel. His baptism was very spiritual. They always are.
This week we are really focusing on member work. we are trying to get this branch so excited about missionary work that they go find people for us to teach. It truly is the best way to spread the gospel is through the members. It's so much better for the investigator and so much more efficient for the missionary. We are going to change this area. The last baptism they had was two years ago until Saturday!
Oh!!!! I saw Andy Newman's mom!!! She knew i would be at leadership in Des Moines and so she met me there with healthy granola bars! I love that lady! She is so awesome!
What i have learned this week......
-Birds can pick up squirrels
-Sheep dogs are fast
-25 cents can buy you a dictionary
-galloping along with 50 missionaries running through the pouring rain around the block is hilarious.
-people enjoy intellectual humans
-girls in brazil and girls in iowa wear similar clothes when it's warm outside :(
-clip on ties are efficient and loosen your neck a bit
-elder howard "makes up" words and phrases...not "knows" a vast amount of phrases and words
-tractor shows are popular in iowa
-camera cards can be magically erased...sorry elder howard for your misfortune
This week, my thoughts have once again been focused on what our potential is. Who we really are and how is that measured. I sit astounded at the potential each individual has. The potential that god has given us to become like him. I've never let that hit me before like I have this week. I am a god in embryo. Each of you who reads this is a god or goddess in embryo. How incredible is that! But that is after this life. I’ve been trying to concentrate on how it is that we can reach our full potential in this life and i have come to one conclusion. I know that the only way to become the person i want to be, is through the gospel of Jesus Christ it just makes sense. Every step we take puts us one step closer to him or one step further away from him. I know that when we step further away from him, the flaxen cord, or the silky velvety rope we are bound with by Satan turns from soft thread to metal chains and we are bound. when we follow Christ, sure narrow is the gate, but the possibilities become endless and the exponentially multiply with ever step closer to Christ we take. Ponder that. We become more free to choose when we follow Christ We have the ability to choose who we become and those choices become more numerable with each righteous desire and righteous choice we make. I am amazed at what the gospel has done for me. I am enthralled with the potential i have been given. I can't imagine not having it. I know that through this gospel comes real happiness. Not a happiness that dies off but one that lasts forever....and yes literally forever.
I feel as if i should bear my testimony. I know that this gospel provides happiness in every aspect of life. I know that life has purpose. I know what the purpose of my existence on this terrestrial planet is. I know what it is that i need to do to return to my heavenly father. I know that it only through Christ and his gospel or doctrine than mankind may be saved. I know that by the grace of god i will be saved but only after all that i do. I know Christ ransomed himself for every person who has walked this planet is walking and will yet walk this planet. I know the church that i claim membership to is his church. It is presided over by a prophet of god. A man that has the authority to act in God's name. I know that the work in which i participate myself is a miracle. It is a work. But most definitely it is a wonder. I know miracles occur each and every day. Nothing that happens falls short of classifiable evidence of a miracle. In this life there are no coincidences. I know that agency was and is the plan today that was offered in a council before the world was, and our presence here states what we chose. We chose right. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a missionary. I am so thankful for the spirit of which I feel every day. I love my savior. I love heavenly father. I love my president. I love my mission. I love my companion. I love my family. I love the life that I have been given. I want to show each individual son and daughter of God the love that i have for them and more importantly the love that heavenly father has for them.
I love you all so much! Elder Howard is beating me in chick mail so all you girls out there....drop me a line yo!
Elder Excell
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