Some Lessons Learned

Crazy awesome week! I simply cannot say enough how awesome it is to be a missionary and to be here in the Iowa Des Moines Mission - now, the best mission in the world! I am so happy that I am here and don't want to be anywhere else! It may be hard at times but I can say it is the most worthwhile thing ever and I am so happy to do it.

As far as goings on in the great town of Knoxville, we keep on keeping on. This week in particular, I have found out that I do not want to be a psychiatrist. Among the many career aspirations I have, that is no longer on the list. I would go nuts. I have learned this from experience. For privacy's sake I will call this woman Amy. Amy is a member of the church and has been for a couple years. She has been diagnosed with bi-polar disease and also Schizophrenia. We get a call about 2 am on Monday night last week from "Amy" and she wants us to come cast demons out of her house. Well, being the stalwart obedient missionaries we are, we stay in our house and call her home teachers to go check it out. She receives a blessing and her house is blessed. The home teachers leave and we run into her in town the next day. We ask her how she is doing and she says the prayer didn't work. I may be 20 years old but I know prayer works! No prayer is insignificant. Joseph Smith was 14 and offered a small probably seemingly insignificant prayer and look where we are. Prayer works. So I am not convinced. We go to her house under her suggestion and upon arrival, she says she wants us to leave. That we bring evil spirits with us. Ok? So, the next day we are going to check up on her. She still doesn’t believe that any prayer is working and that she was cursed when they put the oil on her head for the blessing. We tried talking to her for two hours nearly and for the first hour with little response. Definitely a practice of patience. She starts to open up but she opens up to the stories I wasn't looking for. She tells us in quite graphic detail of the abuse she received from her husband both physical and mental and sexual. We try to get off the topic and talk to her about baptism. She starts warming up and lets us come inside. (Oh yeah...this is happening on the sidewalk until now) We get inside and it is a mess! Stuff everywhere! We don't feel right inside because she is alone and kinda crazy so we stayed in the hall. Then she started screaming louder than I have ever heard any human scream and I couldn't take it anymore. I got our phone out and called 911. I had to. No choice. The cops had apparently been looking for her all day. She was released from the hospital the night before but then at work was attempting suicide and ran. It was nice to know though that through all of that, God had us in the place where we could help. As frustrating and emotionally and mentally exhausting as it was, we were meant to be there! Maybe if it were in a plush room with leather sofas the whole psychiatric thing would be ok...just not for me I guess! :)

Matt Northway is still gonna be baptized Saturday! Awesome! You know how in every talk at church or in every lesson given, the person talking says, "while preparing this lesson I have learned more than those who will hear it"? That's how I feel everyday. I learn more from these people than I could possibly be teaching them! I feel so blessed to have that opportunity.

This week my mind has been constantly drawn to those things that I find myself thankful for. I can't seem to numb them. I have always seen others who are thankful and thought to myself, "am I really thankful?" and up until now, I don't think that I have been. It seems like the things that I have been thankful for in my mind, I am now thankful for in my soul. I think that's when things become real for us or become profound. They become important to us when they are more than just a thought but when they become a part of us. Perhaps the reason family is so important is because it is a part of us. Not just a love in our mind. It consumes you. Perhaps that’s why the prophets of old and modern day both say to study the scriptures until they consume you. "Feast on the words of Christ" Because when we reach that point we reach true conversion and true whatever it may be. True love is love in your heart not just your mind. True knowledge is that taken from your head to your heart. Just a thought I have been developing this week.

I also have been focused this week on what I need to do to consecrate my time here - to dedicate my entire self - to leave the “world” out of my world. I've been pulling several thoughts from several talks. I just hope to be able to complete my sanctification as a missionary and not regret one single moment because I did it 100% with my "heart, might, mind, and strength". Might and strength I do well. Putting my whole heart and my whole head is always a challenge and what I will try to do better at. True.

Other things I have learned this week:

-I now know how to install a swamp cooler
-Magnesium will clean out your system and provide entertainment at 2 am when you are fighting your comp for the bathroom.
-The mission life can be compared to Harry Potter in every way shape and form.
-Western cut suits are awesome although mission unapproved. I now own one. Send me a bolo! Cowboy boots too! jk!
-Career aspiration: Rock star or surgeon...or both

Well, I best be getting. The Knoxville library is a crowded place and people are waiting! I hope you all know that I love you and I love what I am doing! I can't imagine a better place to be! Another week down unfortunately! I'll talk to ya'll next week!

Elder Excell