Des Moines...it's French for "The Moines"!

Man what a crazy week! It doesn’t seem like it could have fit into a 7 day period of time. But I guess it did according to the calendar. I guess with all good letters...we'll start at the beginning.

Tuesday of last week was a pretty crazy day because we had a lot to put together for a special zone meeting that we tried to have. We ended up making every person in our zone a cool block with the Nauvoo temple on the front and the Winter Quarters temple on the back with a quote and their name. They turned out super awesome but a few cautions and warnings to anyone deciding to make a block for 26 people. 1) Try to avoid cutting 2 x 6 pieces of wood in 10 degree weather. 2) Wind will not only make it a colder experience but will also interfere with the quality of the spray painting job being done. 3) Puzzle saver glue does not dry in cold weather. If you try so you will then have to take all blocks inside and put them under a heater to warm up and dry correctly. We learned a lot from this experience.

The zone meeting was great tho. Our zone has really struggled to find people to teach lately so we have tried to focus on that this transfer. We had our meeting which was very spiritual and very uplifting. We then began a fast for the people we hoped to find. Some definite miracles occurred in the zone and there were some people found. On one street, we found 6 potential investigators and taught some lessons. The most we have ever seen here. I walked away from the experience thinking tho that we don’t need to make it a special experience to find them. That’s just what we should be doing anyway!

We went on exchanges with the AP’s this week. That was fun and intense. I worked with Elder Phillips in their area on Thursday night, and after we had dinner, we went to go teach a young lady. Well the young lady bailed on us and that was kinda sad, but it was for the best we found out later. With that fallen appointment we decided to tract the apartments she lived in. We found a family. We knocked on their door and he said come in. We didn’t even say anything and he let us in. Then we had an awesome lesson where he translated for his family because they are from Burma and speak Burmese. Crazy sounding language by the way! Then after that awesome experience, we felt the need to go outside and pray to Heavenly Father and tell him thank you for what we had just seen. On our way out the complex we ran into a kid name Gilmar. He is 15 and when I saw him he was crying. I felt the need to stop and talk to him. So I went back and asked him what was wrong. As I squatted down next to him on the stairs so I could see his eyes, I saw a gigantic gash on his neck from something. Turns out his uncle, whom he lives with, beats him and tried to strangle him. He finally got sick of it and ran away. We helped him call the police and take him somewhere safe. I felt so bad for the kid! I was moved to tears as I heard him call his mom and express how much he disliked the circumstances he lived in. Now I feel pretty lucky to have grown up where I grew up, but I could relate to him. I couldn’t help but think as I heard him talk to his mom that that is probably what I sound like as I cry to Heavenly Father about my predicaments. I felt for the kid. When the police came I hugged Gilmar goodbye and thanked him for what he taught me. I don’t know what happened after that but I know it was no coincidence that the young lady was not home. We needed to be somewhere else that night. I love how the Lord works!

The next day I was with the other A.P., Elder Deaton, in our area and we taught this kid named Zachary. What a coincidence! We found him tracting. When we saw him at his door he said to go away. We asked if there was anything we could do for him and he said no so we moved on...well two doors later he was walking down the street and he called to us and said, "hey there is something you can do for me." We went down and talked to him. Turns out he's in Catholic Seminary to be a priest. He had some questions so we met in the cozy cafe Friday and chatted. He’s so intellectual which is awesome. Don’t get me wrong. But the kid has never had a spiritual confirmation of anything he does. We ended talking to him by giving him a copy of Jesus the Christ and he actually brought me a book too called Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict the 16th. Pretty cool I guess. I’ll read it when it's approved! =)

Friday night, we had dinner with my uncle and my cousin at Samurai Sushi! It was super good! We also went and taught Masa Lin. He's from Taiwan and so Braxton, my cousin, since he speaks Chinese, acted as our translator. It was kind of a bummer to get dropped by him. But it was way cool to see Brax use his Chinese. He’s super good at it. Masa thought so too!

Monday we went to the mall and did some good shopping. I must have walked around the place for 3 hours before I found what I wanted to spend Christmas money on. I finally ended up buying my first pair of Toms shoes. Burlap and they are awesome!! I bought them and a French collar shirt. We’re looking pretty fly today in our French collared shirts and cuff links and all. We even got new haircuts just for our meeting today and tomorrow!

Things I learned this week---
-Major migration route for geese is right through Des Moines and Waukee. I have seen gaggles upon gaggles!
-Major route for airlines is also over Des Moines...at any given time of the day you can see 5 to 7 planes overhead.
-I knew this before but it's taken new meaning...Iowa caucus is tonight. First in the nation. That means with the Nielsen’s out of town in St. John and us not allowed to listen to their phone messages, they have 20 messages from politicians and the machine beeps every 3 seconds about it. Annoying!!

This week, I have been studying the story of the pioneers settling in Utah County and building the Salt Lake temple. What a fantastic lesson. There was so much hardship not only getting to Salt Lake to begin with but then they spent 40 years building a temple to their God. The work seemed difficult from the start. The excavation for the basement required trenches twenty feet wide and sixteen feet deep, most of it through solid gravel. Just digging for the foundation alone required 9,000 man days of labor. I'm sure someone must have said, "A temple would be great, but do we really need one this big?" But they kept on digging. They believed they were "laying the foundation of a great work." No sooner was the foundation work finished than Albert Sidney Johnston and his United States troops set out for the Salt Lake Valley intent on war with "the Mormons." In response, President Young made elaborate plans to evacuate and, if necessary, destroy the entire city behind them. But what to do about the temple whose massive excavation was already completed and its foundational walls firmly in place? They did the only thing they could do...they filled it all back in again. Every shovelful. Granite boulders were selected for the basic construction material. And they were twenty miles away in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Furthermore the precise design and dimensions of every one of the thousands of stones to be used in that massive structure had to be marked out individually in the architect's office. And, of course, getting the stone from mountain to city center was a nightmare. A canal on which to convey the stone was begun and a great deal of labor and money expended on it, but it was finally aborted. During that time, as if the United States Army hadn't been enough, the Saints had plenty of other interruptions. The arrival of the railroad pulled almost all of the working force off the temple for nearly three years, and twice grasshopper invasions sent the workers into full-time summer combat with the pests. By mid-1871, fully two decades and untold misery after it had begun; the walls of the temple were barely visible above ground. But God was with these modern children of Israel, as he always has been and always will be. With their own hands, they had cut out of the mountains a granite monument that was to mark, after all they had gone through, the safety of the Saints and the permanence of Christ's true church on earth for this one last dispensation. The central symbol of all that was the completed House of their God. The streets were literally jammed with people - forty thousand of them fought their way on to the temple grounds. Ten thousand more, unable to gain entrance, scrambled to the tops of nearby buildings in hopes that some glimpse of the activities might be had. Inside the Tabernacle President Wilford Woodruff, visibly moved by the significance of the moment, said: "If there is any scene on the face of this earth that will attract the attention of the God of heaven and the heavenly host, it is the one before us today--the assembling of this people, the shout of 'Hosanna!' the laying of the topstone of this Temple in honor to our God." Imagine that hosanna shout! The temple was referred to as a monument to Mormon perseverance. It's caused me to wonder as I connect that statement to a personal favorite scripture..."know ye not that ye are the temple of god?” Is my temple a monument to Mormon perseverance? I guess that is our quest. "However long and hard the road may be!" I love you and believe in you. Farewell til next week!

Hugs and Kisses,
Elder Excell