I like to Tebow too.

Man, I am on a mission and even I have heard way too much about Tim Tebow. I understand that he is a religious man. Great. I understand that he is not cowering in his public communication with God. Fantastic. I do not understand however why it must be such a big deal that when the guy sees success, he likes to thank the good Lord upstairs for what he's seen. Why's it a big deal? Mike Vick got famous for fighting dogs and Allen Iverson shoots his wife and people idolize him. I'm on Tebow's side. Let's cheer for the good guy for once eh? The guy likes to pray. I like to Tebow too.

Now that I have finished ranting, let me tell you about my week...=)

Monday we had a super good day at the capitol building. See accompanying pictures. It was a way sweet tour and I loved it. I learned a lot from it. Did you know that the Iowa State Capitol building has some material from every nation in the world practically. Did you know that the building was planned to be built where it is in 1854 but took nearly 32 years to complete. It is the only 5 domed capitol in the country. The domes are gold leaf coated and when originally done it cost close to $500 to re-coat; it now cost nearly $500,000 to re-coat. Abraham Lincoln is quoted with a stencil in the rotunda saying “This nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Pretty sweet. Anyway I learned a ton. I even learned that the Secretary of State is a member and lives in the stake. Pretty cool. We also saw one of our members there. He is a lobbyist and it was the first day of session so he was busy. He works for "Kum and Go" gas stations and must do alright for himself because he wears suede shoes all the time!

This week we had probably the most successful week Waukee has seen in quite a while. No baptisms as of yet but we found 2 new investigators and also were able to get in and teach and help and set return appointments with close to a dozen less actives. It was a great week. We met a guy named Jonathon who seems super interested. I am excited to meet with him again tomorrow. It's very nice to open your planner for the week and be busy all the time! I like that a lot!

Zachary Nielsen, who we live with, won the pinewood derby this week. I have never seen more effort go into a car. It was pretty awesome. His car went nearly 157 scale miles per hour. It was a quick whip. Speaking of quick whips. We had to take our brand new car in because there was a spike in the tire. But since I'm 21, we tried to enjoy the time a little with some test drives. I test drove a Scion tc. So nice. I have my eyes on them. I liked it a lot. It's been nice to drive again. Really therapeutic to be in control of something much larger than yourself, especially when "yourself" is broken. We have some outlying towns that are in our area like Linden, Iowa. Talk about the simple life. All you do is plan to farm as a youngster. You farm and then farm and then farm. Everyone knows everyone and you all get along and help each other in time of need. It was the simple life for sure. It's about 40 minutes from home so it was a nice drive too.

I had a sweet phone call this week from the Downey's in Knoxville. If you don't remember them, they are a family I taught a bit there and loved a lot. He had a heart surgery a while back that we went up for to support and entertain the family. Well they called and he was having another operation and they wanted me to be there again. It was so nice of them to think of me. So we spent p-day yesterday in the hospital again. I had a good time. We played the game I got for Christmas called Ratooki. Oh my word....so much fun! It's like Nertz on steroids. I feel so comfortable in hospitals tho. I love them. I need to work in one. But that needs to come after school...

Speaking of school. I was allowed to take an hour this week to somewhat plan for my future and check on some school stuff and what not so I did. I have pretty much narrowed it down to Utah State in January if I can. With my GPA and ACT score I will have some scholarship opportunities and I can apply after I get home still. I think it's the best option as of now. Time will tell tho. I need to take the ACT again tho. That scares me since I haven’t been in school for almost 4 years.

We went on exchanges with 2nd ward this week. It was awesome. I worked with Elder Steele from Georgia and he's sweet. He's been out for 4 weeks now so he's pretty new. He's got a good heart! He just wants to do what's right. He's a great example to me. I've started to notice that tho... everyone around me is a good example of something. I appreciate so greatly when people will open up to me and tell me difficult things and how well they handled them, or when they just teach by example. We met with a guy named David this week... he's a member that just recently lost his wife in divorce and has dual custody of his princess daughter who is 6. It's a really long tough situation but the guy has changed my life. In one hour I learned more about how to deal with adversity than ever before. You just do what's right. I love that guy! I appreciate people like him. I love learning from others. Or another... Becky is less active and she is blind in one eye. Physically abused as a child and has lost everything due to some bad situations. But she is trying so hard to become better for herself and her family and for God. People like Becky and David keep the world going like it should. They are heroes in my book.

Things I learned this week:
-when playing a public piano in a hospital lobby and with four floors of patients able to look down on you, expect an applause and prepare for an encore.
-Snow is awesome. I have missed it so much. I love it. I wish I had a full time job shoveling snow.
-Losing weight makes me so happy. I started a diet and a workout plan new year’s eve and have been following it. I have lost 5.4 pounds in that time. It made me so happy to see progress. I will make my goal.
-Train collections can be intense. I saw one this week worth over $100,000. YIKES!

It's time for me to wrap this novel up. I apologize for those of you who expected a letter rather than a novel. But I must end with one thought. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. There is no substitution for kindness and charity to others. It's our interactions that determine who we really are in my eyes. You can tell a lot about a man who sees someone clearly "less" than him and treats him as if he is more. From my experience with faith, hard work, effort, and love, people become who you see them as. Like Will Rogers said, "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." If we all saw others in that light, I believe that little by little, person by person, the world would change. The way that we see others, is the way that we see life.

I love my savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful and in debt for the opportunity that he gave me to not only be here on earth and to progress through life but to serve a mission for him and his church. There is a happiness that cannot be explained that comes from two things. 1) The gospel of Jesus Christ, and 2) The spiritual witness that you are where God would like you to be. It doesn't get better than that. If you find yourself without either or both of these things; Ask, Seek, Knock. You will be given, find, and open the door to those answers!

I love you all!
Hugs and Kisses,
Elder Excell