Nothing Gold Can Stay...

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Alright, here we go back to 8th grade English....I guess I must have learned something in school after all. Truth be told, I remember the majority of the poem from that song "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Simple Plan, but it fits for the situation. I've had a great 6 weeks with Elder Kimber. We are so alike that we butted heads a lot but we also had some time that I will never forget and this has been one of my favorite transfers. It has definitely been the transfer where I have felt myself grow the most! This week we got our transfer doctrine and Elder Kimber will be leaving Waukee after just 6 weeks. We call it the 6 week shaft. He's been released as a zone leader and will be going clear across the mission probably. We'll see tomorrow. I will be getting a new zone leader most likely and our zone will be changing up just a little so there will be some new variables in the work. Always nice to switch it up a bit. The only thing that's constant in life is change right? =)

This week has been super good tho. We had a lot happen for us. It's nice to be able to walk into ward council for your fifteen minutes of the meeting and have your weekly log completely filled front and back. It's amazing that as soon as you get some work done, people trust you with other people to work with, therefore creating more work. It's awesome. We have visited nearly every person in the ward this transfer which was kind of the goal.

We had a super sweet experience this week tho that I wanted to share. It was Monday night which, this week, we call heck week for the sole reason that we have to wait an extra couple days and a wake up for p-day. Anyway it causes Monday to sometimes be rather long. Let me paint the scenery for you in the story. Its 8 o clock pm and it was about -10 degrees plus whatever the wind chill was. Well, due to not having any miles...which I’ll talk about later...we didn't have the car so we were walking. Now from dinner to our house was nearly 1 mile. We summited the top of the hill and were maybe five minutes from home. It was cold and regardless of the rules and everything else it's very tempting to just go in at 8 and come up with an excuse to be there. We didn't have anything planned and it was freezing. I asked Elder Kimber what time it was and he said it was 8. The temptations to just go in early were very present, so what did i do??...I walked briskly the opposite direction. I walked and walked and at first, it was simply to not go home. As I walked with no direction I begin to pray realizing this was the Lord's time and I was the servant. I prayed to know where we should be and kept walking. I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I felt as if it was the right direction. We walked about 2 miles. No words were spoken. Elder Kimber, after the whole experience, said he thought I was nuts and just tried to be faithful and follow. Well 2 miles later, we ended up at a house that I had previously knocked a while ago. I thought....I've already been here, they're not interested - but I knocked again. A girl named Lindsey answered and immediately asked us to come in. She said she was waiting for us. She proceeded to tell us that she is a member. She belongs to the student branch in our area. She hasn't been to church in 10 years. She is now 3 years divorced and has 3 little ones under age 6. She told us that she wanted a blessing for her son who was getting his tonsils out. We did so. She told us that she had just broken up with her fool of a boyfriend two days before because she got beat...again. My heart just ached for this girl. On the walk over when I had no idea where or why we were going, I kept thinking back to the feelings of forgiveness and repentance. I decided to be bold and ask her about it. She said she has a testimony of the gospel, she knows she has to repent and she is now ready to do it. It was incredible! I learned a few things from it. 1) I was so grateful for a companion who just followed with faith and didn't murmur or complain. 2) God watches out for his children. He makes all ends meet. I am so grateful to be where I am and to be working for who I am working for. God makes a pretty decent boss.

Another night we drove out to Stuart which is another little town of simple living. Well, there is a member who lives out there, and not just in the little town itself but in the country of said little town. AKA the middle of nowhere. It's nearly a 40 minute drive to get there. Well needless to say after our visit there we are driving through nowhere and there is the bridge that we played under in the picture a few weeks back. Well...it's become tradition to stop at the bride in nowhere-ville. That's only important because you need to know we exited the car. Well, we decided to turn the walk back to the car into a race so we ran...well we got home 40 minutes later ready to go to bed and I realized that my name tag was missing. If it would have been my name tag then no big deal, I can get another, but it was dad's name tag from 25 years ago. I decided it must have fallen out while racing so we drove 40 minutes back to the bridge and miraculously found it then drove 40 minutes back. Anyway...long story short; that's why we have minimal miles now and are walking a lot! =) It's been really good for my diet. Which I must add one side note- I made my weekly goal and weigh 192 currently. This week I’m shooting for 191. One pound at a time and I will make my ultimate goal and be looking fit!

Things I learned this week-
-When you are 2 pounds higher than your goal one day prior to weigh in, magnesium citrate is a good way to make the goal. I have a wrestler for a companion. He suggested it.
-Ladies who take their kids to the library for story time every Wednesday morning are funny. There's a lot of chitter chatter. =)
-Waxing your eyebrows....painful!
-The chances of surviving in the last Nephite/Lamanite battle if you are fighting...1 in 9,583.
-There is a new Superman movie coming out in 2013!!! If I could only tell you how much I wish I could study that one out! 7 months.

While on the subject of when I go home...It was told to me about a month ago that I would be going home with my group July 25th because the one other person in my group has to be home for school. Well....it was never a for sure thing so I talked to president about it and he gave me the choice. He said I could go home in July if I wanted or wait til my release date on August 24th. Well...I have thought about it long and hard...I have also prayed long and hard. It's a tough decision because on one hand you can be home earlier. With family sooner. Moving on with life sooner. On the other you'd be missing out on another month of serving the Lord full time. Well after deep consideration... I will be coming home August 24th, 2012. I need to be here. I don't know what I need to be here for in specifics but I know that I need to be in Iowa until that date.

This week I finished the Book of Mormon again. What a fantastic gift from God. I become enthralled with the spirit every time I read it and I am so grateful for it. I would like to end with this thought. In the last words of Ether there is a war and it is very very intense. It wipes out everyone. In the last chapter you go from millions fighting to 52 on one side and 69 on the other. "And so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead, but they did march forth from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood, leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land..." Eventually even those few men remaining are whittled down to 1 vs. 1. I was struck by one phrase, "And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, and rose to fight again." I imagined being Coriantumr and taking a step back for a second. Leaning on my sword for a while, resting on the situation. I thought, "Why would he do this?" "Why not just finish the guy?" I have come to one conclusion...Sometimes regardless of the gravity of the situation it is good to take a step back, lean on our swords for a while and rest a bit, to remember why we are fighting. To remember why we are doing whatever we are doing, and then, if need be, if we are supposed to, we rise and fight again. Taking a step back can be the difference in why we do things. And why we do things is what is important. Intent determines purpose. Purpose can determine salvation.

I don't know if that made sense to anyone but that's the great thing about it. There is something for everyone to learn from the Book of Mormon on an individual basis. I love it. I love you all....seriously.

Hugs and Kisses,
Elder Excell