I Love The Lord

Every week I sit down at the same computer and have the same feelings but have yet to find a way to adequately describe them. I feel so much love when I sit in this chair. This chair in all intents and purposes has become a sacred place for me. I love the opportunity that I have every week to hear from my parents and then to write them about what I have been doing. I can't quite explain it but there is something very special about the relationship that I have built with them over the past years and where we now find that relationship today! It is more special to me than I ever thought possible! I love them!

I had a great week and it always continues to get better. I'm not quite sure how that works either but I hope that is a pattern that I can continue for the rest of my life! I'm learning very quickly that yes these have been the best two years of my life but if the next two that follow are not the best two yeas as well than I need to re-evaluate and make them the best two years.

Last week for p-day we had a great day. After our ritual emailing time we went to the church and played ball with just the two of us. Then Airyn came and we worked on some songs for our album which is going fantastic by the way. Afterwards we went to the Austin's to do our laundry because the Larson's are out of town. While our laundry was washing and drying we played some baseball with the boys. It's really tough to play baseball with a chocolate lab in the mix! If you are not on top of that ball as soon as it is either hit or thrown you will experience one of the following; 1) Being tackled by a dog. 2)A long run after the dog who stole the ball. And 3)A slobbery ball in your hand after all is said and done. It was still a lot of fun even tho I experienced all three of those sensations.

You will all be fascinated to know that my Rubik's Cube time is down to 2 minutes and 1 second. I'm just trying to break that 2 minute barrier and I think I have about got it. After reading about my knowledge of Superman and my new found passion of a Rubik's Cube I'm pretty sure I look like a huge nerd! =)

This week we had tons of meetings which just reminded me of the zone leader days. We had a leadership meeting where Elder Poulsen in Waterloo and I got to make the trek to Iowa City which was a lot of fun! It was the first time in a while where I just got to drive for like two hours straight! The meetings were great as well. I always leave those meetings with a renewed desire to be better. It's funny because President Jergensen even asked us at the end of the meeting what we learned from the spirit and I told him that I wasn't sure if I learned anything more than that I need to do better with what I already know. I really just walk away feeling like I have all the tools to be the best me and the best missionary but somehow I lose some vigor in between those meetings and so I recommit to stand a little taller and be a little better! It was kind of sad as well because I realized at the end of the meeting that that will be my last leadership meeting...ever. Some of the missionaries that I saw there I will not see again for a very long time and that kinda broke my heart. It really snuck up on me. This week will be my last zone conference...ever. And I will be bearing my "going home testimony". That's been really hard for me to choke down this week. It's starting to really set in. *Sigh*

I also had another last this week. I had my last interview before I go home with President Jergensen. I love him a lot. He's helped me more than he will know to become who I want to be.

I learned in a very real way this week that some things come to a close a lot more suddenly than you would like. I got a call from a number that I did not know while in Leadership Training. I didn't answer it and largely forgot about it until after the meeting. When I listened to it, the voice mail told me of a recent death in the branch. Brother Hinckle called about an hour after everything happened. I had dinner with this family less then a week ago. He took his wife who was about 60 years old to the gas station to get her work schedule and while there she fell over from lack of oxygen and upon arrival to the hospital she had brain damage and could not generate her own oxygen so they pulled the plug. They had just been married a little over a year before her death. They were waiting to be sealed in the temple. How grateful I am to know of life after death. What comfort I take for granted from the knowledge I have. So I guess it is always true, nothing gold can stay. Enjoy it while it lasts and just like another quote I heard recently...Make the best of the little things now because you never know, years from now they could be the big things."

It's been so hot here lately and muggy to top it all off. It's been in the 90's this past week. Now I don't mind the heat but we don't have air conditioning in our place so we get to sleep in a 82 degree oven this summer. It's been great! =)

We have a new investigator this week as well named Stacy. She is really cool and we really have only been able to work with her because of her member friends. Their example and knowledge of the gospel has been the biggest aid in her preparation. It's been a very big lesson to me of how much I can do when I go home and am not a missionary any longer. Just the example we are can literally convert many children of our Father's.

This week we went to see some less actives not knowing that it was their 10th anniversary. We talked for a while and they had been looking for people to go out to dinner with and no one could so we volunteered! =) It was the best dinner I have ever had! We went to this restaurant called Jack and Arnie's. Well it's a "cook your own" steak restaurant! I had never heard of such a thing. It was delicious. We made our own Texas toast and then they had some potatoes, not to mention the 24 oz. Sirloin! It was so good! The blessings of being a missionary! We also had a great discussion with them. They are a really fun couple.

Things I learned this week--
-The quickest Rubik's Cube time is less than 6 seconds. I'll get there someday.
-Some people can sleep almost anywhere anytime. (Elder Brown)
-Baked good are better from the freezer. Example: Cookies and Banana Bread! Especially when the apartment is 80 degrees.

This week I have started something that was a inspiration from Leadership Training. Like I said before, I heard the spirit tell me that I could be doing so much better. It was just a small voice saying, "come on up to higher ground Elder." So in order to try to do that I am bringing back the 40 Day Fast. I think I have spoken of it before on this blog but to inform those who do not know. It is a process of purification where you start with a fast and try to find those things that kind of poke at your spirit or detract from the spirit of the Lord. After which you proceed to fast from those things for 40 days and replace them with good habits. I have started once again. But I am noticing how much I love the feeling that the spirit brings. I am noticing as i constantly try to improve myself the increase of the spirit that I feel. Not that I believe tears or emotion are necessarily indicative of the spirit but I have noticed myself while trying to maintain more of the spirit through my obedience that I will get choked up more and more as I read a simple scripture or tell of a simple experience. I guess what I've learned from doing so is something I would suppose Joseph Smith himself learned in that temple of Liberty Jail. In those very sacred chapters that came through so much trial and adversity lies a lesson often overlooked. The last three verses have been of increasing importance to me. "Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things. You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I can testify that the small things make the biggest difference. I can also testify that there is a power in recognizing what is really in our power and what it is not. I know of the happiness that comes and the stress that it left behind in cheerfully doing those things that lie in our power. I can testify that in doing so we will and can see the Lord's arm in all our doings and the salvation of God in our lives! If we will but do the little things or perhaps even just change those little things which are holding us back from doing great things.

I love you all so much! Life is a great refiner but no refiner is greater than that of one's own character.

Hugs and Kisses,
Elder Excell