6 months in!!!! He's completed a quarter of his mission!

This week was great!

Monday I experienced my first tornado, not really but kind of. We had finished Pday and realized that we had left our phone at our house so we cut out early. We saw a few missed calls and noticed a tornado warning. One of the missed calls was from our dinner appointment, who, when we called back, told us to get to his house ASAP, because a tornado was set to touch down 5 minutes from then, so we rushed to his house in our sweaty pday clothes until the storm passed and we had dinner with him and his family which was there, a few of his grown daughters and their kids who were there. So, yes, the tornado touched down and ravaged a few neighborhoods, we have been rebuilding houses all week and have seen so many miracles from it... NO - just kidding! the tornado touched down in the Walmart parking lot for a few seconds, took a few cart racks for a ride, then went back up into the cloudy sky, no real damage, no service opportunities haha, no cool story, we just hung out in a member's basement until it all passed.

Tuesday was my 6 month mark! Wow, it's hard to believe that 6 months , well a little over now, have passed since I left, and while I still have a lot to go, this has been the most trying and rewarding 6 months of my life! Well, that day we helped the Elders in the Liberty 1 Ward move into their new apartment, that took most of the day. We were still, however, able to visit two less active members, which was great! It wasn't too eventful of a day.

Wednesday we had district meeting, but I had not prepared a training, which I wanted to be on simplicity, so I did it that morning. The three trainings in the meeting were on: listening to investigators, adjusting our teaching to meet the needs of investigators, and teaching simply. We tried to visit a few people after the District Meeting but weren't able to really contact anyone, but we were able to visit and share a message with a part member family.

Thursday, we did service for a member in the Liberty 1 Ward, we laid some sheet rock for them because they own a counseling firm and we'e moving to another location - which is where we were doing the service and that took up most of the day. It was Elder Winingers birthday who is an Elder in the Lib 1 Ward and neither of us had dinner so we showered and changed after the service and went and made musubi, which is spam sushi (which Elder Amosa, the other Lib 1 elder, a Polynesian) knows how to make. After that we went to dinner at Tasty Thai, a delicious Thai restaurant then had correlation at the Historic Liberty Jail.

Friday we did our Mormon.org time. After that we had a lesson with Danny Flexer about the CPR of the Gospel, which stands for Church, Prayer, and Reading the scriptures, the lesson went well. After that we had dinner with a less active family who made it to church Sunday so that was AWESOME!! Then we tried to visit a few people but had no success.

Saturday we went with a member, Brother A., to do some service for a big project called "Project Shine." It is put on by some organization where they go to all different schools in Independence and paint classrooms, plant plants, etc. to make the school nicer. Our Ward was assigned to Truman High School so we went there and painted 3 classrooms before cutting out. After that we went to Brother A's house and moved and edged his lawn then talked for a little. While we were cutting his grass we got a message from a member of the Bishopric asking us to speak THE NEXT DAY!! So we said yes, they know the missionaries have to say yes haha. Then we went and visited with a less active family. After dinner, we went to a farewell party for a girl who will be leaving on her mission soon to serve in Ogden, Utah. 

Sunday we spent the majority of the morning writing our talks, we both spoke along with the sisters. We weren't given topics so the sisters spoke on obedience and the CPR of the Gospel which, again, is Attending Church, Prayer, and Reading scriptures. Elder Anderson spoke on Enduring to the End and I spoke on the Atonement. I thought it was a pretty good sacrament. For Sunday school we went and helped the P's start their family history work. For Priesthood we went with the Priests who had a lesson about the importance of Ordinances. After church we tried out a few people and were able to find a new investigator whom we had tried to talk to a few weeks earlier and had given us his phone number and said to try again in a few weeks, so that was awesome! Then we had dinner with one of the greatest families ever, the K. family, they recently got back from a vacation to Alaska and brought back a lot of fish so they fried some of it up for dinner, it was delicious!! After dinner we taught a young man in the Ward a youth lesson.

This week has gone by fast! I hope it went by quickly for everyone else too! Thanks for all of the love and support you give me all of the time. I pray for you daily, and love you tons! Have a great week! Love you!

 Seth