What is Your Legacy?

Hey hey hey! It was yet another great week here in Des Moines. We had a pretty busy week with all kinds of different things and unfortunately, we weren't able to teach too much, so this email might be a little lame but as always, I will try to rock your world with the life of Elder Obray.

Elder Milligan and I are doing great! He goes home here in a couple of months so we talk a lot about girls and a lot about music so it has kind of been wrecking me a little bit but all is well. We have a lot of work to do here. I don't think I have had as much in common with any of my companions as I do with Elder Milligan. I am pretty sure we would have been in the same circle of friends back home. Pretty sweet. Can't complain too much. We did a Japanese face mask thing the other night so I will make sure to include some pictures. 

The first week of the new transfer is always pretty busy for us. We had to travel over to Iowa City for a MLC. It is always a pretty fun day. We spend the majority of the day in a big meeting with all of the other ZLs, STLs, the APs and President and Sister Badger. It is fun because a lot of my buddies here in the mission were also at the MLC so it was great to see all of those guys. President and Sister Badger trained a lot on leaving a legacy as a missionary. They asked the question, when all is said and done on your mission, what do you want your legacy to be? It can also be applied to life in general, when the clock strikes zero on our life's scoreboard, how do we want people to remember us? It caused a lot of deep thinking, you all know I am a pro at that.

We also had interviews with President Badger and Sister Badger, it makes for a long day for us, but it is always good to sit down and talk with the Badgers one on one. President Badger and I are growing to be buddies. We sat and talked for a good while. I have so much to learn from that man. It is awesome getting to serve here in Des Moines close to them. 

We have spent a lot of time working out living situations in our area. We suggested that an area be white washed (two new elders replace the sisters that were serving there) and it has caused some problems with the apartments. Basically, our apartment was taken by the new elders and we were forced to find a new one and move all of the old sisters’ furniture into our new apartment. We also spent a long time cleaning the sisters’ apartment, I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to get married. Girls are gross sometimes, man. I have never seen so much hair in my life. But we are finally done and it is behind us. What a blessing. We are finally all moved into our new place and Elder Milligan and I are utilizing some sweet bunk beds. THERE IS SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES! It is cool because I have the top bunk so I can practice my high jump approach every night just to get into my bed. I won't be missing a beat when I get back! 

We had a little bit of a slower week at church with investigators coming, but my guy E is still on track to get baptized on the 7th. He is doing great. It has been awesome to see the changes that he has made in his life. We went over the baptismal questions with him the other day and he passed with flying colors. He is such a stud. I can't wait for his baptism. We also have another woman who is getting close, she is getting baptized on the 21st. She is the woman I talked about a few weeks ago with the cute little African boys. The Lord is blessing us! 

I don't really have too much to report on this week. I will do my best to have killer stories for you guys next week. I love you guys and I hope that everything is going great back in the 801. Have a great week.

The Elder on the top bunk,

Elder Obray

Wide Eyes and Butterflies

Hey Hey Hey to my favorite people on the planet. It was a super wild week here in Des Moines and I am super pumped to tell you all about it. Have I told you that I love missionary work before? We are seeing some sweet blessings here in the IDMM. Let’s jump right on into it. 

First up. Elder Robley got released as a Zone Leader and was transferred to Iowa City. He and one of my favorite missionaries (Elder Van Haren) are training a new missionary together. It was sad to see him go, we had a lot of fun together. We laid a lot of the ground work for this area and we are finally going to start seeing the fruits of our labors. 

My new companion is Elder Milligan from Eagle, Idaho. He is a stud missionary. He and Elder Robley came out together so I will most likely end up killing him (be his last companion before he goes home). I am super stoked for the next little while. We have a ton in common and we get along great. He even knows good music so it has been a treat to talk about the good ole days when I was normal. We have already seen some awesome miracles and I am super stoked for the next little while. I guess I really am a problem missionary, companions can't stand to be around me for longer than six weeks.

The first crazy thing that happened this week was because we drive the coolest van in the mid-west, we are given the responsibility to pick up all the new missionaries when they get to Iowa. On Wednesday, we spent most the day hanging out with the new missionaries. It is super crazy because just over a year ago I was getting picked up from the airport with wide eyes and butterflies. It is wild how fast time is flying these days. 

Our zone had an awesome week this week. Our mission goal is to have 11 people progressing towards a baptismal date in each zone. As of yesterday, we have 20 people. It is so awesome to see the fruits of laboring hard in the Lord's vineyard. Plus, Des Moines is pretty much the greatest place to be a missionary. Elder Milligan and I were super blessed to have seven investigators at church yesterday. Four of which have baptismal dates here in the next few weeks. You don't receive a witness until after the trial of your faith, right? 

We had a pretty sweet experience this week. It was getting towards the end of the night and one or our appointments fell through so we were thinking about what we should do instead when I had this impression that we needed to go visit one of our investigators that we haven't seen for a few weeks. We drove over to his apartment and found him home and he was by himself. Elder Matthews and I found him on exchanges a few weeks ago. We had an awesome lesson with him and he committed to come to church the next day. He showed up in a suit and had some great comments during Sunday school. He told me that he wants our church to be his "regular church." He is a stud. He has some concerns to work through, but he is on track to get baptized in October. 

That is pretty much all I have to report on this week. Just know that I am happy as can be and I am content with life as a missionary. I love this work. As usual, tell Jen she looks slim for me and give my nephew a hug. Bob, I expect a back flip on the wake board by next week. I love you guys. Have a great week. CTR.

Still a problem missionary,

Elder Obray

My favorite little guy on the planet

Our investigator E, he is such a stud

Elder Mauldin took off back to Idaho this past week. I sure am going to miss the guy. 

These sick wall paintings are all around the city. It is so sick. 

Bury Your Weapons

Hola Familia! It was another great week here in the promised land. This week wasn't quite as good as the past few weeks, but it was awesome none the less. Definitely super pumped that Elder Gibb is no longer Elder. Make sure to give him a hug for me. I love that guy.

As far as the work goes this week, let’s get to it.  The ZL's in Des Moines are self-proclaimed assistants to the assistants. Basically, whatever chores the Assistants don't want to do, they just dump it on us. So, we spend a lot of time doing a lot of tedious chores to help out. Including but not limited to, moving mission cars to and from church buildings all of the time, running errands for the mission office like getting a new set of keys for Heather (our transfer van), apartment shopping for missionaries in the zone, blessings on blessings on blessings for other missionaries, move out apartments, suggestions for transfers, etc. Pretty crazy stuff.  It is fun though because we get to interact with a lot of the missionaries.

We had some pretty cool lessons with some of our favorite investigators this week. The first was on the Monday night. We have a great investigator named J. He is such a good, humble guy. We were talking with him about Ether 12:27 and we could tell there was something deeper that he was struggling with. Elder Robley asked him if he could change one thing about himself, what would it be? With tears in his eyes he told us that he would change his ability to read. It was a tender moment when a grown man told us that he only wanted to learn how to read. With tears in our eyes, we promised him that we would help him learn how to read. He is such a good guy and he is progressing towards a baptismal date in October. We are stoked for him.

We spent a good part of the day at the hospital on Saturday. Elder Robley has been having some pretty crazy problems with his eye lately. Sister Badger forced us to get it checked out. He has an infection in his eye which is pretty intense. He got some meds and he should be in top shape here in the next couple of days. 

We had another sweet lesson with our Investigator E. He is such a funny guy. He has a pretty rough past and he holds on to a lot of guilt because of his actions years ago. We taught him about the Anti-Nephi Lehi's and how they "buried their weapons of war". We told him that we must too, bury our weapons of war. So, we all took a piece of paper and wrote down our weapons of war or things that we aren't proud of that we had done in the past. Then because we are all still immature boys we all lit them on fire in his front yard. We got some pretty weird looks from his family, but it was a super powerful lesson. He told us that he felt a weight lift off his shoulders. He is also progressing towards a date in October. He is keeping the Word of Wisdom and law of chastity like a champ. We are stoked for him. 

This is a great lesson for all of us. Sometimes we hold on way too long to sins that may have taken place in the past. If we have done the proper steps, our Heavenly Father has already forgiven us. We are a lot harder on ourselves than we should be sometimes. C.S. Lewis said once that "We cannot take even the smallest of souvenirs from Hell with us into Heaven." In order for us to reach our ultimate potential, we need to bury our weapons of war and never dig them back up. True happiness follows when we align our wills with our Heavenly Father's.  

Transfers are this week. This has been the fastest transfer of my life. I am pretty sure that Elder Robley and I are sticking around for round two, but you never know these days. 

Have a great week. Love you.

The Assistant to the Assistants,

Elder Obray 

Shout out to the 801!

Some of our investigator's kids. Super cute little girls. 

To the Promised Land

Hey Hey Hey! Sorry this email is a day late, all of the libraries in Iowa shut down yesterday to celebrate the super important holiday of Labor Day. Last week right after I logged off the computer I immediately regretted not giving my favorite nephew a birthday shout out. Man, it is so crazy to me that he is already a year old. It is even crazier that I haven't even met him yet. I loved the videos so much. If you have any other videos of the guy or even just videos on the boat I would love to see them. Missionary work gets a little redundant sometimes so I would love some spice in my day. This week was pretty standard so I can't promise that it will be anything earth shattering, but it was a great one. 

It seems that the Lord is definitely hooking up the Des Moines Elders right now. We are finding so many awesome people. Currently we have six people who are progressing towards baptisms dates, we are so excited about the miracles that are happening in our area. Really quickly I will tell you about this family that we are teaching. We are teaching a woman named E. She and her family are from Liberia. Their story is incredible. A few months before Elder Robley and I got here, E was living in Rhode Island. Her sister was a member in another ward here in Des Moines. One day E got a call from her sister (here) and she told E that she needed help with her five kids. E dropped everything and prepared for the trip. When E was getting ready to travel here, her sister was shot and killed in their apartment by her boyfriend, right in front of all of her kids. (Her two boys are the kids I sent the picture with a couple weeks ago) They are the cutest kids ever. E took over custody of all of the children and has been taking care of them for the past few months. She is an amazing woman. She is so kind and is always so happy to see us. Of course, we are always excited to see her too. She agreed to feed us some African food here soon so I hope that I will make it out alive when that happens. She told me that I would cry if she fed it to us. We are also teaching her mother and her nephew. We are so excited for her to be baptized her soon. 

Random side tangent, I am really noticing lately how much the Gospel really can change people. We are teaching some extremely humble people. Sometimes they are in pretty sad situations. But I am so grateful for the changes that I have seen in these people's lives when they learn to accept the Gospel. There is a huge difference between those who live the gospel standards and those who don't. This church is so true it blows my mind. It truly is the Lord's kingdom on the Earth.

I am sure you are dying to hear about the epic musical number that took place at the Des Moines Zone Conference this last week. Elder Mauldin and I sang a rendition of “Abide with Me tis Eventide.” It went pretty good. We didn't have too much time to practice between both of our schedules but I thought it went pretty good. President Badger told me that it was decent so that might count for something. I was super nervous though... But I guess there is no growth in the comfort zone or something like that right? Zone conference was awesome. You always leave big conferences like that with a refreshing desire to do the Lord's work. 

We dropped off one of my old mission buddies at the airport this last Thursday, he had completed his mission so he exchanged with us for a couple of days and we sent him off. It was crazy to walk through the airport and to think that I was arriving in Des Moines a year ago already. Time sure flies. I have mentioned this before, but Maxwell and I have the same birthday. He was born into life on Earth, and I was born into life as a missionary. On Max's birthday, it marked my one year living in Iowa. But don't worry, I will be there for Max's next birthday. Crazy stuff. 

In 1 Nephi 17, it is the chapter when Nephi is commanded to build a boat. He unwaveringly accepts the challenge and is promised that he will be led to the Promised Land. I love this chapter first because Nephi exemplifies incredible faith, but also the Lord promises he will be led to where he should go. Often times, the Lord requires massive things of us, but he also promises that if we follow his counsel that we will be led towards the "Promised Land" that could be anything that we are righteously seeking, (A new job, a better relationship with someone, a better testimony, etc.) We are promised that we will have our own type of Liahona leading us along if we are faithful. We cannot fail if we are on the Lord's errand. 

I better send this one off. I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for all of you. Give Max a hug for me and make sure to tell Jen she looks slim. Have a great week! 

The not so slim,

Elder Obray 

This picture is going to the be the cover of my mixtape.

The massive city of Des Moines