The "Evenic" Covenant

Oh boy what a week it has been here in the Capital. It has gotta be up there on one of the best weeks of the mission. We have been all over the place so it has been super fun. I am pumped to tell you guys all about it.This email is going to be a novel so let’s get to it.

First, I will talk about the subject title, you guys are going to die. Like I mentioned last week, we had to push back E and R's baptismal interviews to Tuesday. They both went just great, they passed with flying colors. E is super funny so as I listened to her in the other room getting interviewed by one of our DLs, I heard her answer for most of the questions, "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs"... etc. Have I ever mentioned how much I love African people? After her interview, we were sitting down and talking about some of the logistics for the baptism and she was thanking us and all that stuff then she looked at us both and said, "I bless you with lots of kids, Elder Milligan I bless you with twenty and Elder Obray I bless you with thirty. Oh, and lots of money!" Haha we were dying. We thought to call it the "Evenic Covenant" Is that sacrilegious? Mom, Dad, I hope you are looking forward to all kinds of little Chandler's running around in the future, my wife and I are going to need help from the whole family. 

If I didn't have a testimony of the church by now, preparing for a baptism is always a reminder for me that the church is so true, and the work of salvation is always being attacked by the adversary. While preparing for the baptism this weekend all kinds of things came up, but luckily, we are one step ahead. On Wednesday, we got a baptismal suit for my guy R but it was too big so we went back the next day to get another one, when the door to the suits was suddenly locked. We were ticked because we didn't want to have to call the stake to get the suits unlocked again, so I pulled out my inner MacGyver and picked the lock. It was pretty incredible not gonna lie. I don't know if I should repent for trespassing to help a baptism go through.

The next adventure happened the day before the baptism. We went to the building to check stuff out. When we got there, we both had to go to the bathroom so of course we did. When we both went to flush, there was no water... We tried the sinks, nothing and then we tried the font... NOTHING. Of course, we had a small panic attack, but we called the church's maintenance guy and he came to save the day. Apparently, the city shut the church's water off for no reason. Man, Satan is inspiring the city of Des Moines. Crazy stuff. Luckily, we got the water turned back on just in time. The guy said that if we wouldn't have called on Friday, they would have had to wait until Monday which would have meant no baptism. Oh boy! 

The Baptism was so great. I have really grown to love that family. It makes me so happy to see them every time we visit them. After the baptism, I have never seen E so happy in my life. She kept jumping around and singing "I am so blessed". It was humbling to see how excited she was to make her first covenant with our Heavenly Father. What a blessing. R asked me a few weeks ago if I would baptize him so I baptized R and Elder Milligan baptized E. It was a special experience for sure. We had a great showing from the ward.

The next day in sacrament meeting Elder Milligan confirmed R and I confirmed E. It was awesome. After I finished E's confirmation, her kids in the back stood up and started clapping and cheering. It was adorable. It really is something to cheer for though. Baptism is entrance into the Celestial Kingdom if we endure to the end, I can't think of anything more worthy of shouts and cheers! The ward thought it was funny too. 

Another miracle that went down this week was when we were trying by an investigator, we set up an appointment for another day. We were walking back to the van when I felt a prompting to try by U (super solid African investigator with the baby momma. He disappeared a few weeks ago and we haven't heard from him). When we knocked on his door he answered with a big smile and said "My brothers! I thought you forgot about me!" I almost cried when I saw that man's face. I was so excited to see him. Man, I, along with E am soo blessed. 

I see that this email is super long so I will put it to a close here. One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah 5:12-13. In verse 12 it says that we must retain the name written on our hearts and then in verse 13 it says, "Who knows a master whom he has not served?" I have grown to love these verses because it states that when we retain the name written on our hearts (sacramental covenant by always remembering Him) we will learn to serve our Heavenly Father. We also learn in Mosiah 2 that we serve God by serving His children. The way that we honor our covenants and learn to know our Heavenly Father is through charity. I have loved the doctrine of charity on my mission. It truly is the key to happiness and is the pure love of Christ. What better way to make ourselves happy than by serving others?

Well I appreciate you guys making it through this email. I love you guys and miss you! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Future father of thirty,

Elder Obray

Chanman

What Shall We Hope For?

It was a pretty great week here in Des Moines. We had a couple crazy experiences, but for the most part, it was a pretty regular busy week here in the Capital.

First! It was transfers this week and I am stoked to report that Elder Milligan and I are staying together for another transfer. I am super pumped. He goes home midway through next transfer so I will most likely end up spending six months here Des Moines. I won't complain, this place is the happiest place on earth. We are doing great, we joke around all day and neither of us takes the other seriously, so we just make fun of each other like real friends do. He is a good teacher and has even hooked me up with a couple of referrals. No complaints. We are gearing up to throw down on our zone this week at district meetings. There is too much complacency in our zone for mediocre. The work is way too important to take lightly. There are several areas that are really not doing too well, so we are excited to get it going a little bit. 

Because it was transfers this week, we were running around helping all of the companionships get settled in. We didn't quite get a ton of time to do much finding. With the baptism this weekend, we are running out of people to teach. That is a pretty cool problem to have, when you don't have too many people to teach because they are baptized. We had E and R's baptismal interview set for last night, but it was R's eighth birthday, and Africans do not take birthdays lightly. There were like twenty people in their tiny house when we got there. We reset the interview for Tuesday so that will be much better. We are stoked for their baptism this weekend. 

Like I mentioned earlier, I have kind of felt that something is out to get us because we have had a couple near death experiences that got my heart rate up that is for sure. The first came when we got a call from a member from Utah who was asking for help to move his uncle back to Utah with him. We happily accepted the invitation to help. What he didn't tell us is that this uncle has dementia and has a metal shop for a basement. We were called to move all of the massive machines up the stairs out of his basement. Pretty sketchy, he had this ancient lathe that weighed around 2700 pounds. We were moving one of the pieces that weighed about 500 pounds up the stairs so we put it on a dolly. We had a team of elders at the top of the stairs with a rope, I was in the middle holding the dolly, and there were two other elders pushing at the bottom. Long story short, we got moving pretty fast and I tripped between the two boards that the dolly was riding on and I dropped the dolly right where my leg was... How it didn't smash my leg is beyond me, but I am lucky that my leg is still on my body. It would have smashed it so good. We had other sketchy experiences moving stuff out of his basement, but that was the most dramatic. 

The other experiences came behind the wheel of Heather. It has been super rainy this week so it has been pretty difficult to see while driving. These other experiences come from people running stop lights and us screaming and almost getting wrecked. It happened a couple of times. Luckily all is well. I am sure these stories don't sound too dramatic, but it was pretty intense for missionaries in Iowa. 

This email is kind of a dud, I know, but we were pretty busy doing administration stuff this week. I will end this one with a spiritual thought. In Moroni 7:39-41 it talks about hope. It says that hope comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I have recently loved the concept of hope. There are so many people on this Earth who lack hope. If only they could know that hope can be found through Jesus Christ. On a mission, I have seen some incredibly sad situations, people live in terrible conditions and seem to lose hope. I have grown to love the doctrine of hope because it is a promise from our Heavenly Father that if we follow His Son and allow His Atonement to change us, there is an incredible reward for us waiting. 

Alma 34:41

"But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all of your afflictions."

I love this gospel and I love sharing it with the people of Iowa, (and Liberia, and Nigeria, and Sudan, and Bosnia, etc.). This gospel is for everyone!

Have a great week, I love you.

The Elder with both legs,

Elder Obray

The Changing of the Seasons

Hey Hey Hey. It is definitely cooling down over here in good ole Iowa. The leaves are changing colors and the sweaters are coming out. I am so excited to break out my scarves here in the next little bit. Nothing makes me feel like a man more than wrapping a scarf around my neck. I am sad to hear that the boat is going into storage for the winter... Maybe the next six months will be an opportunity for me to catch up on the body I need to have by the time it comes out again. So, think of it as a blessing, for the both of us! This week was a lot slower than other weeks in Des Moines. It was pretty frustrating for us. I guess there really is opposition in all things. I knew it was bound to happen one of these weeks. But I will jump right into it. 

First off, I am sure you are all dying to hear about how the training went at Zone Conference. It went really well. We were really excited about how it went and we got a plethora of compliments, mostly from all of the sisters that have a crush on my companion, plus a couple from the senior missionaries, can't ask for much more than that! Like I said last week, we trained on overcoming the concerns of investigators. We emphasized using the Book of Mormon to help investigators conquer addictions, and solve concerns. Do you guys know how much I love the Book of Mormon? Man, it is so good! 

The rest of the week was pretty bland. A bunch of our investigators literally disappeared. We had a super solid investigator who when he came to church was quoting scriptures from the Book of Mormon during gospel principles class. We were super stoked for him and he was pretty much ready to walk in to the font after his first week at church. When we went over to his house later that week we talked to his girlfriend who is also the mother of his unborn child. She told us with a moment of hesitation that he "left". She had no idea where he went but she was adamant that he was no longer living there. What the? We were super bummed. Plus, his phone is turned off, so there is no way for us to find him. People sometimes kill me! Hopefully a miracle will happen and he will randomly show up one of these weeks. 

The investigator I told you about a few weeks ago who we were trying to help learn to read has also disappeared. He hasn't answered any of our phone calls or texts. He lives in a locked apartment so we can't even try to stop by either. We are super bummed about these two. I guess it is just time for us to get out and find some new people. Our finding efforts have been pretty weak lately because we have been teaching so much, but now we will have a lot more time on our hands to find the elect. Hopefully the Lord will hook us up. So, if you don't have anything to pray for, pray that investigators will appear for the Des Moines Elders.

We do have a few investigators who are progressing really well though. E and R are both doing great. They are so excited for their baptism coming up on the 28th. She asks every time we go over about when we are going to bring her white jump suit. They are such a sweet family, I will definitely be keeping those boys on my radar when I get home. They have gone through so much. They are such good kids. Whenever we go over, we suddenly become a jungle gym and they are always jumping on us. We taught R about repentance the other day and he said the sweetest closing prayer I have ever heard. It is great to see an 8-year-old realize how much our Heavenly Father loves him. 

I love you guys and hope this week is marvelous. Expect some killer finding stories next week!

The Jungle Gym,

Elder Obray

p.s. Transfers are already around again (can you believe it?) Elder Milligan and I are pretty sure we are sticking together, but you never know these days. Stay on your toes. 

We signed a contract to model for the 2017 Ford Transit.

If you were a gas station, you would be a...

Solve for Baptism

Hey Hey Hey! Before I get into this great week, I have to admit that when I logged on today to find out that you all went to Lake Powell this week a little part of me died. Elder Milligan's family has a nice boat so he is constantly torturing me with sick memories of his boat. I am not trunky, but the thought of boating almost brings tears to my eyes. I sure am excited to show off my marshmallow shaped and colored body on the boat when I get home! You guys are in for a treat! :) If you guys have any cool pictures or videos, I would definitely be down to see them! 

It was a fantastic week here in Des Moines. It seems like the number of bad weeks have dramatically decreased, the bad days still come, but it seems that they don't get to me like they used to. Missions are pretty cool. The first exciting event that happened was that my guy E got baptized!! It was awesome, he puts off the tough guy persona, but you could tell that he was so happy. It was great to see. It has been awesome to see the changes that he has made in his life. When we first starting teaching him, he barely believed in God and he was a huge fan of the boos, he was in a gang in high school but these days he excitedly tells us that he is looking forward to church that weekend. He is the only one in his family that is religious so he has definitely overcome a lot of opposition to be where he is. Elder Robley came back to baptize him on Saturday and I got to confirm him on Sunday. It was a great weekend. 

E and I have become pretty good friends so whenever he sees me, he stops and says, "Are you good bro?" then he gives me a hug. It is cool because the relationships we make on missions are eternal. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to teach him.  I told him that I want him to come to my wedding, so he is going to be working for the temple here in about a year. We are stoked for him. 

I have some bad news... My hot streak of no traffic tickets has finally ended... Des Moines does this thing where they set up cameras in super random places so if you are speeding anywhere you are bound to get a picture and a ticket a couple days later. I don't really have a quality excuse, Heather (our van) just has so much horse power that it is almost impossible to drive below the average speed limits of Iowa roads. Plus, we were running late for the priesthood session, I don't know where the divine intervention was but I guess I needed to be humbled. 

We had a pretty cool finding experience this week. We conducted some exchanges in the Hermana's area this week to help them find some new investigators. We exchanged with a couple of the Spanish elders in our district, so I got some great practice telling people that we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Spanish. I am pretty much fluent now. But Elder McConnel and I were driving around looking for people to teach when I felt prompted to knock on a specific street. The first door we knocked on, a woman came to the door and when she saw us at her door she started to cry. She told us that she has been feeling that there is more for her to do. She has cancer and was expected to pass away months ago. As we taught her, she was glued to the idea of baptism and excitedly accepted our invitation at the end of the discussion. We are super pumped to go back and teach her some more. 

Elder Milligan and I are training tomorrow at Zone Conference, we came up with a cool formula for resolving common concerns with investigators. Just like usual math equations, there are specific formulas and steps we need to take to fill in the missing variables. Everybody has these unsolved variables in their testimonies. Our job as missionaries and members is to apply the proper steps to help these people identify and solve their missing variables. We are calling it "Solve for Baptism." It is going to be pretty epic, we are pumped to give the training. I will let you know how it goes next week.

Besides the baptism, the week was pretty standard. I love you guys, have a great week.

The Marshmallow,

Elder Obray

Christmas in October

Hola! Isn't conference weekend the best? There were so many awesome talks this time around and I am so grateful for the spirit and the feelings that come to us as we listen to the Lord's chosen servants.  We had yet another fantastic week here in the Capital. We had some pretty crazy experiences too that I am stoked to tell you all about. Of course, there will be a cute spiritual thought at the end so buckle up. 

First experience was after the Priesthood session the other night. Instead of the normal expedition to Texas Roadhouse, one of the sisters in our zone hasn't been doing too hot so we went over to give her a blessing. After talking with them and the blessing we took off back to our apartment. When we were leaving the parking lot we saw a ton of flashing lights and noticed a group of people pretty close. When we got closer we noticed that there was a man lying on his back... Yep he was definitely dead. We freaked out but luckily the police and the ambulances were already doing work. Des Moines is a crazy place sometimes.

We met this guy this week that the Sisters found finding. They called us one night and were super stoked about him... When we contacted him, he sounded like one of those investigators that is too golden to be true. After we talked to him for a little bit, he brought up the golden concern. He only wanted money from the church to pay his rent. We were pretty bummed, we brought a priest with us and he was so stoked about how awesome the lesson went but we knew we had to drop him.  Pretty sad deal. He acted very interested in our message up until we told him that we couldn't give him any money. I am super surprised how much that kind of stuff happens.

We had a great conference weekend. We watched the Saturday afternoon session at the Mission home. Sister Badger made Cafe Rio pork and tacos. It was a blessing and a half (Mom it wasn't as good as yours though so no worries). It was a great conference. We ended up watching the Sunday afternoon session with my favorite family we are teaching. When we got there, they were all ready to go and excited for us to set up the conference for them. One of the kids, R turns 8 this month so I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He looked at me and told me that he wanted to be baptized. Ugh I love little African kids, I am pretty sure I am going to adopt one. We are going to try to work it out so he can be baptized on the same day as his Aunt. We are so excited for them. 

Also, our other investigator E is doing great. He is getting baptized this weekend! We are so pumped for him. He has his baptismal interview tonight so definitely keep the guy in your prayers. He is going to be an awesome member of the church. He is one of my favorite people I have taught. We are best buds, he told us that he is going to take us down to Mexico with him next year. I am definitely up for it. 

One of my favorite things about General Conference was the obvious emphasis that was put on the Book of Mormon. President Eyring, President Nelson, and Elder Callister all had fantastic talks about the importance and validity of the Book of Mormon. One of the greatest blessings that I have seen from serving a mission is a more sure and firm testimony that the Book of Mormon is the most true book on the planet. Although I have read through the New Testament and am currently reading the Old Testament, I always feel like there is something amiss when I don't spend time reading the Book of Mormon. It truly is the keystone of our religion. It holds everything that we claim in the balance. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and sacrifices that he made to help bring the Book of Mormon forth. I know without any doubt in my mind that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and the only explanation of its coming forth is the one given by Joseph Smith. I too know that as we set time aside every day to read the Book of Mormon, our lives will be better, our attitudes will be happier and we will have an increase of peace and love in our lives. I am forever grateful that I got to travel to Iowa to find that out for sure. 

I don't have too much else to report on. I did get yet another bad haircut this morning. I came to the conclusion that if the place has the word "clips" in it, it cannot be trusted. I might as well just raise the white flag and surrender already and buzz it off.

I love you guys and I hope you all have an excellent week this week. 

The Elder with the weird hair,

Elder Obray