A "Sick" Thanksgiving

Hey Hey Hey! Can you believe it has already been a week since I wrote you guys last? Weeks go by in the blink of an eye here and it makes me feel all kinds of different ways! I am stoked to hear that you guys had a killer Thanksgiving. Ours was a good one here in the Midwest. This email is going to be a giant, we had an awesome week so I have a lot to talk about so I will jump right into it.

We had a killer week with finding this week. Like I talked about last week, we had to drop a couple of our investigators so we hit the streets to find some new ones. This week we found nine new investigators who are all super promising. We are super grateful for these people showing up. This message needs to be heard! Some of the highlights include teaching E's son and his girlfriend. When we taught him though, he had a lit joint and he invited us into his hotboxed apartment. It was pretty crazy, but he told us he is down to get baptized, he will just need to work through a couple things of course. 

I haven't told you about our super solid investigator getting baptized here in the next few weeks. He is a part member family that Elder MIlligan knocked into on exchanges. He is awesome. We have been teaching him for a couple of weeks and he is already up to Alma 20. His wife is a less active member that we are working on reactivating. He is a pretty funny guy. They have both come to church the past two weeks. He announced in Elders quorum that he is getting baptized on the 23rd. Of course we were excited about that! His baptism will be the last week that Elder MIlligan is a missionary so it is going to be real cool.

We had some other miracle people come to church. The sister missionaries that we share a ward with were knocking some apartments on exchanges with the Spanish sisters. Long story short they found this investigator from Ethiopia named B. They told us that he might want to come to church so on Saturday night, we stopped by and met the guy. We got him a ride to church and he came and stayed the whole 3 hours. He is ripe man! He ran track back home so we had plenty to talk about. He ran long distance of course :) but it was still fun to talk to him about it. We had another lady who just showed up to church. Our ward has like 200 hundred immigrant members who aren't really consistent in church attendance so it is always difficult to keep track of the members versus investigators. Basically a woman came to church and during relief society she raised her hand and said, "I want to be baptized in this church, where can I find an application?" The sisters pounced on her and turned her over to us. Her family was baptized a while back and she wasn't ready, but she feels that now is her time. We are stoked for her. She and B are on date to be baptized in January. There is some great stuff going on in our area right now. My guy Big Sean said it best, "I'M WAY UP I FEEL BLESSED"

Thanksgiving day was rad. We spent the first part of the day visiting our favorite member in another ward, who is in the hospital. Our Zone did a Turkey Trot up to the Capital building in the morning so that was an experience. We ate with the senior couples in the mission for lunch. It was fun to hear some of their stories from growing up. It reminded me of listening to Grandpa talk about all of the crazy things he did in high school. It brought back some great memories. We then took off to another dinner where we were supposed to be eating with a RC African family, and another member family. Unfortunately the African family couldn't make it, but it was still a great dinner. We definitely got hooked up this Thanksgiving. I will see you guys next year on Turkey Day! How crazy is that?  

I have been feeling pretty sick these last couple of days, our mission nurse thinks I might have a sinus infection so if it doesn't go away in the next couple of days I will be getting that checked out. Hopefully not though I feel a little better today. The work goes on!

Another cool thing that happened this week. Elder Balderston is now serving in the Cedar Rapids ward that I served in a while ago. Elder Youngstrom and I found this investigator named J that came to church a few times. To make a long story short, Elder Youngstrom and Elder Balderston are now in a trio and J got baptized on Saturday! It was pretty cool to start a teaching process and have it finished by my child. He makes a father proud! 

Some other fun experiences include: finding a new investigator in the hospital, getting invited inside by our new investigator we now call Bathsheba, giving a training at district meeting, speaking in sacrament meeting, talking to a full grown man in only his whitey tighties, and all kinds of other fun things. Mission life is the best life. 

I love you and hope you all are doing swell. Have a great week! 

The Soon to be Twenty,

Elder Obray

Look Beyond Yourself

Hola! Man, it has been another great week here in the Capital. I look back and think about the things that happened this week, and it was kind of a rough one, but weeks can always be good if we let them. I have been thinking a lot lately about gratitude and selflessness so expect a cute spiritual thought at the end of this email. I am sure you are itching with anticipation. 

To start this email, I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving this week! It is crazy that it has already been a year since I was picking up Elder Balderston from the mission home with no idea how to be a missionary. I have come a long way! I still barely know how to be a missionary, but hopefully I have improved a little bit. Also it is crazy that last year I was sitting in the Cannon's living room having Thanksgiving dinner. I am eternally grateful for that family helping me feel a little bit like I was home during the Holidays. Mom, tell Sister Cannon I miss them! 

To dive into this last week. We had zone conference on Tuesday so the first couple of days were spent trying to help get those things situated. It was a pretty wild day. We showed up to zone conference for the morning session. When it was lunch time, we were excused into the gym to find that the ladies in charge of the food didn't show up. Elder Milligan and I and some STLs from Fort Dodge had to arrange for some pizza to feed 80 missionaries. It was pretty wild. Elder Milligan and I missed the majority of the afternoon session trying to get things straightened out. Luckily Sister Badger helped us out and we got it all taken care of. Pretty exciting zone conference. The talks were good too. :)

We were blessed this week to find a lot of great people to work with. We had a tough day when one of our investigators decided that she didn't want to quit smoking and told us that we weren't Christlike for not letting her get baptized because she smoked. It was pretty sad to hear her say these things, we have taught her quite a bit, but I guess it happens sometimes. That being said, we hit the streets to find some new people. We found some great people that we are excited about. We were knocking on this apartment building when this Islamic man came out of his apartment guns a blazin telling us that Christ wasn't real. We did our best to testify of Christ but he was one of the most hard hearted people I have ever met. Towards the end of our discussion, he looked at us and said "Take those silly tags off and do something with yourselves" we told him that there is nothing that we would rather be doing, he then looked at me and said "You look like you need to join the marines, they go in first and absorb all of the bullets for the rest of the army." It took every bit of my power to not deck this man in the face, but we told him to have a nice day and went to the next door. Some people man. Keep that man in your prayers.

We had some other great finding miracles but I won't go into detail. Just know the Lord hooked us up this week. 

I will close this email with the thought I mentioned earlier. At the very beginning of my mission, I mentioned a talk called the "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. The majority of the talk discusses that when Christ was in anguish, he looked outward. It is easy to think of ourselves when things aren't going our way, but we learn that Christ would always look outward. I have come up with a pretty straightforward remedy for those times when I start to feel bad for myself; I remind myself that if I start to feel bad for myself and my circumstances I am thinking of myself too much. I have thought about why missions are the happiest of times and I believe that it is because the majority of the time spent on a mission is in the service of others. I have learned that the gateway to eternal joy is serving others and focusing less on our own needs and thinking more of the needs of others. We are richly blessed, it is up to us to help others who aren't as fortunate.

I want to issue a challenge to you family. This holiday season, think of someone who needs your help, and help them. I promise the joy that comes with it. 

I also want to tell you all how grateful I am for you all. You guys are the greatest family a guy could ask for. I hope that you guys have an amazing Thanksgiving. I will be there for the next one! Give Grandma a big hug for me. I love you.

A grateful missionary,

Elder Obray

The APs and some other guys

I wasn't ready for the pictures, but these guys are my favorite!

The Crew

Permission for Pregnancy

My dearest family, it was a pretty good week here in Des Moines. The weeks are flying by these days and of course it gives me a healthy dose of anxiety. I reached a cool milestone this last week. I have officially been out on my mission for 15 months. If my math is correct, that only means there are nine more months until I come back to the 801. I have thought back to my high school health classes and realized that the average pregnancy lasts about 9 months. So, Lindsay and Jonathan, Maddie and Trevor, you now officially have my permission to get pregnant. I will be there when they are born hopefully. That is pretty crazy for me to think about. There is so much work to be done here in the Midwest and not enough time to do it. This email is going to be a little boring so it will probably be a little short, but I commit to having a more exciting email next week. 

If I told you that this week was a highlight of the mission, I would definitely be stretching it. It was a pretty average week to be honest. We spent a lot of time in meetings and preparing for those meetings. We get the opportunity to go to two district meetings every week so we have plenty of time to spend with the members of our zone. There are some great things going on in the zone right now and we are excited about the progress. Of course we still deal with all kinds of unnecessary drama, but what is life I guess. 

I had a moment of extreme trunkiness this week. My favorite family in our ward, the Collinwoods, invited us and another young couple over for dinner last night. It was pretty cute because these families are both pretty young so it was great to hear all of their fun marriage stories. Elder Milligan and I were happy to stand in as the third couple. But after we finished dinner, they suggested that we all play CATCH PHRASE!! I almost told them no because I knew that I would get wrecked, but I decided that I couldn't resist. It sure made me miss you guys! "SHREK HAS TWO OF THESE!" 

I haven't really been two trunky my entire mission, but this week was one of those weeks when I got a little anxious to be home. I really miss you guys, and I miss music, I miss girls and having time to relax. It has really been the first time when I have really thought, holy cow, I don't have that much time to be a missionary. Although, I am really excited to see you guys, for the time being there is no place that I would rather be. Although missionary work is incredibly hard, frustrating and sometimes demoralizing, it is also the happiest work on the planet. It is incredible to see the changes that the gospel can bring into their lives. It is crazy to look back on these short fifteen months and notice the growth I have noticed in my own testimony. This short time as a full time missionary is time that I will never trade.

To end this email, I have recently loved a scripture in Galations 6:7-8. There is a cool doctrine in the church which involves reaping what we sow. I love this doctrine because it states plainly that every good work, or righteous desire, or charitable act does not go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father. He is perfectly just and merciful. Although our motivation should come from love for our Heavenly Father and charity for others, it is also nice to know that there is an amazing reward at the end of the day for righteous living and serving others. I am sure that we don't fully understand the treasures in Heaven that our Heavenly Father has in store for us, but someday, if we endure to the end, we will achieve our potential that our Heavenly Father has in store for us. 

I am sorry that this email was kind of a dud. I will do my best to have a super adventurous week this week so I can have some fun stories for you. Have a great week, our weeks are as good as we make them. I love you.

The not so trunky Elder,

Elder Obray

I'm Ripped

Hey Hey Hey! It was yet another great week here in the Capital. This week was super busy with all kinds of shenanigans, but of course it was a good one. All weeks can be good weeks if we let them. First though, Lindsay that video that you sent me of Maxwell and Jonathan killed me! I am sitting here in the Des Moines library and I exploded with laughter when I saw it. The people around me were concerned about the white boy in the church clothes having an episode. Thanks for the laugh! Maxwell looked like a stud in the pictures from Halloween. What a cute kid.

This week was loaded, in Des Moines, they celebrate this holiday called Begger's night. It is the day before Halloween when all of the kids can trick or treat safely. So on Monday night our cars had to be grounded at 6. So right after P day was over, we were stranded in our apartment. It was wild. We had interviews with President Badger on Halloween so that was also a super busy day. We spent the whole day in the stake center with President and Sister Badger conducting interviews with our zone. Our cars were grounded at 6 again on Halloween so we went with a member over to his apartment and were treated with a movie!! It was the Prophet of the Restoration, but a movie none the less. He was the guy who sent you pictures the other day Momma. He is a great guy and really helps out the missionaries in Des Moines. 

One thing I forgot to mention last week was that I had to sing another song at MLC on Wednesday. I sang a cute rendition of the primary song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," one of my favorites. It went alright, we had to wake up really early to drive some elders to Iowa City so we all got Monsters to make up for it. I have had plenty of Monsters on my mission and they usually don't affect me too much, but I didn't think about how we were going to be sitting in a meeting all day so the caffeine really got to me. I was shaking for a good part of the meeting. It was pretty intense, between the side effects of the caffeine and the nervousness for the song, my heart rate was steady at around 3000 bpm. No big deal. 

On Friday night, we were having some exchanges with one of the District Leaders and his companion. I went with Elder Kelley and we had a great exchange. We found some great people to teach. At the end of the night we were driving back to our apartment when all of the sudden two young huskies ran out into the road. Our van doesn't have the best breaks so  I am sad to say that I hit both of them. I slammed the brakes, so we didn't hit them too hard, but I was definitely worried that I was going to get out of the car to find two beautiful dogs lying on the road. Luckily when I got out of the car I saw them running around across the street so at least I didn't kill either of them. Hopefully they are alright. I felt like garbage the rest of the night though. I almost murdered two dogs. 

There were some cool changes that went down in the Des Moines stake that I am sure you are dying to hear about, they introduced a YSA branch that will cover three stakes. Because it is the middle of the transfer, Elder Milligan and I are going to be representing the missionaries from the Des Moines stake. It is going to be cool to work with some of the YSA in the area. When we went to the branch yesterday I got to catch up with some members from Ames. It was awesome to see some familiar faces. I love that place. 

The last funny experience was last night. Elder Milligan and I went over to a family's house for dinner. This family feeds a bunch of people from the ward on Sunday nights so it is always a good time. Our area includes Drake University so a couple of the student members in the YSA branch showed up. They were actually pretty cute, (don't worry I am still consecrated to the work) but the funny thing was after the dinner we were all walking to our cars. I unlocked our sweet ride and started up the ten foot ascent to get into the driver's seat when all of the sudden my suit pants ripped right up the seem. It was super impressive. I am going to get them fixed today so it shouldn't be a huge deal. 

That is all I really have to update you guys on. Keep on keeping on and say your prayers! I love you! 

The Elder with the ripped pants,

Elder Obray

p.s. I did get the package. You guys are the coolest people around. The fitbit has had me all kinds of self conscious about moving. It sends reminders to move so I will be sitting in a lesson and have a reminder to move so I will suddenly have an intense desire to do some jumping jacks. It is the good stuff.