Sunday, March 4, 2018

The Des Moines Resident

Hey Hey Hey! Not too many things bring a smile faster to my face faster than hearing that all is well back in the 801. I love you guys so much.  It was yet another great week in the promised land of Des Moines IA. I guess that I have really accepted the call to serve in the Iowa Des Moines mission. Who would have thought that I would spend so much time in the capital? I am pretty sure that I will be staying here for the rest of my mission, so it will round out to more than a year in the same church building and driving the same roads every day. I can't complain though. I love it here. This week was a wild one so I will cut right to the chase. 

On Tuesday, I got to go to the temple with all of the departing missionaries. I almost forgot how incredible the temple is. I haven't been through the entire temple since the MTC, so it was a definite breath of fresh air. The temple is such an amazing place and is truly the House of the Lord. Gotta love it. It is about a four hour drive to the temple from Des Moines, and I got to drive my girl Heather again. Man what a blessing. I think I am going to invest in a Ford Transit when I get home. What a machine. The temple president is married to one of President Nelson's daughters... Yes the Prophet's daughter. He is so awesome. He helped us out when Q went to the temple for the first time with us. Anyway, he took all of us up to the bell tower in the Nauvoo temple and talked to all of the departing missionaries. When we were up there, he said a few words and invited us to sing. Of course we sang "We thank thee o God for a Prophet." It was awesome because he backed right into the space next to me, so I got to sing about our wonderful prophet, with our wonderful Prophet's son in law. It was pretty rad. The spirit hit me real good.

The next fun experience of the week was when we got to pick up all of the new missionaries form the airport. Man, it was a humbling experience talking to them. It feels like just yesterday I was coming off of the plane in Des Moines so excited for the work. We had some great missionaries come out. We got to hang out with them and then send them off to their new areas the next day. 

We also had transfers this week. Man, I am so grateful that those are over. It was a fiasco planning this one. We had to close six areas and join four zones into two. It was a huge headache that I am grateful is over. I just pray that all of this stress won't accelerate my hair loss. Luckily everything went super well. Definitely looking forward to more time in our area this week to do the real work. 

On Thursday afternoon, we collected all of the departing missionaries and brought them back to the mission home. One of those departing is my good pal and trainer Elder Dunford. It was sad to see that man go. He is such a stud, and I learned so much from him. He is safely back in San Diego now, but man I will miss him. We had a cool experience to be a part of the departing testimony meeting. It was a really powerful meeting. After which we had to stay up and babysit all of those going home. Don't want anyone hugging or holding hands or any of that nonsense. We didn't get back to our apartment until like one o'clock. We then had to set our alarm for four o'clock to be up to take them to the airport. Man it was wild, but don't worry President Badger approved a nap for us that day. It was magical. I haven't had one of those for a while haha. 

I am finally almost done reading Jesus the Christ. I have read it on and off on my mission but I decided that I needed to finish it. One of my favorite scriptures is in Isaiah 49:16 which says: "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."  I have loved reading Jesus the Christ because it goes into a lot more detail and expounds upon the sacrifice that our Savior made for us. Words will never be able to describe how grateful I am for Him. I know that He lives and that he is mindful of every one of our needs and desires. He truly is our greatest friend. 

Have a wonderful week this week. I love you! :)

The Des Moines resident,
Elder Obray




No comments:

Post a Comment