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
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