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