I'll Be Home For Christmas

Hey Hey Hey! Man, I can't tell you how great it was to see you all this week. I always come away from skype calls with a reminder of why I am a missionary and a renewed enthusiasm for the work. If I haven't said it before, just know I think you guys are the coolest people on Earth. Thank you so much for everything you guys do. You will never know how much I love you. 

This email will most likely be pretty short because we talked a few days ago. Elder Milligan goes into the mission home tomorrow and I am pretty bummed. I am sure going to miss that guy. He has become one of my best buddies out here and I am sad to see him go. Luckily he will only be down the street at UVU. We already have plans for double dates and boating trips. 

S's baptism was awesome, we had a great turn out from the ward. He was so excited to become a member of the church. It was great to see. He is going to do amazing things in the gospel. We have already set a goal for him and his wife to be sealed a year from now. You already know that I will be making the trip back here! 

I talked about the Holy Ghost at S's baptism and gave the analogy of a wide receiver on a football team. When a receiver catches the ball, he is expected to continue moving towards the end zone, not just catch it and stand there. I compared this to when we "receive" the Holy Ghost. We are expected to use the Holy Ghost and continue enduring and running towards the end zone or eternal life. Sometimes the adversary will try to tackle us or make us fumble, but luckily we have lead blockers like prayer, scripture study, temple worship and church attendance to help us get there. Gotta love sports analogies.

One of my least favorite Christmas songs on my mission is "I'll Be Home for Christmas" because I feel like it is mocking me because I obviously haven't been home for Christmas lately. I am happy to say though, that it is back on the top of the list because I can honestly sing that song and know that I will actually be there this time. Can't wait to celebrate with you guys!

That's about all I have for you guys this week. I will be emailing again on Tuesday so expect some killer stories of the adventures of Elder Obray and Elder Hadfield taking on Des Moines.  

Love you.

The Long Snapper for the Lord's football team,

Elder Obray

Father and Son

The Greatest District in the Land

Looking a Lot Like Christmas

Hey Hey Hey! It was yet another great week in the promised land of Des Moines. The trio life is going pretty well. We are getting the hang of things together so we are super pumped for the upcoming transfer. It was another super busy week. The first week of the transfer is always jammed so we spent yet another week doing a lot of administrative stuff. Lets get to it!

To start off this email I want to give a great update on our guy S. He is so awesome! His baptism is this Saturday and I don't know if I have ever met anyone with a greater desire to "Feast on the Words of Christ." I mentioned last week that he finished the Book of Mormon and started the Doctrine and Covenants. When we went over a couple days later he told us that not only had he finished the D&C, but he had also finished the Pearl of Great Price. That man is so solid. He is one of the only people that I haven't had to worry about coming to church on their own. We call him on Saturday and he has already made plans every time to come to church the next day. He has a simple testimony that I think all of us could learn from. He is so excited to be baptized this weekend and we couldn't be more excited for him. Elder Milligan is stepping into the font for the last time on his last Saturday in the mission field. What a great way to finish it off. I will spare the cute emotional stuff for next week. :)

In other news, we had MLC this last week. It is always a good time to travel to Iowa City to see a bunch of my best pals from the mission. Have I mentioned that my child Elder Balderston is a Zone Leader now? He is doing big things and I am so proud of that guy. He is serving in the zone next to ours so he comes to our P Days. I am actually sitting right next to him right now. What a blessing. 

We also had interviews with President and Sister Badger this week. It is such a blessing to learn from that man. As zone leaders, we have to help President conduct the interviews so we basically sit in the church all day and babysit the other missionaries. It is a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get to know the members of the zone better. We have a lot young missionaries in our zone, it feels like just yesterday I was in their shoes. Missions go by way too quick! 

In other news, we went through our area book this week and tried by a bunch of former investigators. We had some great success finding families that have been taught in the past that are now ready to progress towards baptism. We were in a lesson with a woman named I last night and she plans African weddings for the local Liberian community. She was showing us some pictures of her past decorations. I asked her if I could get on the waiting list for her to plan my wedding in a few years. She told me, "Only the best for my brother!" I hope you are all prepared for a traditional African style wedding! It is going to be legendary! 

We have been fortunate this year, the weather has actually been pretty nice so far. It is steady in the 30s so it hasn't been too cold yet. But I know that the bone chilling wind and humid cold are right around the corner. Luckily I haven't had to get my scarf out, but I have been wearing those Snow boats everyday. They are so lightweight and make me feel much more athletic, and agile. There hasn't been any snow to trudge through, but I am always trying to be prepared for the blizzards they are meant for.

I am so pumped to talk to you guys this weekend! After this week, there will only be one more round of skyping! How about that?

I hope you all have the epitome of a Merry Christmas. I will be there for the next one! Talk to you soon!

I love you.

A Proud Father,

Elder Obray

Chanman

"The Lineage"

A bunch of the guys I came out with reunited

The Collinwoods gave us leftover cake from their daughter's birthday. No complaints.

Three is Better Than Two?

What's up gang?! It is great to hear that it was a solid week back home in the promised land. This week was pretty crazy so I will get right to it. Because it was transfers, we weren't able to do as much work in our area as we'd like. But let's get to it anyway.

I have a testimony that God truly does answer our prayers. I am staying in Des Moines for another transfer! I am super stoked about it. Elder Milligan dies here in the next couple of weeks so they put us in a trio for the next little while. We have some great people we are working with so I am excited that I can stay in the area for the next little while to see their baptisms. Our new companion's name is Elder Hadfield, from the thriving metropolis of Elmo, Utah. I think that there were more people in my graduating class than there were people in his hometown, so that is pretty wild. He is a good guy, it is his first transfer as a Zone Leader so we are breaking him in. He joined the Kick a possum gang in his first week. Pretty impressive. Elder Milligan and I have gotten really close and we can do the cliche "Finish each other's sentences" thing, pretty cute. It will definitely take some getting used to with a trio, but we are excited.

Our investigator S continues to be the man. Like I said last week, he finished the Book of Mormon early last week, on the day he finished, he called us and said "Elders you need to come over I want to testify to you!" This guy is the man. When we went over a couple days later, he told us he was already 50 sections into the Doctrine and Covenants. His wife M is now fully active in the church as well. It has been pretty cool! We are excited for the 23rd. 

We are also still teaching my guy B. He is such a stud. He has a super cool story that he opened up to us about in our last lesson with him. He basically told us that there were some events in his past that inspired him to change his life and strengthen his relationship with God, then a few weeks later, the missionaries came along. We are so stoked for him. He is doing great. 

This email is pretty lame and I am sorry, but I will do my best to liven it up with the thought for the week. I have been reading the Gospels lately and just finished John. I was reading in Chapter 6 a few weeks ago and had a particular verse stick out to me. When Jesus Christ is feeding the 5000, the apostles doubted and said, about the loafs of bread, "What are they among so many?" Sometimes we are asked to do hard things that seem impossible, sometimes others seem more qualified for the job, we doubt and wonder, What am I among so many? The Lord will qualify us in every aspect of His work, just like He qualified those simple loafs of bread to bless the lives of so many.

I love you and I hope you have another wonderful week. Let me know if you need anything.

Stake Flag Football Legend,

Elder Obray

LOL "Rake" University

All I Want For My Birthday

Hey Hey Hey! It was yet another great week in the greatest mission on earth. I am starting to feel like an old man! Twenty years old probably has felt better before. We had some great experiences that  I won't soon forget. The work was a little bit more frustrating this week, but of  course we did some other things to make it fun! I apologize in advance for this email. 

My birthday was one that probably won't go down in any history books. Elder Milligan is reaching the end of his mission so he and the other missionaries going home soon had their departing temple trip. So instead of celebrating with my pal Elder Milligan I spent the day in another area. There is a companionship who is turning around training (training a new missionary right after finishing training) in our zone and they are kinda struggling so I decided that I would conduct a blitz in their area. I know all too well what it is like to be training a new missionary too young with a struggling area.  It was a pretty successful blitz. We had three companionships working in their area and we found a plethora of new investigators for them to work with. We are excited to see the fruit. 

So that was definitely an interesting part of the day. There is a ZL in Ankeny (a suburb of Des Moines) whose companion was also on the temple trip so we exchanged for the morning. He hurt his foot the day before so he decided he needed to get it checked out. When we got there I decided I might as well get my sinuses checked out. It turns out the Elder I was with had a fractured foot, I got the treat of a sinus infection. So I guess all I want for my birthday is a sinus infection. Don't worry though I got the proper medication and it seems to have gone away already. No complaints.

There has been a possum hanging out right by our apartment. A couple months ago we were sitting in our apartment and saw this possum chilling on our porch. We named it Marvin, a couple weeks ago we got back from a long day and saw in our headlights our guy Marvin just chillin. Elder MIlligan jumped out of the car and decided he was going to try to kick this possum. It has kind of become a thing that when ever we see him one of us has to kick Marvin. I am grateful that this week I joined the Kick a possum club. Poor guy. He ran off like he was fine, I didn't get him too hard. Kinda fun though haha.

Just an update on our investigator S. He is doing so good, that man is pretty much in the font already. He finished the Book of Mormon this week. He read it so fast! He knows that it is true as well. What a guy! He came to church again yesterday and announced to everyone that he met that he is getting baptized on the 23rd. No complaints! We are stoked for him and his wife.

Some other highlights include, going furniture shopping with E,  celebrating at Texas Roadhouse with the boys, an excellent birthday dinner from my favorite family, the Collinwoods, holding hands with an African American woman while we prayed together, and getting a high priest handshake from an Ethiopian gang member. 

Transfers are this week, we are almost positive that I will be sticking around for another to kill off Elder Milligan. We will probably be in a trio for a couple weeks until he goes home, but I guess you never know. I really don't want to leave this place. I love it here. I will keep you posted.

I hope you all have a great week this week! Take it easy! :)

Love you.

The Elder in the kick a possum club,

Elder Obray