Jesus Straw

Sorry y'all but this will be a long one.

The last three day in the MTC were SO LONG!   We just wanted to get on that plane to Nashville. On July 2nd, the MTC President let us stay up as late as we wanted so we went out to the parking lot to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. I felt so American holding a cactus cooler and a Tennessee flag shirt. While it was super fun I was also sad because that was the last day that Elder Acosta and I taught together. I am going to miss that guy! Hopefully we will be able to teach together in the field sometime. Sunday night was our last night together in the MTC.  To make it memorable we set up a fort with about 9 mattresses. I was trying to sleep because we had to be up at 3:30 in the butt crack of dawn. The guys snuck up on me and threw me out of my bed and into the fort!! I am really going to miss my MTC district! We eventually made it on the plane out of SLC. We took off at about 8:00 am.

Now to Tennessee...

When we got off the plane in Nashville, we had to swim through air to meet our Mission President. It is way too humid here! All 21 of us tried to talk to people but we were too nervous so we sat at the baggage claim all awkward. Once we got to the mission home, we ate and then the Elders had to go to a hotel to stay the night. That was the last night with Elder Acosta and we are just way to funny. He is the realest gangster! We woke up and went to the church to see where we are gonna get called. One Trainer stood up and said that there will be an Elder that would have to learn Swahili and I about lost my mind. I did not want to learn Swahili!  But I guess The Lord knows me best. Just kidding, I didn't get called there (thank goodness). I got assigned to the Paducah Kentucky area and my trainer is Elder Ihler. It sounds like Tyler but with out the T. He is a pretty cool dude. He grew up in Malad Idaho and is a legit cowboy. I love him because of that! One thing funny about him is that he has one emotion the whole time.... I am like so excited, and he is just like cool! But he tells me he is excited. He is a really good trainer and we are very good at being obedient, so that is awesome! He knows the gospel really well and is very good at getting people to meet with us after we talk with them.

We got to our home in Paducah and started to study and track ting. I have even got to knock on my first door and I was super nervous! After a while though it gets easier. I know the restoration pretty well now, and I can just say that I love modern day prophets?! I don't know how people can go through this life without modern revolution. Anyways, we bike every other day and get a car the other day. The members here are so loving and so nice to the missionaries. Paducah is built like Idaho Falls. It's like a suburban city with apparent buildings here and there. The people here are either super nice or hate us! We are more often in the Midwest area then the south but I still love it all the same!!

Now for stories ....

We were tracting this place that looked like an old 1950's, this black kid runs up to us and pulls out a bendy straw and asked us, "Want a Jesus Straw?" I busted up laughing and I still have that straw!  Another time we had an appointment at an investigators house and I felt like I was in Hansel and Gretel's house!  They were so nice and the food is so good and there so much! I was a little worried that the people were going to bash on us but they actually listened to our message and love that we are bringing people to Jesus! I just didn't know that there could be such nice people! We eat a lot of fried things and meat .... and let me tell ya, it's so good! I love fried okra!!!

We have gotten to teach Van.  We are meeting with him tonight! He asked if someone sent us because he has been looking for Christ! He has had problems with the law and wants to get his life in order. I asked him, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority?"  And he said, "Yes, yes sir!"  I really hope we can keep teaching him and he will follow through, but The Spirit was like "Pow"!  He is super cool and I hope that he really accepts our message .... so pray for him!
One night me and Elder Ihler set up a movie theater to watch a gospel video! Oh, and it has rained pretty much everyday that I have been here. When I say rain I mean it has poured buckets! One moment it's fine then all of the sudden we are soaked. There was a tornado by us and we had to go inside for a couple hours. The weather here changes more drastically than Utah .... haha. There should be a sign outside that says, "Free Sauna for Everyone!" We walk outside and we are drenched in sweat!

I would like to leave you with a scripture that I have pondered recently. 2 Nephi 28:27.
Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more!
It I super simple and short. I thought, why do we have to go to three hours of church? When I read that it made sense. We can never know enough so keep we need to keep on learning!

My new address is...
204 Glenn st Paducah, KY 42003

I would love to read some letters!

Love Elder Quiring

 

After the big storm

 The first house I tracted!

Gospel movie night

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 Notes from Elder Acosta:

On the 4th of July we woke up at 3:30 in the morning and headed towards the buses. When Elder Quiring and I were trying to buy breakfast at the salt lake airport  a lady came by and paid for us.
Too nice. We talked to her for a while. She has a few relatives out on their missions. Very tender mercy. After a couple hours all 21 of us Nashville missionaries got onto a flight to Atlanta. As soon as we got off that plane it was like we were swimming in air. It's some crazy humidity. We took a subway to get the the plane headed to Nashville from there. It was really funny to see a pack of 21 missionaries walking around. That's P O W E R, baby. As soon as we crossed to Tennessee it was like flying over thick forest. A big hill forest. We landed and president stone and his family were waiting for us.
We headed over to the mission home and it was pretty spectacular. It's like a city in a jungle. It rains so often here. Pretty much every day since I got here. I love it. The mission home is located in Brentwood, which happens to be one of the richest counties in the U.S. Tons of celebrities and musicians live there. It's ridiculous how big some of these mansions were. On top of the houses
the sizes of temples there are mega churches the size of a couple. A real popular one around here is a nondenominational mega church called World Outreach. We ate at the mission home and got to meet some of the senior couples, along with the stone family. The power and spirit was so strong. So many missionaries, accompanied with the fact that we were about to be split up the next day. We had a 3 hour lesson taught by 3 APs as president and sister stone took us out one by one to interview us. Their spirit is so great.
The sisters stayed the night at the mission home and the elders were put into a hotel. What a bitter sweet night! Splitting up with my brothers, especially Elder Quiring. We were two peas in a pod.
Partners in crime. At transfer the next day Stone told us one elder would be recalled Swahili speaking to work with Swahili refugees in Bowling Green Kentucky that day. I had all my fingers and toes
crossed. Elder Jensen was called to the area. When someone gets called there they usually stay for like 9 months. However all hope is not lost! There have been quite a few elders who have been recalled Swahili at different times in their mission. The latest I've heard being 15 months. I know we are called to our areas through the inspiration of God. I got called to Murfreesboro, more specifically
Blackman. It's a more suburbs area of Tennessee. My new companion is Elder Ruoho. Quiring got called to Paducah Kentucky. Before we all headed our separate ways we said our goodbyes as brothers.

(I am going to miss Elder Acosta! He was the perfect first companion to Conner & I am truly grateful for their friendship!!)

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Note from Elder Ihler:

This past week has been awesome! I received a trainee and we have been working nice and hard and we have seen blessings come from it. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father sent me a greenie who is willing to put in the work and time of his calling. It has been a fun past week!

Tuesday was transfers and we had a trainer meeting with President Stone right before the Trainer/Trainee meeting that was combined. It was fun getting to see the new mission president. He didn't share much about his family or anything like that since the meeting was focused on the Trainers and Trainees. I received Elder Quiring and he is from Highland, Utah! My last trainee Elder Story was also from there! That is crazy. He is ready to work and I have had such a fun time this first week starving to be 100% obedient. I can testify that the Lord gives blessings and miracles to those that try. No one will be exactly 100% perfect, but if that is our goal and we try then we will see the blessings.
Wednesday the tornado sirens were going off and a tornado actually formed in Metropolis, Illinois which is like 3 miles away! It was crazy! While traveling around after that storm there were a lot of
broken trees. I will include a picture of a huge tree that fell on a ladies house and car!!!! 4 foot diameter tree, snapped in half!

Thursday we visited quite a bit of people. We were teaching one inactive and she gave us a referral to go see another less active nearby. We went to that persons house and he answers the door and he is about 30 yrs old and has a son that is 10. He said that him or his wife would love to come out with us, feed us, or help us with whatever we need. Apparently they have come to church before just for sacrament once or twice while I have been here, but I have never noticed. oops.
He was a great guy and he likes sports, and so does Elder Quiring. So we had a fun conversation with him and talked about the Book of Mormon and we hope to see him soon. There was a really poky bush at one of the houses that we were tracting at and I asked him how much money it would take for him to jump into it and he said that he never would. So then I said, what about just your arm up to your shoulder? And he still didn't sound like he was too excited to do it. So after we walked away out of the driveway, I asked him if he would give me $10 if I put my arm all the way up to my shoulder and he said yes. So to not make it awkward, I pulled out a pass along card and put it on the door after walking back up to the house and then I put my arm all the way into the poky bush and got a few cool scratches. Hahaha Then for dinner he paid for my meal at an all you can eat pizza place. Good
memories. Haha But I told him that he can't gamble or make bets anymore ;) haha

Friday was the Meet The President meeting! It was so much fun seeing President and Sister Stone and see their personalities. They have 6 kids, 5 of which will be living in the mission home. We only met 3 of them at the meeting. They showed us a video of when they opened their mission call and we saw the excitement and craziness that was in their house.

Saturday we had mission correlation with Brother Ravenberg. He got putin as the new Elder's Quorum president and we will probably be getting a new Ward Misison Leader soon. Then we had to do weekly planning for a few hours since we couldn't do it Friday due to the President Stone
meeting. We had a dinner with some random people that told us to come by for dinner. They were the kindest people ever! They had food prepared for us and we had a wonderful time. They even gave us a ride back to our apartment. It was good to see good Christian people in the community. The youth got back from Youth Conference from Nauvoo. They all had a great experience it sounds like. Seeing them go on that trip reminded me of when I went there for an EFY. I am so grateful for the
testimony that I have gained about Joseph Smith being a true prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true :) Also, today was the first day that Elder Quiring saw the sun and that it didn't rain since he has
been out here.

Sunday we had an awesome lesson with Brother Cortez. We gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, and Bible. Thank goodness for the translate app, we were able like to communicate with him a little bit. It was a fun visit!

 He looks like Koby Smith ... right?