Monday, March 28, 2016

Did You Think To Pray?

This week has been really great!  

On Tuesday, Elder Aitchison and I went to the chapel early in the morning to unlock the chapel, because that's the place where all of the missionaries going back and forth between Vegas and "out of valley" meet.  Then Elder VanSlyke and I went down to Kingman for a zone leadership meeting, and to skype into a new district leader training that was happening up in Vegas.  Skyping in was definitely a little weird, but I learned so much from both of them!  

We also helped some members move their sheep this weekend!  I'll try to send a video of the adventure! 

I learned something interesting in studies the other day about prayer. The Bible dictionary has this to say about prayer, 

  • "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."  
I've really come to appreciate the fact that prayer is all about aligning our will with God's, and I also thought it was really interesting that there are certain things that he wants to bless us with but are conditional on us asking for them!  

I'm also super excited for general conference this weekend!  I know that conference is an amazing way for us to receive revelation for our personal lives! 

I love you all!  Thank you for all of your support!

Elder Excell


Q&A - 3/28/2016

1.) What are some of your responsibilities as District Leader? Are you enjoying the added responsibility?  --As a district leader, I'm in charge of leading district council, going on exchanges with other elders in my district, and gathering people's key indicators for the week.  I'm also supposed to follow up with people over the phone every couple of nights to see how their week is going and help them set goals and then follow up on those goals.

2.) How many missionaries are in your district? And, does this mean that you'll be asked to go to leadership meetings or is just zone leaders that go to those?  --We have one more set of elders in our district as well as a set of sisters. The elders cover the Golden Valley area, and the sisters cover part of Kingman.  I'll go to some zone leadership meetings every couple of weeks, and once a quarter there's a mission leadership conference, but other than that it's mostly just the zone leaders.

3.) General Conference is this weekend!! What are your plans for being able to watch it? Where will you be? Do you have any investigators who are interested in watching with you?  --I'm super excited for conference! It seems like just yesterday that I was watching with Elder Dixon in Warm Springs.  We'll be watching the broadcast from the Dolan Springs chapel.  We don't have anyone set up to come watch with us yet because of how easy it is to watch at home.


4.) When is the last time you were able to ride your bike? Is it pretty much just stored away in your trailer for now?  --I haven't ridden my bike since Warm Springs.  There are lots of Goat Heads (really big thorns) on the roads here, so our tires would go flat almost immediately. 


5.) Do you have enough money? Do you have to pay for gas from your mission money or do you have some sort of allowance for gas to travel in your area?  --I'm doing fine!  We have a gas card that covers all of our vehicle things, so we don't have to use our MSF money for that.


6.) Are you happy and healthy and do you know how much you are loved?  --
Always! 


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