The Desert is Blooming!!

General Conference at the Dolan Springs chapel was pretty crowded! ;)

Spring has sprung! Dolan is full of
desert flowers!

First off, Dad, I never got the chance to tell you last week because of all the craziness, but Happy Birthday!  I know it's not quite as exciting to have birthdays when you get older, but I hope you had a good one nonetheless! 

It's been another really awesome week! 

On Tuesday morning we met a lady who is really awesome! She told us that even though she wasn't a member of our church she believed almost everything that we believe. She's going through some really difficult health challenges right now, and she said she felt like we were an answer to her prayer. We had gone there on what seemed like a whim at the time, but I'm sure was the spirit! 

Then on Wednesday, we went to the temple with the Pikes! It was so great of them to take us up! It's such a blessing to be able to go to the temple and feel of the spirit there.

We also had a lesson with a family called the Gosser's. They're a really great family, and it was a really great lesson, but the most notable part of it was the ending. Someone walked into the house carrying a dead snake! We've had half the branch hunting snakes for us so that we can get snake skins. We have a member who is willing to make them into belts for us! 
A family we're teaching had a bonfire after our lesson!

Zone conference was also this week. They installed new boxes in our cars that measure our speed and other things, so it will definitely take us a little bit longer to get to Kingman from now on… haha. 

I love spring flowers in Dolan!

Also at one point, we went to a members house, to teach them a lesson and they took us out to see their animals. While we were there, the wife sensed that one of the roosters was feeling sick, and then it died suddenly in her arms! It was crazy! 

One thing I've learned recently is some callings are extended to people because they're the best person for the job.  And other callings are extended to people because it's the best calling for the person, and it's giving them a much needed chance to learn and grow. 

I love being a missionary and I absolutely love the people here! 

As always, thank you for all of your love and support! Love you all!

Elder Excell

The Pike's took us up to the temple this week!  It was so nice of them!

Q&A - 04/18/2016

1.)  I'd love to hear all about your exchange to Golden Valley! --My exchange in Golden Valley was awesome!  It was with Elder Ryder, and he's one of my really good friends out here!  We came out at the same time, and were in the same district for the first two transfers of our missions, so it was really good to see him again and catch back up on old times!  We also had some really good talks about a lot of things.  One of the big emphases in the leadership of this mission is the idea of building future leaders. It's basically the idea of, if you were to go home right now, who would you want to take your place. Is that person ready to be a leader? How can you help them to be a leader?  Elder Ryder has some doubts about whether or not he's ready for the responsibility, but we had some really good talks about it.  He has so much potential, and I was glad that I got a chance to help him see some of it!



2.)  When you go on exchanges, does Elder Aitchison stay in Dolan and work with the companion of whomever you are exchanging with?  Does that missionary stay in your trailer then and sleep in your bed and you stay in his apartment and sleep in his bed?  I don't know a whole lot about how exchanges work.  --It varies from time to time.  Sometimes the other missionary will come to our area and I'll go to theirs, and sometimes it vice versa. When I went to Golden Valley, Elder Leakehe and I swapped spots, so I slept in his bed and he slept in mine. 



3.)  When you have district meetings and other training meetings, what does Elder Aitchison do?  --For district meetings, Elder Aitchison is a part of the district, so he would be there whether I was the district leader or not.  In district meetings a lot of times I delegate things like giving trainings on certain things or reporting on certain things to other missionaries.  As far as other meetings go, like zlc (zone leadership conference)  sometimes Elder Aitchison and the other district leader's companions will go to another room and do whatever they want, or sometimes they'll sit in on the meeting. It just depends on the time. 



4.)  What is your favorite thing about serving in Dolan Springs?  --The people!  Actually, maybe the beautiful scenery...  or maybe the interesting experiences...   I just don't know!  I love it all!   This is such an amazing area, and the work in the area has been growing by leaps and bounds!  We currently have 5 different people with a baptismal date!  and many other promising prospectives!  Unfortunately, there's a very good chance that this will be my last transfer in Dolan Springs, and I'll miss out on a lot of the stuff we have coming up, but I'm just grateful for the time that I've had to serve here and meet all of these amazing people!


An outside view of our trailer. 




It's been raining in Dolan!  A LOT!!