We Don't Have To Be Perfect, But We Do Have To Be Clean

Hey everybody!

This last week has been amazing! I'll try to tell you as much as I can in the short amount of time that I have! 

First off, as many of you know, President Russell M Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited our mission this last week, along with Lynn G Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy. It was an amazing spiritual experience. I think some of the biggest things I remember about it are how much they talked about repentance. They talked about how important it is for each of us to understand personal repentance in order to share it with others. I heard a quote later in the day from a talk by Elder Bednar that I think summed up the thoughts perfectly. He was talking about how missionaries need to be worthy vessels for the spirit, and the phrase he used was, "we don't have to be perfect, but we do have to be clean."  I love that! As a missionary, the spirit is so key to everything we do! I'll share a story later about that. Sometimes, Elder Wightman and I get in the mindset that we need to be perfect, but the Lord knows we make mistakes. He only expects us to do our best. I'm so grateful for the gift of repentance! 

We also received some really cool revelation in church this week! Elder Wightman and I have both realized that in some ways we get really impatient or stressed out throughout the week. We realized yesterday, that a big reason for it is that we don't really get time to have daily scripture study a lot of times in the office. We realized that that was one of the things that was contributing to our stress. A lack of the spirit, due to a lack of reading the scriptures. I forced myself later that day to find 20 minutes to study from the Book of Mormon, and the difference was so noticeable! I now have a huge testimony of the power of scripture study! The spirit was so present for the rest of the day. And it led us to find an amazing new investigator named Miley! She's so prepared for the gospel, and the lesson we had with her was amazing. She's already super excited to be baptized in February!

I love all of you!
Elder Excell


1.) I've been curious to know if you and Elder Wightman got to pick Elder Nelson up at the airport?  --  No, it was mostly one of the stakes that did all of the stuff with President Nelson. We just showed up early enough to corral all of the missionaries into place.

2.) When was the last time you cooked for yourself and what did you make? Just wondering if you still get a lot of meal appointments. --  I guess that depends on what you count as cooking, haha. I've made myself a couple of pb&j sandwiches, but haven't gotten too much fancier than that lately. The other night Elder Wightman made some cornbread from a box mix! I made pancakes about a month ago, haha. We just don't have too much time to cook.

3.) How are you? Are you healthy? Are you happy?  --  Doing great and loving the scriptures! I love you all!