Thursday, February 23, 2017

Transfers - Another Idaho Companion!

Alex's Baptism
Hey everybody!

First of all, I'm a new uncle to the cutest baby ever! I'm so excited to meet and hold him someday!

Not a ton of time this week! Week one of transfers is always especially crazy! Especially since this time, we had a couple of different things change up with transfers since they were finalized. A couple of missionaries ended up not coming in the mission, a couple of missionaries who had to have their assignment changed, etc. Needless to say, it's been a crazy week, but I'm still loving it! 


Elder Wightman is leaving. He's going to go and be a district leader in Boulder City! My new companion is Elder Foiles, whose family also lives in Rexburg! (Maybe President just likes people from Idaho, haha.) I'm super happy to be with Elder Foiles! He's a really great guy, with a really big heart. He's going to do an awesome job in the office. He's definitely a little overwhelmed right now, but I know that he's going to get it figured out soon. Sister Underly will also be leaving the office.

Alex's baptism this last Saturday was really great! He's just so ready for the gospel! He's already excited to work towards getting the priesthood. I've also had another new investigator who has started to become really promising! His name is Tristan. He was a referral from the Spanish ward. He was already progressing really well earlier this week, and excited to be baptized, but this weekend, his excitement grew to a whole new level. He came to a "Why I Believe" fireside (a fireside the mission puts on once a month where recent converts and reactivated members share their conversion stories) and it really touched me! There was a missionary there who was a recent convert of about sixyears who was asked to share their testimony, and it was incredibly powerful! Tristan really felt the spirit, and recognized it. By the end of the fireside, he was saying how much he wanted to just be baptized right then! He's going to be an awesome addition to the ward!  

I don't really know too much about what the future holds for me six weeks from now, but I'm excited for the next six weeks and I'm really excited to be able to have another transfer serving so closely with President and Sister Snow! I've learned so much from them, and have grown so much since I've been in the office.

That's about all I have time for for today! I'll do my best to send some pictures of the baptism and some other things. I love you all!


Elder Excell

Also, P. S. I had kind of a random fun thing happen this week! We were at the office taking care of a few things, and guess who walked in… Elder Wihongi!!! Well, just Wihongi now I guess… Haha. It was super cool to see him again and to see how he's been doing! It definitely wasn't at all what I thought it would be like, but I really enjoyed seeing him again, and I'm definitely thinking that I have to catch up with him again after the mission! Glad I got the chance to see him. Definitely kicking myself that I didn't grab a picture though!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Miracles

Hey everybody!
Enjoying our Valentine cookies
from the Achievement Day girls


We've seen some awesome miracles this last week! There are tons of people popping up who are super prepared for the gospel! In fact, we had a miracle baptism pop up for this next Saturday! His name is Alex. Long story short, he's 30, and was trying to take the MCAT, but had procrastinated and there were no slots left in Vegas. So, he traveled up to good old Orem, Utah to take it, because that was the nearest place that still had available slots. While he was there, he just felt a lot of good vibes from the people and wanted to know more, so he went on Mormon.org and requested some missionaries to come by! Some sister missionaries went to check in on him, and he was so ready for the gospel! They taught him for about 2 weeks. They had told him about a ward for people from age 18-30, but he figured since he was going to age out in a few months anyways, it wasn't worth it, and he decided to just go to the family ward. But then, two weeks down the road, he found out that it was also a singles ward, and he's really looking to find someone! Haha. So we got a call from the sisters, letting us know that they had someone to refer to us who is getting baptized in about a week, who already has a baptismal program set up and was excited to be baptized! We've met with him a couple of times since then, and he's awesome! He's a really cool guy, and he's going to be a great addition to the ward! Heavenly Father is blessing us with so many miracles!


Next week is transfer week, which is crazy. It seems like this transfer just started, but it's already almost over! I've already got some ideas about what the next transfer might hold, because of how closely we work with President Snow, but I'll hold off on making any
announcements until we know for sure.


That's about all I've got time for this week. Thanks for all of your continued love and support! I love all of you!


Elder Excell

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Allan's Baptism


Not much time to write today, but I wanted to at least fill you guys in on Allan's baptism yesterday! As you may remember from last week, Allan was really struggling to get to church, but came anyways and felt God's love really strongly for the first time in his life! He was so excited to be a part of the ward family. His baptism was held right after church, and we were a little nervous that on Super Bowl Sunday in a YSA ward, most of the ward wouldn't even stay for Sunday school, let alone a baptism afterwards. But, once again, we were amazed by the faithfulness of the members here. Almost half the ward stuck around for the baptism to show their support for Allan, and it was an awesome day for him! I'm so grateful I got the chance to meet this guy!