Elder Ty Excell: Great Start in Templeview

Bishop Nelson, his wife, and his daughter, Scarlett

Hey everybody!

This week has been crazy! (As the first week after a transfer tends to be) but it's also been great!

As I briefly mentioned last week, I'm now serving in the Templeview YSA Ward! This ward is really cool for a few reasons. (1.) It's a young single adult ward, which is pretty unique for elders to serve in. (2.) It covers a really large area, and is really diverse. (3.) We live right next to the temple, and the chapel we go to is right next to the temple as well! You can literally walk out of the front door and the temple is right there! We take investigators on temple tours all the time now! There are some great people we're teaching right now! We have a couple of baptisms coming up in the next few weeks.

My new companion is Elder Tupou. He's from Montana, but his dad is from Tonga. This will be my 3rd Polynesian companion! He's a lot of fun. I don't have any pictures of him or the new apartment yet, but I'll send some next week. As far as the apartment goes, suffice it to say it's patriotic... you'll see what I mean next week, haha.

That's about all the letter I have time for this week. Just know that I love you all and that I'm so grateful for everything you all do for me! Prayers, emails, moral support, I appreciate it all!

Elder Excell

**Ty sent us the audio of he and Elder Branning practicing for a musical number they were asked to do for Eva's baptism - How Great Thou Art. So fun to hear our missionary playing the piano again and Elder Branning has a wonderful voice!
How Great Thou Art from Traci Excell on Vimeo.

Q&A - 10/24/2016

1.) Did you get your new iPad yet? Did you get it when you paid or did you have to wait for it to be ordered from SLC? –- I got it the same day.

2.) Are you able to back your iPad up to the cloud? Did you ever do that with your old one that took an unfortunate tumble? -- No, the iCloud storage space was full a long time ago, so most of the stuff is gone. I got most of the important pictures sent to you. The main part that I'm going to miss is all of the notes that I took from trainings throughout the mission.

3.) Do you still get dinner appointments when you're assigned to cover YSA Wards? -- We still get some meals; less than in a family ward, but still a good amount. Some of its fast food, some of its them inviting us over to their parents house for dinner, and some of it's just them cooking for us.

4.) Where is Elder Tupou from? What is your favorite thing about him? -- He's from Montana, but his parents are from Tonga. Or his dad is at least. This makes my 3rd Polynesian companion! He's got some really great people skills! He's a great guy, and I'm learning a lot from him about how to work with people!

5.) Honest feelings about your new area? -- I really love it. Obviously I'm really sad about leaving Sunrise Terrace and leaving Elder Branning, but this is a really cool area. It's definitely unique, because it's YSA, and there is a lot of great member missionary work going on! We've already had several people call us asking if we can meet with their friends they’ve been sharing the gospel with just since I've been here. And there are some amazing people we're teaching!