My Week in Pictures

Hey y'all!

This last week has been great! Not a lot of time today, but I'll try to make up for it in pictures! 

Amanda was baptized his last week! She's awesome, and it was really cool to see her make that step! 

This next week is transfers, and it seems like there's going to be a big shakeup! I'm excited to see what happens, and I love you all!

Amanda's Baptism!

Finally got myself a new belt. Sometimes, you just know it's finally time...

Me, Elder Young, Elder Tupou, and Elder Leakehe (who's in my zone
again!) helping someone move!

A picture from when we were proselyting the other night. Our area
covers right by the stratosphere!

Enjoying a sunset at a stoplight.

Q&A - 11/21/2016
1.) Did you get our package of Cutler's Cookies finally? Are the cookies green, or will they still be edible? Still sad that it took an extra week to get to you!  -- I got it! And the cookies are still ok! Definitely not fresh out of the oven, but not green either!

2.) Something new on your gratitude list that wasn't there last year.  --  All of the experiences I've had his year! (Kind of lame, I know, but I'm not good at thinking on the spot, and I'm running out of time, haha)

3.) The thing I want to remember most from last week is....  --  I went on exchanges with an elder, and he really opened up to me about some struggles that he's been having the last couple of weeks. We had some really good talks, and I think he felt a lot better afterwards. I'll always treasure any opportunity I have to help other missionaries!

New Area and New Responsibilities!

The VanOrden's

Although the rest of the week was good too, the weekend was so crazy that I'll be focusing mostly on that! 

Brother Mejicanos

As some of you may know, this weekend was Pioneer Day! Although in most parts of the world this means very little to most people, if you live in a place with a high LDS population density such as Utah or Las Vegas, all the sudden it becomes a very big deal! Especially if you live in a place like Henderson where the people are rich enough to do big exciting things on Pioneer Day! There was a massive event on Saturday morning, with a parade, carnival, and other stakes even had fireworks! The event we were at was a tri-stake event with the Green Valley, Anthem, and Black Mountain stakes. Like I said, there was a big parade, and all of the missionaries were in charge of carrying a massive 30'x50' American flag! Afterwards there were all kinds of free food and games. 

The other crazy thing that happened Saturday was, about 10 minutes before the parade started, I got a call from President Snow. He called and asked if I would be willing to serve as a Zone Leader this next transfer! Then a few hours later, we got our actual transfer doctrine, and I found out that I'm going to be serving as a Zone Leader in the North Stake of Las Vegas! My new companion is Elder Branning, one of my absolute favorite missionaries in the mission! I'm super lucky to get to serve with him!  I've always wanted to serve in North Las Vegas! And it's kind of a unique situation because we're being double transferred in. This is really unusual for Zone Leaders. The reason for it is because until now, the zone leaders in the North Stake have been Spanish speaking, but because of the decrease in Spanish missionaries we've been having, they're switching it back to an English area. The funny thing is, so far all of the members that I've told that I'm moving to the North Stake all sound kind of nervous for me. It was kind of like, "oh, that's... Exciting..." North Las Vegas is definitely a sketchier part of town. I'm excited though! I'm also definitely a little nervous about all the new responsibility, but I know that through the Lord, I'll be able to do all things!
My new ward! Sunrise Terrace!

And on top of all that, we had a baptism Saturday night! Nadiya B. was baptized by her husband, Andrew, who was previously less active. It was really great to see! The ward has really wrapped their arms around them, and they're already thinking about working towards the temple!
Nadiya's Baptism!

I have lots to get done today, but know that I love all of you! Thanks for all of the support!

Elder Excell

The Clauson's

It's a Cooker! 114 Degrees in the Shade!

Hey everybody!

The Pocatello crowd at Black Mountain/
Green Valley zone conference!

This last week has been pretty crazy! Again! It included: zone conference, a trip to the temple, exchanges with the zone leaders, a member missionary night put on by the sisters in our district, and other crazy stuff as well!

Zone conference was really good! President talked about how, although our mission is doing really well compared to other missions, it's still not doing as well as it has in the past. We talked about some things that we need to change to be as successful as possible in the work of the Lord! We also heard testimonies from all of the missionaries that will be going home this transfer. There's a really big group of missionaries going home soon, so even just in our zone there were quite a few. It's always interesting to hear the thoughts of people who are near the end of their mission. It's given me some new determination to really make the best of my time out here!

Elder Leakehe and Elder Excell - 
A much needed day to "dust off" at the temple!

Our trip to the temple was amazing as well! I like to compare the feeling of going to the temple with dusting. If you think of a shelf that has some knickknacks on it, over time, dust naturally settles on the shelf and the knickknacks. Although it's incredibly gradual, eventually the shelf becomes more and more dusty, and you're less able to make out the things on it clearly. Going to the temple is kind of like dusting. Over the weeks, my mind and soul just start to feel "dusty". It feels like all of the stress and worries of the world start to cover up the things that are really important. But going to the temple is is like cleaning all of that off so you can see things clearly again! I definitely needed it!

There was nothing too super eventful about exchanges. I was with Elder Risk, and we had a good time! I really admire how much he loves the people he serves and the people he serves around. I hope to be able to have more love towards everyone!

Temple trip!!

Also, the sisters had a member missionary night this week. They've been struggling with getting support from members, and wanted to have a night to get everyone excited about missionary work. They asked us to help out since one of our wards shares the building with their two wards, and they wanted to get everyone involved. It definitely started off a little slow, with only one person showing up on time, but thanks to some late arrivals, it turned out alright! The sisters did a great job of putting it together!

Thanks you so much for all of your love! I miss you all!
Elder Excell

Q&A - 07/18/2016

1.) Last we heard, you were struggling to get hold of Malik. Have you been able to make contact with him again? How is he doing? --Still no luck. We finally got ahold of his grandma that he was living with, and she was able to tell us a little bit of what happened. Apparently Malik's parents are divorced, and are both trying to convince him to live with them, but he really just wants to stay with his grandma. Anyway, apparently he's staying in a hotel somewhere else in Vegas with his dad right now, and we got his dad's number, so we're going to try to contact him that way since his phone isn't working.

2.) Also, an update on Nadiya and Jennifer, please. --Nadiya is being baptized this Saturday! Jennifer still has some reservations, so she won't make this Saturday, but she's been really feeling the spirit lately, and we think that she probably won't be far behind Nadiya! Especially with the undoubtable spirit she'll feel at Nadiya's baptism.

"IT'S A COOKER!
114 DEGREES IN THE SHADE!"
(Inside joke from the infamous Farming Game -
and Ty says this in the best farmer voice ever!
It's funny how a single phrase can make me 
smile, yet really miss this guy in a crazy
serious way!)

3.) I've also been wondering about Elder Leaheke - has he been feeling better since his episode of losing his vision? Hope all is well with him! Tell him I've been worried about him. :) --He's doing fine!

Random Crazy of the Week:  I've seen the nonsense surrounding Pokemon Go this week! It's so funny to see! There are actually a lot of missionaries who are capitalizing on all the people who are outside to take the chance to talk to them. Haha!

Keep an Eternal Perspective

Hey everybody!

4th of July Dinner!!

I guess I'll start off this email by telling everyone about the 4th of July!  It was actually a way cool day!  The P-day was pretty normal (which means it was kindof boring.  There's not much that happens in this stake on p-days, because it's made up mostly of sisters who don't like to play sports.  This means there's not much to do, but I've taken to bringing music and playing the piano!) but after the P-day, we went to one of our ward mission leaders houses for dinner.  We had some of the most mindblowing BBQ I've ever had!  I figured it was worthy of some Limpy pics, ;).  Then after dinner, we went around and visited a few people, and before the end of the night, we found this big hill, and from the top of it you could see almost the whole valley!  We weren't out late enough to see the big fireworks over the strip, but in a big spread out city like Vegas, you could see fireworks going off everywhere for miles! 

On Tuesday, we had kindof a unique service project opportunity.  There's a lady in our ward who is involved with a big project every year for children with cancer.  Every year, there's a camp for cancer patients and their siblings to go to, just to get away from all of the chaos of having your world turned upside down.  As a part of this camp, every camper is given a homemade quilt, and the member in our ward is in charge of making all 250 of those quilts each year! So we got to help her cut, sew, pin, and quilt for a few hours!  It was a ton of fun!

We also had expanded MLC this last week. Normally MLC is only for zone leaders and sister training leaders, but once every couple of months, the district leaders all get to attend as well! That meant that I, along with about 40 or 50 other missionaries, got the chance to be trained by President Snow and other mission leadership!  I don't know if I've mentioned this before in my letter, but President Snow is a genius.  Before the mission, he owned SEVERAL businesses, and is one of the smartest people I know. That goes for planning, management, spirituality, and just about everything else!  I'm really lucky to get the chance to learn from him on such a frequent basis!  We talked about a lot of different things, including strategic planning, how to influence change, and how to make the mission sustainable.  And we have zone conference this week, so I'll get the chance to learn even more! 

 

I had a really cool moment in church on Sunday. Lately I've been letting myself get stressed out by a lot of things: the work not going as well as it should, whether or not I'm doing everything that I can, things that I need to improve on, etc.  But in priesthood meeting on Sunday, the lesson was about the temple.  Elder Leakehe and I will be going to the temple this week, so it was an especially cool lesson.  Anyways, the teacher mentioned how in the temple we learn more about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us, and about our place in it.  He talked about how having this knowledge can lead to a lot of clarity.  This clarity comes from having an eternal perspective and remembering which things are really important.  His comment really struck me, and made me remember which things are really important in life, and it really helped me to not get wrapped up in the little details of day to day life.  I'm so grateful for the eternal perspective that the gospel gives us!

I love you all very much, and am so grateful for everything that you have done for me!

Elder Excell

Our Apartment!

Q&A - 7/11/2016

1.) I am getting a package ready to send to you this week. Any requests? --Nothing that I can think of. 

2.) How was your Mission Leadership Conference meeting? We'd love to hear all about it either here or in your letter to us.  --It was really great!  I'll try to tell you a little bit about it in my email.

3.) Do you still get letters in the mail from friends and family occasionally? Any lately that you've been surprised to receive?  --I still get some stuff occasionally.  I get a package every once in a while from you, and some from Grandma Hyde.  But the real shout-out goes to Grandma Excell!  She's been amazing, and has written me every week without fail since I've been on my mission! Thanks Grandma! I haven't really gotten much other than from you guys and the odd letter from a few other people, but to be fair, I've been really awful about writing letters!

4.) What is your favorite part about your responsibilities as a district leader?  --My favorite part actually hasn't really been as prevalent this transfer.  My favorite part is the opportunity to go on exchanges with other missionaries.  It's a great chance to work one on one with them and really get to know them and help them!  But this transfer, the only other elders in my district are the zone leaders, so I don't go on as many exchanges as usual.  They still exchange with us, but they have a lot of other people to exchange with as well, so we don't see them as often.

5.) Our weather has been quite a bit cooler, even some rain showers, this last week. Just wondering if you also had some relief from the heat? --It's been quite a bit cooler!  The high's have all been below 105!  In the evenings, it even gets as far down as the 90's!

6.) Dad gives me grief everytime I ask this question, but oh-well. Are you healthy and happy?   --Definitely happy!  Doing my best on the healthy part, haha. Trying to lose some weight right now, but who knows how that's going since we don't have a scale. ;)

A Bit About Green Valley

I'm going to start trying to take some pictures of the area so you guys
can see how posh it is here.

Happy Independence Day!  Not quite sure of any 4th plans yet! We have dinner with one of our ward mission leaders, so I'd be willing to guess there might be some BBQ, :). If nothing else, we'll probably be able to see the fireworks over The Strip from where we're at. 

I spent a lot of time replying to individual emails today, so I don't have much time to write a big letter, but I'll do my best! I thought, for this week, I would try to tell you more about the people and area where I'm serving! 

Our car's thermometer last week. Granted
it had been in the sun for a while.  After
we drove for a while and it had some time to
cool down, it only read 118.

Let's start with Elder Leakehe: although you may not guess this just from looking at him, Elder Leakehe is probably one of the best beatboxers I've ever met! He loves to beatbox, and pretty much any word you say, he can probably think of a rap song that goes along with it. He can be really shy and quiet when he first meets people, but he's really energetic and full of life. He's a ton of fun to be around, and we love joking with each other about things. He's also really insightful. Some people think that just because he doesn't say much in district councils and zone conferences he doesn't have much to say, but he has some of the best insights into the scriptures I've ever heard. He's sort of like this really deliberate thinking wise Tongan chief, haha.

Next one of our investigators: Malik. He's 17, and we met him on my first day here. By the end of that first week, he had a baptismal date! He's awesome, and so prepared to hear the gospel! We've been having a hard time getting hold of him this week though, so hopefully all is still going well.

The Breakfast Cake I made this morning.
Excell family recipe!

We also have another pair of investigators that we set with a date recently. Their names are Nadiya and Jennifer. A mother and daughter. Nadiya is the younger of the two, and her husband was a less active member. Missionaries have been working with them for a long time. When we invited Nadiya to be baptized, we read 2 Nephi 31 with them, and it really touched her. She said that she had been thinking about being baptized a lot lately, and was just waiting for a sign. She felt like the scriptures we shared with her were the sign she was waiting for! And then when we set her with the date that we had prayed about, she got really emotional. We set her date for July 23, which apparently is a very significant day for her, because it is the day her baby was born. And her baby is a little bit of a miracle because of some health challenges she had. We had no idea, but Heavenly Father knew that it would be meaningful for her. Nadiya's mom Jennifer is a devout Catholic, and is a little more on the fence than Nadiya is just because it will be so hard for her to change, but she said that she's willing to work towards that day as well. We really hope she can receive an answer!

That's about all I have time for this week. As always, thanks so much for your continued love and support! I love you all!

Elder Excell

Dakota and Rebecca's baptism.  They're a family we were teaching in Dolan Springs
that got baptized the Friday after I left.  Awesome family!!

Q&A -- 7/4/2016 
1.)  What was the best part of your week?  -- Elder Aitchison and his new companion came up to stay the night! All of the new missionaries always go to the temple in their first transfer together with President Snow along with their companions. Since Elder Aitchison and Elder Alfred live so far away, and the session is usually really early, they got permission to come up the night before. It was really good to catch up on what's been going on since I left.




2.)  What are you most looking forward to in the week ahead?  -- There's going to be an expanded MLC (mission leadership conference) this week! Normally MLC is just ZL's and STL's, but every once in a while the district leaders get to go as well, like this week!

Feeling Transient

Zone Training Conference - #PlanB

This week has been pretty crazy! For starters, it's been HOT! I'm pretty sure that the daily high hasn't been below 110 all week! And the daily low has been in the 90's! Suffice it to say, it's definitely summer in Vegas again. But the heat doesn't stop the missionaries in the Nevada Las Vegas mission! Some of you have asked me if there are any guidelines on when our mission president says it's too hot to go out and work. After asking around, basically what I've heard is there's not really a set temperature. The guideline is basically that if one of you starts to get lightheaded or dizzy, you're supposed to take a 1/2 hour break, drink a lot of water, and then get back at it. Luckily though, the heat does seem like it's going to let up this week, and the daily high's will almost all be below 110. Which (it's kind of sad that this is now true for me) isn't that bad!

So, I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but a large majority of one of our wards is made up of students who attend a medical school located within our ward boundaries. This means that a large percentage of the people in our ward are young married couples who have a kid who is under 2 years old. This has definitely been kind of weird for me, haha. It's really bizarre to see so many people who are pretty much where I'll be in the not too distant future. It has done one thing for me though! It's made me really excited for when I get home. Not for the reason you're thinking though, haha. I'm just really excited for the chance I'll have to serve in a calling back home and really do everything I can in it. I meet so many people who are such great members of the church and really magnify their callings, that it makes me excited to do the same when I get home. I also think that a part of it is I feel really transient right now. Especially after making so many close relationships in Dolan and then being uprooted. I see all of the people in the ward who have such close relationships with each other and it's hard to think that I won't really have the permanency that allows relationships like that with other people for quite a while.  Pretty much everything just comes and goes every couple of months for now!
Elder Leakehe & Elder Excell -- Looking cool, feeling hot!

Kind of a unique thing about the area I'm in right now, is that we cover two different wards that meet in two different buildings at the same time. Normally if you serve in two wards, you go to church twice on Sunday and go to both wards, but that's not really an option for us. So what we have to do is we go on splits with our ward mission leaders and we each go to a different ward. It's definitely weird!

Another crazy thing that happened this last week is that a young man in one of the wards we're covering passed away. It's been amazing to see how the ward really wrapped their arms around the family. He was 19, and although he was kind of sick, it was really unexpected. I happened to be in the ward of the family that had their son pass away yesterday, and it was an interesting experience. It was a very spiritual, love-filled, and personal sacrament meeting. Being so new to the ward, I almost felt kind of like a stranger intruding on an intimate family moment.

Elder Leakehe

Last night, Elder Leakehe randomly got really sick! We're still not positive what it was. He basically had kind of a fit where he couldn't see for a while and was shaking. We think it might be an ear infection he had before the mission resurfacing. He's ok now though! It ended pretty quickly, and then he just had a bad migraine. He was ordered onto bed rest by Sister Snow for the rest of the night, and after a lot of sleep, he felt much better. Anyways, as a result of us having to stay in last night, our apartment is now VERY clean, I'm all the way caught up on my journal, and I even had some time to knit!

Anyways, this has been a pretty scattered letter with lots of stuff in it, so hopefully it made sense! I love you all very much and hope that you're all doing well! Have a blessed week!

Elder Excell

Q&A - 06/27/16
1.) Next Monday is the 4th of July. Does this mean that your p-day will change to a different day or stay the same? --Still on the same day. I think there's going to be something happening, but I don't know what yet.

2.) Picture requests: apartment inside and out, picture of you and your companion together, and whatever else you want to send me!! :) --I'll try! 
3.) What is the best thing about your new area? --I'd have to say the thing I'm grateful for most often is that we're not on bikes! ;) 

4.) How far away from the mission office are you now? How often do you go there? --We're pretty close, but it's not in our zone, so we don't really ever go there.

New, New, New

Hey everybody!


Well, my new area couldn't be more different from the old one, but I still love it! Dolan had older people, Green Valley has 20 year old newlyweds going to medical school. (That actually makes up a big part of one of our wards.) Dolan was pretty poor, this area is super rich. Dolan was a small branch, now we're covering two huge wards. The list goes on and on! 


We had a crazy thing happen this last week! The sisters in our district were in a car accident! They're both ok. They hit a curb going pretty quickly, and their tire burst. Then they tried to put the spare on, and didn't quite get the e-brake set, so once they had the tire off, the car rolled off the jack. This meant that Elder Leakehe and I came to the rescue! Thankfully, I now have a really big Polynesian companion who could lift the car while I put the jack back under! We got it all sorted eventually, and everyone came out of it ok. 


Well, that's about all I have time for this week - still trying to get settled in a new area, but I love you all!

Elder Excell

Q&A - 06/20/2016

1.) How is the heat in your new area affecting you? -- I'm definitely sweating plenty. Thankfully we have a car, so I think I'll survive! 

2.) Are you back to riding a bike? -- Car! 

3.) Tell us about your new companion.  -- Elder Leakehe (lay-a-Kay-hay) is awesome! He's a really hard worker, is happy all the time, is really funny, and is really good at beat-boxing! 

4.) How many wards are you assigned to work with? -- We cover the Castleridge and Shadow Canyon wards.

5.) We'd love to see pictures of your new apartment and hear all about it. -- We live in Henderson, so it's all really posh! Especially compared to Dolan Springs. I'll try to send some pics for next week.

6.) How are you feeling about your new area? -- I really love my new area! Obviously I'm not going to love it in the same way that I loved Dolan Springs on my first week here, but I think I might someday if I'm here for a while. The members are really awesome! And there's so many of them! Henderson is about the same member density as Idaho and Utah. There are lots of awesome people in this area too! We already found 10 new investigators just this week, and one of them is super golden and going to be baptized on July 16th!  His name is Malik.