I Love the People Here!

Learning to love the desert

Well, it looks like my email for last week didn't send! I'll try to include some of the stuff from last week and hopefully this one will be a little longer.

I'm having problems loading the
video here but this shows a little
of the rain and snow he refers to.

Last week started off very interesting because of a new mission policy. They've been really clamping down on mileage limits for mission cars. Anyone who was over on miles last month had to park their cars for a certain number of days. Now that's all well and good in Las Vegas where you can bike from one end of your area to the other without too much difficulty, but when your area starts at the Hoover dam and goes 90 miles to the south, it's a little interesting, haha. We got off pretty easy though, we only had to park our car for 1 day. Some other companionship’s had to park their car for a week!  Which brings me to another part of this last week; it's been raining and snowing buckets! I'll send some videos of some of the roads and storms. Like I say, we were lucky we only had to park for a day. Some other elders were walking home in the rain after dark, carrying around a piece of rebar in case they came across coyotes!

Last Sunday we had an amazing fast and testimony meeting! I don’t know what it is about this branch, but everyone in it just seems to be amazing! I was close to tears multiple times. Speaking of being close to tears in church, that brings me to this week. Elder Andersen and I were asked to speak, and for anyone who knows me, they know that that means I shed a few tears over the pulpit. I spoke on the Book of Mormon, and Elder Andersen spoke on the atonement of Christ. We got a lot of really nice compliments from everyone, and I think it went really well!

Last week we met a few people who have E.I. (Environmental Illness) - Essentially it means that they have serious allergic reactions to very common everyday chemicals, and in some serious cases can even be adversely affected by large amounts of electricity in the surrounding area. I had heard of it before, but wasn't sure whether it was real or not until I came down here. We met 2 or 3 of them last week, and it's sad to see how hard everyday life is for them. Apparently, Dolan is a popular place for them to live because it's so far off the grid and also has a good climate for them.  One of the people we met was outside and wasn't interested but we asked him if he needed help with anything and that totally changed his mindset! He couldn't believe that two strangers would be so willing to help him. He seemed like he hadn't had any offers for help in a long time, and it was nice to see his gratitude for our offer. It's always cool to have experiences where even if you're not sharing the gospel, you're given a chance to show kindness to one of God's children.

 
One of my favorite people that we've been teaching is a couple by the name of Ray and Sandy. They're really interesting people. I guess the best way that I could describe it is they're like desert nomads. They live in a camper, and they've been traveling the country for years.  Wherever they go, they pay their way by painting addresses on curbsides. They're both really eager to learn, and are just all-around amazing people!

Also, this Saturday I got the chance to drive up to Vegas and see one of the people I had been teaching in Haven, Pam, be baptized! It was really cool to see her make that step! Her husband, Keith, who was inactive when we started meeting with them, has since become extremely active! He bore his testimony at the baptism, and could barely speak he was so overcome with emotion. He talked about how grateful he was for the chance that they'd been given to grow closer through the gospel. They're such an amazing couple, and I’ve been so lucky to get to be a part of their conversion.

I've been ponderizing a verse of scripture that's really kind of cool. Mosiah 12:27 says something along the lines of "Ye have not applied your hearts to understanding; therefore, ye have not been wise." It's a really cool thought that it's so important to the Lord that we rely on our hearts and the spirit just as much to make decisions as we do on logic.

I've been trying really hard to pay a lot of attention to what the Lord wants me to say at any given time, and it's given me a lot of cool opportunities to share my testimony and be an instrument in the Lords hands.
 
That's all for this week! I love you all!
Elder Excell

Q&A - 1/11/2016

1.)  What is on the schedule for P-Day today? -- We went shopping, got the car washed (it really needed it this week) and are now emailing at he stake center! We'll probably play some basketball later today! 

 2.)  Do you have lots of people that you are teaching right now?  -- Quite a few! I'll talk about some of them in my letter. 

 3.)  What was the best part of your week?  -- I'll put that in the letter too!

Missing Letter?

We are wondering if Ty lost internet connection partway through his time today.  We received some answers to our Q&A and a funny video of the roads they have the chance to travel every day in their area, but not our expected letter.  We will be mostly content with this for now, I guess, but look forward to more next week!

This video isn't playing very reliably on mobile devices but works well on most computers. He said this would give us an idea of the roads that he travels everyday.  There is only one paved road in his area.

Q&A - 1/4/2016

1.) Were you able to do anything out of the norm on Thursday to celebrate your birthday?? --Nothing major, but you know me.  I've never been much for making a big deal out of birthdays. Haha.

2.) What do you do in the branch on Sunday's? Do you get to play the organ or help teach lessons or anything? I was just wondering if the branch is small enough that they use your help.  --If the main organist is gone, I've been told I'll have to sub, but nothing major yet, haha.  There have been a couple of times where we almost ended up teaching primary or young men/women, but keep getting saved at the last minute, haha.

3.) What was your funniest moment of the week?  --There have been a lot of funny moments, haha.  Really just dealing with members in general.  They're all older, and have tons of funny stories. 

4.) What was your best teaching moment of the week?  --We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with a member family and some investigators.  The spirit was really strong. I just hope the people we're teaching felt it as much as we did.

I Love Dolan Springs!

I love the sunsets here!

I know you mentioned that you were worried about how I'd feel after our FaceTime on Christmas Day. Don't be nervous, I don't feel homesick! It was nice to see you guys, but it wasn't hard for me to snap back into missionary mode and jump right back into work!  

On another note, Zack makes a crazy good Santa! Didn't even recognize him at first! 

Since we just spoke, there is not a lot to tell but here is a little more about my new area... 

From what we can tell, his area lies within the purple
boundaries where Dolan Springs is in the center.

I love Dolan Springs! It's definitely a big change though. My last area, even though it had some ghetto spots and some differences from home, was for the most part, a normal middle class suburban neighborhood. Dolan is very much not that, haha. We cover a huge area and spend a lot of time driving. The people out here are very poor, but also incredibly humble and willing to share everything that they have. I mentioned last week that there is one paved road in Dolan. Well, what I didn't know, is that all of the dirt roads are really rough! I'll include a video of us driving down one of them. (He must have had problems sending it or forgot because we didn't get it.) It's a pretty average road for Dolan. There are some that are better, but also some that are much worse. This is about all the time I have this week. I'll try to send more next week!

I love you!

This skull was hanging in our trailer when I arrived so we decided to give him some Christmas cheer and gave him some holiday antlers!

Some of the goodies we received for Christmas!

Q&A - 12/28/15

1.) What kind of pickup do you drive? Make and model? Manual or Automatic?  --Silver Nissan Frontier. Automatic 

2.) What ways did you find to make Christmas meaningful to you this year? --The "12 Ways of Christmas" that you sent was really great for that!  I liked focusing on the ways of Christ! 

3.) What is your favorite thing about Elder Andersen?  --I honestly just love everything about Elder Andersen, haha. He's a really easy person to like. 

4.) Where do you go to get WiFi on P-days?  --The stake center in Kingman. 

5.) How are you? Are you still struggling with a cold? Are you happy?  --Very happy! And just about over the cold!

The Berryessa's

The Martin kids

Keith and Pam

Cheyenne

Merry Christmas!!

FaceTime with our Missionary!!

We were able to spend nearly 45 minutes with Ty today via FaceTime!!  He looks and sounds wonderful!!  How grateful we are for his willingness to serve!!  We love him!!

"Out of Valley" Zone Christmas Activity - Notice Elder Summers from Highland 7th Ward in the back on the left!  How cool is it that they got to spend Christmas together?!?

We Received an email in the morning with these fun pictures from the Hembrick's. It appears they opened their home to the missionaries for Christmas!! Thank you for your kindness!!

Elder Excell and Elder Andersen

Postponed P-Day

Ty sent us a very brief email to tell us that his P-Day has been moved to Friday this week so that they can enjoy Christmas Day off. He told us to expect to get a FaceTime call from him between 5:00 and 6:00 that day, and we can't wait!  He also asked me to let any of you that wrote him Christmas messages  or emails this week know that he appreciates them so much and he will plan to write to you on Christmas Day.

As his parents, we are so grateful to each of you for the continued love and support you show to our son!! Thank you and Merry Christmas!!

"Homeless" Missionary

Me and Mr. & Mrs. Claus - AKA President & Sister Snow! 

Transfers! It looks like I'll be getting the axe after all! I'll be going out of valley! That's mission speak for Arizona. The place I'm going is called Dolan Springs. It's right above Kingman Arizona, which I tell you because it might be hard to find on a map otherwise, ;). My new area actually covers five small towns, and is one of the biggest areas in the mission. It'll be about as different from a biking area as you can get, because this area actually has a truck so as to be able to navigate all of the washes. (There is only one paved road in Dolan Springs). The missionaries in the area average about 3000 miles a month! I'll be living in a trailer, which according to Arizona state law, means I'm technically homeless! Didn't think that would come up on my mission! Haha!  The area is also very poor. The reason I have all of this information about the new area, is it's actually the area that Elder Dixon came from right before we met! Not much news on the new companion though. His name is Elder Andersen, and he's been out 2 transfers longer than I have, but that's about all I know! Also, apparently I'll be able to receive letters and packages at the mailbox in Dolan, because the mission office doesn't want to have to send all of the mail from the middle of Las Vegas that far south. All in all, I'm really excited!

Elder Dixon and I wearing a LOT of leather.  It was given to us by a wonderful less active family, but we're still not sure why!

As far as this last week goes, it's been really good! We had the chance to go to the temple with one of our members, which is always so amazing! If there's one thing I miss about being in a mission, it's not being able to go to the temple whenever I want.

Wednesday was a mission Christmas conference, which was really amazing! I was able to see a lot of friends from around the mission, and learn a lot from the trainings that were given!

The last few days have been crazy trying to say goodbye to everyone, and pack. I've come to love the people of this area so much, it's strange to think that I didn't know anyone at all here 4 short months ago. But I know that I'll love the people in my new area just as much, and that it's the place the Lord wants me to be!

I'll be sending some pictures of some of my favorite families in the ward, and hopefully a few more from tonight next week!

The Hudman's

The Pierce Family

The Russell's

Sister Royal and her daughter Rachel

Me and Bishop Marshall

I haven't sent my ponderizing thoughts home in a while, but I especially liked the scriptures I chose this week! They were the scriptures referenced in a conference talk I recently read by President Monson.  

• ·         John 15:8 "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." This says that all we have to do to glorify God is to "bear much fruit" or have many good works.
• ·         3 Nephi 18:24 says, "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up--that which ye have seen me do." As we do the things that Christ would do, we glorify him. If you are living your life the right way, people will notice the kind of person you are and start to wonder why you're that way, and that's when they can start to see that it's because of Christ. The first step is to be an example!
• ·         1 Peter 2:12 "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."  Some people won't ever recognize your good works in this life. But even though they might call you an "evildoer" if you continue to live the gospel, someday they will recognize your actions for what they were.

I love you all so much! Merry Christmas!
Elder Excell

One of our favorite billboards in our area! Not sure what the quotes mean, but it can't be good!

Q&A - 12/14/15

1.) If my memory is correct, you were supposed to find out about transfers this weekend. We are anxious to hear what you found out!! Will you be staying in the same area? Will Elder Dixon still be your companion? 

2.) How do you feel about your assignment for the next seven weeks?  --I'll answer the first 2 in the main letter. 

3.) What are your plans for our Christmas Day phone call? Will we be speaking on the phone or will you be able to FaceTime or Skype? How long will we have to chat?  -- Either FaceTime or Skype. I'm supposed to keep it to 30-40 minutes. Not sure on a time yet. I'll have a better idea next week! 

4.) Did you receive our Christmas package? I'm sending #2 on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Hopefully, you'll get it next Monday. :)  --I got the first one! I may have a new address for you to send the second one to, ;). 

5.) What are you looking forward to this week?  --The unknown!

The True Spirit of Christmas

This week's letter will be short, because I'm not very prepared this week, and they've started asking missionaries to really focus on keeping their email time shorter.  They have extended it from 1 hour to 2 though, so I'll still have plenty of time to email as long as I'm more prepared than I am this week!

We had interviews with President Snow this week!  We have them every 3 months, and It's always so great to be able to meet with him!  He's a great man, and always has a lot of good advice!  

Exchanges this week were really good!  For those of you who don't know, exchanges are where you essentially switch companions for 24 hours.  It's a great chance to learn from other missionaries and to mix up the day to day routine a little bit.  On this exchange I was actually in an area that has a car, which is something I no longer take for granted! All of you people driving cars instead of riding bikes or walking, take a moment to be thankful for it this holiday season!  

I've been thinking a lot this last week about what the true spirit of Christmas is.  I think President Monson said it best when he said that "All we need to do to find the true spirit of Christmas is remove the last syllable, and it becomes the spirit of Christ."  I've been loving being able to focus more on the savior at this time of year, and I always love to see everyone else be just a little bit kinder and a little bit more generous. 

I'll be sure to be more prepared next week so that I can write a longer letter!  I love you all!

Have a blessed week!
Elder Excell

Q&A - 12/7/151.) Is the bleach in the bottle to kill the cockroaches or to clean up after the kill? (This made us laugh!!) --The bleach is for the kill, haha.  Probably not the most humane response, but I've never felt an overabundance of empathy for cockroaches.

2.) We loved your thoughts on learning to be happy in the moment instead of waiting for the next big thing! What are some of the simple pleasures you took time to enjoy this week? --I love the sunsets in Las Vegas!  I've been appreciating the cold a lot too!  On exchanges this week, I was in an area with a car!  That is something I hope I never take for granted again! haha.