I Love This New Area!!!

I LOVE THIS NEW AREA!!!  This place is amazing! I've always liked serving in the ghetto, and this is the ghetto of ghettos. I'll start with a few interesting observations we've made:
--Were straight up serving on Fremont Street! We have an investigator who's getting baptized next week who lives almost right under the Stratosphere, and yesterday, we were proselyting right next to the Golden Nugget, haha.
--Our area is MASSIVE!!

--On our first night, we were informed by our Elders Quorum President who came out with us to never sit down in someone's apartment unless it was on wood or plastic, because there are bedbugs everywhere.

--All of the strip malls here have some kind of a liquor store in them, haha. It's super funny to see the combinations of the strip malls. I'll try to find a funny combo to send a picture of haha.

All funny things aside, this area really is amazing. For one thing, the members in this area are probably the closest I've ever seen to living the law of consecration. They all have so little to give, but they give all of what they have. There are almost no active members of our ward that don't give a ride to at least someone else who has less than they do to get them to church.

And this is a blessed place for missionary work! We've found so many people this week who are practically begging to be baptized! We had 14 investigators at church yesterday, and we already have baptisms lined up almost every week of the transfer, many of which were set this last week! We even found a family of African refugees that we started teaching! It's a family of 6, and most of the family only speaks Swahili. The kids have picked up English pretty well in their first few months, but the parents haven't been as quick. The dad speaks French in addition to Swahili, so I've been trying to muddle through and translate as much as I can, haha. But even with limited understanding, the whole family came to church after their first two visits! 

We also had kind of a crazy lady come to church and hijack our gospel principles lesson that we found out we would be teaching just before church. She was a less active member, and interrupted our class to rant for 10 minutes about how the church's welfare program wasn't doing enough for her and how wronged she had been by the church. It was exciting, but I think we managed to get back to teaching about the priesthood ok, haha.

Anyways, suffice it to say, I definitely was heartbroken to leave my old area and assignment, but I love my new one so much and know this is where I am supposed to be!

I love all of you!

Elder Excell

We've decided that when people think of getting a mission call
to Las Vegas and proselyting in casinos and on the strip,
that's actually basically what our area is, haha!

Q&A – 04/10/17

1.)  We want to hear more about your new companion.  -- His name is Elder Holmes! He's a really good missionary! He actually served as a zone leader for several transfers. We've already seen a ton of success together! He's from Spokane Washington.

2.)  Was there any special reason for the double transfer into your new area? -- Well, part of the reason was I suggested it, haha. This ward is one that I've really wanted to serve in, because they recently took two of the biggest, most ghetto, wards in the mission, and combined them into one ward. We cover a big chunk of Las Vegas Blvd, and all of Fremont Street! There was a district leader there that we were thinking of pulling up as a ZL, and so I suggested that if President double transferred me in, he could put me there with anyone he needed to.

3.)  Have you found new people to work with this week? -- So many! This area is blessed beyond belief! I’ll tell you more in the main letter.

4.)  Do you have a car in your new area or are you getting some use out of your bike again? --  We've got a car, but a huge area and not a ton of miles, so we'll be doing a little of both.

5.)  How are you feeling about your new assignment? -- I really love it! I get time to study more, to focus on my investigators more, and to just relax every once in a while. But still work crazy hard!! 

We've decided to make a goal not to eat at a chain restaurant
all transfer, because there are so many amazing "hole in the wall"
restaurants around here. The bottom left dish is Tacos de Lengua
or cow tongue tacos!

I'll try to send more pictures of our apartment next week,
but this one pretty much describes it.  Our dryer's ON knob
is broken, so we use this monkey wrench to start it.
I love staying in ghetto apartments!

This will be short, but hopefully for the last time!

Hey Everybody! 

Big news! I found out this weekend that my time serving as an Assistant to the President has come to a close! I honestly can't describe the feelings I have. There were definitely things that frustrated me from time to time, and there are definitely things I missed about being a normal missionary, but the time I spent in the office has such a special place in my heart. I could go on for pages on the list of things that I'm going to miss about the office -- from all the excitement, to spending so much time with President, to the Robindale YSA ward, to everything else.  As seems to be the norm, I finally was starting to feel like I had the hang of how to be an AP, which meant it was time for me to be transferred I guess, haha. But as always, I feel really torn, because not only am I going to miss this assignment a ton, I'm also really excited for my new assignment! I'll be serving as a district leader in the East Stake! I'm going to be double transferred in with a missionary who came out with me! It will be in the East Stake, and it's called the Sandhill Ward. It's pretty widely known as one of the most ghetto areas in the missions, and actually covers the Stratosphere! I'll send more info next week, and hopefully a longer letter, since today's a little crazy, but just know that I love all of you and I love what I'm doing right now!

Crazy Week

Me & Elder Cecil, the financial secretary.
He finishes his service mission this week.
He was a band teacher for his career!

This last week has been absolutely crazy! I thought it would be pretty calm, because I didn't really have any meetings, and I didn't have any exchanges either. But somehow, a little crazy drama of one of our investigators, and an emergency transfer with some elders managed to spice things up! I won’t talk too much about the emergency transfer - just some missionaries weren’t getting along very well, and it was starting to lead towards violence, so we separated them. The investigator drama, however, was pretty crazy and kind of sad. 

I think I've talked about Tresten in the past, and talked about how he was going to be getting baptized soon. Well, something kind of crazy happened this last week. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but Tresten's family was never very supportive of him being baptized. He has been pretty nervous to tell them about it, and when he did tell them about it, they started asking all sorts of questions to try to get him to doubt the spiritual witnesses he'd had. However, he still felt very strongly that he needed to be baptized because it was what God told him to do. He's had so many amazing spiritual experiences that he really just can't deny them. However, things came to a head with his parents this last week. His mom told him that they thought he was moving into this way too fast, and that they wanted him to wait until August to be baptized to show that he was really committed. Tresten really didn't want to because he felt strongly that God has commanded him to be baptized now. When he shared how he was feeling, his mother said that she and his father would disown him if he got baptized before August. We had a lesson with him just hours after this happened, and he was really shaken up. He was in tears throughout the lesson, because what his family wanted him to do and what he felt God wants him to do weren't matching up. We had a really spiritual lesson talking about the power of prayer and being able to receive answers. The spirit was incredibly strong, and essentially we told him that we couldn't be the ones to make any decisions for him. This had to be his choice. He met with Bishop Tuke on Sunday as well, and got some advice from him on how to move forward. Now he's praying about it and trying to decide what to do. We have another lesson with him on Wednesday, so hopefully he’ll know a little better what he's going to do by then. I've come to really love this guy, and it makes me sad to see him in such a difficult situation. 

Me and Elder Foiles

There is one thing, however, that it’s helped me to remember - it definitely makes me very grateful for the support of loving parents, and I have always had that support in everything that I've wanted to do. I will always be grateful for that! And also, even more than that, I will always be grateful for the support of a loving Heavenly Father in everything that I do! I've come to learn more and more over the last few weeks that I truly can't do anything without His help. He strengthens me every day, and raises me up to the measure that He needs me to be. I will forever be grateful for the things that I've learned on this mission, for the ways that it has changed me, and for the person that it’s helping me to become. And, I know that this all happens because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that He died for each one of us. And, I know that He lives! And because of that, all of us will live again and be reunited eternally with our families! That struck me multiple times in Sacrament meeting the other day. It was fast and testimony meeting, and so many people testified of the power of eternal families. It was really special because, in a lesson with Tresten, we had just talked a lot about how being baptized means he is taking the first step to be with his family forever, and that's how he can show the greatest love for them. 

I'm so grateful for all of you, for all of the prayers that I receive from each of you every day. I love you all! 

Elder Excell

Surprise Text Message Greeting - sent from an awesome member in Vegas!
"I just ran into your son working hard! Thanks for sending
such an amazing missionary into the field!"

Q&A - 3/27/17
1.)  Are you getting any indications as to whether or not you will be continuing to serve in the office this next transfer?  --  Not yet, but hopefully I'll know soon.

2.)  What is your favorite thing about serving in the office?  --  There's always some kind of adventure going on! Sometimes it's a little crazy, but I love always having something different to do.

3.)  What is the biggest thing you've learned so far from your time serving in the office?  -- I think it's probably a tie between two things. 1. Being organized and knowing how to manage my time. 2. Knowing how to deal with people.   I know those both sound like pretty basic things, but being so close to President Snow all the time has given me a lot of expertise with both! It's a constant process of refining those skills ever since I've been here, and I finally feel like I'm starting to figure it out.

A baptism in North!  Diego was part of a less active part member
family.  He's such a smart kid!

4.)  Tell us a little about Elder Foiles.  --  He moved around a bunch, but most of his life he lived in Oklahoma and for the last few years he's been in Rexburg. He's been out for 14 months, which used to be an old age to me, but now he seems young! It's kind of freaking me out!

5.)  How are your clothes and shoes holding up?  --  Pretty well for the most part. If you wanted to send a few more short sleeve white shirts that are the fitted cut, I wouldn't complain, ;). I happened across some good pants and shoes in my new apartment, so I'm doing pretty good on those, haha

A picture I took of Elder Aitchison on exchanges.
Sometimes you have to get creative with where you sit
when you're teaching people!

This is how you know it's starting to get warm again in Vegas!

Busy Week of Zone Conferences

Hey everybody!

Me and Elder Foiles in the office

Sorry it's been a little while since I've gotten a letter off, the last few weeks have been crazy! This last week we did all of our zone conferences for the transfer! There are 7 zones in the mission, but we only did 3 zone conferences: a Vegas north, Vegas south, and out of valley conference. There was a lot of travel involved, and some long days, but it was still a lot of fun! But it did mean that we only got about 3 hours to proselyte in our area most days last week. But that was still plenty of time for us to see some huge miracles!

We had 3 amazing people at church on Sunday. The first one is Tristen, who I may have mentioned before, I can't remember...  He was a member referral, and is really motivated to get baptized! He's still trying to talk to his family about it, but he's so ready! He keeps saying how he wants to read the Book of Mormon every day, because it's a promise he made to God when he found out it was true!

Another person who came is Eric. He comes almost every Sunday, and has been investigating for about 9 months. His dad isn't a member, but his step mom is, so he decided to start learning about it. He has mild autism, but is really high functioning. He understands everyone really well, but it just takes some time and repetition for him to be able to understand concepts. Anyways, we were talking to him this last Sunday, and he made a big announcement: after 9 months he finally feels ready to be baptized! And he talked to his parents about it, and they both support the decision! I've grown to love Eric a lot since I've come to this area, and it's so exciting to have seen him learn about the gospel and finally feel ready to make that promise with his Heavenly Father!

Me, Elder Branning (who goes home in a
few weeks), and Elder VanSlyke at a
zone conference.

The third person's name is Api. He's a big Polynesian guy.  He was investigating in the family ward recently, because a lot of his family are members, and he was going to church with them. The sisters finally convinced him that he would be able to progress better in a YSA ward. He was kind of reluctant and didn't trust Elder Foiles and I at first, or really want to come to YSA, but we had a great member at the lesson with us, and that member picked him up for church on Sunday. And then he found an even better fellowshipper at church! We have a recent convert who got baptized just before I got into the area named Cameron, who comes from kind of a rough background and really had to work on some things in order to get baptized, but now he's an amazing member of the church! He even got to bless the sacrament for the first time this last Sunday. But he and Api were swapping stories about their crazy street days, and then Cameron mentioned that he "makes music for Christ." We were thinking Api might think it was a little weird, but then he said he liked to rap also! haha. So then we had our recent convert Cameron and this big Polynesian guy covered in tattoos start rapping in the middle of the church foyer after 3rd hour! It was hilarious, haha. And in addition to that, our Bishop (Bishop Tuke) helped to answer a lot of Api's questions about the Plan of Salvation in Sunday School, so now Api feels totally welcome and at home in our ward, and is going to be baptized in April!

We've met so many cool people lately and seen so many miracles! This next week we don't have any meetings, but we have 3 exchanges planned, so it will be a little less crazy, but not much!

I love you all, and am so grateful for all of the support! 

Elder Excell

There are these cool trees that have been blossoming all over Vegas! I don't know what they are, but they're really pretty! Springtime at the end of February!

Q&A--3/13/17

1.) We're curious what prompted the request for a booklight? -- I guess the simple answer is that another elder had one and it seemed like a good idea, haha. I mentioned a few weeks ago how I sometimes don't get as much time to study the scriptures as I would like since being in the office. But I've made a commitment to myself that even in the days when I don't get time to study, I don't want to go a day without studying at least a little, so I wanted the light so I can at least read a chapter or two in bed before I go to sleep, and not have to get up to turn off the lights, haha.

2.) How did MLC go last week?  What are your responsibilities during something like that? -- There were a couple of crazy things, but overall it was pretty good! My responsibilities are to make sure everything about the meeting runs smoothly - which is a big task when it comes to organizing a meeting that big with that many moving parts.

3.) What is your favorite treat these days?  What do you crave? -- I'm trying pretty hard not to crave anything, haha. I'm now in the time period that missionaries refer to as "6 months to sexy". Haha. I need to try and start shaving off some mission weight!

The transfer van.  We call her Big Mama.

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!

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

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!