Street Art

Hey Everybody!

I'll start with the funny, then move to the crazy, and save the spiritual for last.

So Monday night, we were visiting an investigator, but were interrupted by a couple people asking to borrow our car jack. We agreed to let them use it, even though we are in an interesting neighborhood. We had to stay there while they were using the car jack, and ended up being there till about 9:30 PM. They started borrowing it at about 8:30 PM. There were a couple of funny things about the experience. First off, ghetto people are just funny to be around. They're always doing crazy things! Secondly, they were doing a very bad job of jacking up the car. They kept trying to put it on a plastic part of the car instead of the place that you are supposed to put the jack. I didn't really feel like I had the street cred to tell them that they were doing it wrong, but luckily, the Tupac impersonator from the other day came over and had plenty of street cred to solve the situation!

Sending pictures of some of the street art we've found.
There's tons of it everywhere. It's pretty cool!

Sunday was crazy yet again this week! We had 17 people at church again! That's actually starting to be kind of normal, but the way that they all got there was the crazy part! 12 of the people who were at church were families of African refugees, and although we have been getting them rides the past few weeks, the ward isn't really very financially stable, so we’re trying to find more sustainable options. The plan was for this to be the first week that we would walk to church with them. We saw them Saturday, and told them that we would come by at about 10:00 Sunday morning and walk together. However, we dropped by the church just before 10:00 to drop off our suit coats, and we found a large crowd of them standing outside of the chapel! With language barriers, we spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out how in the world they got there already.  They said someone had given them a ride, but we hadn't set anything up for them. Eventually, we found out that they had started walking without us, and that a member had seen them, picked them up and brought them to the church! That combined with some other crazy things, made for an interesting Sunday!

The spiritual highlight for the week happened with a woman who we are teaching. Her husband had passed away a couple days before, and she was in inconsolable grief. She was in tears most of the time we talked to her, but we shared a lot of scriptures from the Book of Mormon and talked about where we go after we die.  We testified to her about eternal families. I don't know exactly what will happen to her as far as investigating the church, but what I do know for sure is that she felt the spirit comfort her that day, and was able to feel the love of the Savior. 

I’m having some very memorable experiences!

I love you all!
Elder Excell

Q&A – 5/1/2017

1.)  I was amazed at the number of people you had attend church last week. Do you feel that this week was as successful?  --  Well, we had 17 again this week, so I'd say it was still pretty alright! There are still about 10 others who were supposed to be there that weren't though, so we'll keep working harder!

2.)  Best moment of the week?  --  Probably when we took 10-15 minutes to just toss a football around with some of the refugee kids. They're all really awesome people, and it's funny how certain things you don't even really need to communicate very well in order to create a bond!

They're painting our apartment today!  I don't know if you can tell by the
pictures, but it could really use it.  The walls are almost more black
than white in some places. Haha!  Hence, we've moved everything
to the middle of all the rooms.

Teaching Refugees

Hey everybody!

This last week has been a good one! There was a 6 zone conference, which meant I saw just about everyone in the mission! It was really good to see so many old friends, but weird that for more and more of them, it's the last time I'll see them in the mission.

As I start to settle into more of a routine, it's becoming a bit harder to know what to write again.  I do want to tell you about my favorite highlight though. 

This last week, we finally got a translator to come with us to the family of African refugees! It was actually a member from Robindale that I was able to get hold of who went to West Africa on his mission. The lesson was super cool, because we started to also teach a new family of 8, in addition to the family of 6 we've been teaching.  The lesson was partly us teaching and Paul translating, partly Paul teaching, and the best part - the dad from the family we've been teaching testifying to the other family about how important it is to go to church.  It was awesome!  

I love you all!
Elder Excell

Our new favorite Mexican hamburger place -
we can do our laundry while we wait for food!
Now that's convenience!

Q&A -- 04/24/2017

1.) Do you feel safe tracting in your new area? Are you pretty careful about sticking to safer areas after dark? Sorry, had to ask… ;)  --  Yes, we make sure we're safe, and I feel very protected, :)

2.) How are things going with Elder Holmes?  --  Really well!  He's actually a really great missionary, and we've
been seeing a ton of success.

3.) Is it true that you are the DL over a Spanish speaking area? I think I remember Dad saying something about that. I'm curious what challenges you face in a situation like that where you weren't called to be a Spanish speaking elder.  --  Yeah! It's really not that weird, just means I go on more exchanges where I don't know what people are saying, haha.

4.) What was your biggest success of the week?  --  17 people at church this week! We're slowly climbing!

Elder Holmes with a Tupac impersonator

Teaching Amazing People

Hey everybody!

I love the people we’re teaching right now and wanted to let you know about a few of my favorites!

First, there’s Chandra. She got baptized this weekend! She's the one I mentioned last week who lives right by the Stratosphere. She's so awesome! She was getting baptized for all the right reasons. And she even overcame a pretty heavy smoking addiction to do it. It's something that I've learned is not an easy thing to do, so I asked her what helped her to be able to overcome it, and we loved her response. "Well, I'm getting baptized!"  For so many people, it seems like just knowing they should or having a desire to be baptized isn't enough. But she knew how important it was, and that's what helped her to stop smoking!  

Also, the Chavez family. They're such a special family. It's a mom and her 3 kids. They've been through a lot, and they've felt the power of the spirit, and they have such a yearning to live the gospel! Let me explain by telling you about our last lesson with them. We showed up, and started out by following up on whether or not they'd read what we left with them - a pamphlet about the law of tithing and a pamphlet about the law of chastity. The mom and the two girls aren't the best at reading, but the 10 year old boy, Angel, is crazy smart! So when we asked if they'd read, Angel told us that he'd read both of the pamphlets AND taught the contents to his family! We asked him if they had any questions, and he said, "No, I read through the pamphlet really carefully, so I was able to answer all of their questions. And we really enjoyed he pamphlet! We were just amazed by it! Now we've been changing the kind of music we listen to and lots of other things!" And when we followed up on it, they really did understand everything! That kid is going to make an awesome missionary someday!

It's such a blessing to teach so many amazing people!

I love you all!
Elder Excell

Chandra's Baptism

 Q&A – 04/17/17

1.) Do you have a lot of anxiety about getting everything lined up for school? How can I help to ease that anxiety?  --  Honestly, I don't really think about it too much. I might start to freak out when it gets a little closer, but for now, it's not usually on my mind. I know it may not seem that way from the amount of emails I've sent you asking about it, but really, this mission has just made a planner out of me, haha. President Snow was a corporate executive for a lot of years, and was also in the military for a lot of years, so his strategic planning mindset has definitely rubbed off on me. So, I don't really think about it much, but the only way I'm able to not think about it is to know that it's all taken care of. So, thank you so much for helping me with it so much!!! 

2.) What is your biggest goal for the last three months of your mission?  --  I've been thinking a lot about that. Like I just mentioned, this mission has made me a big planner, and we focus a lot on having visions, goals, and plans. Just like Elder Ballard's talk from Conference! In fact, Elder Foiles and I gave a training almost identical to that talk a few weeks before conference at a zone conference, haha. But as I've thought a lot about what my vision, goals, and plans are for the last few months of my mission, and as I've pondered on it at the temple, this scripture kept coming back to me. "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."  -Matthew 25:21

So, I guess you could say that my goal for the end of my mission is to be able to have the Lord say this to me. When I go to the temple for the last time here in Las Vegas and I pray and account for my time here, this is the answer I want to have. Obviously there are some sub goals that go along with it, but this scripture pretty much sums it up!

3.) What was your best moment of the week?  --  I learned how to pray in Swahili this last week, using google translate, and surprised the family of African refugees we’re teaching with it! They were all really surprised and touched by it, and the mom was almost in tears! I think it meant a lot to them to be able to hear a prayer that they actually understood. Don't get me wrong, it was a really simple prayer, but I think it still meant a lot to them.

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.