November 3, 2011

Hi everyone!
things are going awesome for me right now, we have a baptism november 5th, and the work is a little too legit to quit! this last weekend we had stake conference, and it was soo good! i want to talk a little bit about a talk that a 21 year old gave who is preparing to serve a mission to the marshal islands! All his life he played soccer and got a lot of sweet offers to a lot of schools for college, at this time he was concidering either a mission or go and play soccer. He got a full ride scholarship to i dont remember what school, and was playing all the time. When he got his scholarship was when he decided that he didnt want to go on a mission. He was traveling all the time to london and others places to play, and it was his life. He came home to visit his family and attended church that weekend, and one of the teachers taught something that gave him a for sure answer that he needed to drop what he was doing and serve the Lord. His talk was a lot more powerful then i am making it sound and his testimony was so strong. it made me think of a quote by James E Faust he said: "Without the gospel we learn by sad experience that making the easier choice, the selfish choice, the sinful choice never leads to real happiness. It’s ironic that choosing what often seems easiest—sin, pleasure, laziness, selfishness—makes our life more difficult and unhappy in the long run." I really got to thinking about the agency that God has given us in this life to ultimately give us happiness, and how the only way that we dont recieve that joy and happiness is by yielding to temptation and sin. I was reading this morning in 2 nephi 2 and we find out that Satan wants us to be miserable like he is. and when we sin it gives him counterfeit joy (3 nephi 9:2). The experiences that this 21 year old had in his life really showed me how hard Satan is working to get us to not progress in this life. As i was reading this morning i read that this life is a probationary state? i looked up the word probation and found two answers, 1: An early release of law breakers who must be under supervision and must report as requested to a probation officer. and 2: A period given to test qualifications and character of a new employee. The way that i look at the first one is that because of the fall of adam and eve we are now able to break the law. What we have to go to our probation officer (Christ) listen to his words and choose eternal life (2 Nephi 2:28). In number 2, we can see it as we are all new employees sent to earth, to qualify, and to build our character to return to God. 
"We have been given agency, we have been given the blessings of the priesthood, and we have been given the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost for a reason. That reason is our growth and happiness in this world and eternal life in the world to come. Today I ask, have we received that Spirit? Are we following on the strait and narrow path that leads to God and eternal life? Are we holding onto the iron rod, or are we going another way? I testify that how we choose to feel and think and act every day is the way we get on the path, and stay on it, until we reach our eternal destination." Robert D. Hales
This 21 year old got a hold of this spirit and is now able to be on that path. What we need to do everyday is feel that spirit and stay on that path. The hard part is that Satan "lies at our door" (moses 5:23) everyday, and the choices we make  either lead us to him, or lead us to Christ. "The promptings that come to us to flee evil reflect our Heavenly Father’s understanding of our particular strengths and weaknesses and His awareness of the UNFORESEEN SIRCUMSTANCES IN OUR LIVES." R.D.H. "We need to remember our agency is not only for us. We have the responsibility to use it in behalf of others, and to lift and strengthen others in their trials." It is so awesome that because of this one choice that this kid made in his life to serve a mission, he will be doing exactly that. One thing that has always helped me to make better choices is knowing that as we choose to follow Satan it gives him power to bring us down where he is and there, we wont be able to make choices at all, he will reign over us(2 Nephi 2:29). The last thing i want is to give that noob any sort of power. hahah if anyone is struggling and thinks that maybe there agency isnt so strong, i know that through faith and obedience it can be strengthen. and that all spiritual light is found within Christ, and as we use our agency to follow him, that light will grow within us. I love being on a mission, it has helped me grow soooo darn much! i know that through living the gospel is the only way to true happiness. I love you all and cant wait to see you again! :) i am doing great, so dont worry about me. Ta Ta!

Iowa City, Iowa

Hey Hey peoples! Man I haven’t done a blog for almost 5 months! hahah oops. well I guess a little update, I was in Perry for 4 and a half months... it was the sweetest little town! I trained Elder Rodriguez there my last two transfers, it was pretty prime! He and I worked really well together, and man did we have fun. He is from Chandler Arizona. We did some work in Perry, and we were able to see Manuel be baptized! He is someone Elder Hernandez and I found the first transfer I was there, and we taught him the whole time I was there! I guess I didn’t really get to see the baptism because I left 5 days too soon! Ha-ha but it happened is what counts and he is the sweetest guy ever. So it has been 5 weeks since I got transferred, and now I am serving in Iowa City, Iowa as a zone leader. It is a huge change! Ha-ha probably 30 times bigger than Perry. Lots and lots more people. The area became a Spanish area about 8 months ago, and Elder Rojas and I white washed in as zone leaders. It was pretty intense at first... we have two wards to cover, and lots of people to know. We are at church from 730 am to 3 pm every Sunday! Ha-ha good stuff. Our wards are way sweet though and all the Hispanics are the bombski!! The area has been on fire and we are always having appointments, it is soooo nice. I really just think it is because there have never been Spanish speaking missionaries here until 8 months ago so none of the Hispanics have ever been able to learn in their native tongue! hah Right when we got here we found a guy named Isaac, who is 48 yrs old and when he was 17 he was going to be baptized in LA, but the week before his baptism he had to go back to Mexico and never got baptized! We started teaching him and he was sooo solid and doing great. We set a baptismal date and were teaching him 2 times a day almost every day! Ha-ha but then... a week before his baptism, he disappeared! Ha I know what you are thinking; "is this a joke?" ha-ha nope not a joke, pretty messed up. BUT on a good note the day before he vanished we started teaching a little 9 year old kid name Jader, man let me tell you, this kid is a stud! A way smart kid. He just moved here from Honduras about 20 days ago, his dad is a less active member and wanted him to be baptized. His baptism is this Saturday! We had 3 other investigators at church yesterday and there is a lot of potential in all of them. Sooo that’s where I am right now, things are going awesome! Except it is starting to cool down here and I don’t want winter to hit AT ALL!! Lame sauce. Anyway I love you all and I hopefully I can get a little bit better at writing on here for my last 7 months! Love love love!  - Elder Evans 

Perry, Iowa

It's been a while since I wrote, sorry to all! I finally got transfered to a new town after a long 6 months in Ottumwa, Iowa! It was awesome there and I saw a lot of good success there, but it was time for a change. A big change. I got transfered to Perry, Iowa. I left a town of about 30,000 people to a town of about 6000 people!! And close to 50% speak Spanish. It is like a little Mexico. My new companion is Elder Hernandez, he is so hilarious! He is 27 years old and is from Vera Cruz, Mexico. It has been awesome here so far. The Branch is way sweet! A lot are Hispanic and only speak Spanish, so it is giving me a chance to learn a lot more Spanish. We were able to have a baptism last Saturday as well, it was fabulous! He is 25 years old and his name is Eduardo, and awesome guy.

The last 4 weeks it has been pretty tough finding people who are willing to listen. Every one is very humble here though and very nice. Sometimes it seems repetitive, but every day something good happens, no matter how big or small. Usually we are tracting or walking aroung town for about 4 hours every day. Pretty good stuff, at least I will stay fit. Also on Mondays we are going to start playing soccor with Eduardo and his friends.

Well I will try to write a little more often. Bye Bye

March 28, 2001

My district is pretty cool. Its a good experience being district leader. Its pretty tough doing that training though, but helps me a lot. I should be getting transfered this next Thursday! Pretty sure. so next week p day is on Wednesday. I cant wait to watch general conference! Its so awesome. I learn soooo much!

THIS WEEK WAS A GOOD ONE! so this week a member of the ward gave us a call from the church and told us that a man called the church and told her he wanted missionaries to come stop by his house. it seemed pretty sketchy, but the next day we went and stopped by his house. his name is Steve, he invited us right in, and the second we got in his house our clothes got covered with the smell of smoke. His finger nails were a good half inch long, he had a good dirty beard, and some nice dirty teeth. the first thing he said to us was "i am a prohet of God and i want to join your church". hah right then we knew it was going to be a good visit. hahaha he sat us down and told us how he predicted the earth quake in Japan, and that was going to be three more nuclear disasters this year, in germany, cuba, and russia! also that Obama was going to be assassinated this year. he told us that all the sugar cane crops would be killed and we are going to have to find a new way to get sugar. haha then the one that we almost broke out in laughter, was that he told us he was the one who invented the moon walk, and also break dancing! i should have asked him to show us his moves. haha at the end of our visit with him he said a prayer and told us he wanted to give one of us the gift of discernment... ha so he stood up and put his hands on my shoulders and "gave me the gift of discernment". that was a good experience that really let me notice how important the priesthood is, because when people give you blessings, you can really feel the spirt. But there was absolutely nothing there when he did it, except for a good smile on my face.

Hahaha Also this week we found an awesome lady named Palmira, she is from Texas, her mom is aztec and she is way nice. She invited us right in and we sat and talked for a good while about God and her beliefs. She didnt have a lot of time that day, but asked if we would come back, and she told us she would have a good mexican meal for us! Golly, the best mexican food I've ever had. hah we had a great lesson with her about the Book of Mormon. and we will be going back to see her this week. Im loving life out here in good ole Iowa! ha I miss everyone and hope you are all doing grrrreat! LOVE YOU ALL!

March 14th 2011

So this last week we had a zone conference, it was really goood. Most meetings like that always get me motivated and I set some new goals! goals are sweet. hah oh ya i hit 11 months today! pretty crazy huh? Time is going by fast for me, I dont know about how it is for you guys. sorry if it isnt. Ha also this last friday i got the flu. :( pretty bad, but the good thing was is that I did everything our presidents wife said, and the next day it was gone! But it was so bad, throwin up, fever, throat... oh and the last person I baptised, Kathy MCallister, she is such a good member. Just got a calling to be a relief society teacher. Any way i called her when I was sick because I had the feeling she would know what to do, and she brought over these pill things that helped too! haha it was so funnny, she is awesome. But I am all better now. My voice is a little gone but all is well. Hopefully this week we can find some new people to teach! Last week we had a good experience.. We taught a woman about a month ago or longer that lives in our area but like 20 minutes away, we had tried to see her again since but it didnt work out and we thought she wasnt interested. but this last week we got a referral that was out by her house.. the referral wasnt home so we went to the ladies house. She was there and we had a great lesson with her, invited her to be baptised and things went awesome. After we knelt down and prayed at the end, she got up and told us that, that morning she prayed that we would come to her house that day! Pretty awesome. I think that is where I got the flu... and she is still sick with it, but when she feels better we are gonna go back out there. But things are great, the experieces are so worth every second of the decision I made to come out here. I love you dad, I hope you have a great week!!

January 18, 2011

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been just over 4 years since I last wrote. hahah it gets pretty busy out here and i get no time to do anything except missionary work. which is fine because i am lovin it!!! anyway let me give you a little update action. so my second transfer in Ottumwa i got called to be a trainer! His name is Elder Hansen, awesome kid from Idaho let me tell ya. That transfer went way sweet and we were able to see another baptism here. :) Her name is Kathy Mcallister, she is such an awesome woman. We had the baptism new years eve! so afterward we went and partied and had a few drinks and what not... haha not really but it was a sweet day in the neighborhood! Also Christmas has passed, and that was another great day, I was able to skype my family and say hello to them. pretty cool stuff. Its pretty crazy that I have been out for 9 months now, time is just cruisin by! since i have been in Ottumwa we have been able to find quite a few Spanish people to teach, which is sauce because I am getting better at Spanish! I have had way more opportunities to speak it since I have been in this area. My first area I maybe tought 4 Spanish lesson the whole three transfers there... pretty poopy. But here I am able to have about 6 spanish lessons a week, oh ya mhmmm!! And every Thursday we go to help English missionaries in there area to teach all the Spanish people there, so my espanol is coming along. So at the end of last transfer Elder Hansen got his visa to head off to Brazil, pretty crazy. And i got called to be trainer once again, this one is Elder Martell or Mart the fart... hahah He is sweet and we have some good laughs, funny kid. I pulled a good prank on him his first day here, and told him we were going tracting in a surrounding area, but really we were going to another missionaries apartment. :) So when we knocked on the door Elder Gordet answered in some casual clothes (looking pretty trashy) and just starting going off on us for like 15 minutes about all sorts of weird things that we get day to day. haha Martell was about to poop his pants! haha so things are going awesome right now, i am loving it out here. lately appointments have been falling through, but that is how things go sometimes. But.. on Sunday a random former investigator showed up at church and said he wants to start coming back to church and start having us come by his house again. :) lucky us. He used to have a baptismal date and was taught the lessons a couple times, but his girlfriend was always holding him back because she is a huge catholic. but we will see what happens. so this is mostly what has been going on for me. :) Iowa is sweet but freezing cold right now. BLAH. the other night we had freezing rain (didn't even know what that was till the other day) and when we went outside there was a nice layer of ice covering our whole truck, and the roads too! pretty sweet, but pretty dangerous business. Well I love everyone and hope you are all doing marvellous! my mission is going swell, and thank all of you for things letters and things you send. :) I know the gospel is true and that it is something we all need in our lives to be happy. God answers prayers and He is always waiting to help us, we just have to ask. LOVE!!! - Eebs