Weekly update 1-6-14

Last District Bowling before transfers

Saying good-bye to the Dillons where they lived in Fort Dodge.

Sister Murphy is also a Sister Trainer Leader.

Sad to be leaving Sis Eggett!  

They are planning a trip to DL when they are done with their missions.

With Sister Alston, her new companion.  They both love DP!

Their brand new jeep!

Only 156 miles!

Trying to stay warm!

With Sister Alston ??

Hey Yall!
Welp... This week has been eventful. First off, I want to say that our mission ended the year of 2013 with 545 baptisms. Only 5 short of our goal of 550. That is 99%. Man, its been incredible. In the last week of the year, we baptized 30 souls! Thats the most people baptized ever in one week in the Iowa Des Moines Missions. It was very incredible and wonderful to be a part of it!

Now, to the news you are all probably wondering.... WHERE AM I??? Any Guesses?? I am currently serving in good 'ol Keokuk, Iowa right on the mississippi river! Yes... also right across the river from Nauvoo!!! I moved from fort dodge... which means I am now on the complete OPPOSITE side of the state and mission. My new companion is a Sister Training Leader as well, her name is Sister Alston. She actually was my sister training leader in Mt. vernon. I am so pumped to be serving with her!! We have already been having a great time. We are over two zones, or 7 companionships of sisters. We live members in Keokuk and we also just got a present from the church. We are now the privileged drivers of a brand new 2014 jeep compass equipped with 4wd! Yeah... its a boss! When we got it in Iowa City, it had 150 miles on it. That is equivalent to the drive from des moines to iowa city. Man... this car is spiffy and we felt like straight up movie stars rolling out from transfer meeting on thursday. Everyone was jealous. It was a pretty good feeling. haha

This week is a busy week. Sister Alston and I wont be in our area much this week, we will be driving a lot. We have Mission Leadership Council in iowa city tomorrow and then we have exchanges in kirksville the next day, and the we have to do a training at Zone TRaining Meeting in kirksville on thursday and then we have another training to do in burlington on friday. It'll be fun though! I am so excited!

This past week has been great and i am so thankful to have Sister Alston here to help me get to know everyone in Keokuk. Although, she did pull a little prank on me on friday. She had one of our investigators pretend to be someone else and that he wanted to be a polygamist and a bunch of stuff. It was crazy... but it was pretty funny. haha Theres a lot of anti stuff out here. People think mormons are crazy and not a lot of loving feelings towards us around here. But I know I am here for a reason and I am excited to work! I am so blessed to be here serving a mission. I love you all so much and want you to know that Jesus Christ is central to everything. He and our Father in Heaven are the only people we need to please. They love us so much. As a representative for Jesus Christ I have been blessed to have experienced such a love. My theme scripture right now is 1 Jn.4:18 "Perfect love casteth out fear." Strive for that perfect love! Pray for it and YOU WILL NOT FEAR!!! I love you so much!