Heres a Hi from Iowa!

This has been a very interesting week for me! You will find out further into this email.. For the weather here is warmer than it has been, which is the nicest thing ever! The snow is melting, which doesn’t affect us at all here as a missionary. Conner and Bret hopefully it snows more in Utah for you.. haha

So the beginning of last week was crazy, now not crazy like before but super crazy. The weather dropped to a very low temperature Monday and Tuesday, which resulted in some of our pipes freezing in the apartment. We didn’t have any water for a few days, luckily we have awesome members that helped us out. On Monday night I got sick.. like the flu sick..it wasn’t the funniest night of my life.. the following day we had a meeting that we had to be at in Iowa City. I spent half of the meeting sleeping the sickness off.. anyway the blessing that I received the other day, helped me recover very quickly. After being sick and not having any running water, I was in a state that required me to turn to God. Even though I experience some infirmities and affliction, I know that the lord was watching over me. My mission has taught me a lot about being grateful for what I have, given the circumstances. You can decide how you feel 100% of the time and the lord wants you to turn to him 100% of the time. When you do this you have no reason or rhyme to be unhappy. When you reach low points in your life, often that is when the lord is there to lift you higher than you have ever been! Anyway that is something that I have reflected upon this past week well recovering from being sick.

We spent a lot of time out of our area, for interviews, Mission Leadership Meeting, and exchanges. I had my last interview with President Jensen on Friday, wow I can’t really even believe that I am saying that.. And it’s crazy that Jade will be home next week! wow wow wow!!

On exchanges I had the privilege to go with Elder Jackson, who is a Spanish speaking missionary. So Tod and Jade would appreciate this more.. Throughout the day we spent a lot of time talking to Hispanic people.. well I guess I can’t say that I did, but some of them do speak English.. Anyway it’s a lot of fun to sit in on the lessons. I can’t pick up everything that they are talking about, but I can understand where they are in the gospel. It was a fun experience to just feel the spirit in the lessons, even though I didn’t have any idea what they were saying most of the time.

One of the last experiences I would like to share is about an older lady we taught. We knocked on W....s door, she was a referral from a member here in Osky. We got in and started to talk about family history and what happens after we die, it’s just where the spirit kinda leads it. We read a few scriptures out of the bible, 1 peter chapter 3 and 4. it talks about where Christ went after he died and before he was resurrected. Anyway we taught her about that and she said she never knew that before. She said she’s read the bible many times before... it just goes to show how awesome the restored gospel is. We know a lot of things that people just have no idea about and that is why it is so fun to share it with everyone!

January sounds like a fun month with all of these babies getting born! Jade getting home and lots of other fun things happening! have a great week and know that I love you all!

LOVE ELDER KIRTON!