His new companion from Montana. Elder Maughan

He said this is a friend from back home, but he didn't say what his name was.

 

 

Dear Family!!,

This week has been great, with many new stories and things that happened! First off, Transfers went very well, it was the biggest transfer that we’ve had since I’ve been out here. There were forty new missionaries that came from the MTC, only 30 of them will stay in our mission though. The rest our visa waiters, we seem to get a few of them all the time. Since Des Moines has the airport where they will fly out, we have all ten of the visa waiters here, so it’s been pretty crazy here for the most part. With the zone splitting and all we now have 15 missionaries right now, instead of 27, so it’s a big difference. We went from the biggest to the smallest for right now...

So the new Elder that I’m serving with is Elder Maughan, from Montana.. You don’t see to many missionaries from Montana in our mission. He is a great guy and we’re going to have a fun time! He lives on a farm back home and loves to do stuff outdoors... so by definition we have to get along right.. haha anyway things are looking up here.

I would have to say that this past week has for sure been the most tiring one out of my whole mission. Only being in this area for 6 weeks and picking up a new elder is pretty stressful, but on top of it splitting the zone and stuff made it a little more crazy. We also had this thing called mini missionaries... have you ever heard of it? So throughout the stake the young men.. the priests.. sign up to come out with the elders and sisters. We had a kid come out with us for 3 days, just seeing how missionary work looks like. .. hopefully he had a great time, because we had fun. It’s crazy to think, that it was just a few years ago that I was in there position, deciding whether or not they want to serve a mission.

I can tell everyone that is thinking about serving a mission, to do it! It will change your life for the better if you will let it. It has already changed mine so much and will continue doing so for the next few months. Your time spent out on a mission is so much better than attending any school out there!!

Mosiah 2: 41... I really love this scripture... happiness can only come through living the way that our Heavenly Father has set up for us! wickedness was never happiness.. Alma 41:10... I have really come to understand this simple principle.. When we fight against God, we always lose, when we serve with god we always win.. no matter the situation that we are in.

Don’t fight against the spirit inside of you,

Who desire to follow god,

For this spirit is the light of Christ,

Whose love is never failing,

Feed your spirit who desire good,

Than you will understand who you are,

As a child of God!

It’s not very good, but I made it up and I really do believe it to be true. There really is a great war that we fight as children of God, every day we have to decide to choose evil or good. There is only one that makes us happy here and for eternity. My testimony has never been stronger and my love for you is growing stronger day by day. I hope to see you all on Mother’s Day, in a couple of weeks!

We finally get to take off our suit coats today, it’s in the 70's.. yaa.. how about the weather over there? O and thanks for the package and the letters.. I had some of the granola today.. it was super good.. thanks

LOVE YA!!! LOVE ELDER KIRTON



The young lady with the dog was baptized a few weeks ago.

This is called the spaceship house.

HELLO!!!!

We have had an over all good week! We received our transfer calls on Friday and I am happy to say that I am staying here in Waukee woh!!! It’s so hard to believe that this transfer is over, I really fill that I just got here, the busier you are the faster everything goes! It’s super sad though, Elder Meservy is getting transferred on Thursday, I have only had one transfer with him, we had a great time though. I will miss the kid... it’s going to be a little stressful for a little while.. probably.. since I’ve only been in the area for 6 weeks, which isn’t a whole lot of time to get to know everyone. Hopefully the lord knows what he is doing.. haha he always does.. so that’s a lot more comforting!

The other exciting news for the mission is that our zone is splitting, it means that know we will have two zones in the stake instead of one. It’s going to be a lot nicer to keep track of everything, because instead of 27 missionaries it will be cut down to 12 or so.. I am super exciting to continue on with the work here... and the baptism this Saturday isn’t going to happen..:( I will tell you later about that. We are getting 40 new missionaries this transfer which is the most that wave ever received before. 10 of them are visa waiters though, they are still waiting for their visa's to go out of the country so they go to a mission to get trained and leave as soon as they get there visa's.

So about the baptism... so D...( who is 10 years old) was super excited to get baptized and everything and has been for the last couple of weeks, but we ran into a few problems. His friends live just across the hall in the apartment complex and he got really pushed away from the church because they were telling him that we didn’t believe in Christ or the bible.. Well does the church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints say anything.. Well I guess now.. haha it’s pretty funny because we run into a lot of people that think we don’t believe in Jesus Christ.. darn anti.. anyway he fills really torn between the decision that he had to make. He eventually decided to stay at the church he was going to right now.. he’s a great kid and in the future he will get baptized.. on that note N.... W..... got the priesthood on Sunday it was awesome!!

I can’t believe that you cut Conner’s mullet off.. o noooo... haha well it does look a bit better, but it would of been super sweet by the time I got back. haha Conner start up another one.. Don’t tell mom.. I am so glad that you got the letters, I didn’t know if they were going to come or not. That’s the big downfall of letters is you really don’t know when they’re going to get there. So school is about to be over again.. wow time just flies.. How’s everyone doing? straight A's hopefully..

We have received a lot of rain the last couple of days. one of the days it rained like 3 inches.. man it was pouring so hard! Its suppose to warm up one of these days.. Iowa weather is impossible to predict.. other than that life is great here in Waukee/almost like home.. it’s the nicest place that I’ve been on the mission I really love it here.

You guys take care and always know that I love you!!!                                

LOOVEE ELDER KIRTON THE ONE IN IOWA!!!

This is one of the districts in his zone.

 

 

 

Well hola!!!!!!

 I hope life is going well for all of you! We are experiencing a lot of rain here as well and it’s still pretty cold for the most part.. I can’t wait for some warmer weather. I can’t believe that its already mid way through April and it’s still cold. I remember last year got really warm super fast, but I guess I can’t complain for the cooler weather, because once summer hits here I will be wishing for some cold weather.. haha funny how that work huh? .. On Monday we had an amazing day! It was like 75 degrees outside and we were able to wear short sleeves for a little bit. Also we had our zone p-day too.. which was a blast! There are 27 missionaries in our zone so it makes for some fun games and stuff. but man I have really noticed how out of shape I have really gotten.  Haha that’s the life of a missionary.

This week has been very tiring, just for the fact that we went on 3 different exchanges with Elders this week.. I really loved them though.. but it starts to catch up on you after a while. The first exchanges were with the assistants, we go with them once a month to do a little training and to see how we are doing. They are great missionaries and I really commend them for all that they do. There is a lot on their plate... then we went out with another group of missionaries on Thursday and to another straight into Friday. It’s the life and responsibility of a zone leader and I love doing it. it’s such a great chance to meet a bunch of new missionaries and people for that matter. So the exchanges on Friday were great... reason being Elder Christensen who I went with got trained by the same missionary that I did.. Elder Wilson.. so in missionary terms we are brothers.. haha I will have to explain that at another date..

To answer some of your questions.. Well I don’t think that I have grown any more... maybe a couple of inches or something like that.. haha I haven't really gained any weight either, I guess that’s good because this mission is a forty pound mission, meaning that on average a missionary will gain up to forty pounds out here.. crazy right..

We have had a great week with our investigators.. even though we stopped teaching a few of them because they were not progressing, we picked up a few new ones. D... who is N....'s son, has a date for the 27 of this month. We are hoping to get his dad to baptize him. We had a zone fast this week as well and let me tell you we saw a lot of miracles throughout the zone just because of that one fast.. I have never really applied fasting in my life as much as I have out here. I definitely have a testimony that it really works. If anyone is having a hard time I would invite them to fast to figure out what’s wrong, or if you need help with something.. :)

I just want to close in saying, that I have never had a stronger testimony in the gospel! The mission really is for everyone no matter the challenges it will bless your life when you go or if you are already out! There is a war between good and evil out there that not a lot of people see, so we must stay strong and do all we can to find and help everyone around us..

An Elder I knew once said, when you fill like you’ve made it, you haven’t! as well as don’t expect to fill comfortable in the work of God, because when you do get comfortable he will give you something that is going to help you grow.!

I love you all and will talk to you next week! LOVE ELDER KIRTON!!

 

 

 

 

Having fun on a swing out back1

 

 

House and back yard of home he is staying at. They had a camp fire.

Pictures of statues and the town of Waukee.

 

 

I AM GLAD TO HEAR FROM AN AWESOME FAM!!!

 

CONFERENCE WAS SUPER GREAT! I WILL ALWAYS LOVE CONFERENCE FROM HERE ON OUT, I KNOW THAT I DIDNT PAY A WHOLE LOT ATTENTION TO IT WHEN I WAS YOUNGER.. WELL I WISH I JUST UNDERSTOOD A LITTLE BETTER, BUT ITS ALL COOL NOW. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH OUT HERE THAT IT IS GOING TO BE HARD TO REMEMBER IT ALL AND APPLY IT WHEN I RETURN HOME. I WOULD DEFINITELY SAY REMEMBERING IS THE HARDEST THING EVER. WHAT WAS ONE NEW THING THAT YOUVE LEARNED FROM CONFERENCE? I REALLY LIKED HOW THEY TALKED A LOT ABOUT OBEDIENCE.. THOMAS S MONSON HAD A GREAT TALK ON THAT, ABOUT WHEN HE STARTED A FIRE AND THOUGHT HE COULD CONTROL IT. I JUST REALLY LOVED CONFERENCE THIS PAST WEEKEND. WE WATCHED IT AT FEW DIFFERENT HOMES THIS TIME, INSTEAD OF THE CHURCH. WE HAVE A LOT OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE HERE IN WAUKEE.. THE FUNNY PART ABOUT WAUKEE IS IT REMINDS ME A LOT OF DRAPER.

WEVE HAD A GREAT WEEK, OTHER THAN WE SPENT A LOT OF TIME OUT OF OUR AREA. TUESDAY WE HAD A POWERFUL MEETING WITH ALL OF THE ZONE LEADERS AND PRESIDENT. THE SPIRIT WAS SUPER STRONG AND TESTIFIED OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK AND WHY WE SPEND SO MUCH TIME PLANNING AND PREPARING. I REALLY BELIEVE THAT WE ALL CAN HAVE MANY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES IN OUR ON HOMES.. SOMEONE SAID A LITTLE WHILE AGO, THAT THE HOME IS THE 2ND MOST SPIRITUAL PLACE THAT WE CAN HAVE.. OTHER THAN THE TEMPLE OF COURSE. I AM GLAD THAT FAMILY HOME EVENING IS GOING WELL FOR YOU ALL.. I HOPE THAT YOU ARE LEARNING A LOT FROM IT!

WE WERE ALSO HELPING THE ASSISTANCE OUT A LITTLE BIT WITH SOME OF THEIR INVESTIGATORS BECAUSE THEY WERE OUT OF TOWN. WE DROVE THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF DES MOINES A FEW TIMES. DOWN TOWN IS NOTHING LIKE SALT LAKE CITY... ITS REALLY WEIRD. THERES NOT A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE ROAMING AROUND THERE.. ANYWAY WE TALKED TO A LOT OF THEIR INVESTIGATORS.. WHO ARE FROM AFRICA. THE AFRICAN PEOPLE ARE VERY HUMBLE AND ACCEPTING OF THE GOSPEL. I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED THAT I WOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. DES MOINES IS FULL OF PEOPLE THAT ARE FROM ALL OVER.. ITS SUCH A GREAT TIME MEETING AND GETTING TO KNOW DIFFERENT CULTURES.

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST FAMILY EVER! I HOPE THAT YOU KNOW THAT! I SENT SOME LETTERS OFF TODAY.. OR I WILL BE, LAST WEEK I HAD SOME BUT I FORGOT THAT I DIDNT HAVE ANY STAMPS.. HAHA O WELL. MOTHERS DAY IS COMING UP SO I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN A LITTLE BIT..:)

LOVE ELDER KIRTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 



Awesome news!

 

 

Dear Family! thou are awesome!

It’s great to see all of those pictures of the family and the kids! They look like they're having a great time and the Easter egg hunt looks super fun as always! I hope that Easter went really well for you all, because we had a great Easter week end! The N...... who we are staying with, had a mini Easter egg hunt with their boys so we helped out with that, it was a great time... Thanks for the package too! I’ve been chowing down on the candy a little too much though haha. So we had a really cool thing happen this week...

So Dan who we were hoping to get baptized on the 30th ended up falling through it was super sad, we really hoped that he was going to make it... o sorry this isn’t the cool thing.. haha I’ll get to that.

Nelson was the investigator that I think I talked about last time.. Well we set a date with him for April 27th which he was very much looking forward to. As we were teaching him on Tuesday, Elder Meservy felt really prompted to invite him to be baptized on the 30th of March, which was that weekend.. he accepted whole heartedly! We really want him to baptize his family when we start teaching them, hopefully in the near future! He is the most prepared individual that I've ever talked to, since I've been out here. We then finished teaching him throughout the rest of the week, so he would be ready for his baptism. We were setting up his baptism program,  he asked me to baptism him, I was and am so grateful for the privilege to do so! :) pics below.. His baptism was super powerful! After he was baptized he stood in the water in awe, as he recognized the ordinance which he was a part of, as well, the spirit testified to everyone that was there that baptism is so essential.

It was a very humbling experience for me, to be a part of his life and the chance to perform the ordinance of baptism. We then waited for Sunday to come along so he could receive the Holy Ghost into his life. One of the cool things about it is that it was all done on Easter weekend, which of course is the celebration of the Savior’s atonement. and... It was dad’s birthday... pretty sweet hun!

I hope everyone was able to learn something over this great Easter weekend, because I really grasped just a little bit more on how important it is that the atonement was performed!

Thanks a bunch again for the treats and the letters, I hope to get a few off to you all today, so we will see how that goes..:)

How’s school going for everyone? there’s not too much longer till it’s over with...

LOOOVVEEE ELDER THOMAS KIRTON!!! THE ONE AND ONLY!