Dear Family!!! You’re just too awesome!!

This week has been a week to remember! There have been so many great things that have been happening here in our area as well as the world in general for missionary work. Did you all watch the broadcast that was given yesterday? If not I would recommend watching it on lds.org, because it is super awesome and really teaching everyone how to do great missionary work. I was super powerful and the spirit was felt for sure! I am super glad to have this chance to serve at this time, when so much change is happening regarding missionary work. I know that it wouldn’t be possible without you guys, being so amazing and encouraging. Thanks so much for that!

It sounds like you’ve all been staying super busy with work and stuff. That’s great! I love staying super busy as well, but it does make time just fly by. Which is exciting and sad at the same time.. :) So you had to rename the cat huh?.. that’s super funny.. oh well.. So you’ve been working on some more of the house and stuff that’s fun. I am glad that you’re still loving the shirts.. hopefully you wash it a little bit.. haha just kidding..

To start off with the super sad news, President Jergensen will be leaving at the end of this week! It’s hard to believe that the day is already speedily approaching. I know that the Lord has prepared President Jensen for the work here in the Iowa Des Moines mission. I am so eternally grateful for President Jergensen and Sisters Jergensen's service and inspired leadership. I will most definitely miss them both!

So I have some super exciting news for you all today.. we had a great thing happen this week with K… N…. Guess what she got baptized!!! ya she was scheduled for next week but we ended up getting it done this week. So the story behind that is awesome.. We were weekly planning for her and we felt prompted to get her baptized this week instead of next week, honestly we don’t know exactly why, but all I know is if the Lord tells you to, than you have to do it. The baptism went super well, she will remember that day forever. One she had to get dunked twice because her foot came out of the water and two she has a fear of water. No matter the fear, her faith was sufficient to get baptized. It was a great miracle for us and our zone!

I am just really excited for the coming months here in Waukee. The next couple of weeks are going to be super crazy with President Jensen's arrival to our mission. It probably won’t be too bad, they've got everything planned out and stuff. Elder Maughan and myself have had a great time together and hope to continue on the path that we are on right now.

I love you all and hope you have a great week, stay safe and read your scriptures and pray and go to church and just be super awesome as always!

MUCH SUPER LOVE ELDER KIRTON!!!           

 

 

 

This is what TJ is driving now!

 





Haha! you guys look like you’re from Iowa now..

I am glad that you were able to receive that package and that the shirts fit most of you.. haha I guess I should of grabbed a few smalls, but hey they will grow into them super quick. So Father’s Day sounded super fun for you all and it was for me as well. Other than the dutch oven dinner sounds super awesome right now... we haven’t ate any lunch yet.. I guess I could get a few smaller ones if you would like, but you’ll have to let me know before they run out at the store.. Other than that how is the summer treating you guys? We are now experiencing some heat right now, still no where in the 90's yet. I think I got a little sun burnt the other day, after our service project we did, or I guess you could call it volunteering. Our Father’s Day over all was sweet!

So the baptism of B... went super well.. see pics.. It was so cool to finally see him get baptized, it’s been a long journey for him. It has been such a blessing to teach him and help him get baptized. There were a lot people there, that flew in from out of town to see him get baptized. Also there were about 4 investigators there as well, so it was a great Father’s Day for us.

The sad part is that J.... did not get baptized on Saturday, it’s a super sad story! So we called him on Wednesday this past week, just to check on him to see if he was doing fine. He told us that he was not going to get baptized anymore at the moment. So of course we wanted to know why? and he said that he just has a lot of questions right now. The real story is after having a lesson with him on Sunday after the baptism, is that his father anti-ed him a lot. So he is very torn on what to do right now, but the great thing is that he knows that the spirit has told him that the Book of Mormon is true. He’s only 19, so he still has a very close relationship with his dad. The lord is aware of everything that we do, so I have no worries for this situation. The lesson that we did have with him after the baptism was one of the most powerful lessons I have had on my mission so far. The lesson to be learned from this is that you never want to let questions result in doubt or fear. When you start doubting than you start to lose the spirit and it becomes very hard find the right answer. I great quote says, " let questions arise, but never doubts"

We also taught a few new people this week, H.... and T...... father and son.. They are way nice and very humble people. They've come to church for the past two weeks so we are hoping that we can still continue to help them progress. K... is still doing super well right now, we actually moved her date up to the 29th of June. She is progressing very fast right now and has a desire to get baptized. Things are going very well on the missionary work side, so I am super happy!

few months left on the mission huh? haha I still have a long time.. you can’t pull that card out on me just yet.. even though two days ago I turned 16 out on the mission.. So far I have had the greatest time serving the Lord and I know that there is nothing else that I would rather be doing right now. I don’t have an actual release date yet, but I can make a guess that it will be about the 14th of Feb, or so.

Sorry for not writing as many letters to you all, I will do my best to get some out to you today. and next week. I love you guys and will forever and forever! you’re the best!

NOTRIK REDLE EVOL! .. its backwards..                                                                                    

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

 

Playing basketball with a member.

 

Dear familllllyyyyy!!!

O no Nicole graduated... wow.. now what is she going to do? haha that is so awesome! I am glad that it went well and everything, it’s hard to believe it’s been like two years since I graduated high school. Time flies when you’re having too much fun, doing missionary work. So I heard that she’s going on a mission now.. wait what.. I didn’t say anything haha... It’s definitely worth thinking about, really for anyone. But anyway the pictures look great and the gown too.. I think those things are super funny:) So the walk about sounded really fun.. snow cones.. o man.. well I don’t know if will ever need any snow cones here.. it doesn’t really go past 75 right now.. It’s super weird. So Jon Lee is heading out.. wow that’s super insane.. England too.. nice!

This week has been phenomenal.. other than B.... didn’t get baptized this week, he was unable to make it back in time from Kentucky. It’s all good though, he’s planning on June 16! Which means that J.... and B.... will get baptized at the end of the week, I am super excited for it. They are both really cool people that are super prepared for this gospel. I will definitely let you know how it goes next week!

So this Friday was awesome and I will tell you why. So we were doing some missionary work of course about an hour before our dinner appointment. Sister O..., gave us a call just before and said that they had someone coming over that was a non-member. So we were super stoked for the lesson. When got there, we got to know H.... a little bit better. He’s such a great man, he grew up in Chicago most of his life and was involved in gangs and stuff like that. He was able to get out of there and head over here to Waukee. He also has had a few tragedies in his life that have turned him to God. When he prayed for some help about 4 years ago, two missionaries showed up at his door, but he turned them done.( Mormon missionaries) He started to read the bible and go to church for a while at different churches. The great thing about it is that our Heavenly Father sent us back to him again so he can hear the message that we had to share with him. We taught him about the restoration of the gospel and invited him to church. That same Sunday he showed up to sacrament meeting and seemed to like it. That’s just one of the miracles that we've had this week.

I talked a little bit about K... last week and how awesome she is. So this week we taught her the stop smoking work shop. She came to church again and loved it, not only that, she stayed after to do some choir practice.. she is such an awesome person. We knocked at the whole apartment complex and she was the only one that was interested at the time. not only that but the last door. After all we can do, than the Lord shows us the way and provides us with someone to teach. She will most definitely be baptized in the next couple of weeks. We’ve had a great time so far this week and we are excited for the next transfer!

To answer those questions.. I would say the hardest thing now is watching people not except something that will bless their lives.. such as the gospel. The easiest thing is having a good time doing missionary work, because there’s no reason to be mad about anything or be frustrated.. the battle has already been won! so now we just have to join the team.. :)
Guess what? ... this is a big week! It’s going to be Father’s Day! So I would like to give a shout out to a special dad out there.. who happens to be my dad! I love ya and will send a little something from Iowa! You’re the best! have a good week and go have some fun or something!

I love you all and do miss you guys! times just fling by so I will see you soon!        

MUCH LOVE LOVE LOVE ELDER KIRTON KIRTON KIRTON!!

 



Looking out the window at beautiful Iowa!

 

A group of missionaries.

 

Well HELLO!!! Family! Friends! and anyone else,

It has been just as always a great week, well almost always... haha weve had a great time teaching others how they can come unto Christ! Through faith,repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end! I am glad that the missionaries there could come over for dinner, they’re super lucky! SO Nicole graduated from Seminary.. nice... I am proud of her! It’s a great accomplishment! The sculpture thing is awesome too! So this week is it for school, the kids here have been out for a little while now it feels like they've been out for a couple of weeks. It doesn’t really feel like summer over here yet, we haven’t really broke 80 degrees yet.. we’ve been sticking around 70.. it’s really nice for missionary work. So what’s the plans for summer?

This week we've been able to see a lot fruit from our labors here in Waukee. There will be two baptisms coming up here in the next couple of weeks and hopefully another one closer to the end of the week. B.... is hopefully going to be on the 9th but it might get pushed back a week and J.... is planning on being baptized on June 15! We’ve been super blessed here! K... also came to church this Sunday and is preparing for July 6... The months of June through august are really high baptizing months. Probably because it’s the summer and everyone usually has more time to meet with us.. It’s a lot easier to talk to a lot more people during the summer because everyone is outside doing something. So have you guys been able to talk to a few people about the gospel yet?

This week is also a transfer week... the great news is I will be staying... yaaa.... I really do love this place(Waukee)... it’s just a really nice place with a bunch of great people in it. The members here are so awesome too! We get feed every night here... luckily I’m not gaining any weight.. haha..

The month of June is also a very sad one.. President J...... will be leaving at the end of the month. His 3 years of service are up and the new mission president will be arriving. So everyone is kind of preparing for the change. It’s should be a whole lot different though.... hopefully...

To answer your question.. God is someone who is in our everyday life and if we look for him you will absolutely find him. In missionary work we see it all the time.. just the other day we were walking around an apartment complex and a man whose name is James, said "hey elders how’s it going?".. we would have never known he was home or that he wanted to talk to us if we weren't in the right place at the right time. There really isn't a thing called "luck", God is our luck and I can definitely testify of that.. so the real question for everyone is to find our Heavenly Fathers presence in your own life. If you can’t find him, than you have to walk out from under the pavilion that you've placed over yourself.. from Elder Eyring's talk... hopefully that can answer your question.. :)

I do love you all and wish the best of the best for you! Have a safe start to you summer!

LOVE ALWAYS ELDER KIRTON!!!