Pretty darn cold!

 

 

2014!!! IT’S going to be the best year!

Well I am glad that everything is starting to get better with grandma Bonnie! The prayers and blessings really help a lot and I am so grateful to be a part of the true church, so we can have blessings when we are in need :) I hope everyone continues to stay healthy and strong until February 14th!! and ... well a long time after that too.. haha I have been really lucky so far, not to get sick very bad. Everyone around us seems to be getting sick pretty good, but we are dodging it so far:) So yesterday we were informed of some really nasty cold weather coming in. Well they were most definitely right! This morning we woke up and Elder Mattoon went to take a shower... well no water came out.. Our pipes froze last night, so we had to go to our good friend J....'s to eat breakfast and shower.. it was kinda of depressing haha.. but we get a taste of what it’s like without running water.. and let me tell you it’s not super fun! The temp. was negative 16 this morning and with the wind chill it’s close to negative 30 probably! It’s only supposed to last for a little bit and go away.. hopefully!

This past week was a great opportunity for me to reflect upon the last year and think of things that I can work on this year. This last year was one of the best years that I've had, a full year of serving the Lord. And wow it went by super fast! As a mission we were able to see 517 people baptized!! Which is so wonderful to be a part of! There are many things in this world that are fun and exciting, but nothing at this time for me can compare to the salvation of Gods children. The times may get hard and a lot of the time we may want to quit, but the Lord teaches us never to look back! We can only learn from our mistakes and continue looking forward. Press forward to the prize! (Eternal life)

I am super excited to be home and see all of your faces, but until my time is up I have to keep working hard for the Lord! Thank you motivating me to keep working hard until the end, it really means a lot to hear that!

We have been working really hard to get S..... and her daughter E.....ready to be baptized this month. There are just a few last things that have to get worked out and hopefully when all is said and done they will be ready. W..... is also super close, we are just waiting for him to move out of the apartment he is in and then whenever that happens he’s ready to get baptized! It’s been wonderful to see their progression so far. In today's world it’s really hard to see the truth sometimes, there are lots of blinders that the adversary places around us.

The fast and testimony meeting was really good this week, there were lots of missionary moments that went on. It’s so great to see fruit from the labors that you do as a missionary:) There are many great things in store for the Oskaloosa branch! We had dinner with members that have been here when the branch was first started, it was really cool to hear all of the stories of how it came to be and how much work and sacrifice that it really takes.

What are some of the New Year goals you guys have? Going to the temple is definitely more often is definitely one of mine:) Anyway hope you have a great week! love you all!

LOVE ELDER KIRTON!