Merry (almost) Christmas!

Hey there everybody!

  Its starting to warm back up here and the snow is almost gone. Its almost 50 outside and it feels amazing. We haven't riden our bikes in almost 2 weeks because of the snow and ice. It honestly has been nice to not have to ride them. People here don't share the road very well and they get super close to us when they drive by.

  This past week was pretty awesome. Tuesday Robert M picked us up at 8 in the morning and we went and ate at Bob E's and then we decorated his house and set up the christmas tree. Then he took us to lunch at Burger King and then we helped him wax his floor. At 3 we had a couple appointments and he told us to call him when we were done with them. We called him when we were done and we went back over to his house. His wife didn't know we would be decorating the house so she got home a little after we got there and she was super happy and surprised. Robert then took us to Texas Roadhouse for dinner haha. So all 3 meals on Tuesday Robert took us out and bought them for us. It was a sweet day. The rest of the week was pretty normal. Nothing crazy happened this week.

  Yesterday after church a member invited us to dinner and he came and picked us up and he was in a brand new Audi A4.... super jealous and it made me miss my car haha. 

  Next sunday evening we will be driving to Louisville and spending the night and then we will be having our mission Christmas party! I've been so excited for it. Tuesday the 24th will be a normal day. President wants us to stay focused and not get too distracted with Christmas. But then Christmas day will be awesome! We will be at a few members houses throughout the day and I will get to Skype home! Gonna be amazing.

  Well I sure miss everybody and I love you all!! I will see some of you next week on Skype! :)

Elder Eastin 

Shoes lined with the Spirit

Hello Everyone!

Its a snowy and cold day here in Indiana! That snow storm that came through on thursday was huge! On wednesday it was 73 degrees and we were riding our bikes and wearing short sleeves. And then the next day it just DUMPED snow all day long.

Luckily thursday is the day that we do our weekly planning and it takes like 3 or 4 hours to do. So basically all day thursday was spent inside. At like 6 that night it stopped snowing and we decided to walk down to one of our investigators apartments. Its about a 2 mile walk. So we hiked through the ankle/shin deep snow to his place and talked with him for a while and then walked back. Let me tell ya, I'm pretty sure my shoes were lined with the spirit because my feet were toasty warm and I was wearing my slip on shoes and church socks. Yeah and basically this storm shut down everything here. They have hardly anything to plow the roads so there were wrecks everywhere. The snow has made me pretty homesick though haha I've wanted to ski in it so bad!

  Oh last night we walked to A.C Coopers apartment (investigator) and we watched the Christmas devo. For some reason he has the BYU channel and he watches it a ton. Hopefully by watching it, it will change his mind about baptism. He's been baptized twice before and just doesn't think he needs Baptized again, but we're working on that. But anyways back to the Christmas devo, I thought it was interesting that President Eyring and President Uchtdorf didn't speak. But it was still really good and A.C liked it. We ate Pecan pie and kool aid after haha.

  So pretty much this week was good. Not having a car sucks but walking is good exercise and its easier to talk to people. Time is flying by super fast. Almost up to 4 months... holy crap. I feel like I just got here. Not gonna be playing ball today. The stake is using our gym for "The Creche" (nativity) this weekend and they are setting up for it. It supposed to be pretty huge. A ton of different churches bring nativities and set them up to be shown at our church all day friday and saturday. I sure miss everyone like crazy! Missing the snow in Idaho but a little bit of it followed me here to Indiana so thats good! Have a good week and I love you all!

Elder Eastin

His Birthday and Thanksgiving

Gosh it seems like the last P-day was forever ago! So many things happened this past week and I've been pretty excited to share. So... I am now 19 years old, seems a little weird, I feel like I should be 20 haha. My birthday/Thanksgiving was amazing. The night before we went over to the zone leaders apartment and had a sleep over party thing haha it was super fun. We had push-up contests and I opened some of my birthday gifts and I was shooting them with silly string. At 8 the next morning we met some of the men in our ward at the high school football field and played football for about 2 hours. Then we went back to the zone leaders apartment and just slept. It felt amazing to just sleep and do nothing. Best nap ever. I haven't had a 2 hour nap in forever. Then at 1 we went to the Rodgers house for Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. They are awesome people. Their house is super nice and they made an amazing dinner. Of course they found out it was my birthday so their 13 and 17 year old daughters made me a birthday hat and wrapped some funny presents for me. It was pretty funny. And most importantly we ate a ton of food. And after we just layed on their couches for like an hour and a half and moaned and groaned because we were so full. After dinner we decided to run to wal-mart before the black friday sale started to get some gloves for Elder Evans. We found a bin of really nice basketball socks for 97 cents. We thought it was wrong so we went up to the front and asked and they said the socks cost $5 for 3 pairs and we told them the sign said 97 cents, so since they were advertised wrong we got them for that price. So I now have 6 really nice basketball socks that I got for less than $2. That was my Black Friday shopping for the year haha. And then the rest of the night we went to the church and played basketball for 2 hours. So overall Thanksgiving and my Birthday were awesome!

  Also this week we were blessed to finally get some more referrals from some other missionaries. While Elder Crook was calling the referrals to set up a time we could meet them I went into the other room and prayed that these referrals would turn into really good investigators. Well yesterday and the day before we met with both of the referrals and we were able to set a Baptism date with them. They both are awesome and they really were interested in the church. I've just really realized if we focus on the key indicators and reach our goals for lessons and new investigators and Baptism dates that the lord will bless us with people that are ready to hear the gospel and commit to Baptism. 

  I sure miss you all and time is flying like crazy. Can't believe it's already December. I love you all! have a great week!

Elder Eastin  

Right place at the right time

Howdy!

I am getting soooooo stoked for Thanksgiving this week and also my birthday! 19 years old, can't believe it. We already have 1 dinner scheduled for Thanksgiving with an awesome family. And we will probably get more people to invite us. On Thanksgiving day we don't proselyte at all so it's basically another P-Day. We will be playing football with our ward at one of the highschool football fields at 8 am on thursday. That is going to be awesome. And then we will just eat and chill the rest of the day. 

  This past week has been pretty great. It's been real cold this weekend so we've been dressed pretty heavily. We haven't riden our bikes in like 5 days. That's a long time for us. We just walk everywhere now. It's alot easier to talk to people when your walking. We had a really awesome experience happen this week. I was on an exchange with Elder Evans (zone leader) and we were walking and we saw a girl across the street and went and talked to her. She is 16 and was pretty shy to talk to us but she took a book of Mormon and was really interested in what we told her and she said we could meet her at Barnes and Noble the next day. So we went to Barnes and Noble the next day at 1 and we looked and looked and we couldn't find her. And I was like great... thats the last time we'll see her, we didn't get her cell number from her. So 5 or 6 days past and I had been praying that somehow we would find her again. I was on another exchange with Elder Stohel (zone leader) and we had seen a few people and we were back at our apartment and we weren't sure what to do, we had set a goal to find a new investigator that day and so Elder Stohel was like, "Well do you want to go find one now?" And I was like sure! So we walked out of our apartment and walked down the road maybe 100 yards and I saw someone walking towards us so I was like lets talk to her. She got close and I was like, "Hi how are you doing today?...wait, have we met?" It was Sammy, the girl we had seen almost a week ago. She had told us that her dad wouldn't let her go to Barnes and Noble that day but she really wanted to find us again. She's awesome and Im pretty sure we will Baptize her. It just goes to show how the Lord puts us in the right place at the right time.

  Oh also one more thing, yesterday at church Gabriel asked me if I would confirm him. I was so happy when he asked me that. It was awesome to be able to do that for him. It felt awesome. The spirit was very strong and I knew exactly what to say during the blessing. 

  Well everyone I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving this week. I am SO grateful for everything I have. Im grateful for my family, friends, how I grew up, the Gospel, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I really am grateful to be serving a mission right now. I'm loving it and I'm having the time of my life here in Indiana. Oh.... I forgot to tell you all, Im NOT getting transferred and neither is Elder Crook. We will be here for at least another 6 weeks. It's gonna be awesome. Im so stoked for Christmas and to call home. I hope you all have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving! I love and miss you all!

Elder Eastin

No squirrel yet

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I didn't write yesterday. Since it was veterans day we moved P-day to today and we just worked yesterday. It's pretty cold this morning, about 30 degrees. It was supposed to snow a little but it didn't. Oh and the trees here are changing like crazy. There are so many leaves on the ground. Some yards have like 5 inches of leaves just sitting on their grass and cars. 

So this past week was pretty good. Nothing crazy happened or anything but it was just overall a good week. Gabriel is still good for his Baptism this Sunday. We are going to meet with him wednesday and then our ward mission leader is having him over for dinner on thursday, so this week is going to be great.Tomorrow is zone conference, which only happens every other transfer, and President Woodbury and his wife will be giving us a training. It's supposed to go from 9 to 4 so it'll be a long day but it will be very good. 

All of our other investigators are going pretty good. We set a baptism date with Dale and Ruth for the 15th of December, which is great. Every one else will just take more time. Some people just need a long time to get used to the things we teach to make a decision. We're basically done with Ed. We've tried so hard to get him to stop drinking and come to church but every Sunday he just makes up an excuse to not come and the past few times we've gone to his house he just drinks in front of us. 

I'm super excited for the holidays! Hopefully I won't be transfered out of here on the 26th. Elder Crook has been here longer than me so he's more likely to be transferred than I am. President Woodbury is also having a Christmas devotional on the 23rd so we will get to go to Louisville! Oh and we were updated on the iPads and iPhones, our mission will be getting them for all the missionaries in June. So that kinda stinks its so far away but at least we know when we're getting them. They are going to make teaching so much easier. Each missionary will have their own iPad and each companionship will get an iPhone. So dope. 

Well that basically all I can think about to write this week. Personally I'm doing great. Talking to people on the streets is getting a lot easier for me. And I've also recognized that when the lord said, "ye shall not be confounded before men", he truly means that. We have so many people attack the teachings of the church and the way we view things but we always have a good answer for all of them. I've realized that when the spirit is speaking through us we don't have to feel this overwhelming feeling of the spirit but it's just a calm feeling when you talk and you just know exactly what your going to say to best answer peoples questions. I love and miss you all!!

Elder Eastin

P.S- Still haven't eaten squirrel yet. Hopefully gonna happen soon though. 

Short letter this time...

Holy Smokes.... 

  It literally feels like 2 days ago was P-Day. The weeks are starting to go by so stinkin fast. I can't even remember what happened this week haha.

  So it's another blue sky day here in Indiana! Gettin a little chilly in the mornings and in the evenings. I had to wear my heavy coat and gloves the other day because it was only like 43 degrees and we were riding bikes all over town! People think we are nuts for being out on bikes.

  This last week has been pretty great. We had the ward Halloween party on saturday waaaaaaay out in the country at a members house, they have a big property. It's past a town called Boonvile. haha so basically they live out in the boonies. They had a big chili cook off and tons of other food and they did a trunk or treat and we played ultimate frisby. It was an awesome day. Then Elder Crook and I and the zone leaders went to a members house, his name is Paul. He is the funniest guy ever. We always go over there at night and sit around a fire, he has one going almost every night. He was in the army for quite a while so he lets us hold his guns haha. So overall Saturday was the best day ever.

  The rest of the week was pretty good. We didn't really find any other investigators but we had a lot of good lessons. Things are starting to get a lot easier as time goes on. The days are flying by and the homesickness is dropping quite a bit.(still miss Idaho like crazy though) On Halloween this week we have to be done Proselyting at 6. So we are going to be going to Bro. Garrets (ward mission leader) house to carve pumpkins with his family. They are the nicest family in the whole ward.

  Well I don't really have much else to say for this week. I sure miss and love you all. My testimony grows each day and I'm starting to enjoy the work more and more each day. Everyone have a good day!

Elder Eastin    

Howdy!

Hello again everybody!
It's starting to get a little chilly here in Indiana. Sometimes the
high is only mid 50's and we've had to start wearing our sweaters when
we ride around. I kinda look like a nerd in my sweater. And at night
we wear our big coats cuz its pretty dang cold riding around on a
bike. It would be really nice to have a car right now haha.
We found a few new investigators this week and had some really good
lessons. I'm starting to get the hang of contacting people on the
streets. Before i was pretty nervous to talk to people but now its
pretty easy to just talk to everyone. We're supposed to talk to at
least 20 people per day, which is pretty hard, but we're trying!
One investigator we have, his name is Robert, his wife is a member in
our ward and he has been investigating the church ever since she was
Baptized.(3 years ago) Robert and his wife are awesome. They LOVES the
missionaries. He took us out to breakfast and lunch on wednesday and
we spent like 4 hours with him doing yard work. He's going to be
getting back surgery tomorrow and he wont be going to work for like 3
months. So this is the perfect time to teach him and for him to read
the Book of Mormon. He really like our church a lot and believes a lot
of the stuff but his only problem he's had is that he works a ton and
he didn't want to join until he could be fully committed. So like I
said, this is the perfect time for him to become committed to it. Oh
and every single time we go over there they feed us. It's awesome.
One awesome experience I had this  week was from zone conference. The
district leaders and sister training leaders were giving trainings.
During the first training, from the sister training leaders, one
sentence they said really stood out and hit me with the spirit. One of
the sisters said to all of us "The Lord is Proud of you". For the past
few weeks I've really been wondering if I'm being a good missionary. I
just have really wanted to work hard and have the Lord be proud of my
work. And one night I asked in prayer if i was being a good
missionary. And when Sister Kenzle said "The Lord is Proud of you" it
hit me with such force that I instantly knew that was the Lord
speaking through her directly to me. No matter what we as missionaries
do the Lord will always be proud of us. Some of us may be Baptizing
every week and some of us may not get a Baptism for months, but if we
are fulfilling our purpose to invite others to come unto Christ we are
doing our job and the Lord is proud of us for that. We may have
discouraging thoughts when 20 people in a row tell you they aren't
interested. We might think we are doing a crappy job and that we
should quit. But those negative thoughts aren't coming from our
savior. Those thoughts are satan trying to drag us down. He wants us
to quit. He wants us to feel like crap. But if we shut out those
thoughts and focus on what the Lord is saying to us we will find that
all he has to say is postitive things. He loves each and every one of
us. He's the one saying "good job"and "keep going". If we rely on him
and ask for help he will give it to us. That's why he is our Savior,
because he will not let us fall without helping us get back up. He is
proud of all of us. No matter what we do. We all have our strengths
and weaknesses, but he is proud of us for the good things we do. Being
a missionary is hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. Moving
pipe at 6 in the morning was a ton easier than this. But there is
nothing more rewarding than this. And I work for the greatest boss in
the world, The Savior. He will not call us to do his work and let us
suffer! That's not why he calls us. We may struggle for a bit but we
will begin to prosper and have success. I've realized this all from
that one sentence, "The lord is Proud of you". It's amazing how the
lord speaks to us and how powerful his words are. Never get
discouraged in life. The very jaws of hell may gape open at you but it
will be only for our good and benefit. My testimony grows each day and
my love for the Lord grows. I hope everyone who reads this realizes
how much the lord loves you.
I love and miss you all!
Elder Eastin

It's that time of the week again...

Not really sure how to describe this week. It was awesome and not awesome at the same time. We had a lot of awesome lessons and met a bunch of awesome people but we also had a lot of our investigators drop us and 2 of our 3 Baptism dates were dropped. So that was kind of a bummer but overall it was a good week. We didn't have any meals planned with members at the beginning of the week but ended up being fed 7 times! The weather here is starting to cool off. Sometimes it's pretty cold in the mornings, I love it. Tomorrow is transfers. Only 1 missionary in our district is being transfered. I really can't believe its been 6 weeks since I first arrived here. It's shot by so stinkin fast.

  Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience with Ed. He hasn't really been doing good with the whole "quit drinking beer" thing. But yesterday we went over and just sat with him and talked. He asked if we could have a prayer with him and pray for his friend and also for himself. So I said the prayer and once we were done he was just totally different. He said he was feeling the spirit like crazy and he felt like a new man. He went into his kitchen and pulled out the only 3 beers he had left and opened them and dumped them down the sink. He never does something like that. It was crazy. Then he was wantin to go out and preach the Gospel to all of his friends on the street, it was pretty funny. He really wants to be Baptised and go to the temple. He said its his dream to go to the temple. So hopefully he really will stop drinking this time.

  Oh so theres this guy named Paul. He lives in our ward and is a recent convert. He's in the military and he is pretty redneck and is so funny. We go over to his house everyweek and have a fire and just listen to his funny stories. I told him at church yesterday that I've always wanted to eat squirrel (there are millions of them around here) So he said he will go shoot some this week and we will have a BBQ this week! Its going to be awesome. He also lets us hold all his huge guns and battle ax and swords haha its so sweet.

  So overall Im doing pretty good! I have my ups and downs but Im getting used to it all each day. Time is flying and its only going to get faster as time goes on. I miss all of you and Love all of you a ton!

Elder Eastin

Happy P-Day!

Hello everyone!

  It's a blue sky day here in Indiana and its like 50 degrees outside and it feel amazing. It's been raining a lot lately and its still been pretty warm during the days. Most everything is still green, there are a few leaves changing and falling but with all the rain and humidity everything just stays green here.

  So I have another story about being caught in the rain. On wednesday afternoon we were riding around on our bikes near our apartment contacting people on the streets. We could see a big set of rain clouds coming in and got inside our apartment right as it began to pour. It rained and thundered pretty hard for like 45 mins and stopped and the sun started coming out, so we decided to go tracting in a neighborhood about 15 mins away, we took our rain coats just in case. After trying about 4 or 5 houses it started to rain a little bit so we put our coats on. As we knocked on the 6th house we heard, literally, a wall of water coming from the distance and as we turned around to look it hit us. I have NEVER seen rain like that in my whole life. it was raining so hard you couldn't see more than a block down the road. Even with our rain coats on we were soaked to the bone in a few minutes. Not even standing under trees helped cover us from the rain. So we began riding back home, the streets were flooded and we were so wet we just started riding through the biggest puddles we could find. When we got home we threw all our wet clothes in the dryer and studied in the apartment for the rest of the night because of how hard it was raining.

  On days that it wasn't raining we had some pretty good lessons and found 3 new investigators. One lady we talked to was a referral from a member in Indianapolis. She lives like a mile from us and we went and talked to her. All of her questions were basically the questions of the soul, "why am i here, where did i come from and where am i going?" She was baptist, but when we explained the 3 kingdoms of glory she said "that makes sense." Her response to all of our questions was, "that makes sense". She loved what we taught her and we will be meeting with her again tomorrow. 

  Steve and Coleen are doing great, we have a Baptism date set with them for Nov. 3. They came to thesunday morning session of conference and they said it was very good and insightful. We just taught them the word of wisdom the other night and we are hoping they can follow that. They are both heavy coffee and tea drinkers. Coleen is super funny, all of her kids live in Florida so she calls us her sons and she said we can call her mom. I'm really looking forward to getting them baptized.

  Overall things are going pretty good. I have my up and downs but things are starting to get easier. Conference was awesome and I felt the spirit a ton during the whole thing. It made me a little home sick for some reason though, I don't know why. Basically the main message I got out of it was that we all are put through trials and if we endure them well we will be a better person and come closer to God. This mission is definitely the hardest thing i've ever done but I know it will get easier as time goes on. My mission President helped out a lot during our interview, he said hes very surprised and impressed with how well i've adapted and how well I teach, so that helped a lot. I pray every single day for strength and I'm receiving it. I love you all!!

Elder Eastin  

Elder Eastin asked us to share these stories

In the letter we got from Elder Eastin today, he asked us to, "Please share these stories with Mom and Dad and the family.  I don't have the time to tell them again.":

Story 1:
"Today, we had planned tracting at 6 and had a lesson planned at 7 with Steve and Coleen. But I had a feeling that we needed to take the time to plan out a lesson for them.  This morning we said we would just talk about the Word of Wisdom with them, but I felt like we needed to talk about faith and get them to commit to a baptism date of November 3rd. So we skipped tracting and studied for our lesson. I had a scripture in mind to share with them: Alma 32:21, 26-27. Elder Crook also wanted to read 3 Nephi 27: 19-21, so the two scriptures would work great together to help them commit to a baptism date. So we went to Steve and Coleen's house and it started out the same: chit-chat, prayer and asking them how they are doing. Steve told us that he had had a dream that Christ told him to accept our message. And he also shared how when he was baptized in his church, he just felt empty. This is what all missionaries want to hear!!!  This led us perfectly into our lesson and scriptures. We told them that faith isn't having a perfect knowledge (found in our scripture) and that they need to have a date set for baptism so they can work towards it. Sooooo.. they said YES!!! Both committed to November 3rd. Tonight, I've truly felt like a tool in the hands of the Lord."

Story 2:
"During dinner I was reading scriptures and I received an answer to a prayer. I've been praying to FEEL the Lord's love and peace.  I know He loves me but I wanted to feel it.  As I was reading, I got this overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort and love. It was such a strong feeling of the spirit that I just sat there and cried. I haven't felt that in a long time.  It literally felt like the Lord was hugging me. It was honestly THE biggest thing I needed right now. This mission is the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life. But, when the Lord shows us His love for us and gives us the strength we need, all of this is possible. It's not easy, but it's possible."


Today, during General Conference, we were told several times by several different authorities, including our prophet, that we need to be member missionaries and that we need to pray for missionaries and their investigators as well as for our own personal missionary experiences.  Elder Nielsen of the 70 specifically said, "Pray for missionaries and investigators by name. If you do not know the names of others, the Lord cannot help you know their heart." So we have our missionary and we know the names of those that he is working with.  I hope that we can all keep them in our prayers, and I hope that we can also go out of our comfort zones and talk to the missionaries in our wards and know their names and ask them the names of those that they are teaching. Elder Ballard promised that if we ask for missionary opportunities that they will come about naturally and we will feel a natural love for our brothers and sisters and they will feel of our love for them and THEY WILL NEVER FORGET THAT FEELING. Even if the timing isn't right for them to accept the gospel, they will remember the feeling that they had with you, and in the future, when the time is right, it will aid in their conversion. Elder Ballard also said, "It's impossible to fail when we do our best." When we are on the Lord's errand, we need to trust Him and we will receive the courage and words we need at that moment.

Temple, slow week, and bed bugs!

Hello everyone! 

It's another cloudy day here in Indiana. Rained ALL day yesterday and we got to ride our bikes in it too, which was actually quite fun. We put a lot of miles on our bikes yesterday which I need haha, when we eat at members houses they make us eat so much food. One guy the other day put all the food on the plate for me, piled 9 enchiladas on my plate.... I was so full and sick after that. 

  This we started out great and then was pretty slow after that. We got to go to the temple which was awesome! The Louisville temple is tiny, about the size of our church in rexburg, maybe a little smaller. But it had the same awesome feeling inside of it! It made me really appreciate going to the temple and I'm very grateful for what it gives us. After the temple we ate at a pizza buffet and then had a 2 hour drive back home. We sang disney and motab the whole way haha it was awesome.

  the rest of the week just didn't work out for us. Every appointment fell through and we didn't meet any of our goals that we had set. Even our whole district had a slow week with low numbers. But we did have some great lessons with our 2 progressing investigators and we got them to come to a baptism on saturday to watch and they said that they liked it a lot and that they knew it was true. It was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms i've ever been too. The spirit was definitely there super strong.

  Ok so you know the whole saying, "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" yeah that is real here. A lot of the other elders have had bed bugs and they had to have people come in to clean them out. We've been hoping they won't come to our apartment. But the other night i was laying in bed and Elder Crook was sitting in a chair next to my bed and saw something crawling across my bed and picked it up and we are pretty sure it was a bed bug... So that morning we cleaned EVERYTHING. We vacuumed every inch of carpet and washed our sheets and sprayed prometherin (crazy bug killer) everywhere in our apartment. There is no way any bug lived after we cleaned.

  I'm really really starting to love it here. Most people are super nice and even if they don't want to listen to our message they tell us that they respect what we do and we are pretty awesome going around talking about Jesus. We even have non-members that know us super well and they have us over for dinner and bring us food a lot but they don't want to join the church. You still get someone every once in a while that yells at us from their cars but I dont really mind anymore. 

  I definitely don't know everything yet and i never will but im starting to get a hang of it! The days are flying by and i love being in Evansville Indiana. I love the Lord more than anything and I hope you all do too! Love you all! Until next P-day!

Elder Eastin 

A baptism set!

Goodmorning Everyone!

It's a perfect day here in Indiana. Blue skies and a high of only 75. Thats how the past few days have been here and it feels amazing. But on tuesday and wednesday it rained a ton, and we got soaked haha. I went and bought fenders for my bike cuz the tires were flipping up water on my backside. So now my bike looks super sweet.

  Earlier this week i guess it was national pirate day. We found out that if you went into Krispy Cream dount dressed as a pirate they would give you a dozen free donuts! So my companion and i and the zone leaders borrowed some pirate clothes from a members house and went and got 4 boxes of free donuts. We looked like idiots but it was worth it. So many delicious donuts. Thats why we rode so many miles this week or else we would have gotten fat.

  This week and been pretty good. Ed went about a week without drinking, which is really good for him. He was so amazed at how much energy he had, he was cleaning his house and his yard and he reads a lot better when hes not drunk. It'll be a long road before he can be baptised but im hoping ill still be here when that comes around.

  We have a few new investigators and most of them seem pretty promising. We set a Baptism date for a husband and wife last night for the 20th of October. It was my first time actually saying the Baptism question to somebody and it felt amazing. My whole body was tingling and it felt like i wasn't the one speaking but like it was something else speaking through me, the Holy Ghost of course. 

  We've done quite a bit of riding and tracting this week. Did over 20 miles yesterday of riding our bikes. We just ride around and whoever we see outside we go and talk to. We find its a lot better because when we're tracting people will just look out their window and walk away without opening the door. And literally every single house we go to has a dog and as soon as we knock the dog is barking its head off at us and then if someone does answer the door they are trying to keep the dog inside and they just don't want to listen to us.

  Oh and tomorrow our zone gets to go to the temple! President Woodbury wants everyone to see the new video sotomorrow its our turn to go to the temple. I don't think i've ever been more excited to go to the temple. Its going to be awesome. It's a 2 hour drive to Louisville but it'll be worth it.

  So over all this week has been great and im loving it! I've learned that the things that we pray and ask for don't always come right away but the lord will answer them and we just need to be patient. Time is going by so fast and i can't believe it's already been a month since i went into the MTC!

I love you all!

Elder Eastin

Hello Family and Friends! Rain Brought Cool Air

Hello family and friends!

Well to start off today we did laundry and i looked outside and it was pouring! Its rained a couple times since I've been here but nothing like this. Its stopped now but its still dark and cloudy. Feels really nice outside now. Earlier this week was soooooo hot and humid. I have never sweat so much in my whole life. Everything is going pretty great. We currently have 3 Baptism dates set up for the end of september and beginning of October. 

One thing i've been wanting to share to you all is from the beginning of this week. I told you about the story with Ed and his drinking problems, he said he would stop, well we went back the next day and sure enough he was sitting on his front porch with a beer and he was drunk. That got me pretty discouraged because when we had met with him the last time the spirit was so strong in the room that i thought for sure he was going to be done with Alcohol. We challenged him again to stop drinking and hoped he would. As we rode the 4 miles back to our apartment a car drove past us and a guy yelled at us pretty bad and told us that God isn't real and that we are stupid for being here. That didn't help my discouragement at all. I kept thinking in my head "what am i doing here" and "why do these people hate us?". When we were back at the apartment I immediately sat at my desk for personal study and prayed that I would receive comfort. I instantly was prompted to turn to John 13,14 and 15. I don't think i've ever read that scripture before but i love it now. It totally changed my attitude and i open up to it everytime I'm feeling discouraged.

 

But over all, this week has been awesome. I'm getting used to everything and I'm getting more and more comfortable with approaching people and talking to them. Oh and a lot of other awesome things keep happening to us. We'll be out on our bikes and we'll stop for a minute cuz we get a phone call and everytime we stop, someone drives up to us and starts talking to us and we've gotten a new investigator out of it everytime. This week I think we got like 6 or 7 new investigators. And 3 of them seem very promising. I really hope it goes well.

 

So I havent told you a ton about our area we are in. Most of the area that we cover is like in the middle of town and kinda ghetto neighborhoods. But honestly we've found that in the nice neighborhoods no one wants to listen to us. But in the crappier old neighborhoods people are really nice and keep an open mind about religion. There is A TON of different religions here. Ever block theres a different church. Its pretty crazy. But overall, I'm really starting to like this area. Most people are nice to us cuz they know we are teaching of Christ and almost everyone here believes in christ.

 

Hmm, I'm trying to think what else to say. I've lost 15 pounds so thats pretty good. I've been to 4 buffets in the last 8 days. Members like to take us to those. We found like 5 dart guns in our aparment and I'm a dang good sharp shooter with those. Oh, I wont be able to send pics today cuz we are at a different set of compters and they dont have card readers but im going to go to Wal-greens and print them off and send them home today.

 

My tesimony grows everyday and I'm loving this more and more each day! I miss everyone like crazy and you should all write me letters so I have your address!

Love ya!

Elder Eastin

September 16, 2013

Indiana!

I know my mission call said Louisville, Kentucky but my first area is in Newburg, Indiana! It's about two hours west of Louisville but only a few miles from the border of Kentucky.

My first companion is Elder Crook, he's from Layton, Utah and he's been in the field fr 14 months. He's a good missionary and I know I'll learn a lot from him. Our apartment isn't too bad, I'm starting to like it more and more.

K, so ill just start from the beginning of when I arrived in Kentucky. We got off the plane and met President Woodbury and his wife and they are awesome. We went to the mission home for dinner and spent the night there. In the morning, we all went to the church for the transfer meeting. There, all 24 of us new missionaries were introduced and then assigned our companions. After lunch at the church we all went our separate ways and drove to our areas. We drove right past the KFC cent and I saw the Louisville Slugger museum and it was awesome! The Ohio river is awesome and huge. Outside of town there are tons of trees and tons of corn fields, holy crap there is so much corn. And everything is green out here. Everywhere you look there are trees and corn.

Newburg is right next to Evansville and its a pretty decent sized town. West of our apartment is kinda the ghetto part of town and east is the nice part of town. We've been west a lot more than east. Oh and we are on bikes! We have a bike shop right next to our apartment so I bought a decent bike and we've riden close to 35 miles this week. When I got here I weighed 215 (gained a lot in MTC) and now I weigh 202. So this whole bike riding is pretty good exercise.It hasn't been super humid everyday but there have been days that I have never sweat so much in my life.

I don't have time to tell you about all of our investigators but I'll tell you about one. His name is ED and he has been taught everything and believes in everything. He's come to church a few times but his problem is drinking. He drinks a lot. And he's in pretty rough shape. No job, no family, living on welfare and has no car. He's had a really rough life and his biggest question for us is, "When is God going to help me out?" He prays a lot and reads a lot and he wondering why it isn't working. Last night while talking to him in his house, I pulled out my scriptures and turned to D&C 122:7-9. I handed him the book and told him to read it. He was a little drunk so he read real slow. As he read the spirit truly was in the room. I knew it for a fact that the spirit was there and that it was almost like God was talking directly to him. Before he even finished the first verse he began crying, and he cried through the whole scripture. Now you need to look up the scripture so you know what it was saying to him. Even though he has been through a lot in his life, this set of scriptures told him that even if the gates of hell opened up on somebody, it is for their experience and for their good. I know that if he continues to pray, read, and come to church, his addiction to beer will go away and he'll be baptized.

I've been happy somedays and sad other days while being here. But whenever I'm down, I read those scriptures and pray and I truly feel the Lord comforting me. This really is one of the hardest things I've ever done but, I know that I'll grow to love it and that it will be very rewarding. The church is true. The scriptures are true. And the lord love us more than we can imagine, and all we need to do is turn to him and he'll help us with anything. I love and miss you all. God be with you till we meet again!

Elder Eastin

P.S-1325 eastern parkway Louisville Kentucky, 40204.

This is the mission home address. All letters sent to there will be forwarded to me at our apartment. Please write me so I have your addresses!  

Reflecting Back on The MTC Moments

This day was a joyful moment for Eric and I but one that is hard to believe.  Our last of 9, just graduated from High School.  All came and sailed by.  Now, just look where we are.   This  great moment in life where you see a boy just 18 about to defend the truth for our Savior Jesus Christ. Joining the Armies of  youth who love the Lord and with Stand for Truth and Right.
 I love my children, our children, this boy, this soon to be man.  This MISSIONARY.  " Elder Eastin" Yes, this is where the phrase came to be, Kentucky, So Lucky.

Week 2: A rough day, the BEST day, A devotional and rain!

So luckily, since we are flying out on Monday morning (and that's usually our P- day) they allowed us to email today! I don't have a ton of time but I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing great! I've loved being at the MTC and I've learned soooooooooo much. The spirit here is amazing and I've never felt more love for the Lord.

The other day was kinda a rough day, our investigator lesson didn't go so well and we just felt like we knew nothing, add that to missing you all  and it was just a bad day. So that night I

really studied hard in the scriptures and literally just poured my heart out to the Lord and just said, "I'll do anything you want me to do Lord, just help me and my companion." The next day was literally THE BEST day of my life. I was focused in my classroom and when we taught Peter (investigator) we all felt the spirit in the room and the lesson went amazing. It just flowed so smooth and every question he asked us we had an answer for him. So yeah that was just one of the awesome things that happened to us here.

K, so this next part is important, whoever gets this email first please call Mom or Dad and let them know that I'm going to be flying out Monday morning at like 7:15. I'm going to try and call Mom between 6 and 6:45. Now, this won't be the only time I can call, we're going to be landing in Atlanta and we have a two-hour layover so I'll have plenty of time to call. Whoever I get a hold of on monday morning, I'll let them know the times that we'll be in Atlanta. I'll try calling Mom and Dad a lot, but if I cant get a hold of them, I'll call Tyson and Stephanie. So everyone keep your phone with you!!!!!! I'm so excited to hear your voices. When I had the opportunity to call Mom the

other day, her voice seriously sounded like an angel. I loved it so much.

 K, so I still have a little bit of time left so I'll share one more thing with you. Three days ago ALL the missionaries met at the Marriott Center for a devotional. There were over 4,000 missionaries there!!! It was the coolest thing to see. I really wish I could have taken a picture of it. And when we all sang I almost cried because the spirit there was so strong. To make it even better, Elder Anderson of the Twelve spoke to us and it was awesome. We were sitting pretty close to the front so we got a good view of him. And to make the night even more adventurous, when it was over and we went outside it was raining SO HARD. Like just a complete down pour, and we had to walk home in it, which is like a 20 minute walk. So we all gave our suit coats to the sisters and began to walk. As we all walked we sang hymns and we were all happy. Cars began to stop and people would give us their umbrellas and people would yell out the windows that we're awesome! So that was a good night. When we got back to the apartment, we were soaked to the bone but our suit coats and clothes dried out good so nothing was ruined. I think we all wondered why the Lord wouldn't just stop the rain for a little bit for his missionaries but, after we started singing and we felt the spirit I realized why he didn't. We can all choose to make a bad situation into a good one and feel the spirit.

I think that's how everyday will be: we as missionaries choose to make a bad situation into a good one.

So anyways, hope I get to talk to some of you when I call!  Love all of you!!!!!

Elder Eastin

P.S- The pic of the Elder in the scrubs is Elder Haddon. He is the funniest

kid I've ever met. At the end of the day hes always in his scrubs.

Week One: MTC

Hey everybody!

Today is Monday and its my first and only P-day while at the MTC. I will be flying to Kentucky on!
Mom, I will probably try to call you at the airport so be around your phone at all times.

Anyways, where to start.... I LOVE THE MTC!!! Everything is just going great here. I'm in the newest section of the MTC called west campus. Its like 2 blocks west of the stadium. We have all new apartments (Big Blessing), and a brand new cafeteria with awesome food (Big Blessing). My companion is Elder Trost and he is awesome, I love him and I hope all my companions are like him. Elder Spencer and Elder Grant are our roomates and we all get along way great, they are also going to louisville Kentucky. There are 24 of us in our branch that are going to Louisville Kentucky, 8 Elders and 16 sisters, its awesome!

Oh, and I was also made Distict Leader on like the second day here. It's an awesome blessing and I'm glad that our branch president saw my potential and chose me.

Our schedule is pretty crazy and its been kinda hard to get used to but im starting to get used to it. We're up at 6 so we can make it to breakfast at because we were the lucky ones to get the early breakfast shift. Then we usually have personal and companion study in our class rooms for like two hours. Then we have gym time for an hour so we all go play basketball and we dominate at 3 on 3. We just switch off a sub every point and we seem to always win haha. For the rest of the afternoon we have class for three hours then dinner and then back to class for another 3 hours. Sitting for that long really sucks but let me tell ya, I have learned more in the past four days than I have in the past year.

There is so much more to being a missionary than I expected.

Elder Trost and I have already taught our investigator twice and we'll be teaching him again tonight and also getting another investigator tonight. The first lesson we taught didn't go super well and we were kinda gald about that because it taught us so many things not to do and showed us the things that we needed to study. The next time we taught, the convesation flowed so good. We faught back the nervousnes of it and invited the spirit to be present with us. When I started talking to Matt (investigator) about the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me, I truly felt the spirit start to speak through me and it was amazing. At the end of my part of the lesson I challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the truthfulness of it and he said yes! Tonight Elder Trost and I are going to teach him and if things go well we are going to ask him to be baptized! Now, keep in mind these "investigators" are already members acting to be like reall investigators, but trust me they are good actors and they can say "no" to our challenges. They can tell when we are speaking with the spirit and that is when they say yes.

I also wanted to share one of the most important lessons that I've learned here. I've learned that as a missionary I need to truly care for the people that I will be teaching. We can't go into the lesson hoping to add another number to our member list. We need to love and care fore these people because they don't know about the fulness of the gospel and how awesome it is. I am always feeling the spirit here and I love it so much.

Only one more week and I'll be in Kentucky!! I am so excited and I can't wait to start. I love and miss you all so much and I'll see you in 2 years!!!

Elder Eastin

P.S.- Don't reply to this email chain. Send me a separate email. Oh and I'll send pics when I'm in the field, these laptops don't have a card reader on them.