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.