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