Another baptism, YSA Conference, 4 weeks

Hey family!
Well this last week was awesome. Laynes baptism was on Saturday at 7
and it was awesome. There were a lot of people there. Probably like
30-40 people. And after she was baptized she shared an amazing
testimony (of which I have a written copy of!)
On Friday and Saturday the branch had a regional YSA conference.
Friday night was games, dinner and a devotional. We were invited to
the dinner and devotional and also our mission President and his wife
were there so we got to spend some time with them! The food was great!
They got city BBQ catered for free haha it was so good. And then the
devotional was a talk by Elder Hymas of the area seventy. But before
he spoke 3 of the branch members and myself sang a duet "come thou
fount of every blessing" it was awesome! Everyone said it sounded
great. I basically got volunteered for it haha. The next morning they
did breakfast and a variety of service projects. Breakfast was super
good and we chose to do the blanket making service project and then
they were going to donate the blankets to hospitals. So that was a
great time. There were about 50 other church members from stakes
surrounding ours. President Sproul even made the announcement over the
pulpit that I'm going home in 4 weeks.....and said "Girls, he's going
back to BYU-I-Do in 4 weeks". That was super awkward haha
This morning we went golfing with a member. It was a pretty nice golf
course, had a lot of fun! I can't wait to get back to it and have my
own clubs again. I love golfing.
On Tuesday night we drove to Beattyville Kentucky to blitz the elders
down there. Blitz means that all four of us work the same area for a
day to get it going stronger. So we went down there to work with them
on Wednesday. They didn't have any baptismal dates at the time but
they had a goal to get 4 by the weeks end. Coming out of the blitz we
had set 3 and then over the next couple days they set 4 more so they
now have 7! It was a miracle! Beattyville is sooooo far out in the
country. It was so fun staying there. It's about an hour and a half
drive south west of here.

So, 4 weeks left.....crazy stuff. Everyone at church always talks to
me about it, I hate it! I wish no one knew when I am going home. It
would make things much easier haha. I love the branch members here so
much. Such great friendships.

Thats about it for the week. Sure love y'all!!

LAST TRANSFER, food poisoning, progress

Good morning family and friends!
Well it's a partially cloudy day here. It's been raining a lot this
week (as usual).
This week was a great start to the last transfer! We have 4 new
district leaders in our zone so we trained 2 of them this week on how
to be district leaders and we are working with the other 2 this next
week. Lots of driving to do this transfer.... Haha probably close to
1900 miles I would guess! After training one of our district leaders
we went to a Mexican place in town called El Gran Taco. It was really
good but long story short my companion and one of the other Elders
basically got food poisoning from it haha all because they didn't eat
the radishes that came with it! Apparently they are to help settle
your stomach and helps prevent food poisoning (kinda fishy) but
anyways I ate all of mine after I was done and I didn't get sick but
elder Russell did and so on Friday he was in bed all day! So that was
a boring day. Did a lot of journal writing and scripture reading in
that time! Finished the Book of Mormon again this morning! What a
great book.
Layne is set to get baptized this coming Saturday! She had a great
baptismal interview with one of our district leaders. She recorded it
on her phone and then had us listen to it haha it was really cool to
hear! She is so so so excited!
This week we are going to be driving an hour and a half down to a
little town called Beattyville Kentucky where we are going to work
with an Elder and his new greenie missionary! It should be an
adventure!
Romain, Justice and Alvin are all doing well since their baptisms!
Alvin and Romain have the priesthood and Justice got her temple
recommend yesterday! And Romain is working on getting his!
Not much else to say about the week. Going to go shopping at Krogers
and then play basketball like usual!
Much love to everyone!
Elder Eastin

Sent from my iPad

What a GREAT week!!!!!!! What a GREAT mission!!!

Hey Family!!

What a GREAT week!!!!!!! What a GREAT mission!!! Love it so much. Yesterday was probably one of the best days of my whole mission. Definitely the best sunday I've EVER had! 

Lets start with Romain's baptism. It was solid and he is such a good guy. He's made a lot of changes and has come a long way. When I first got here he was not progressing at all and we just went over to his house if we didn't have anything to do and we would read some scriptures with him and thats basically it. He wouldn't come to church or anything. BUT after picking him back up he really started progressing and BOOM now hes a member! He asked to share his testimony after his baptism and it was a great one. He gave up friends and moved out of his old apartment just to get away from the negativity they were giving him about the church. And then the next day at church our branch President interviewed him for the priesthood before church, we confirmed him in sacrament, he was sustained for the preisthood and then was ordained in Elders quorum. And then to add on to all of that greatness, Alvin was at the branch this sunday and he was also interviewed for the priesthood and I got to ordain him to the Aaronic Priesthood AND Romain got to stand in on the Ordination because he had just been ordained. It was awesome. So much priesthood work done in just a few hours!

Then after church at 4:30, Layne, Us and our branch mission Leader left to go to the fireside in Louisville and Justice Smith (our recent convert) rode up with another member. But the point of us leaving so early was so we could go to the TEMPLE! :D And it was fantastic to see it. Just being on the outside of the temple you can feel the peace of the spirit. 

Layne and Justice loved it also. They are so excited to go to it! And then at 7 we went to the fireside. I'll admit, there were a bunch of 'Life story" types of testimonies haha but it was good that those people got up and they tried their best to share their testimonies. Towards the end Layne got up and shared her testimony! And it was soooooooooooo good. So powerful and she testified of the importance of everyone opening their mouths to share the gospel, because if her friend Thomas wouldnt have she wouldnt have known about the church. It was inspiring.

So if these past 3 weeks hasn't been the best of my whole mission I don't know what else could be any better haha. 3 baptisms, another one on the way, 2 priesthood ordinations, seeing the temple with an investigator and recent convert, and then a great fireside. Praise the Lord. 

We need more people to teach and baptize haha we have a few pretty solid referrals we are gonna start working with so that will hopefully turn out good!

Every other week we have branch council before church and so this week we had it. With our branch President (President Sproul) the conversation can go anywhere and i mean anywhere. haha but at one point he asked me how much longer I have on my mission (and i hate telling people that because it makes me realize how short of time i have left) but my companion told him i have 7 weeks left, and President Sproul just stopped and started to cry. I have never had a leader of a church express so much love and appreciation like he did than in any other area I've had. And i dont mean to boast or brag at all with this story, because I really dont feel like that great of a missionary, but he just....doesn't want me to leave. It was so emotional. So glad i get to finish here. 

Much love from KENTUCKY!!!!