The Zachtastic Movie Blog

After returning from my two-year mission to the states of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, I am ready to get back into the swing of things. One of those things I am getting adjusted to is the matter of seeing and reviewing movies once again. For me, being a Star Wars fan since my earliest memories, what better film is there for me to exercise my weakened critiquing muscles with than Star Wars: The Force Awakens ? With that being said, for the past three years everyone (myself included) has been waiting in feverish anticipation for Disney’s resurrection of one of the most popular film franchises of all-time. With J. J. Abrams at the helm, one would expect that he would do his best to breathe new life into this classic sci-fi franchise, and now that the massively hyped film is here, let us see if this is the Star Wars film you are looking for. 30 years have passed since the Rebellion had crushed the Empire at The Battle of Endor, and now the Republic has been reorganized. In t...

Me with the Shelleys, a mission office couple that just barely went home this past weekend. I will miss these wonderful servants of the Lord! I'm not going to lie... this final week of my mission was quite fantastic. In many ways it was one of the most special weeks of my entire two year period of service. The first reason why is because we were visited by a General Authority! Elder James B. Martino of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy (he gave   this talk   in General Conference two months ago) came to tour our mission, and his messages were powerful.  Elder James B. Martino and I! What a great man! Sure, it would have been cool for Elder Renlund to have come even after his call to the Twelve, but Elder Martino definitely offered much advice that will positively affect our mission's success. I expected a rebuke first off, but thankfully he told all of us that we are the most obedient and diligent mission he has ever toured. His praise also went towards our conce...

I had a lot of interesting thoughts from this past week, both about the prospect of returning home and then everything else related to the work we are still doing in our area. The first and primary reason why such thoughts have been flying through my brain is because of the Departing Temple Trip which my MTC group went on this past   Tuesday , with both the Jensens and the Assistants.  I won't go into a lot of details since these things were quite personal, but to be short of words, President Jensen greeted me at the end of the endowment session and congratulated me for completing my mission honorably. Yes, I still have a little bit left on my mission; it was still quite a profound moment.  Me with President and Sister Jensen after the Departing Temple Trip! Our entire group (just the elders though). From the beginning the two years of service to Father in Heaven seemed quite daunting and long, which it ended up being that way; however, throughout my...

This is the family we spent Thanksgiving with. The girl in the skirt served her mission in Mesa! Thanksgiving was definitely interesting this time around. At least it was nowhere near as cold as last year, for back then we faced sub-zero temperatures (it at least felt that way due to the blistering winds). However, we were bombarded with a constant rainstorm throughout the whole entire day; not that the rainfall was torrential, it just never stopped, and that doesn't particularly help when you are on foot all day. But that is okay, for we put forth an effort to serve our brothers and sisters, and we were even blessed with some potential investigators when we went tracting in the morning. You probably think that we are crazy for doing that, but we actually ran into some very nice people in an apartment complex right by where we live. Tracting on Thanksgiving? It actually works better than you may think!! As for the rest of the work we did throughout the week, we unfo...

Well, the terrible bite of winter has finally come back. It hit quite hard   on Friday , in which we got hit by at least 6 inches of snow. Elder Homer and I were conducting weekly planning when a light flurry started to come through the area, and eventually when it came to the point in which we were walking around the storm   really  hit. For the next 5 1/2 hours we were walking around in a snowstorm, but you know what? It was great!  We did not exactly get to meet a lot of people while doing so, nor were we that warm (this was a wet snowfall), but it's still great to go out and share the Gospel no matter what the conditions are. Obviously I wouldn't go out when a tornado is blowing in, so you could consider that previous statement as an exaggeration, but still--the truth still stands that it's a pleasure to share the Gospel no matter what the weather may be like. As we have been working more diligently and efficiently, we have learned that it is ever more im...

This place (Zombie Burger) is GOOD. Anyone who stops into Des Moines should go here. This past week we had quite an inspired Zone Training Meeting, I would say. With the recent changes in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the member of said quorum who is in charge of missionary work is now Elder Dallin H. Oaks. With that, he recently sent out a letter to all mission presidents in the world with the following message (in summation): no matter what, the biggest factor in a missionary's "success" is his/her attitude. It really is quite simple when you think about it. If a missionary believes that through their faith, prayers and works that they can bring people to Jesus Christ, then they will keep on trying their best to accomplish this. Of course the results of their labors are contingent on the choices their investigators make, but that attitude really matters. Why? Because Joseph Smith once taught that one of the key elements of having faith is to believe in onese...

Chilling out in the old Volkswagen bus with this family! Well, it would seem that the changes with this new transfer are a little crazier than I previously expected--the other key reason why the Spanish Zone Leaders got whitewashed out is because the Des Moines East no longer exists! Both zones in the Des Moines Metropolitan area have been merged into one, meaning that the now combined Des Moines Zone has 27 missionaries total. As far as I know that is the largest in the mission in terms of how many people that is, so I am curious as to how things will go moving forward. My District has also been reorganized, in which the Des Moines 5th Branch is no longer part of it; instead, the 5 missionaries in the Walnut Hills Ward have been put into our District. One of the sisters that serves in that ward, Sister Whipple, is from Mesa so that makes things fun. Sister Olson from the Osceola District is also here, so it's nice to have a familiar face join our ranks. Our new Zone Leade...

It would seem Elder Homer has finally broken the cycle for me. What I mean by this is that for the past five transfers, I had a new companion every six weeks whereas before that it I would always get a new one every two transfers; however,  Elder Homer broke that because we are fortunately staying together!  I will also remain a District Leader. This results in something pretty trunky though--he will be my final companion. You have no idea how crazy it is for me to say that. I am coming into my final transfer, guys! I am feeling anxious about it, but not necessarily in the way that you may think. Sure, I will be sad to leave Iowa once these last six and a half weeks are through, but the fact of the matter is that it is happening, and I can't change anything. All I can really do is continue to do as much as the Lord wants me to do, and then more. This really is still plenty of time to do a lot of good for the people here in West Des Moines, so I am anxious to se...