The Zachtastic Movie Blog

Well take a look guys, after 21 months of evasion, I have finally found myself serving in one of the wards in the Des Moines metropolitan area! Many missionaries have called Des Moines "the promised land," so I have yet to see whether or not it compares to the gloriousness of Davenport. But being as it may,   I have been assigned to serve in the West Des Moines Ward , which covers almost the entire city of West Des Moines (~50,000 people). The city reminds me a lot of Gilbert, for there are a lot of new homes and businesses, while it certainly has a distinct, suburban feel to it. My companion is   Elder Jordan Homer , who is from Sandy, Utah; he came out on his mission two transfers before Elders Price and Winn. And as I mentioned last week, I am the new District Leader here too. Once again I have been called to serve in a small district though, for the only three companionships are us, and then the two serving in the Des Moines 5th (Spanish) Bra...

Yay for toucans! Even fake ones! Surprise! It turns out that our assumptions that I would die here were false. I personally would have been very happy to end my mission in the Lenox Branch, but I guess the Lord has different plans for me. With that in mind, President Jensen delivered the news to us that Elder Briseno would indeed complete his mission here, but   I will be transferred to a new area for my final two transfers. Not only that, but I will be the District Leader where I will be sent.  On one hand, I feel sad that I am leaving for the fact that these past few months have flown by   very  quickly, and as a result I feel like I did not get to do enough for the people here.  While the Lord helped me and my companions to do a lot for the people in this branch, that is just the natural feeling I get since my time here has been brief.  Random lookout tower in the middle of the park, whaddup! Nevertheless, if there is anything that I...

T-I-double guh-ER! I have to be frank on one particular thing: Satan has (and always will) been working hard on those we teach. Since he knows that we carry the absolute truth from one place to the next, he makes sure to do everything he can to destroy this great work. He hits everyone we meet with, and as a result we are oftentimes met with the sad news that they no longer are interested in meeting with us. We do all we can to help them change their mind, but people have their agency. So as you probably guessed from reading these things, the adversary has done much to attack people we have been teaching this week, and he has sadly succeeded. Nevertheless, there is one thing I do know for certain that carries me through such disappointments:   the Gospel of Jesus Christ is restored. I'm working on a new piece of art. Stay tuned to see what it eventually ends up looking like. No matter what happens, no matter who may "reject this glad message," ( We Thank T...

Rock on, man. Yay, I finally had a chance to write emails! Sorry for the delay folks, I am always annoyed by how holidays interrupt our regular P-day schedule. But anyway, as I had mentioned last week in my email, our recent shift in focus to balancing member and investigator work has improved our perspective on a lot of things. I am also pleased to report that the Lord has already greatly blessed us for trying to have that proper balance! For one thing,   we found four new investigators: Tiffany, Trinity (we are now officially teaching her), Jimmy and Megan!  It has also been amazing to see the miracles of trying to involve members in every phase of the work as possible, in which one blessing we have received is having powerful second lessons with Clint and Megan that members were present for.   Both of them accepted baptismal dates , so now we are going to do everything we can to help them come to Church and get them on the path of progression. Oskaloosa Zon...