Fwd: Transfers

So the week of transfers we have pday on Wednesday so that's why I'm emailing today. This last week not that much happened. We've been working with a lady named Monica, and she's really open, but she's a single mom and her life is pretty crazy. It's sad, her son keeps getting in trouble with the law and whatnot and she's just trying to be a good parent. She also doesn't have money for gas so we're trying to figure out a way to get her to church, because she lives way out in Fayetteville. Anyways, a fun part of last week was that on Saturday, I have a cousin, I think we're third cousins, but anyways she's like my dad's age and has a family and whatnot but they live in Fayetteville and so they came to Prairie Grove and took us to breakfast last Saturday. It was really fun and it's cool to find people who you're related to out on the mission. Small world for sure. Well this is pretty much it. Tomorrow I go to the mission home, and then on Friday morning I will be flying back to Utah. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited to go home and see everybody, there's a time for everything and I feel that it is now time for me to go home. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission. I don't think I could say that's it's been the best two years of my life, but it definitely was the best two years for my life. I've learned so much out here. It's kinda like that movie, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, it came out my senior year of high school, but he's like a daydreamer and doesn't have a lot of confidence but then he goes on an adventure where he faces a lot of opposition and trials and stuff and he comes back way more capable than he was before he left. That's kinda how I feel like right now. On another note, one thing that's strange, is that even though I knew what my transfer call was going to be, I still had a similar scary feeling waiting for the call to come in. It's weird, transfer calls are just as scary as opening your mission call, if not scarier. But I think part of it was I was nervous for Elder Nau. This area is a pretty tough area especially since we became a bike area. He was freaking out a little bit last night, worried that because we had such a good time, he was going to get a trial comp but luckily President came through and hooked him up with a good comp. So that made me feel good. Me and Nau are pretty tight. It's been really good to serve with him one last time. Well I guess the thing to do is end with like my testimony or something but I've always felt kinda awkward bearing my testimony through text, so I'll just share a scripture that I really like and that has given me some good insights and perspective. 

3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings.Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.5 Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow.6 Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony of the things which are to come;

I feel like this really applies to my mission and I'm sure to everybody's mission not just mine.

Well I love you all, and I will see you on Friday!

Elder Naegle

Fwd: Woo Pig

The Arkansas Razorbacks are apparently ranked like 17th in the nation right now. It's been a great way to talk to people, although, the last couple of people that we talked to about it actually didn't care at all for sports... It's cool, the stadium is like barely outside of our area, we could ride our bikes there if we wanted to, it would take 2-3 hours but we could still do it. Anyways, things are still going good. We're doing better at working with the ward. We were able to have 5 members come out with us this last week which is a huge improvement from what we were getting before which was zero. We don't really have anybody that's on track baptism right now but there are a few people who could be in the coming weeks. The couple we had on track for baptism two weeks ago dropped out which was sad but we still think they'll get baptized eventually, just not right now. One time, on Saturday, we were tracking right next to the church and we knocked on this ladies door, and she had a Arkansas shirt on and we were talking to her about it because they had a game that day. She was one of the ones who didn't care but it got the conversation started and we had a great talk about religion and stuff, then she asked us where our church was and we just turned around and pointed at our building and she was like oh that's cool. So we'll be going over to see her this week for sure. On Wednesday, we were going out to hand out a Bible that somebody requested and it was kinda raining but we thought it was dying down, then when we started heading out of town it started pouring rain. It was coming down so hard it was painful and it was hard to see because I was trying not to get hit in the eyeball and go blind. We rode in that downpour for like 2 miles. My pocket Book of Mormon was soaked, my pocket New Testament was soaked, and my planner got soaked. Luckily, the phone was ok, even though it got soaked too. Another cool thing is that I learned how to ride my bike with no hands. It's pretty fun. There's this bakery that's right down the street from where we live, it's called Fat Rolls, and it's owned by members in our ward. So we go over there like 4 times a week, and buy lots of food from them, and they also hook us up too. Elder Nau and I bought Razorback tees so now we fit in with the locals. We're also doing a lot of service for the members and it's been really fun actually. We're helping this one guy, Brother Allen, build like a screen wall around his porch and it's been pretty fun. We're also helping the people who own the bakery do yard work. They have some super uneven ground from when the city came in and did some sewer work and left part of their yard all messed up, so we've been trying to make the ground more even so that he can mow it because he hasn't been able to mow it. So like the other week we were trying to cut down the grass so we could see what we were doing and we just decided to burn it, because it's Arkansas and you can do stuff like that. So we tried burning as much as the grass as we could. A lot of it was still green but we got some good work done.

Well that's all I can think of that happened that was interesting. 

Peace out, 

Elder Naegle

18 days!

Things have been going. It's been pretty difficult being in a bike area. We have a couple of investigators in like Farmington and Fayetteville, and we haven't been able to get out there except for like once this whole week. So the hardest thing is that our investigators have been going weeks without us seeing them which isn't good. The best part of the week was when we were able to meet with our Bishop. Earlier, before I got to the area, there was some friction between the Bishop and Elder Nau because they have different styles of doing missionary work. Bishop is very cautious and patient style, and Elder Nau is very aggressive so there was some friction there. So we met with him and were able to see what his view and his style and what inspiration he was getting for the ward. It went really well. We set some goals to get more members out on exchanges with us. During Priesthood opening exercises Bishop got up and told everybody to go on exchanges with us and told them that they should set up their own appointments and then take us to them. Then a couple of people came up to us and wanted to go on exchanges with us so we were able to set up some appointments for this week. So this week is looking pretty good. One day this week, we rode our bikes from Farmington to Prairie Grove and even though it was only like 6 or 7 miles, it was a lot of uphill and we had the wind blowing very strongly in our faces, it was a good time. Plus my bike chains are a little outta whack so I couldn't change gears so that made riding interesting. Well other than that we're going strong and still trying to learn and get things done. I've only got 18 days left! Crazy.

Elder Naegle

Biker gang

Probably the biggest thing that happened this week was when we taught Marla, who we met at a member's baptism. We taught her on Monday night and it was a fantastic lesson. She was the one who pointed out the Spirit, describing it as an "oxygenated, minty feeling" and she even committed to a baptismal invitation. Then we saw her at the fair that was going on in Prairie Grove yesterday and got her number so we'll be seeing her again soon. She is very prepared and very humble, very Christlike. By the way the reason we're emailing today is because Labor day was yesterday. Other than that we had some investigators drop us, which was sad but it's whatever. We had zone conference on Friday and I gave my departing testimony which felt good. Then during lunch, the vehicle coordinator told us to talk to him and so we did and he told  us that he was taking away our truck. This wasn't completely unexpected because President called us and told us that we would probably be on bikes sometime in the future. So we were stuck in Bentonville with no ride back to Prairie Grove, luckily the vehicle coordinator and his wife were giving the Alma sisters a ride back to their area because they were on bikes too, and we were able to hitch a ride with them. It was a good time, they took us out to Chick-fil-a for dinner so that was nice of them. So now we are on bikes, our area is huge and we have really sore butts. Everything's good though, we have a couple getting baptized this Saturday and that's exciting. The hardest part is Mondays because there is nothing to do in Prairie Grove, we went to the fair that was going on and it was meh, then we just chilled in the apartment for a long time, we started freestyle rapping to some of Elder Nau's instrumentals and I was dropping some nice bars so that was cool. I guess that's just what happens when you live with a Southern Californian, you get good at freestyle rapping.

Love,

Elder Naegle