A What?

When my niece, Leeah, asked me to make her a red panda, I had to ask her what one looked like. I'd never heard of them. Then I googled pictures of them. I found a pattern from an etsy store (bluerabbitlv) and got to work. Now, I see why Leeah loves them so much. 

Mooning

School with a seven year old is the best! Dave-o and I have so much fun together. He's an eager learner and is young enough to enjoy silly things. For science, I used Oreo cookies to teach him about the phases of the moon. 

Comic 22

(Another Monty Python jab. A play on the lyrics for "Brave Sir Robin Ran Away".)

Transfer Week!

Hello All!

This week is transfer week! Missionaries out here call it death week because P-Day isn't until Wednesday. We are still allowed to email today which is nice. I will know my fate tomorrow! Unless something crazy happens, Elder Jackson and I will stay together for another transfer.

We had a bit more success this week. Our finding efforts were blessed with three new investigators! We were also able to set baptismal dates with three of our investigators. We had a cool experience fasting with Jason and Emily for his mom to recover from heart surgery. All went well with the surgery and Jason attributed that to an answer from God. Unfortunately, no one came to church this week. On the bright side, we do have several investigators lined up to come this week. 

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders Thursday. I went with Elder Gunderson who is 6'7"! It was a party knocking in downtown Des Moines. Unlike last time we were on exchanges with them, we didn't get food poisoning!

We got it approved to use the fitness center that is attached to our apartment complex! So the next time any of you see me, I will be even more ripped than when I came out!

That is it for this week! I love you all! Stay poised!

Elder Zinn!

 The Party District of the Mission! From left to right, Elder Perez, Elder Mitchell, Sister Anderson, Elder Skougard, Sister Johnson, Elder Adams, Elder Zinn, and Sister Jackson:).

Nostalgia! 

​There's a storm coming!

Key West Circle Top

I finally finished crocheting this top. This has been an on-again off-again project for a month now. I keep getting distracted with other projects. I love how it turned out! Kirsten look darling in it. I bought the kit from Lion Brand. 

Tutu Girl

In a desperate attempt to turn this last daughter of mine into a girlie girl, I bought this frilly foofooey tutu from Costco. It has sat in her room unworn for almost two months. Every time I would bring it out for Lonetta to wear, she would dramatically refuse. I thought, "Well, looks like I've got another tom boy." 

And then, something life changing happened today. My little girl wanted to wear it! And she loved it! Kept it on all day.

Upscale Slouchy Hat

I love fall colors. Even though it still feels like summer here, the clothing stores are full of their fall line. Yellows, browns, dark blues, and reds. I'm even seeing these colors in yarn. I couldn't resist a sale at Michael's Craft Store and bought a bunch of beautiful yarn in all types of hues. Here is a slouchy hat I made for my sister. The pattern is from free from Red Heart. 

Comic 21

A Fairly good week

Hello All!

This week was interesting! It flew by.

For starter, the Fair was awesome! It was GINORMOUS! I was surprised at how many people were there! I didn't think that many people existed in Iowa. We quickly found out that people travel from everywhere to come to the fair. We were approached by many members (mostly all from Utah). Despite the crowds, it was a lot of fun. Some of the attractions were; a 3000 pound "super bull" named "Desperado", a life sized cow made entirely out of butter, a corn judging competition, and every food item imaginable deep-fried on a stick! I completed a bucket list item of mine which is to eat a deep fried snickers bar! They also had deep fried butter on a stick, but that didn't appeal much to me.

As far as missionary work goes, this week wasn't as "successful" as we hoped. Every lesson we had this week was with new investigators. One of our new investigators is a pastor from a different church. We had a interesting lesson with him, but he promised to read the BoM and to sincerely pray to know if it is true. That would be great, but none of our current investigators are progressing.  We pretty much "set aside" all of our investigators and shifted gears to entirely focusing on finding the elect in this area! Maddie, the member referral that came to church last week, also showed up to church this week. Unfortunately, her parents are very anti against the church, and we are not allowed to teach minors with out parental permission. We are praying that something will soften Maddie's parent's hearts.

Someone from our ward just returned from his mission in San Jose California! His name is Nick Dias. He seems like he will be a clutch member to bring to lessons!

Elder Jackson and I combined our cooking skillz and made a feast of a dinner on Tuesday! We bought some Iowa Sweet corn from a farmers market and added it to our feast!

That is all for this week! I love you all to pieces!

Elder Zinn

Desperado

 Life size butter cow

Great Happiness

We've been fiddling around with school this week. Officially we are supposed to start, but mentally, none of us are ready to say goodbye to summer. 

Everyday, Dave-o works in his Spelling Workout workbook. The directions on one such page read:

"Write the list word that matches each clue."

3. great happiness

Dave-o's answer was "boys". (The correct answer is "joy".)

I love my boys. They do bring great happiness.

Dave-o's 2nd grade self portrait self portrait.

What is Yellow with Spots all Over

 While visiting the Douangaphaivongs in Washington, I had Kamea and Leeah pick out an animal for me to crochet. I just finished Kamea's giraffe. (Free pattern available at Flourish and Tots.) Now I need to find a red panda pattern. I'd better get them sent fast before Loni squeezes the stuffing out of it.
I remember learning how to crochet my first animal in the 8th grade. A class (I want to say it was an after school class) was taught by my classmate's mom (Eve Twyman). There were only about four of us in the class. Eve's mom taught us how to crochet a dragon. That was the first and last animal that I made, until now. Shortly after the 8th grade, Eve's mom passed away. I am thankful for her knowledge that she was willing to share with me.

(The ballerina outfit looks adorable on her, Deborah. Thank you. Thank Leeah.)

Another Violinist

 Yesterday was Dave-o's first violin lesson with Mrs. Rumsby. I can't even describe just how excited this "Steven-worshipper" was to start learning how to play. I was going to wait until he turned eight to start, but then realized Steven would be gone by then and I wanted them to get a chance to play together.  

Dave-o learning the correct way to hold his violin.

Chorister

Loni loves leading the music for Family Home Evening. She always picks the ABC song and Eensie Weensie Spider. I love how much excitement and joy this girl brings to our family.

Comic 20

The food poisoning incident was too good to stop at only one comic.

Approved!

Hello Everyone!

This was a good/average week! We were able to talk to tons of people.

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that the Iowa State Fair got approved to go to! This was pretty surprising because president Jensen never approved it. So right after we are done emailing, that is where we are going!

This week our finding efforts were blessed with four new investigators! Unfortunately, we couldn't get anyone to progress too much this week. That has been pretty much the theme as of late. Something cool that happened was that one of the priests in our ward brought a friend to church yesterday! His friend , Maddie, read the entire BoM in 3 weeksand came to know that it is true! We are definitely going to focus on meeting with Maddie and getting her on date for baptism.

BYU Vocal Point has been here in Des Moines over the weekend. They had a fireside yesterday that we were allowed to go to which was awesome! They only sang hymns, but it was so refreshing being able to listen to something besides MOTAB!

We got kicked out of quite a few apartment buildings this week! While we were teaching a lesson to someone, the building manager tried to kick us out. The guy we were teaching, Nick, was on our side and said, "Nah man, they aight"! It was nice winning one of those encounters for once! Unfortunately, she found us knocking the building 30 minutes later and kicked us out anyways.

The weather was OK. It wasn't too hot this week, but it was still very humid. We also had some pretty severe thunderstorms.

I am so tired of the Olympics! So many people we talk to get mad at us for interrupting the Olympics for them! It is similar to what happened during the Super Bowl except the Olympics last a couple weeks!

That is all for this week!

Elder Zinn

 Think Big

Birthday with Cousins

We had fun celebrating my niece, Emily's 12th birthday today. Her birthday wish was to spend it swimming with cousins and that's just what happened. I love this girl!

I turned on Disney music (from Pandora) which sent Kirsten and Emily into a singing and dancing in the water frenzy. It was hilarious to watch Emily dance with her partner, the shark. 

Dave-o and Owen did their own thing, like jumping off the diving board pretending they were Pokemon.

Holy Grail

The titles of James' past emails to us have been a matter of great discussion in our home. 

These are the titles:

"I got better"

"What else floats?"

"A Duck"

David came home from work excited to share with us his theory. They are all quotes from the "witch scene" of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (James' favorite scene from the movie). Watch it and see if you can find all three phrases. It's fun to see James' sense of humor still.

No More Braces!

 Dave-o and I both had a visit to the dentist today. My braces were taken off!!! They came off early too; eight months a head of schedule. I love how they look, but my mouth is trying to get used to the feeling. Next week I will be picking up my retainer. So, for now, I will enjoy not having something foreign in my mouth. 

My friend, Rachel, brought over a basket full of popcorn, chewy candy, and a crown in celebration. 

Dave-o had his first filling. He did a great job and didn't complain once.

What else floats?

Hello ALL!

This week was pretty good! We were able to accomplish a lot (compared to last week)!

The beginning of the week was looking very promising! We had exchanges with the other set of Elders in our ward. The way exchanges work here is that both companionships will "blitz" one area for the day (usually the district leaders area). This was super nice because we got a ton of work done in one day. I went with Elder Perez who just came out this last transfer. Throughout the week, we were able to find three new investigators and set four baptismal dates! By the end of Saturday, we had committed seven of our investigators to come to church. By Sunday morning, two of them dropped us. When we didSunday morning "roundup", no one answered their phones or their doors! None of our investigators came to church which was a bit depressing. People's agency is soooo frustrating sometimes!

Aside from thunder storms, the weather was beautiful this week!

Elder Perez and I were let in by two bashers on exchanges! It is funny because every basher argues with us over the same doctrine. It is mostly based off of their philosophies mingled with scripture.

We had Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday. Those are always fun. 

I think the food poisoning I got ruined Mexican for me. A member fed us it this week and it was a struggle to get down.

A&W was giving out FREE root beer floats on Saturday! We were sure to take advantage of that deal during lunch!

That is pretty much it for this week! I love you all!

Elder Zinn