Death Week!

Greetings Everyone!

This week was what is called "death week"! It is because we have to wait two more days until P-day due to transfers! We get our transfer calls tomorrow, but it is very safe to say that I will be staying! The sad thing is that we have already knocked on almost every single door in Hamilton already. This next transfer will probably commence the re-knocking of Hamilton. Odds are, Elder McCain will be transferred. It was a really fun transfer with him because we both got along sooo well!

Do you remember in my email last week where I mentioned that we found a really cool new investigators named Joel? Well, about an hour after I sent that email he dropped us :(. He sent us a text saying that his mom found out that he spoke to Mormons and made him swear never to speak to us again! His mom then proceeded to burn the Book of Mormon and pamphlet we gave him! He ended the text by saying, "No hard feelings from me guys"! Our only response for that was to bust out laughing!

We weren't able to meet with Matt this week. We have an appointment scheduled to meet with him tomorrow where we will teach the Word of Wisdom. 

Other than that, all of our missionary efforts are in the form of finding! Fun stuff! Hopefully are teaching pool will start to grow!

It was a rainy and cloudy week. Spring is nigh!

That is pretty much all that happened this week! I Love you all!

Elder Zinn!

The Hamilton District!

Gemini

 This constellation box is so cool! I helped Daveo make it for his science experiment today and we can't stop looking through it. Daveo picked out five of his favorite constellations to view; one being his astrological sign, Gemini.

Aperature

The poppies and other wildflowers are beginning to bloom. The green hills are coming alive with bright colors. This provided me with the perfect subject matter to practice the aperture setting on my camera. One of my Christmas presents this last year, was an online photography class. It has taught me how to better use my camera and I'm having fun experimenting with my newfound knowledge.  

Avoiding Scurvy

During our hike yesterday, Daveo picked a bouquet of miner's lettuce. I had never heard of this leafy edible plant until moving here to San Jose. During the California gold rush, the miners ate this plant, which is full of vitamin C, to avoid scurvy. Miner's lettuce grows wild in the mountains and can be found in abundance in the spring. It makes a tasty salad, with a mild spinach flavor. Daveo loves it and eats it as a snack.

Goodbye Malena

Malena's last hours with her cousins were spent playing Minecraft. It's been a joy having her with us for the week. She quickly discovered that while Kirsten was the preferred cousin she wanted to be with, Daveo was just as much fun. He became the hangout buddy when the "teenager" was too tired. Malena's youthful energy was too much for Kirsten at times. It was funny to watch. Luckily, Daveo has the same, if not more energy, than Malena. My only regret was having to send this cute girl home with a black eye.

It's Spring!

We enjoyed the first day of spring by going on a hike and having a picnic lunch. Nature provided us with loads of entertainment. There were lots of butterflies that the kids tried catching. Kirsten was the only successful one. There were also ladybugs that were easier to catch. Malena brought one back to the house that she named, Rosa. She plans on releasing it tomorrow before flying home. Not long after we got home, it started to rain and didn't stop the rest of the day. We planned that perfectly!

Much Love

HELLO EVERYONE!

We had a really good and fast week!

We didn't spend much time in our area at all this week. On Tuesday we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Burlington! I was with Elder Gunderson for the day. We had a lot of success finding (too bad we weren't in Hamilton)! On Wednesday, we were in Nauvoo pretty much the whole day doing service for members and the city. We had exchanges with Elder frew and Spencer in Macomb on Thursday which was delightful. Then we drove all the way to Iowa City for Zone Conference on Friday! Zone Conference was really awesome. Every district had to come up with a musical number to perform there. Considering the very limited musical abilities that our district has, it went really well. I also got to catch up with my homies from Muscatine!  Saturdaywas basically the only day we had to do missionary work in our area!

Matt Helm is still coming along. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him this last week. We are looking to start focusing on his Word of Wisdom hold backs this week! We figure that if he is willing to make these changes in his life, we will be able to see how serious he actually is. Our finding efforts were surprisingly fruitful considering our limited time we spent in our area. We found an awesome new investigator named Joel! He just moved here from Chicago. The lesson was really interesting because he started out being pretty hostile. But as he listen to a bit of our message he became very interested. Joel challenged us to a game of basketball, so we will definitely take him up on that this week!

The weather is warming up! I think that I might have successfully survived another winter!!!!!!!!!

I am in 3Nephi right now in the Book of Mormon. It has really stood out to me this time at the Love Christ has for all of his people! I love the parallel between the Nephites waiting for the coming of Christ amidst all of the destruction and turmoil and the times we are living in now! I know that as we hold out faithful till the end, we will be able to have a joyful reunion with Christ and be clothed with glory at the time of the first resurrection! Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Zinn!

 The Muscatine Crew!

 A lot of missionaries!

  More nothingness!

The Elders of the Nauvoo Zone

Black and Blue

Today was to be our beach day. The day started out on an off note and didn't end much better though. Malena woke up very homesick. She was weepy for about an hour and then she was all smiles again. That is until a rock rolled down from the cliff at the beach hitting her in the face. Yep! It was one of those days. Malena and the two David's climbed up the side of the mountain. Loose rocks began rolling down towards Malena. She saw this and began to reverse her course. Dave-o saw the loose rocks and did as most boys would do; encouraged more to roll down, not thinking about the possibility of them hitting Malena. Luckily, her glasses saved her from a more serious injury. I felt horrible having to tell her dad that his daughter now has a black eye under my care. 

Fishies

Kirsten's sewing class took up the early part of our afternoon. However, after that, we drove to Monterey so that Malena could have some Guirardelli and experience the Monterey Aquarium. We stayed and explored until closing time. 

War Paint

After school and Kirsten's Bio lab class, we went on a hike. The kids found a river bed and Kirsten showed them all how to make face paint by rubbing wet rocks together. Dave-o was impatient with the process and ended up sticking his fingers directly into the mud to put on his face. We are having so much fun with Malena. She is such a happy and kind child. She plays well with everyone.

Malena's in Town

Our house is in a bit of an uproar. Excitement is in the air. Bedding is being washed. Rooms are being cleaned. Plans are being planned. All this because Malena is coming to town. She's off-track from school right now and gets to spend the week with us!

Her first day here, the cousins played and played until they dropped out of exhaustion for the night. It's going to be a fun week.

Nothingness

Hello Everyone!

Greetings Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a really good week! We had an interesting one.

Probably the coolest thing that occurred this week was that President Russel M. Nelson visited Nauvoo! He held a fireside yesterday evening. We got to the building an hour early, but it was already PACKED! When President Nelson entered the room, he carried an incredible presence with him! You could feel the power and Spirit that he carries around with him because of his calling! His talk was also amazing. President Nelson talked about all of the scriptures used in the "Messiah". It was amazing to see him performing one of the functions of an Apostle to interpret the Word of God to us!

Right now, our most solid investigator is Matt Helm. We taught him in President Church's home again! We talked about the Plan of Salvation and had a really good discussion! Matt has really good intentions right now, but is struggling to turn those intentions into action. He did come to President Nelson's fireside yesterday, so that's cool. Matt was visited by a member of the seventy, is being taught in the Stake President's home, and witnesses a living day Apostle speak! We figure that if he doesn't end up progressing, there's not much more we could have done to help him! 

The sad news is that we have "set aside"  D'wan and Michael" :(. Their drive to continue to progress has come to a grinding stop. This is due to the HORRIBLE influence that their very anti-Mormon family and neighbors have had on them. D'wan and Michael love meeting with us, but we are going to give them a break.

We went finding a lot this week! We found one new investigators named Tracy. We went to a few of the outlying towns in our area. One of the towns we went to , West Point, was the epitome of "nothingness". I am not being mean by saying that. The citizens of these tiny towns rejoice in the fact that they live in the middle of nowhere!

The weather has been interesting. Last Monday we had a pretty severe thunderstorm. One of the things I have grown to love here in the Mid West are the storms! Elder McCain and I (both West Coast boys) are always thrilled during these massive storms! It was colder this week. Today we woke up to a couple of inches of snow.

There is an awesome semi-new First Vision that I encourage all of you to watch at https://history.lds.org/story/first-vision . I really like the perspective that this video captures!

I love you all! This is the true church!

Elder Zinn!

 West Point...