It
was so cool to hear about the Clarks homecoming. I emailed Elder Bean and told
him to look for you and I had very low hopes haha. But that kid is something
special so it doesn’t surprise me at all that he found you. I love that guy.
Happy
anniversary!! I didn’t realize you and dad had been married for 30 years. That’s
super sweet. A few days ago we walked
into a fight between and investigator and his wife and it was awful. It got
really ugly really fast and we just stood there and it stunk. Thank goodness
for the gospel and good couples like you and dad. I never really appreciated
how great our family is and how awesome of parents you and dad are. There are
so many missionaries from broken families and it makes their lives so much
harder. I know I was put into this family for a reason and I know that I wouldn’t
be even close to the person I am now without your and dad so thank you. I love
you and I’ll talk to you again soon :)
We did so many cool things
this week! We got to go on a ton of exchanges and it was a really good week. Tuesday we
drove down to Sullivan and we spent the day there. We did some tracting and it
was just a good day overall.
Wednesday we went to the other side of the
mission and spent the day in Decatur. There are 4 missionaries up there so we
got to go on exchanges with a few people that day and it was a really good day
again.
Thursday we went to Edwardsville and that one
was really fun. We have spent a lot of time with those Elders and Sisters this
transfer and we have become really good friends with them so getting to spend a
whole day with them was fun. Pretty much all of these exchanges were just hours
and hours of tracting which I have really learned to like a lot so that was
fun.
Friday was fun because we
went on our first zone leader exchange of the transfer. We went with the St
Louis zone leader and they live about 5 apartments away from us so it’s really
easy to go on exchanges with them. It was fun to get to be companions with
Elder Wickham. We were in the MTC together and got along really well there but
we haven’t been anywhere near each other for our entire missions. So getting to
finally be around each other was fun. One cool thing that happened that day was
when there were 4 of us together. It was me and Elder Wickham a visa waiter
Elder Ford and a priest in their ward named Collin. Because there were 4 of us
we split up and I got to go with Collin, We went tracting for about 30 minutes
or so and it was really fun because he had never been before. We always love to
get the members involved in tracting.
Saturday was probably the
coolest day of the week. We went on our zone leader exchange with the Fairview
Heights elders and it was their zones service day. This transfer every zone in
the mission is having a zone wide service day. I don’t have any pictures yet
because my camera is broken but I am having Elder Loveless send me some. We did
all kinds of different things. The coolest thing we did was build a house. When
we got there, there was just a foundation but then by time we left the entire
frame of the house and all the inside walls were up. It was so much fun. Then
we went to a part member family’s house and painted the entire inside and then
drove around the city and painted fire hydrants (I’m still scrubbing green
paint off my arms). It was a really fun day. That night was a blast because a
member invited the entire zone over for a bon fire and dinner. So we spent most
of the rest of the night in their backyard with the Morgan’s and a whole zone
of missionaries playing games and just having a ton of fun.
This week at least a couple
times a day I have just stopped doing whatever I was doing and thought about
how happy I am. I just sit and think about the amazing friends that I get to be
with every day and the different things I get to do as a missionary. My life is
just so good right now! Elder Facer is an awesome companion, I love the
missionaries in the office, the new mission president is so much fun to be
around, and I get to see so many missionaries every week and get to know them
better. We have interviews over the next 3 weeks so I’ll get to see every
missionary in the mission again. I love my calling so much! Today we are going
to play soccer under the arch with a couple zones worth of missionaries and I couldn’t
be more excited. This gospel has changed my life and I am so thankful that I
get to see it change other peoples as well. I couldn’t ask for a better life
right now and I know that we can all feel the same way no matter what we are going
through. This gospel is amazing and I’m so thankful for the change it has
brought into my life.
-Elder
Banks
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