This week was a lot more normal than last week was. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had zone conferences. Those are really fun but they drain you really fast. Thursday was up in Champaign so that was a good 3 hours from St Louis so we planned on spending a couple days up in that area. We got to take some missionaries to Olive Garden later that night so that was really fun. I ate a lot of bread sticks.

 

The next day we got to spend some time doing missionary work. I was so excited to go tracting again. We hadn’t done that for a couple weeks and I was going through withdraws. This new system of no tracting that we are doing in a few zones is working really well but it’s a lot less fun than tracting. So getting to go out to different zones and knock on a few doors is always something I really look forward to.

 

We spent the first bit of the day with Elder Locklear and Elder Rougeau. It was cool to get to talk to Elder Locklear cause he has a really cool story from back home. He has a couple aunts and uncles that are active but that’s about it. But recently his mom has started taking the lessons and being reactivated and her nonmember husband has really warmed up to the missionaries. There are a ton of missionaries out here who are the only active members of their families or the only members in their families so I love to hear all the stories about how them coming on a mission has changed their families lives. The blessings that come from serving are impossible to fully understand.

 

Right after we spent some time with them, we went and spent a few hours with the Elder Anderson that I trained and his companion Elder Cox who has been out for about a week now. I got to go tracting with Elder Cox and it was a ton of fun. They live in a college town and school just barely got back in so it makes for quite the adventure. It’s always fun to walk up to a door and see a front yard completely covered in beer cans and barf and then knock on the door and talk about religion with them. Sometimes they are just stupid kids but it’s always an awesome opportunity to get to find a college kid who really wants to know more and change their lives. 

 

            This weekend was pretty normal but it was really good as always. We went up to Warrenton for church and learned all about keeping the Sabbath day holy. That’s an interesting idea as a missionary because our Sunday is pretty much the same as every other day of the week. Trying to set Sunday apart as a day of rest and extra worship is interesting but its good practice for when we get home.

 

This week is going to be another fun one. We have 2 zone conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday then Thursday is Elder Facer and Sister Minyards birthdays so we are going to Lottawatta Creek to have dinner. That’s going to be a really nice break in the week. Friday we have MLC then Saturday we are driving up to Champaign to do our zone leader exchange. I am really, really excited to do our zone leader exchanges over these next few weeks. We haven’t had the chance to do much normal work recently cause we have had a ton of meetings and a ton of random problems pop up. It will be really nice to get to get back into the routine of teaching nonmembers again. I love teaching so much. I love that I get to teach missionaries so much and I love teaching nonmembers even more. Bearing a strong testimony is such a blessing in our lives. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have that these things are true and that I do have the ability to bear my testimony on them. I love this gospel and am so thankful for everything it does for me. 

 

-Elder Banks  

 

 

          

This week was probably the most exhausting week I have had so far on my mission. It was partly my fault but it was just insane all the way around. Tuesday is when the craziness started. We picked up 35 new missionaries from the airport and started hauling them around everywhere. We showed them the temple and then spent most of the rest of the day at the mission home. The Morgan’s had a big BBQ ready for all of us and we just had a fun rest of the night. After they all went to bed at 10:30 we had our meeting to put them with their trainers and ended up getting home around midnight. Then we had to wake up bright and early the next morning to get ready and to show up at the hotel and mission home to gather all the new missionaries up to get them to the church on time for transfer meeting. 

 

             Wednesday was a blast! We had transfer meeting which is always super fun and there was a huge group there for us to see. The meeting is always a really fun experience and President Morgan did great his first time.

 

After that we went to the temple with the new missionaries which is always fun. I sat in the Celestial room with Elder Christensen and Sister Crandall and we just talked for a few minutes about the temple and how great of a blessing it is and it was a really cool experience to have.

 

Then we headed to the mission home and spent the rest of the night there having another BBQ and just having fun. The rule the last night is that the departing missionaries can stay up as late as they want. We sat in the living room while Elder Anderson played the guitar until about 1:30 and then President Morgan headed off to bed. At that point about half the group had gone to bed but most of my best friends from the mission were all sitting in that room with us and we knew it was our last night together so we were going to make it count. 5 hours and a lot of random activities later we had spent the whole night being stupid high school kids again. Real life set in a little bit when we realized that we had to get in the van and head to the airport. Saying goodbye to that group was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I felt like trash after the airport but I held myself together pretty well. One of my really good friends, Sister Crandall, stayed with us for a few hours and then her parents came to the mission home to pick her up. That was a cool experience to see but it was so dang hard to say goodbye again and by time that was over I was physically exhausted from staying up all night and mentally exhausted from losing so many of my friends all at once.

 

Seeing that I was in absolutely no shape to function the Morgan’s let me go in their basement and sleep for a couple hours. Laying alone in a bed with nothing to do but think was probably the worst idea ever after sending all those missionaries home. It finally just hit me and for the first time in a really long time on my mission I just layed there and cried. It was pretty awful at the time but I have learned a lot from it and it has really helped me to relearn why I’m out here. I’m not out here for me at all but I’m out here to serve other people and to help them as much as I can. I am so thankful for those friends and companions that I had and how much they each helped me learn. My body and mind are finally starting to recover from those few days and now I’m excited to get out and have a good full weeks work this week. 

 

            A few other things happened this week that were both good and not so good. We spent a day working up in Linn which is a little tiny area that just barely opened up and that was fun. It’s up in the Columbia zone and there was a wedding reception that night in Columbia for Cameron Marshall. It’s probably been about a year since I talked about him but me and Elder Marshall used to hang out almost every p-day when he was an assistant and I was in Fairview Heights. We became really good friends and he was companions with Elder Facer. He met the stake president daughter from one of his old areas when he got back to Utah and next thing ya know they’re married! It was really cool to get to see him again after 9 months and see him taking the next step in his life. That was a super cool experience.

 

One thing I learned this week that was some interesting news was that Booker who I taught in Jacksonville died this week. He struggled with some health issues so it was his time to go but it’s always tough to hear about all these people that I knew so well at the beginning of my mission dying. 

 

            One really cool thing that has happened over the last few weeks has been the switch to member missionary work. We currently have 2 zones in the mission that are no tracting zones. Instead of tracting they just go visit members and ask for referrals. We haven’t had enough time to see how it’s going to work yet, but hopefully this is a glimpse of the future of our mission! I am so thankful to get to be right in the thick of missionary work as it is making all of these amazing changes. I am so thankful for the blessings that it brings me and the people around me and wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything! 

 

-Elder Banks

 

 

            This week was a nice change of pace for us. We have transfers this week so we spent this whole last week transfer planning. It was a whole new experience with President Morgan. It was pretty cool because we ended up with the same result but the way we did it was a lot different. With President Clark he knew the people really well and as we talked about who to put where he would simply say yes or no and we would move on. We worked on it for like 4 hours or so each day and would go through the whole mission 5 or 6 times before we were done. With President Morgan, we sat down and spent 9 straight hours in his office the first day and we were about 1/4 of the way through the mission. We talked in detail about every person so he could get to know them a little bit better. At the end of the week we still have a new board with lots of people going to new places and getting new companions, but we only went through probably twice instead of the normal 6 or so. It has been really cool to see all of the differences between President Morgan and President Clark in the way they run things, but to see and feel that it is still run by the spirit and all the decisions they make are inspired. 

 

            We got to do a couple random fun things this week. We had dinner at the mission home with the 4 sister training leaders. We are going to have 6 next transfer and one of the 4 goes home this transfer, so it was a goodbye dinner for her and we had a really good time.

 

Saturday was our day off for the week and we got the opportunity to go with the South Zone leaders to a soccer game. Elder Terrazas is a huge soccer fan and the two teams playing were Real Madrid and Inter Milan so he really wanted to go. We found an investigator to take with us as well so it was a really fun experience. We got to see Christiano Ronaldo score a goal and he is one of the best soccer players in the world, so that was a once in a lifetime experience. The best part of the whole game was when it got to be 3-0 for Real Madrid and the game got not so interesting anymore. We were in the Edward Jones Dome and 55,000 soccer fans started to try to entertain themselves. Mostly it involved random cheers in languages I couldn’t understand and kids running onto the field and taking pictures with the players. Besides the fact that Elder Terrazas decided to wear the rival team’s jersey it was a great day. Lots of people yelled at him but I don’t know Spanish or Bosnian so I didn’t have to worry about it haha. 

 

            This coming week is going to be another insane one. I’m super thankful I actually got to sleep in the same bed all week last week because we are going to be so tired this week. We are picking up 35 new missionaries from the airport tomorrow and then sending 18 home the day after that. I am not looking forward to Thursday at all. That morning we are taking the returning missionaries to the airport and a lot of my best friends are in this group. Elder Loveless and Elder DJ Anderson are 2 of the best friends I have made out here and taking them to the airport on the same day is going to be so hard. This is the group of missionaries that mostly became zone leaders at the same time as me so I have learned a lot and "grown up" with these elders so it’s going to be a rough one for sure. I was in the MTC with Sister Crandall and she goes home this week too so I’ll take that as my official 18 month mark. I’m so thankful for the many opportunities that I am going to get this week. Picking up the new missionaries and sending home the old ones is always a great learning experience. I am so thankful for all of these cool experiences that I get to have that very few other people ever experience. I am so blessed to be out here doing this work and I love every day of it!

 

-Elder Banks

 

That’s so funny that everyone is talking about the new temple video cause everyone is talking about it out here! We are probably going to the temple like twice in the next week so I’ll get to see it a couple times before the transfers over.

 

It’s crazy that I’m 3/4ths of the way done. I talked to President Morgan yesterday and he has pretty much decided that I’ll be in the office for the rest of my mission, but I asked him if I could go out for my last transfer and he said that would be a good idea so hopefully that’s what happens. It’s still pretty far away but looks like that’s going to be my next 6 months. I have my fingers crossed that he will let me train even though I only have 6 weeks and training normally takes 12. He said I could so hopefully his mind doesn’t change over the next 4 months.

 

             President Morgan had a great quote this week that I think sums pretty much everything up. We were at the mission home and it was getting close to 11: 30 and I said, Well I’m going home and getting some sleep. And President Morgan simply said "what’s sleep?" I wish he was joking but I’m pretty sure we have all forgotten what a full night’s sleep actually feels like at this point.

 

We have had a ton to do this week but it has been so much fun. On Monday we went with the south zone leaders, my old companion Elder Anderson from Oakville and his current companion Elder Terrazas. And we found an old golf course in the middle of a corn field and it was so cool. We payed 5 bucks and we got to mini golf and use the driving range for as long as we wanted. We hit sooo many golf balls and my hands are still covered in blisters. Totally worth it.

 

The next 3 days were all interviews and I almost killed myself. (I also read a talk about not using sarcasm this week...I’m still working on it) But for real it was awful haha. Like always its super good to see all the missionaries but after sitting in a relief society room for 10 hours you are definitely ready to get out. 

 

            On Friday we got to go on our exchange with the Columbia zone leaders. They do their missionary work on Mizzou campus and there is no one there right now. So we drove to Jeff City and went to district meeting and then tracted for a while and we found some super cool Russian young single adults that we invited to come to the branch and they were really fun to talk to. It poured rain so even just running from apartment building to apartment building we got soaked. I was with Elder Boren who I really love being with so that made it a really fun day.

 

After that on Saturday we drove down to the North St Louis zone and went on exchanges with those zone leaders. That zone is the only zone in the mission right how that is under the rule no tracting. Their stake president and zone leaders decided that they think that would be best and it’s been cool to see the results. There are definitely ups and downs but they are getting some referrals that are super solid and things are looking great for them in that zone. 

 

            Church on Sunday was probably the highlight of the week. We were gone and didn’t see our apartment from Tuesday morning at about 7 until Saturday night around 9. By time we got home we were so exhausted we forgot to pick somewhere to go to church. Sunday morning we called some of the zone leaders and they told us to go to the Crystal City branch. We headed down there and we didn’t expect much because it’s a tiny branch. But when we got there we were blown away. They had a baptism that Saturday so they confirmed this super awesome lady in sacrament meeting. The whole time we were there the whole ward was begging us to not transfer any of the missionaries away from their ward. They love those 2 elders. Even though they have a limited priesthood they have members set up to go out with the missionaries 4 days this week and they always have at least 3 nights filled with members just going out and doing missionary work. It’s so awesome to see what even a tiny branch can do if they have some good members who are willing to sacrifice their own time and talents to help out the missionaries. I am so thankful for helpful members who are willing to do missionary work with us and help us out in any way that they can. This gospel really does change lives and when we really figure that out it becomes our only desire to share it. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have of this gospel and how much it blesses my life. 

 

-Elder Banks

 

        We had a really good week this week. We got to do a lot of different things and it was a lot of fun. Last Monday we played basketball for like 5 hours and it was so much fun! I am always really tired after but it is so worth it to just get to unwind for that time. We are going to a driving range today to hit a bunch of golf balls so that should be fun too.

 Tuesday and Wednesday we had interviews. We had south zone interviews and Springfield interviews. I got to go back to Jacksonville again and that was really fun to get to back there again. There is a really good missionary who just got up to Jacksonville and he is there reactivating some of the people
 

Thursday we had our exchange with the Springfield elders and I got to go with Elder Christensen for the last time. I have been on exchanges with him like 15 times because he was an assistant before and now he is a zone leader. He is part of a huge group going home that is going to be really, really hard to say goodbye to. I appreciate all the things that he taught me. One of the missionaries we were on exchanges with got dear johned so we also made some super good horchata milkshakes to make him feel better haha. It was way fun. Then we went and caught frogs the next morning at their private lake. It was a really fun day. 

 

             Friday was MLC and it was a really interesting meeting. It was one of the most powerful MLCs I have ever been to because President Morgan took it so seriously. He had fun and laughed with us but he understood the importance of that meeting and it was great. During stewardships we have everyone report on any missionaries that are having problems and holy cow we got a huge load dumped on us. All the smooth sailing that came in with President Morgan is finally dying away and we are getting back to the craziness that we have gotten so used to over the last few months. 

 

             A few really cool things happened this weekend. We went up to Champaign for some exchanges and we went to church in the Mahomet ward. There is a kid there who was baptized in Wyoming a few months ago at college and then he came back home and is introducing his family to the church. They have been taking the lessons and they are getting baptized on Friday the 9th. We are going to have the chance to get to go to that baptism and see this 19 year old kid baptize his mom and dad and sister. It’s one of the best stories that I have seen on my mission and I am so excited to get to see the end result.

 

I am so thankful for hard working missionaries who create miracles wherever they go. Our mission had 16 baptisms this week which was a huge number. We were falling way behind on our goal and we are hoping to use this huge week to get the mission excited and back to work. I am so thankful for all of the hard working missionaries that I get to see and work with every day. This gospel changes lives and changes people every day and I am blessed enough to get to see it in action all the time. I love all of you and will talk to you again soon! Thanks for your prayers and support.

 

-Elder Banks

 

            That activity at the McClellan’s sounds awesome! They are such a good family. Sounds like Grandpas birthday was a really good experience. I love that guy. Sister Morgan quilts a little bit so you should send me pictures of your quilts when you’re done so i can show her them.

 

            The Christianson’s homecoming sounds like it was awesome. I don’t know if he even knows who I am but I am way excited to get to talk to President Christianson again when I get home. He was a really good guy.

 

             We had a really good week but it was really normal and uneventful. Monday was really fun because we went and picked up some goals from some members and played soccer under the arch for a while. I was pretty dang sunburned already from the Saturday service day and I was completely fried after being out in the sun for that many more hours. It was really fun though. 

 

             The next 3 days after that we had interviews all day. Last time we had interviews it was like the hardest month of my mission. It was just so exhausting and boring and it was just rough. And this time it still isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but we changed one thing and we are having the district leaders and someone else in the district give a training. It has been really fun to get to listen to other people teach instead of just us talking the whole time. Each training has been left with a commitment so by time we are done I’ll have about 60 commitments left to me to work on so I’ll have a lot of goals of things to get better at by the end of the transfer.

            Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges with some zone leaders. We went down to Cape Girardeau on Friday and we had a pretty cool experience. I was with Elder Bassett and that morning they had gotten a call from a member in one of the wards down there. He said that he had the missionaries coming over to teach at his house that night and he wanted us to come help them because they were really struggling with teaching. We headed down and talked to them about it and helped teach them and it was cool to see the missionary’s reactions. One of them was really nice and happy but you could tell everything we were saying was just going right over his head and none of it was really soaking in. The other missionary is really young, really good, and really humble. He took everything we had to say and started taking notes and working on it. He was a better teacher by the end of the night. It was cool to see 2 missionaries with the same ability level receiving the exact same training and one of them got nothing from it and the other one got a ton from it. It just goes to show that really it doesn’t matter what we are taught or how good our teachers are. If we are looking for something to improve on and change in ourselves we are going to find something to work on. 

 

            This coming week is going to be one full of a lot of different things. We have a couple days of interviews and day of MLC and a couple days of zone leader exchanges. MLC is going to be interesting because its President Morganas first one so we will see how he likes sitting in a big room full of 20 year olds for 6 hours trying to make decisions haha. It can be pretty interesting sometimes. 

 

            This week has been full of a lot of trials for a lot of missionaries. We have seen everything from emergency surgery to deaths of parents this week. It has been a real growing experience for everyone involved and it’s been cool to see the different reactions. Some people just keep on going and learn a lot from it and are better people because of it. And then of course you have a few who just completely shut down and let it ruin them. It has built my testimony that hard things happen to everyone and it can ruin us, or if we put our faith in Christ, then we will be able to make it through and be better people because of it.

 

I am so thankful for all of the different things that have happened to me on my mission and the wide variety of experiences I have had the opportunity to have. I’m thankful for the chance that I still have to grow out here and hope that the rest of my mission can be just as good, or better, than what it has been so far.

 

-Elder Banks

 

 

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