Monday, December 30, 2013

30 December 2013 Happy New Year 2014!

Wow! What an amazing week!  Everything from zip lining in the Bishop’s backyard to meeting people who know everything, yet can’t put together the fact that they know the church is true, to finding the most twisted road to Spokane Missouri.  The word “Wow” is not even going to cover it!  I love the people here.  I love the craziness. 

So, starting out with the Zip-line story, we went to the Bishop’s house for dinner on the 27th.  They have 6 boys, all rambunctious.  Love them.  They are really funny and remind me of the Nokes clan.  Ha, ha.  Anyway, they got a Zip-line for Christmas.  So we Elders, looked and the white handbook says nothing about Zip-lines (ha, ha) so we jumped on and went zooming across the yard..fun times!!

The next day we put in the GPS an address and we found this amazing road here.  It has butterfly dips, not butterfly hills!  If ya’ll have questions about what those are talk to my mom, she will tell you it’s way cool!  This road went up down and twisted through trees.  It had no posted speed limit, so we took it at about 40 MPH.  Wow!

The speed limits around here are crazy.  A huge road has a speed limit of 35 MPH and a small turny road is 55 MPH.  So, essentially you find these roads with speed limits that make no sense.  On some of them  you could only go the speed limit without rolling your car if you were driving a nice suped up Porshe!  Awesome! Ha ha!

Our Stake President grew up in Riverton, Utah and my Bishop’s wife’s brother lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  Crazy lots of Utahns here.  Haha.  JK

I am so very blessed to be out here.  I laugh a lot and am loving the work.  My companion taught me a very important lesson the other night, one of the best on the Atonement.  He is an inspired man and has been called by a prophet of God to be here and to help me.  I know more than ever that I am here to help others come closer to Christ.  He has blessed my life.  Eating Top Ramen, Eggs, Milk, Rice, Peanut Butter and Jelly is just a small sacrifice for the many blessings that I have been given by continuing on with my goal to serve a mission.  I cannot even imagine something better that I could be doing with my life right now than being here.

Christmas was fun.  We played soccer and basketball for most of it and talked to our familia.  Also, we had a lot of fun watching Monsters University in a members basement with some other Elders in our district.  Again, I just say WOW! Ba ba ba ba ba ba I’m lovin’ it!

Elder Z Caldwell


PS  The weirdest thing I have eaten so far is Cactus mixed with refried beans.  Not too bad, but a little slimy…haha.  I might make it a different way but that’s me.  No refried beans with it that was odd how that one worked.  Mostly the food is just like home food is.  Except I am getting fried turkey from a Texan!

Monday, December 23, 2013

23 December 2013 First Words from Nixa, Missouri

I am having a great time, everyone.  I love being able to serve the Lord at this time.  Lots of people "know more then we could ever teach them" which is a common attitude in these parts.But I love the times I have been able to help others.  We have been tracting, teaching, and all the fun stuff.

Note to self: Never, I repeat. NEVER fall asleep in church!  Especially as a Representative of Christ. Wow! that was severely embarrassing.  Good thing we have this amazing thing called the Atonement.  It is the most important thing to remember this Christmas Season, especially when you are giving and receiving gifts.   Christ gave the ultimate gift and that is the gift of ever lasting life or the Atonement.  That's why we give gifts at Christmas time. 


I love the work out here in Nixa, Missouri.  The members and non-members alike.  Well, I never was too good at this whole emailing thing, but I will say there are some nice trailer homes in this area.  It's amazing how beautiful they are.  Also, there are lots of people that work for the hospital and they have some crazy mansions.  


It always amazes me how much Beauty there can be in such a place with no mountains... wait they do have mountains sort of... if you can call them that!?!  haha  We would call them hills, but we live near the Ozark Mountains. 


I am being fed well, almost every night.  I am sure that will slow down after Christmas, but hey people are great here. My companion Elder Hughes is pretty much obsessed with Andre Buccelli.... or how ever you spell it. haha oh well.


 We found this awesome less active/inactive couple an old lady that is 86 and her husband is 63.  She collects cookie jars.  Kinda reminded me of my Grandma Caldwell and her porcelain doll collection. 


Thank you all for your support.  God loves you all.  See Luke 2:8-14


Well, I got to go.  Here is my address.  Mom, distribute information to whom ever you wish. Would you make sure Josh Dansie gets this info? And others as well.  


Thanks for the amazing support again. Hope to see you all in 2.  Letters go a lot faster to this new address than sending them to the mission home.  LOVE YOU ALL 


Elder Caldwell 
230 W. Tracker Rd. Apt. 202 
Nixa, Missouri  65714