Week 90: He will always put you exactly where he needs you

Hello Family,

Scripture of the week: D&C29:4-5, 31:3

Well, its sounds like its been an eventful week on the home front. Sounds like a good one for the most part. Im grateful to hear the good news with grandma. Best get her some protein shakes and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches so she can gain some weight. That worked so well for me.... NOT! 

Looks like the Jr show was a success. Vanity looks like she came together pretty well. You know your little sister has grown aton since youve been on your mission when the cows no longer make her look short. I cant believe how grown up she is. The new barn looks very nice. Good news is it will still be there next year and every year after that so i will get to spend plenty of time in it. The high roof will make it pretty difficult to hang our spider from, but i suppose we will just have to find a way to make it work, i bet dad is glad the roof doesnt allow for hanging spiders now. Looks like you guys made pedigree boards and everything. I love it, so awesome. I have loved working with Wade, but there is definitely something really special when we put together a string and just rough it as a family, something i am really looking forward to next show season. Hopefully we can get the big hitters up and running for next season.  Mom it sounds like they have been keeping you on the road plenty, but just know that it is so appreciated all that you do for us, it really is. Sounds like you have driven almost as much as me this week. All in all sounds like it was a good week. Who was the judge? i dont recognize him. Look forward to hearing how the open show goes, hopefully the minister calf does better today, thatd be pretty sweet to get 4 out of her. Who is she out of again? i should know these things, but yall understand. 

That is so cool that Alex got his wish granted. That is one special little kid, one special family for that matter. i got an amazing letter from Lori a few weeks ago, just havent had time to reply to it. Hopefully i get time one of these next weeks before it is too late. 

Thank you for the package from grandma, i wrote her a quick thank you this morning before we headed over here to the office. She takes pretty great care of me. 

So this week was just great. The weather was gorgeous all week, so that meant that there were tons of people out and about, so we got to talk to people out the wazoo. We started our week in Gardiner, which is where Elder Wells is, so i got to work with Elder Wells, that was great, it was just like we never got split up, we just picked up where we left off. He is doing really well considering the fact that he goes home in two weeks. We then worked in Augusta, then Damariscotta. While in Damariscotta we went to a small tourist town called Booth Bay Harbor and did some street contacting. That place was hustlin'. got some picture of the ocean that i will send your way.

After Damariscotta we were in Yarmouth, and had a fantastic exchange. I worked with an Elder Phillips, he is from Rexburg, and is just a sold kid, we saw many miracles on exchange. One that really stands out happened with a man named Kevin. I dont remember his last name so i have just started to refer to him as Kevin Bacon. No he doesnt look anything like Kevin Bacon, but it sounds good. But anyway we met Kevin Bacon on the street and he really wasnt  all that interested, but we left him with a mormon.org card. Two hours later we received a church head quarters referral for a man named Kevin. We thought "could it be?" sure enough it was. kevin had went home and checked out mormon.org, and decided he was interested so he referred himself. That doesnt happen very often so its pretty cool. This happened on thursday and the elders in yarmouth have already taught him twice since then. If the lord knows you will talk to them, he will place the prepared in your path. After Yarmouth we headed to Saco, where i had the opportunity to work with another former companion, Elder Davis who also goes home in two weeks. He is doing well as well. While in Saco Elder Walker and i decided to go for our morning run on the beach. It was pretty sweet running in the sand bare foot. i have pictures of it as well. All in all just a great week of exchanges. 

We got home and had planning meeting with President and started planning for Zone Conference with Elder Wilson. He will be here week 6, 17 18 and 19 of this month. Im excited for it, but also will be glad when it is over, as it is very stressful here in the office preparing for a general authority to come. But all will be fine. 

We ended the week with a great Sabbath day. Church is always such a great finish and start to a week. i just love it. I love fast sundays. 

So last night Elder Walker and i were sitting here in the office prepping the transfer board and we got a call from Elder Barnes and Elder Harrington, two of the elders serving in manchester. They asked us if we had a Coke. We thought "well that is a weird question". So we asked why and they proceeded to tell us that Elder Barnes has a small esophagus and he had a piece of roast lodged in his throat, and this has happened before and Coke helps to dislodge it. (The acid from the coke probably eats it away just like it eats away your body). So the ox being in the mire we ran to the store and got Elder Barnes a Coke (these elders are in a walking area so they have no car) so we take him the coke, and it is just not helping so we call the mission dr and he tells us to take him to the ER. So we did and sat there for 3 hours before they finally got him in. By this time it was 10 so we left them there and headed home, now this morning i have not heard what happened with Elder Barnes yet, so this story will be continued next week. 

But wait there is more... we were sitting in the waiting room and Sister Hughes a member from the Bedford ward comes up and says "Elder Zilles im so glad you  are here, Brother Hughes is here and needs a blessing". I guess Bro. Hughes was having weird chest pains so he was in to get that checked out. So we gave Bro. Hughes a blessing, dont know what happened with that story either so that will continue later as well. I just thought it was pretty cool that the lord had placed us where he needed us for more than one reason. If you are doing the right thing, he will always put you exactly where he needs you. 

Hold to the Rod

Love ya 

Elder Zilles

Oh almost forgot, this week we have leadership training, then wednesday we are working in concord NH, thursday Somersworth NH, then friday through sunday here in the office prepping for transfers and the general authority. love you all

 

Week 91: Safety for the Soul

Hello Family,

Scripture of the Week: D&C 35:24

My heart is full this morning, and i feel very strongly that i need to write this, so i am going to write this then i will talk about the happenings of this week. 

I want to talk about the Book of Mormon. I have been signing my emails with "Hold to the Rod" for the majority of my mission, but this morning i want to talk about just that, holding to the rod. I have alot of thoughts on this subject running through my mind, so i hope that what ever it is that you all need to hear makes it into this email. My favorite talk of all times is by Elder Holland, it is titled "Safety for the Soul". That is exactly what the Book of Mormon is, is safety for the soul. The Book of Mormon has an incredible power, a power to change lives, to bring true and lasting happiness, a power that i cant adequately talk about in an email. But it is a real power. A power that has truly changed my life, and i want nothing more than for it to change everyone in the worlds life.

 Joseph Smith said that The Book of Mormon is the Key stone of our religion, but i will take that even farther and say that the Book of Mormon is the key stone of our lives. A key stone holds an arch together, and when it is taken away the arch crumbles. I have observed in my own life and the lives of many others that when they stop reading the Book of Mormon, or "Holding to the Rod" that is when life begins to crumble. Now i cant promise that if we always read the Book of Mormon we wont have any trials in our lives, because that would not be consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But i can promise that as we "hold to the rod" we will always have what we need to get through our trials. I dont know that this email even says a small part of how i feel about the Book of Mormon, but that book has completely changed my life.

I have a friend  friend who  was able to overcome terrible things by reading the Book of Mormon. Before he could come on a mission he had to overcome terrible addictions. Addictions that usually take lots and lots of help to overcome, and he overcame everyone of those addictions by reading the Book of Mormon. I too have felt that same power in the Book of Mormon. I have a saying written in the cover of my Book of Mormon and it says "when temptation comes along, read the Book of Mormon and it will be gone". I wrote that there because i have used it and it works. Please always hold to the rod. 

i dont know if any of that even makes sense, and i dont know who exactly needed to hear that, but someone did, so i wrote it. 

Alright so it sounds like quite the eventful week on the home front. Not every day you just get to make a spur of the moment seven hour drive to go camping, sounds like a good time. Also sounds like Homecoming was great. That is always a good time there at the West Side. Not every year is Homecoming filled with people getting engaged though, sounds like that added some real zest to all of the West Side Hoopla. Tattles and a USU game, life doesnt get much better than that. Tried to talk president into going to a game with us this week, just so we could go, but he didnt go for that. Understandably!

The week here in the mission has been full of preparation. Its not every day that a general authority comes to your mission, so we have been going crazy getting everything all prepped for that, as he will be here on Tuesday night, and then we have Zone conferences Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Its gonna be an eventful week that is for sure. Then Saturday we will finish Prepping for Transfers and Saturday night we will make transfer calls. Everything is pretty well ready for that though. All we need to do now is call them out. Then next Tuesday will be transfer meeting  and then everyone will be off to there new areas. Always an exciting time here in the NHMM. 

Quinton with the AP bat, every AP signs this bat!

So normally i wouldnt know what is happening with me at transfer time for another week, but with my current calling i am a little bit more in the loop than i used to be. So yes i know exactly what Elder Zilles will be doing for the last two transfers of his mission. I am just trying to decide if i want to tell you this week or wait till next week to tell you.... Hmmmmm.. Ok i think i will just tell you this week. So there is quite the amazing story behind this transfer call... 

A few weeks ago i was reading through the notes from my setting apart blessing like i do quite regularly, and when i read the part about gaining a stronger testimony of the Prophet Joseph, i had the strangest feeling. then the words came to my mind clearer than anything that i would be serving in South Royalton which is where the JSM is. I thought to my self, there is no way that will happen, that is a sisters area. So then a few days go by, and we find out that one of the Sr couples at the JSM had to go home early, so now they are short staffed. So we counseled and President decided we should open a new area there in SO RO and send Elders there till we get a replacement sr couple. So by this time im starting to think, "ok maybe i did receive revelation that i will be serving there". But nothing i can really do about it, so i just went on my marry way. So then comes along this friday, and we had interviews with President. He opens the Transfer board and i see my picture in South Royalton. Next to my picture i see a blue card that says "MTC arrival" which means i will be training a new missionary. President said to me "If it were up to me i would keep you here in the office with me, but it is not up to me it is up to the lord. and i feel very strongly that you are needed in South Royalton, and i cant think of a better person to train a new missionary." so my last two transfers i will be opening a new area, training a new missionary, and also i will once again be a district leader. it is going to be an incredible last two transfers i am so excited. I cant think of a greater place to end my mission than at the birth place of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Ahh its going to be so amazing. Plus back in Vermont, what else could i ask for. I feel pretty spoiled. Its gonna be amazing. Wow its been 18 months since i trained Elder Guinn. Im just so excited. 

Well i think that is probably enough of my rambling. sure do love you all so very much. 

Hold to the Rod

Elder Zilles 

Week 89: oh...maine

Hola,

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 22:2, D&C 24:11

Sounds like it was a pretty good week on the homefront. Any week that includes a bit of clipping and cow showing is a good week in my book. I cant believe it is already september. Yall better make sure and take plenty of pictures of the shows over the next few weeks. I still have a need for my cow fix. Dont worry though its a healthy addiction... healthy addiction? yea that makes no sense at all, but oh well. Im excited to hear how the shows pan out. 

Sounds like church was good as well. Im so glad you had them speak on the need for sr couples, boy do we need them so badly, i know my mission needs them so that means the whole church needs them just as bad. Everyone who is able should go. A mission is one thing that i can say no one will ever regret doing. regardless of age or shoe size. 

Sounds like it was a great week for dad with baby Ashty, i dont know what he did to get her to like him so much, but wow he must be paying her under the table or something. Ha just kidding, im sure he is a wonderful grandpa. That is one thing i am definitely excited for is meeting that little girl. Dont worry though i am not trunky, no time to be trunky, to much to do and not enough time to do it. 

Im very excited that Zadee has flushed so well. cows like her are really what make this whole thing all worth it. I have had so many good times with that ol girl. Ive been showing her for a Loooong time. i still remember winning jr champion with her clear back in heber days. That was a long time ago. Gonna miss showing that old girl, but it sure had been a good run. 

We had a lesson on the creation is sunday school yesterday and we were talking about how Heavenly Father created us all with different likes and dislikes, and then he created things to meet all of those for us. That is just one example of all that he has done for us because he loves us so much. Hopefully Jordan is able to do some good work on Norma so her Legacy can live on for a while as well. We've gotta work on getting some more heavy hitters in the line up when i get home. 

Well as for my week... Oh Maine, where to begin.... Did you see what i did there i said oh Maine instead of oh man. 

Anyways Maine... It was another great week. always full of new adventures, doing service in really gross houses knocking on lots of doors. Working with some really great friends. It is so rewarding to work with missionaries i had in my zone before and see how much they have changed and grown. 

My favorite exchange of the week was with Elder Jessee. He is the one that you met his parents at the Wilkeys thing. We got a ton of work done and it was just great. We set out to contact a Less active and when we got to the address we found it to be a trailer park, and we didnt have a number for what trailer, so we went to work. 62 white trailer doors later we did not find the guy we were looking for, it was great. 

So with all of our exchanges and all we have to get done when we are home, we had about 2 hours to work in our area yesterday, but it was a very productive 2 hours. We got a media referral for a guy. So we went to contact it, and he is so solid. He is one of the most solid people i have met since i have been out of my Vermont.  Just a super solid guy, he let us in right away, we taught him the restoration, accepted the moroni challenge and an invite to the JSM. Super awesome guy. A great miracle. 

As for this week... we are wroking in Gardiner Maine, August Maine, Damariscotta Maine, Yarmouth Maine, and Saco Maine. When we get back we have planning meeting with president to prepare for MLC next week. And at MLC we will be preparing for the general authority that is coming week 6. Elder Larry Wilson of hte 70 will be here. Because he is coming week 6 we are prepping transfers week 5, so the next few weeks are going to go so fast that they might as well be over. Itll be great though. sure do love you all. 

Hold to the Rod

Elder Zilles