Sum up of mission

Hey family!
This last week was a good one!
I got my "trunky papers" in the mail this week haha missionaries call
it that because it was my flight plans and departing letter from
President Brough. I leave at 10:04 AM and I will be getting to Idaho
Falls at 5:55!
Bill L, one of my recent converts from new Albany, came down to
Lexington and took us out to eat at a place called Coba Cocina. It is
a super nice place.

They have a 20ft jelly fish tank in the middle,
hand blown glass lights from Italy, and some DANG good food. For 3 of
us it was about $100 haha they had the greatest strawberry water I
have ever had. It was so good to see him again. He is very active in
New Albany right now. Has a Calling with the young men and also
teaches gospel principles occasionally. I will send pics of the
dinner.
On Friday night Alvin D, our big black recent convert got married
to Tori, she is also a member. And we got invited! It was held at the
Marriott, which is super nice here. The dinner after was amazing. Big
buffet of great food and literally as soon as I took the last bite and
put my fork on the table the waitress took it. Haha it was funny!
Can't believe this is my last week on my mission. It really feels
almost like a dream. It hasn't completely hit me that I'm going to be
home next week... This week is going to fly. We have a leadership
meeting in Louisville tomorrow with Elder Zwick of the seventy. It's
going to be him and like 12 of us. It's going to be awesome!! I feel
like I'm going to get rebuked or something! Then on Wednesday we have
a multi zone zone conference with elder Zwick down here in Lexington.
So that will go all day. And then so far we have 3 meal appointments
of people that want to take us out before I go home haha it's going to
be awesome.
If everyone could please keep Layne in your prayers that would be
greatly appreciated. She has been going so strong and she even gave a
talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and she is getting ready to leave
to college in a couple weeks. But this morning her mom called her on
the phone and told her that unless she promised to stop going to
church entirely she would not send in the check for her tuition. So
basically, her mom was saying, "either you choose college or you can
walk with your Mormon thing". And Layne called us after and just broke
down, she doesn't know what to do. She knows this church is true and
she doesn't regret her decision at all but she has been anticipating
this for a long time and now her mom is just pulling the rug out from
under her. My heart has just ached for her all day.

How can I sum up a 2 year mission in just one email? It has been so
amazing. It's been hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life. And
it's been the happiest, most joyful experience of my entire life. I
will never ever regret going on a mission. And I know I will
appreciate it for the rest of my life. I am so grateful to my Heavenly
Father for trusting me to be here and to teach the people I've taught.
I remember that first night we taught Gabriel and as we were
riding away on our bikes from teaching the best first lesson ever, I
couldn't help but just peddle as hard as I could because of the pure
happiness and joy that I felt. I remember the love I gained for Steve
and Colleen as I watched them change their lives and get baptized. She
was almost like a second mom to me. And as I went to her funeral I
gained an appreciation for the plan of salvation that I thought I
never could. Danny and Spencer were a blessing as well. They
taught me that God cares for his children. And is mindful of families
that have gone astray. I will never forget Emma & Michelle. Who
weren't related but we're both baptized on the same day. They taught
me that God answers prayers and knows the desires of his missionaries
through their struggles. Leiloni and Anara taught me the power of
miracles after her new born baby was miraculously healed after a
priesthood blessing. Bill taught me the importance of being
humble even after 55 years of being alive. Justin  and Nic taught me to persevere even when there is persecution (in his
case it was from family members and close friends). I have learned
many other things from all of my converts. But one of the biggest
things I learned is that baptisms are a gift from God to a missionary.
It's similar to Grace. We don't earn our salvation and we don't earn a
baptism, it is a gift. But obedience, like President uchtdorf put it,
is the outreaching of our hands to receive that gift. I know for a
fact that I couldn't have done any of these things if it weren't for
the Grace of God and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Honestly, I didn't
accomplish these things, God did.
Thank you all of you for supporting me for these past 2 years. For the
letters, cards, gifts, emails, potatoes in the mail, cookies, candy,
ties, and especially love. The Lord will bless you abundantly for
that!

I can now say to every one, SEE YA NEXT WEEK!!
Love ya!
Elder Eastin

I'll send a bunch of pics in another email

Sent from my iPad

Short and sweet

Hey Family!
Well this week was interesting. I think it will have to be told in
person to do it any justice! Haha sooooo I'll tell it later to ya when
I'm home! We just got back from playing laser tag and now we are
playing pool at our apartment complex!
Sorry for the short email today haha things are going good and I'm
looking forward to seeing yall soon!
Much much love,
Elder Eastin

Sent from my iPad

Another baptism, YSA Conference, 4 weeks

Hey family!
Well this last week was awesome. Laynes baptism was on Saturday at 7
and it was awesome. There were a lot of people there. Probably like
30-40 people. And after she was baptized she shared an amazing
testimony (of which I have a written copy of!)
On Friday and Saturday the branch had a regional YSA conference.
Friday night was games, dinner and a devotional. We were invited to
the dinner and devotional and also our mission President and his wife
were there so we got to spend some time with them! The food was great!
They got city BBQ catered for free haha it was so good. And then the
devotional was a talk by Elder Hymas of the area seventy. But before
he spoke 3 of the branch members and myself sang a duet "come thou
fount of every blessing" it was awesome! Everyone said it sounded
great. I basically got volunteered for it haha. The next morning they
did breakfast and a variety of service projects. Breakfast was super
good and we chose to do the blanket making service project and then
they were going to donate the blankets to hospitals. So that was a
great time. There were about 50 other church members from stakes
surrounding ours. President Sproul even made the announcement over the
pulpit that I'm going home in 4 weeks.....and said "Girls, he's going
back to BYU-I-Do in 4 weeks". That was super awkward haha
This morning we went golfing with a member. It was a pretty nice golf
course, had a lot of fun! I can't wait to get back to it and have my
own clubs again. I love golfing.
On Tuesday night we drove to Beattyville Kentucky to blitz the elders
down there. Blitz means that all four of us work the same area for a
day to get it going stronger. So we went down there to work with them
on Wednesday. They didn't have any baptismal dates at the time but
they had a goal to get 4 by the weeks end. Coming out of the blitz we
had set 3 and then over the next couple days they set 4 more so they
now have 7! It was a miracle! Beattyville is sooooo far out in the
country. It was so fun staying there. It's about an hour and a half
drive south west of here.

So, 4 weeks left.....crazy stuff. Everyone at church always talks to
me about it, I hate it! I wish no one knew when I am going home. It
would make things much easier haha. I love the branch members here so
much. Such great friendships.

Thats about it for the week. Sure love y'all!!

LAST TRANSFER, food poisoning, progress

Good morning family and friends!
Well it's a partially cloudy day here. It's been raining a lot this
week (as usual).
This week was a great start to the last transfer! We have 4 new
district leaders in our zone so we trained 2 of them this week on how
to be district leaders and we are working with the other 2 this next
week. Lots of driving to do this transfer.... Haha probably close to
1900 miles I would guess! After training one of our district leaders
we went to a Mexican place in town called El Gran Taco. It was really
good but long story short my companion and one of the other Elders
basically got food poisoning from it haha all because they didn't eat
the radishes that came with it! Apparently they are to help settle
your stomach and helps prevent food poisoning (kinda fishy) but
anyways I ate all of mine after I was done and I didn't get sick but
elder Russell did and so on Friday he was in bed all day! So that was
a boring day. Did a lot of journal writing and scripture reading in
that time! Finished the Book of Mormon again this morning! What a
great book.
Layne is set to get baptized this coming Saturday! She had a great
baptismal interview with one of our district leaders. She recorded it
on her phone and then had us listen to it haha it was really cool to
hear! She is so so so excited!
This week we are going to be driving an hour and a half down to a
little town called Beattyville Kentucky where we are going to work
with an Elder and his new greenie missionary! It should be an
adventure!
Romain, Justice and Alvin are all doing well since their baptisms!
Alvin and Romain have the priesthood and Justice got her temple
recommend yesterday! And Romain is working on getting his!
Not much else to say about the week. Going to go shopping at Krogers
and then play basketball like usual!
Much love to everyone!
Elder Eastin

Sent from my iPad

What a GREAT week!!!!!!! What a GREAT mission!!!

Hey Family!!

What a GREAT week!!!!!!! What a GREAT mission!!! Love it so much. Yesterday was probably one of the best days of my whole mission. Definitely the best sunday I've EVER had! 

Lets start with Romain's baptism. It was solid and he is such a good guy. He's made a lot of changes and has come a long way. When I first got here he was not progressing at all and we just went over to his house if we didn't have anything to do and we would read some scriptures with him and thats basically it. He wouldn't come to church or anything. BUT after picking him back up he really started progressing and BOOM now hes a member! He asked to share his testimony after his baptism and it was a great one. He gave up friends and moved out of his old apartment just to get away from the negativity they were giving him about the church. And then the next day at church our branch President interviewed him for the priesthood before church, we confirmed him in sacrament, he was sustained for the preisthood and then was ordained in Elders quorum. And then to add on to all of that greatness, Alvin was at the branch this sunday and he was also interviewed for the priesthood and I got to ordain him to the Aaronic Priesthood AND Romain got to stand in on the Ordination because he had just been ordained. It was awesome. So much priesthood work done in just a few hours!

Then after church at 4:30, Layne, Us and our branch mission Leader left to go to the fireside in Louisville and Justice Smith (our recent convert) rode up with another member. But the point of us leaving so early was so we could go to the TEMPLE! :D And it was fantastic to see it. Just being on the outside of the temple you can feel the peace of the spirit. 

Layne and Justice loved it also. They are so excited to go to it! And then at 7 we went to the fireside. I'll admit, there were a bunch of 'Life story" types of testimonies haha but it was good that those people got up and they tried their best to share their testimonies. Towards the end Layne got up and shared her testimony! And it was soooooooooooo good. So powerful and she testified of the importance of everyone opening their mouths to share the gospel, because if her friend Thomas wouldnt have she wouldnt have known about the church. It was inspiring.

So if these past 3 weeks hasn't been the best of my whole mission I don't know what else could be any better haha. 3 baptisms, another one on the way, 2 priesthood ordinations, seeing the temple with an investigator and recent convert, and then a great fireside. Praise the Lord. 

We need more people to teach and baptize haha we have a few pretty solid referrals we are gonna start working with so that will hopefully turn out good!

Every other week we have branch council before church and so this week we had it. With our branch President (President Sproul) the conversation can go anywhere and i mean anywhere. haha but at one point he asked me how much longer I have on my mission (and i hate telling people that because it makes me realize how short of time i have left) but my companion told him i have 7 weeks left, and President Sproul just stopped and started to cry. I have never had a leader of a church express so much love and appreciation like he did than in any other area I've had. And i dont mean to boast or brag at all with this story, because I really dont feel like that great of a missionary, but he just....doesn't want me to leave. It was so emotional. So glad i get to finish here. 

Much love from KENTUCKY!!!!

Baptisms, a famous WW2 Veteran, and Snakes… Oh My!

Hey Fam!!

What a great couple of weeks this has been! Alvins baptism, now

justice's baptism on Saturday and then we have another baptism this

coming Saturday! It's going to be so miraculous! And Layne is set for

the 18th of July!

Justice's baptism was a great one. Her dad was baptized when he was 18

and then was less active for most of his life. Missionaries found him

and his family and they baptized the mom and son this February.

Justice was a part of another church and didn't want anything to do

with the Mormon church. But over time she became more curious and she

began going to church with them and she wanted to go to the YSA. And

now she got baptized by her dad and then she asked me to confirm her!

That is one of my favorite things to do! There is a great spirit

during a confirmation.

Well it's sad to say that I have 8 weeks left...:/

Oooooooooh so we had some super cool stuff happen this week! We went

on exchange with some elders and I went to Paris with Elder Asay.

While there we were walking down this street and we saw this old guy

working on his truck and so we went up and talked to him. Come to find

out he is a really famous world war 2 veteran and that he was one of

the first soldiers onto Utah Beach on D-Day. He invited us inside and

told us tons of stories and showed us pictures and old war stuff. He

just got back from France where he is honored there every single year

and he's a hero to them. He's on the news and in the papers all over

there when he visits. It's crazy! So, I got a picture with him and got

his signature!

Also, that night we went to a members house for dinner and after we

ate they brought out their pet...... Snake. 4 ft long Boa. The hairs

on my neck stood up when I saw that thing. They finally got me to hold

it. It was actually pretty awesome to hold and was a nice snake.

Finally over came that fear. I still hate snakes....

That's all for this week! Love ya!!

Elder Eastin

A Baptism and down to single digit weeks

Hey Fam and friends!
Well it's been a typical pday. Lots of basketball. It's getting really
humid so we just sweat bullets. So, like I said, Alvin got baptized
this weekend. And he was here today playing basketball with us. It was
just us 3 playing ball. He's really hard to play against, he's super
good.

So this weekend on Saturday at 5 Justice is going to be
baptized. She is really cool and loves the church a lot!
And Layne is an 18 year old who knew a few members of the church and
they brought her to the church a few times and now she's meeting with
us and loves the church and its teachings and is super excited to get
baptized!
Romain is a 23 year old from Congo, Africa. He is getting baptized on
the 27th and he came to church this Sunday even thought he got 4 hours
of sleep the night before. I think he's pretty committed! He said that
he's excited for his baptism!
Let me tell ya, when you set a prayerful and an inspired goal and you
make a plan to work towards it, the Lord provided the way for it to
happen. I wish it would have set goals like this my whole mission! God
is good, amen? Amen. Praise the Lord. (There's a taste of Kentucky for
ya)
A missionary told me that I'm into the single digit of weeks left....
Wish he wouldn't have told me that. :(

Love yall!!
Elder Eastin