So Long to the South Side

June 14, 2019

So Long to the South Side

#1 Office Missionaries

What's up squad!

Sorry for going MIA the past 2 weeks. The mission is in the middle of moving everything over to Iowa City due to the changing of mission headquarters. So that means moving the entire office, storage units, apartments, and mission home 2 hours to the east to set up shop there. It has been quite the adjustment and test of patience to say the least. 2 weeks of not really doing any regular missionary work. I don't think I've wanted to talk to someone more about Jesus in my life and just get back to it. The Church has also officially sent in a name change for our mission to get approved... The IICM - Iowa Iowa City Mission. That's kinda weird!

Our amazing friend, more like our little grandma by now, Adriana has been killing it with the Sisters. She is so great. Ever since she has been coming she has her go to place to sit. 2nd row, right in the middle. How awesome is that? She has such a great enthusiasm for the Gospel and it has literally propelled her outlook on life. She has miraculously survived 2 attempted suicides and as she explains the stories of both times, I literally have no idea how someone (and in one instance, her trustworthy pup) found her just in time. She has taken both those divinely intervened instances as a sign that she is still very much needed in this world. And as President Ortega invited her to church and introduced her to this Gospel, she has had this fire ignite inside her. The Gospel gives all of us reason to live, reason to reach out to those who we don't expect will be impacted, reason to save. That's an opportunity and a calling for all of us. So Adriana is awesome. We took some pics last week and she was just clinging on to Elder Clark and I the whole time. Such a cute little lady. She'll hopefully be getting tized soon!!

This week we move to Iowa City and leave the South Side of Des Moines. I have spent over a year of my mission serving in that area covering the Spanish branch and now the Easter Lake ward. I was there during my first days in the mission field and now will have been there for some of my last. I have seen a small few of the thousands of people I have contacted, talked to, and taught on the South side, enter into the waters of baptism. I have seen oh too many get SO close and then fall off the path. I know where to go to find the best pros ball and where to go to talk to some of the most humble people. I know the South Side almost as well as back home. It's pretty much my home away from home. It will always have a very special place in my heart. Now to Iowa City....GO HAWKEYES BABY!

Elder Christensen