Week 14

Hey Friends and Family,

This past week has been the hardest week of my mission for sure. We had some issues during exchanges with our Zone Leaders. That’s about all I will say about that. Then, two days after that, I found out my Grandpa died. I heard it from President Montierth, who drove about an hour and a half to tell me in person, instead of over the phone. He offered me the chance to call home to talk with my family, but I decided not to. That was a hard decision to make. I knew that it would just mess with my head if I called home. I have to admit that I kind of shut down for a while after that and slept like the whole day. Everyone was worried about me. I'm sad I can't be there for his funeral. I wish I could be there, but I swore I would see this mission through to the end.

I recovered relatively quickly after that. I decided to turn myself outward to continue doing the Lord’s Work. In our trials, it is easy to become selfish and blame others or even God for our shortcomings and trials. We must hold fast to Christ and be as Nephi in the Book of Mormon, instead of like his brothers, Laman and Lemuel. Let us go forth “feasting upon the words of Christ and be of good cheer,” for the trials will not cease. Helaman chapter 5 Verse 12 states: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Jesus Christ loves each and every one of us. He is reaching out his hand continually. If you choose to take his hand with all your strength, he will NEVER let you fall. He will continue always to lift you higher and higher.

After everything else that happened this past weekend, we had a fun P-day. I climbed a tree, ate some frog leg and a gopher leg. One of our Elders is from Texas and likes hunting. It was fun mission stuff.

Thank you as always for the messages of support.

I love God and Jesus Christ, and I love all of you.

Elder Rexinger

Week 13

Hey Family and Friends,

This week was a fun week. We didn’t have any real progress with the new investigators unfortunately, but we did a bunch of service this week. We had the Earth Day trash thing. That was awesome by the way. We got there at about 8 in the morning, left at like 12 something. Then, we went to another service project to help someone with their garden. That went until 3. It was fun because I'm in an area where there are barely any service opportunities.

We also went on a bunch of exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I went to Desert Hills with Elder Ralston. I then hosted Elder Miles in our area. Then, the Zone Leaders exchanged with the YSA  Elders and stayed the night at our apartment. We had a fun night that included hot dog eating contests and some wrestling matches.

The phones have been weird. I had a bunch of music on mine from Elder Zachary. Unfortunately, most of the music isn't approved anymore, so I had to delete a lot. I went from over 200 songs, to only 61 songs. It broke my heart.

I hope everyone has a nice week.

Thank you for all the support and prayers. The Gospel is true.

Elder Rexinger

Earth Day Service Project

Week 12

Hey Friends and Family,

This week has been a slow one. Our smartphones arrived to help us in the Work. The problem is, we had to move all the records from the old-fashion blue binders to the electronic phone version. We spent like three hours on Friday doing it. I gotta say, it has been super tempting not to look at and respond to emails the entire time I've had the phone, but I made it to Monday without peeking. Now, I just gotta do that for the next 80+ weeks.

Like I said, the work was slow this week because of all the stuff with the phones that was new. We have a couple of lessons planned this week with our investigators. We also have an awesome service project on the 21st for Earth Day.

I'm feeling a little sick right now, just a cold, but I bought some medicine like an hour ago. Otherwise, our typical p-days, we go to Wal-Mart at 8. We can e-mail from about 9 to whenever we leave for lunch. We will do some type of sports from 1-5 usually. Then, we have normal proselyting after that.

Hopefully, I will have more updates from our lessons next week.

Thank you for all the support and prayers. The Gospel is true.

Elder Rexinger

Another Awesome Family in West Richland

Week 11

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had an awesome week. I sure did. I helped participate in a baptism for the Desert Hills Ward. I've attended and participated in two baptisms so far. I've been told by the members in my wards that they love seeing my "cheery smile." They say how I make their day better. That's nice to hear. Hopefully, I'll be able to translate that to some baptisms. Our new investigators are going a bit slow. The new family is busy with sports, wrestling in particular, but thankfully that ended yesterday. No one is coming to church yet as of now, but hopefully that'll change soon.

Smart Phones are showing up on Thursday. We’re having an extra Zone Conference talking all about the phones.

The apartment situation is going well. Elder Pulver’s trainer is Elder Zachary. He's awesome. We’re whipping Elder Zachary into shape.

I forgot to mention, yesterday on Fast Sunday two speakers from General Conference were at my wards. Elder Holmes and Elder Durrant. That was awesome, you meet so many General Authorities as a missionary. If anyone hasn’t watched Conference yet, get on it. It was amazing.

Thank you for the prayers and support.

Elder Rexinger

P.S. I've been told an awesome scripture to send to people that don't email me enough. Alma 60:6 "And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state."

Elder Zachary's favorite sweatshirt he accidentally left behind in the Materials Center.

Just a little rain so far.

Week 10

Hey Everyone,

General Conference was crazy. Lots of changes. We watched Conference at a bunch of different member’s houses. It was amazing to see that Elder Gong is now an Apostle! I shook his hand! There's photographic evidence. He just visited our mission.

In other news, the YSA missionaries moved into our apartment this transfer,. We now have Elders Zachary and Pulver (who is a brand new missionary). In actual missionary news, we found 5 new investigators this week while we were out with Brother Meyer, our Ward Mission Leader for Paradise ward. We taught the first lesson, gave them a Book of Mormon, and we committed them to pray and read. While we were also out with Bishop Christensen from the Paradise Ward, we were able to get back in with Lexie and Chris. Chris recently got a new job, so it's been hard to set anything up.

Something that was super awesome that happened this week was that Kolby and Stephanie told us that whenever they talk about us during the day, we show up later that night. They recognized that myself and Elder Lindholm keep getting promptings to see them. Another awesome thing was that they noticed how their son Charlie got better from being sick super fast after I prayed for a speedy recovery for him. He literally felt better the next day.

Until next week. Thank you for the prayers and support. The Gospel is true.

Elder Rexinger

Dinner with some awesome members.

A lunch bag left for us in the fridge at the church. 

Another care package type thing (they really like missionaries). 

Week 9

Hey everybody,

I have a migraine, so this e-mail is going to be short. Transfer calls came today, and I'm staying put in The Lakes and Paradise Wards. This week was actually pretty sweet. We helped out with a baptism on Saturday. That was awesome. I hope to be doing that a lot more. Easter is coming up soon. I can't wait for General Conference. I am so stoked for it. 

Getting ready for the baptism

Dinner at the Bishop's

Easter dinner with some awesome members and a little April Fool's brussel sprout cake pop

Week 8

Hello there my friends and family,

Thank you to everyone who reached out and were concerned and praying for me after my cyst scare. I've been given antibiotics for 10 days. It's not bad at all. I've also been told to have good posture when I sit so it doesn't get irritated, and I've been soaking the area with water. I'm just taking care of it for now.

There has been quite the development this week out here in the Washington Kennewick Mission that has caused quite the ripple in the mission. We're getting smartphones. That's weird. My paper scriptures have been used more this past month than my entire life before. I've gotten used to it and don't want to go back to technology. My family told me the month before my mission that I'd die without my phone on the mission. But at this point, I don't want technology back. Unfortunately it's going to happen. Although I'm looking at this negatively at the moment, it's going to be a good thing in the long run I guess.

In other news, missionary work hasn't been too busy this week. Lexie was sick this week, so no progress there. The Carvers are hooking us up with dinner again. That family is awesome. We are making some real strides with them. Their kids love us. Charlie, Neva, and Joe are adorable. Kolby has a dope beard too. Stephanie is super nice and is a really good cook. I am definitely gonna have to visit them after the mission, I'm calling it already.

Love you all. Take care. The Gospel is true.

Elder Rexinger

I found a source of "Eagle Powers." That's from Nacho Libre in case you didn't know.