FW: Whats going on?

For those who don't know, Dave went into Atriel Fibrillation last week and was in the hospital for four days. We decided not to tell Kelly since he's focused and doing well until we knew things were leveled out and he would be okay. We received permission from Kelly's new mission president to let Kelly call his dad today, he seemed a bit distressed in this email. Dave is stable on medications and back at work for a few hours today.

Mom,

Well if that wasn't a scare when I read an email from Megan earlier this morning and heard a little about what is going on with Dad. It was a horrible feeling being left in the dark and not knowing what was going on. All I could do is sit here and wait for your emails to come.

This weeks has felt like is has taken several years off my life. Every morning I fight the mind over mattress battle when I force myself to get up at 6:30am. My mind knows that I have to get up, but my body tells me otherwise. I'm not used to working so hard and having such intense spiritual experiences draining me this much. A story from the life of Joseph Smith comes to mind to illustrate what I mean. When Joseph Smith received the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 78 with Sidney Rigden, at the end of the vision, Sidney was pale and had looked like he had gone through something very strenuous. Joseph said to those who were in the room with them that Sidney was not yet used to such experiences like he himself was.

This week we found 13 new investigators and we had one baptism! We are teaching several new families that we are very excited to be blessed to teach. One of the families is the Campbell family. They were a referral from an APEX security Alarm installer. It's weird sometimes how the Lord works His will out, but He always gets His way. We taught them this past Thursday. They had some very sincere questions and after we got done with the lesson they were our best friends. They are going to be coming to the ward social that is going on this Wednesday.

My time is up and I have to go, but tell Dad that he better change his diet, get exercising and take care of himself so that he can still work around the house when I get home.

I love you and Dad and thank you for all that you do for me!

Love your son,
Elder D. Kelly Conrad

Short and Sweet!

Well things are still going good, I'm alive and well and I'm keeping hydrated. This past week has been pretty crazy. It feels like time is flying faster and faster and when I look back it seems like I haven't accomplished much. It's amazing to me to think that Zone conference was only last Monday. It feels like it was at least a month ago. So I won't write about that.

On Thursday while we were at a dinner appointment at Sister North's her 5 year old, ADHD kid named Jay and I played a game. It was called "stop Jay from throwing Elder Conrad's planner in the toilet", it didn't go very well. Every time he would get past me in the hall way and into the bathroom I would stop him. Well he got a little smart and ran to another bathroom that I didn't know about. I almost beat him to it, but when I got to him it was too late, it was already in the toilet. A missionary's planner here in the OTM means everything and now mine is all warped and crinkled. But it was an awesome game and it was worth it!

Mark Hemrick is getting baptized this Friday and I am very excited for it. He has come along way and I have been able to see him and his family mends the broken relationships that they have had over these past few weeks. Its amazing what humility, family prayer, and Family home evening can do!
Some thing that I am learning is to not care what I think others might think of me. I'm not to sure how well I am learning this lesson, but it is a good skill to have as a missionary. This past week I have felt very small and very inadequate. Things that are happening around me are stretching me and I am leaning more and more on prayer and faith.

I am having a tough time remembering things lately. If you have ever notice while reading the scriptures the word remember is used a lot. And when you come to a story about some one forgetting something it is always bad.

Well that's all for this week. Keeping it short and sweet as some one might say ;)
Love,
Elder D Kelly Conrad

PS, I'll write more in the letter.
PPS, today is my 11 month mark!! WOOT WOOT!!

First ZLC and ZC!

Pictures:
Elder Conrad and Elder Clinger, companions from the Mountain Home area
Beautiful scenery in Arkansas

Things are still going pretty well here. We only had two full days to do missionary work this week with going to Tulsa for two days and then having the rest of our normal meetings. But we still managed to get 121 otm's and teach 35 lessons, not what our goal was but considering the week it was exceptional.

Zone leader counsel was very good. I was pretty nervous about meeting with all the leaders in the mission and comparing myself to them, but everything was alright. President Merkley is so wonderful! I love him and I am so excited to serve the rest of my mission under him. He is every loving, but he doesn't put up with anything. He's already got himself a slogan that's going around the mission, "Shape up, or ship out!" the work is going to continue to keep going forward and I'm, very excited about it! I talked to him about his family and if he knows Uncle Merkley and he said that he is related to all the Merkleys some how.

We had Zone Conference yesterday and that is why I am emailing you today. It went very well and was very inspiring. I am a part of the best Zone ever! Everyone at zone conference was inspired and uplifted by the Spirit and we are working on becoming one with the Father and the Son. The focus of the conference was all about becoming one in all that we do, becoming more unified and becoming a band of brotherhood. We were taught about role plays and how we need to do them everyday so that we can become master teachers by following the Spirit in all that we do. Something I am learning from Elder Harrison is the importance of relying on the Spirit in everything.

President Merkley is a retire pilot and through out his instruction he often referred to things dealing with air planes. He told us a story about a Jr pilot not paying attention and heeding to his gut feelings and how it cost everyone's life on the plane. Then he told us this story about a time when he was flying a cargo plane full of firecrackers and while taking off two of the three engines exploded and how he was barely able to land the plane. By the end of this story I felt like I had just stepped off a 5 hour plane flight, I was anxious, sweating and I thought to myself, " I'm never flying again, either my parents will have to drive down here to get me or I will take a greyhound home!" But when President Merkley finished he told us it was a simulation and that it hadn't really happened. If he keeps telling his plane stories I might never fly in an air plane again!

Getting to go and see Elsie and her family again was pretty awesome. It opened my eyes to see the impact that was had there in that family. I still felt a strong love for them and it was hard to leave them again.

When you're a zone leader there is no Jr, Sr companion but it is very humbling to see the growth in Elder Harrison, and have him push me to become better. I have been very prideful these past few weeks and I just now realized it. I have been fighting against what Elder Harrison has been trying to teach me and have viewed as him be critical of me, but when in reality its not him be critical but helping me grow, and helping me see what I can do better. Pride creeps in and we are sometimes never aware of it until its to late and some thing has been lost. I am so thankful that I was compelled to be humbled because I can keep learning from the rest of this transfer. It reminds me of the scripture that says that those that the Lord loves he chastens, the reason why He does that is not to be critical, or put himself higher then us, but to help us to become better and reach or potential. Something that has really helped me out these past few weeks has been prayer. I look forward to my time talking to Heavenly Father and seeking out His will.
I have to go, I'm running out of time on the computer
Love,
Elder D Kelly Conrad

Confidence and the Fourth!--Letter from brother Kelly, to all family (Cori)

Rachel,

This is Cori's brother's weekly email that I send out to the family. She likes to read these.

So I finally got my Alpha smart working and since I am at a library and I have time limit I am using it so I can get more in my emails.
This week has been very trying and very long. On Tuesday while teaching Charlie Palmer we watched the restoration and after the film she told us how she had seen Jesus Christ at the age of four and also how she doesn't like how silent it is at church. She went to a baptism a few weeks ago and she said that she wanted to get up a shout. She described it like a ball game, when you score you shout and she thinks when some one is baptized we need to shout like we just scored a point. So it's going to be fun to over come this challenge.
Wednesday we spent all day at the Mazda dealership getting Mazzie the Mazda fixed. Mazzie is the name Elder Harrison gave our car. But she's been a lemon since the elder's here have gotten her. I guess there is some one we are meant to meet at the dealership one of these days.
For the first time in my whole life I memorized all 13 articles of faith and I did it in about half an hours worth of work! I challenged Alina, one of the recent converts that we are teaching to a dual of memorizing them. I won only because I had all 13 memorized.
We are now teaching Alina's Dad again who is a recovering alcoholic and we set a date with him for the 25th of July. I love teaching Mark and his family because I can see the changes that they are all making. They have been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and the have morning and night family prayers. I can feel the difference it has made in their home and in them since they have started to do these three things.
On Thursday we OTM'd this drunken guy named Tony, when we left the OTM we asked if we could help out with anything and he jokingly asked if we could mow his yard. We said we would be back on Friday at 10:00 am to do it. So the next day a 10:00 they were very shocked when we showed up to mow their lawn. It felt so good to get out of my white shirt and tie and put on jeans for once. We left Tony and his wife with a copy of the Book of Mormon with a note telling them to read it and pray about it and we left our phone number on it for them to call.
For the fourth we tried to get as many set appointments as possible but for the most part of the day we spent time at the Tidwell's playing "take two" and a very fun game called "Farkel". Then we came back to our house at night and Bro Tidwell lit our fireworks that we had gotten for free from an investigator named Erik who owns a firework stand, I am way excited to teach him, he is golden!
I'll be sending a memory card home soon with some more pictures on it so you can see what it was like here on the fourth.
So this past week has all been about building my confidence in all that I do, in OTM'ing, talking to members in the ward and in my teaching. I am really learning how to really rely on the Lord and the Spirit in all that I do as a missionary; even talking on the phone with people.
Everything is going great here and I got the pants this past Friday and they have helped out a ton! Thank you so much Mom! I love you and hope that you have a safe trip home.

Love your son,
Elder D. Kelly Conrad