Finding Joy, setting Baptismal dates...and Little Hands??

This week was crazy. I have spent so much effort into applying joy into my life and it has been working so much. We are going on a massive hike today, so I have, like, no time and you're first. Kinda. 
Jake has a date for 2 weeks. He is so excited, his interview is this Saturday. He is stoked to be baptized and cannot wait, it is just so great. We also set another kid, named Adam, with a date for November 5th and he said 'yes'. He is a former investigator and now he is getting baptized. I tell you mom, I am putting my all into these last 3 months, no holding back. 
We are also working with another less active named Jake. He told us he wants to work towards a mission, so we are helping him with that and he is looking really good right now. 

Wha...I...don't even...??

We had a great district meeting this week. I gave a talk on member missionary work and showed pictures of the Gregsons and told them all about how they fellowshipped us after the Elders were gone. 
I went on like 3 exchanges this week and so it was busy, no down time. 
We just had a really good week. A week of miracles for sure and for growth. 

Elder Bradley 

Elder Bradley is so great, I love him so much and have learned so much from him. He is just so patient with me and we talk a lot about how we can grow more, it's pretty great. We had just a rock star week, it was so cool. I love this work, it is just so great! The joy is coming back to me and it is like my first few transfers. It's good. I am good. 

Shel, I love you girl! You have made me so proud, you are just filling my heart full of joy. I cannot wait to go to Institute with you! love you girly. Dad. Congrats my man, you're so great! Keep moving forward, oh man, I love you so much! Scott, have fun in the foreign land haha (Toronto..pretty foreign lol). Love you brother. Mom, muah muah. Take care. I love you SO much mom, so much!

Love
Elder Kevin Routledge  

Special Message for Will Chapman
Love, the Ventura, California Mission Elders

General Conference...Feeling Better...and Finding Joy in your Journey

Mom, how are you? Did you like Conference? (So much!!) Well sure you did. Who wouldn't like 10 hours of spiritual gifts! 
So this week I learned some things. I did go back to the back doctor, haha funny, anyways, yea it is okay. It still hurts a lot of the time, but I think it will get better. 
This week had some crazy ups, not so many downs besides the back. So let's see, first off I'll start with Conference. 

These past 4 conferences, in just my conference journal, I have filled 171 pages of notes. That green book you sent me is filled besides 9 pages and it was so cool to go over them all this past week. I am going to be honest, I am kind of sad that I won't have any more after this (yah!) but it was so good. 
My two favourite talks were the one about the crazy son who makes his mom crazy...remind you of anyone? :) Me? (I missed this talk...but think I need to look this up right away!) His name was K. Brett Nattress. 

Then the talk on Joy by President Nelson. That really struck me as I have really been lacking joy and so that just hit me bold in the face, that I need to have more Joy. And something I have realized for the first time ever, is that you have sent 'Find joy in the journey' every week, my whole mission and I don't think I really have this whole time. (Since the very first email I sent him, I have made sure to end it with 'Find joy in your journey') So I have decided anytime I feel down, I wills top and just say out loud, "Joy" and it has worked pretty good, I feel a lot better. I also studied it in my studies this morning actually and it was pretty cool, some of the stories I found. One was when Christ's birth was announced. The angel said, I bring you tidings of great Joy. Great Joy for the son of God. SO POWERFUL. I also found that I have filled or am using, 7 journals for different things hahah. I take notes on everything. 

This week itself was filled with crazy, spiritual highs. One of the big ones was Zone Conference and that was BIG. We had all new missionaries share their testimonies and the ones going home as well and all the missionaries got up and shared what they learned and the spirit is so strong when you have 40 servants bear testimony in one day. I was very uplifted as I shared my testimony and listen to others. President had some real strong insights on a lot of things, it was just such a good day. 

We also had another lesson with Jake this week and that was so good. This week he said his first prayer and man!!! So he just surprised us all. He prayed for our members, he prayed that he could know it was true and that he may be able to feel the spirit. Man, this kid is so prepared! He came to conference and loved it. He has truly manifested his love for God in his works for his works are so grand. He may just be the reason I needed to stay. He has softened my heart in so many ways. 

Mom, dad, family. I am feeling good again. My excitement for the work is coming back and I just feel good again. I will have up and down days but nothing I cannot handle. I love you all so much. Jared, keep it up brother love you! Cousins and family MUAH !!!

Love Elder Routledge 

Struggles, Enduring...and Brad Wilcox

Well, this week was pretty crazy. I truly, truly am so grateful for my mission. It has changed me so much to a point that I know. I just know. I have had some crazy hard struggles to a breaking point, but as I have endured, I have come out stronger. This entire week, all the stuff I studied was all about enduring to the end and the Lord was telling me something for sure. 
I have had days were I feel like giving up, but at the end of the day, when I lay down and know that I worked through it all, when my head hits that pillow, I feel grand, that I did not give up, that I did endure! 


Later this week, we met with Jake and he set up a baptismal date for October 22 and he said yes! I have a firm testimony that when we endure or when we pray to act on that first answer we get and to push through the hard days and see the light on the other side, that we can picture Christ welcoming you home with open arms saying, 'Well done thou good and faithful servant, you endured it well. Welcome home.' I do believe that when life gets hard, we should seek help from our Bishop, Mission President, Parent or Spouse. If I wouldn't have met with President Felix, I wouldn't know how truly needed I was. 

E. Routledge & Wilson

Mom, Dad, you have raised a strong Latter Day Saint Missionary. I will forever and always be in debt to the love you have shown me. I want you both to know how truly grateful I am for you and how much I just dearly love you both. I assure you with all hope that I am doing better, still struggling, but it is getting easier because Christ is with me and has died for me and has allowed me to make mistakes to grow. I do know without a shadow of a doubt that without this Restored Gospel our family, Scott, Shel, Momma, Papa, all my cousins, Aunt Trish, Cin..all of you would not be here. It has helped us so much. Thank you. 

Brad Wilcox & Elder Routledge

This week all my studies and our zone meeting was all about finding your purpose and mine is to endure and to bring others unto Christ, with the latter being the first and most important. 
This week, on Sunday, we met Brad Wilcox (He is an LDS Author). I saw him and we had a YSA Devotional with him and all of us were talking about life and how great this is for us. Life is great if you make it that way. 


I love you all so much. 
MUAH, MUAH

Love your young and faithful servant
Elder Routledge 

Weekly Challenge, New Comp...and New Goals

So this weeks challenge comes from 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-22 in the New Testament. Find one thing in those verses that you can apply to your life this week and act on it and improve in one of these things. 

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Also...Happy BIRTHDAY Dad, love you. 
So Mom, you are going to hate me, but very short email this week and well, I just want to say that I love you all so much. Muah. Thank you so much.

This week we had the other Elders pass along a kid named Jake. He came to church and is so great. He is a new investigator and very prepared. I aslo got to see Elder Huston this week and we played ball while we waited for my new comp to come down here. Probably not the best use of time, but it was good bonding...yea. 

I don't even....

What else happened that won't scare you that I want to share...(yeah, I'm not sure nervous now!!)..We have a really good district this transfer. My comp is from East Canada so that is pretty great. He is a big teddy bear. Like today, he bought me a tie...he just serves everyone and I love that about him. 

We have made some goals to do some more member missionary work so that is cool and I know good things will come from that. It has been a great week, things are getting better. I will tell you, just to tell you, but don't be alarmed. I got my answer. I prayed to see if I should come home because I was feeling..just not good on Sunday night, but I talked to Elder Bradley for a while and read. The scriptures just opened up and kept saying endure to the end, endure. So I am going to get over this hump and stick it out. 

Good Year Blimp 

I have been a quitter a lot of my life, but this is one thing I will not give up on, I will keep going. I must let you know I hurt my back, as well as my lower back and so I am going to see a chiropractor to get all fixed up. So you have something to freak out about, but trust God more than man. YOU can be promised I will be okay. So Muah, love you, don't worry and keep the Faith strong as ever. Don't stop paying tithing, or reading or praying, God will bless those who help themselves.

Muah

Love,
Your Boy and Brother
Elder Kevin Routledge 

Family Scripture Study, Temple Trip..and Saying Goodbye to a Favourite Elder

Dear Mom, Dad and family
SHELBY KEEP IT UP GIRL!!! 

This week has been, oh man, crazy! Here is this weeks challenge. Read 1 Nephi 5: 1-8 and find something that you can apply to your life right now. It will be a good one, I am excited to hear all about it. This week had so many ups and downs that I am just going to write and not separate the days. So here I go...words..the end...no. Could you imagine if I only sent that hahaha. I love you too much to do that to you. 

Tuesday (Monday didn't happen, it just skipped Monday. I have no idea why, ask a scientist he might know) was good...Kinda. 

Temple Trip 

So we get up nice and early and we go to the Temple and there were 6 of us Elders that went. Can you say spiritually fed..well of course you can, you have your agency. (think he's in a bit of a silly mood today haha). We did initiatory and Endowments for people from Mongolia. It was cool. 
Well, after a good lunch and being high in the clouds it couldn't get any worse. Oops, I said those words. I got a call...This actually broke my heart. 

Elders Hubbard & Routledge

So last week I mentioned Elder Hubbard, he being one of the top few Elders in this mission I absolutely love (Elder Bronson, Huston, King and a few others (Hunt & Comin...home but yea). Anyway so he called us and asked us to come over and he sounded off, big time and I know he is having a hard time, so we rushed over there. Now, he has been in my district 3 times. I saw him come in and now he is home...he had to go home because of the things he was struggling with were getting too hard for him. It was the Lord's will, no doubt, it was just hard. That threw me off for the next few days. 

Elder Hubbard went home on Wednesday and for the rest of the week, I was off. I don't think it was him going home as much as it was just me realizing how short our mission is and how fast things can change. I asked many times this week, What lack I?, and it kept falling back to diligence and so that is what I need to work on. I do realize that I am coming short on time and I want to be better and more into this work, so I am going to try to put it all in. 

It has been crazy and I have felt pretty down this week. I am not sure why, but I can not seem to get up and out of this funk. The challenge I sent you, from that I got that I need to not complain, to trust in the Lord and work hard through His will and timing. I think that I really need to be more involved in my work and think and talk about home less. There have been days that I want to put in my all and some days I want to just drop. I can promise you (there is a promise in my blessing) that I will be fulfilled very soon here. Trust in God, Mom, and worry not for I am a disciple of Christ. 

Hollywood Sign

Well mom, this is short, but know that all these things shall be for my experience and good. This life is a time of growth and there will be no growth or happiness unless we pass through trials to help us grow and turn our hearts to our Savior. 
I love you all so much!






Muah

Love Elder Routledge 

Beautiful Sunrise 

4 Hour Hike, Exchanges and...Reflecting

Man, oh man. So this will be a very supersize email. Well, how do I say this....I ummm..started a new journal and am only writing spiritual things so that was cool. And I am going to start challenging all of you to do stuff. 
First Challenge. I want you all to read Alma 34:31-41 and tell me a principle you learned. I wait to hear all about it next week. Mine is found in verse 32 where it says..well, you will read it, but for me, it is knowing this life is short and it won't last forever, so I need to put my all in while I can. 

This week I have decided I WILL NOT go home the same person. I want to be better and I will be better. 

PDay Hike 

Monday we went on a very long, 4 hour hike and it was crazy hard! Very fun though, but here is the miracle. I felt prompted to bring extra water and by so doing was able to provide water to one of the Sisters who was getting heat stroke pretty bad. The Lord uses us! I also had a touching FHE tonight where we made cards for kids who won't live much longer. I filled mine with jokes to get them smiling before they are called home. One of my jokes was, "what is brown and sticky?....A stick. 

Shelby, you may be thinking you lost your brother, but we're still doing all night movie-a-thons and shopping. I am still the same, don't you worry girl! I will, however, be shining up the rough spots, as I hear you are already doing. Great job, Shel, I love it, keep it up. Hearing you're meeting with the Sisters made me so happy. I told everyone around me. I love you, Girly!!

With Elder Hubbard 

Tuesday was great. I was on an exchange with Elder Davis and that is where this all started. We were talking about how we want to fill our lives with good, not slop. So it was a cool day, it was spiritual. 

Wednesday was good. I went with Elder Hubbard, the blonde kid. Okay he is one of my favourite Elders. We get along so well, but he is having a hard time with staying out. He wants to so bad, but President wants different things for him..it is sad. On our exchange we taught the Stake President's son, Jake, and he is the living example of true repentance. He has given up the music industry and has given up friends and all this other stuff just to come back to church. He just inspires me. It was such a good lesson! We also had our recent convert teach us about hope and that was really cool. 

Elder Hales 

I realized I am only on Thursday and it is long haha. Thursday we went down to Oxnard for a life skills training by President and his wife. We were taught about communication and how to take care of our bodies and there was also a Spanish section and so I know more now, so that's cool. 

Friday we went to one of the Colleges to find YSA's but it was empty haha. But we did watch the football team play for like 5 minutes. 

Saturday and Sunday, both of these days I spent in reflection in just how amazing the Lord and our Father in Heaven are and how truly great the blessings are, that are poured upon us. I love the fact that He has given us the ability to chose whatever we want, but when we truly chose to use this life for good, like in the Alma chapters, we grow so much! 

Mom, Dad, Shel, Scott, I love you all so much!! MUAH. Keep doing great. Shel, you keep it up. Mom, I love you more than anything, you are my world...sorry, but this is way early, but mom gets the first HUG! (YES!!! I have it in writing now!! haha). Dad, I sent you a package, kinda haha! 

I love you all so much. 
Elder Routledge 

Me and Elder Hales...don't ask..

I chased this road runner.
I was like Wile E. Coyote, but he was too fast,
mom, he was too fast! 

Poem for Mom, Tough Week...and A Priesthood Blessing

UPDATES LOTS OF THEM! First, I need a package of Canada food. If you could maybe send me cheezies, chips, candy (no pop) but snacks. I just got the craving. 
Second, I finished my second journal. Now I am going to start on my third tomorrow, crazy stuff!! 
What else? Oh mom, this is for you, so we're going on like a 5 mile hike so this WILL be short, but I have stuff for you. 

 Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!

I am so weary of toil and tears, ...

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue, 

Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you! ...

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone; ...

None like a mother can charm away pain

From the sick soul and the world-weary brain. 

Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep; 

Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

("Rock Me to Sleep" in The Family Library of Poetry and Song, 

ed. William Cullen Bryant [1870], 190-91; punctuation modernized.)

Perhaps the reason we respond so universally to our mothers' love is because it typifies the love of our Savior. As President Joseph F. Smith said, "The love of a true mother comes nearer [to] being like the love of God than any other kind of love" (The Love of Mother," Improvement Era, Jan. 1910, 278). My mother assured me that if I stayed on the road of truth, even when it seemed hot and dusty, even when there were distractions, the end would be better than the beginning. I will be eternally grateful that Mother told me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

This is from a talk and I want you to know how much I love you and how much you mean to me and just know you're my everything and you have made me what I am today. Also, look up the scripture 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. I had a bad week on Wednesday and Thursday where I just felt hopeless and me and my comp got into a big fight and got way too physical. I have just realized how immature I have been and that scripture shared by our WML on Sunday in his talk just let me know that the Lord gives us trials and we need to rejoice over them because they shape us and make us so much better. We are a lot better now and it was needed to help us grow closer. Your boy is coming out better than when he started (Just love this kid so much and can't wait to hug him!!)

So, this week was pretty good. 

Monday we had a combined activity with Simi Valley, my old area, so I saw a lot of old YSA's I served around and that was pretty cool. We did a 'get to know you' game, so it was pretty cool!!

Doing Family History!

Wednesday and Thursday, you know, were not great days. I did get a blessing on Thursday night for help and it helped a lot. A few things that stood out from the blessing were that I need to read my blessing more. I read it every 2 weeks and have my whole mission, or every month, but I want to read it weekly. It also said in due time I will be blessed with a good family and I thought I had one, but I thought of Good and I thought of Eternal, that one day, in due time, we will be eternal. 

Mom and Dad, I am going to go to the Temple to be sealed when I get home, so you, Shel, Scott, Mom and Dad better get in gear because in 4 months' it's time to get this going so BE ready! Live worthy of the Temple, give things up, do what you have to. The Lord WILL provide if you TRY and not just try, but do it!!

Yes, that's Elvis 

I don't know if you realized your emails can be a tad downerish and they should not be. You have reason to rejoice! You have the gospel mom. We are members except Scott, and he will join in time, but we have so many blessings. Be happy, not sad!!

Saturday we met 2 less actives and it was great. We have never met them before, but they both made good progress in the first visit. One works at an ice cream store, her name is T, and she got us free ice cream and has, like twice now. she is cool, free ice cream! Yea, I said it, free!! 

Elvis Toilet Seat Cover

Sunday was cool. All 4 of us missionaries, 2 Elders and 2 Sisters, all spoke as well as our WML, Jacob. He shared that scripture and we all talked about 4 simple truths; BoM, Prayer, Scripture Study and the Restoration. It was cool. 

We have 4 missionaries in the YSA ward here, so we all spoke. Church, Pray and Read are the daily and weekly things that bind us to God eternally and waveringly, so it was cool. 

Mom, Dad, Shel, Scott. Hang on, don't turn away from God, He needs you. Hang on, it will get better. There is glory in struggles, they help us grow. 

I love you more than the stars fill the sky. I will sadly, but JOYFULLY see you soon. 

MUAH, MUAH

I will endure. As will you

LOVE

Elder Routledge