Well greetings everyone!!!

 

Man what a great week and so much happened but mom hate to break your heart but I can’t fit it all and I’m not trying to write a novel like all the sister missionaries do. Like shoot who has time for that!

 

Well I guess we will start with the TIWI..... Elder Demke HATES !HATES! the TIWI! so the TIWI is this black box put in all our cars that forces us to drive like all the snowbirds in az. Sorry g-pa but your one of them (still love you). It constantly says "check your speed" like 4 over "CHECK YOUR SPEED" I swear it’s going to kill us because a semi-truck is going to run us over we have to go so slow. It also monitors a number of other things. I can’t even drive yet and I hate it.

 

So now that I vented about the TIWI the Highland Heist went over to the assistants to the president for a day and I loved it! There is four of them and four of us so 8 dudes hanging out in a one bedroom dirty dirty man pad of an apartment for 24 hours and it could have not been more fun! We were up late trying to wrestle Elder Boden this big old college wrestler farm boy who wrecked everyone! But let it be said your boy won with staying with him for a whopping 45 seconds haha. After getting no sleep we woke up at 5:45 to play basketball and then we all split up for the day to go work with one of the assistants. I loved it because I loved learning from the best and how I can become like them. I was with elder Pope who about pooped himself when I said I was related to Destry Abbott. We were in the most ghetto part of Cincy! (mom don't read this) but we were dropped off in this area that was like a 1/4 mile of straight projects and we were told that just in that area there were 3 murders in the last three months. A gun shot went off in one of the lessons and everyone just acted normal hahaha I would have never been caught dead there before my mission but it wasn't even scary for me. Any who met great people gave great lesson.

 

I have to give a huge shout out to my boy ELDER HALL! his email last week was amazing I strongly encourage you all to read it just ask my dad for it. He talked about focusing on the gospel rather than earthy matters. The natural man in each of us tries so hard to change the treasure of our hearts. It’s been very interesting for me as a missionary always trying to find my next step in becoming better and I was thinking constantly about trucks, back massages and the fam. I am a missionary an extension of Christ in doing HIS work. In doing HIS work I want to become just like him and the only thing that matters is this gospel! not trucks and sports. 

 

So my challenge to you all, is to look into your own life and see what you spend most of your time doing and thinking about. Is it directed to our Creator and fulfilling his work or is it worldly thoughts. I heard a great quote in church this week. "When our time is cut short what do we cut?" are we cutting home teaching, family home evening and daily studies or are we cutting the things we enjoy but are not as important. 

 

I leave you with wise words of Dieter f Uchtdorf "We get so caught up in getting to the end we don’t find joy in the journey" 

 

much love everyone sorry for the choppy email 

 

(no I am not breaking any rules because I am not touching that gun) 

 

WITH MUCH LOVE 
ELDER DEMKE

Hello family! (everyone is family)

 

Well what a great week to be alive right!? well I sure hope you all felt that way.

 

So it has been a great week! ide like to start off by announcing some new freshly waxed arms this missionary is sporting haha I’m telling you it’s a total game changer so much cooler I recommend it :)

 

Dad you'll be proud of your son not only did he eat at a chines buffet this week (I quickly remembered why I never wanted to go with you) but he just got done hitting some golf balls! So you better step your golf game up because I’m coming for ya! same goes for you Nate.

 

okay well let’s get spiritual now. But first I have to give a shout out to my man FRED BARNS! he’s this old guy in are ward who I LOVE! Not only because he’s old and wears stance socks to church but he comes off grumpy but is supper supper nice and will do anything for anyone. So I love messing with him and we give each other a hard time. (thanks again Boyd Abbott for teaching me how to deal with grumpy old men. much love) so if this email somehow finds its way to the LeSuere family in Gilbert I love your grandpa!

 

So we have this investigator who we have been teaching since we got here his name is Stacey. Stacey has had a hard life but is now an amazing dad and just wants the best for his family. We prayed to see who we could have come teach with us and Fred came to mind. Fred is known for saying it how it is and doesn't really have a filter haha so we were a little nervous to say the least. We got in there and just that happened, Fred said it how it was and we were so scared. Then we read Lehi’s dream to Stacey and the spirit was so strong just a great lesson. Fred basically said you’re not going to progress unless you come to church and somehow they just clicked and are best friends! So praying and listening to the spirit brings miracles even if it doesn't seem right. haha

 

So we have taught him for 6 weeks now and every Sunday he says he will be at church and never comes. This week as I was sitting in church waiting for it to start I was so pumped that we had this killer lesson with him just two days ago and how he’s going to come to church! But then I sat and sat and sat finally church started and I was soooooo bummed he didn’t come. Then I looked back and he walked in and I yelled STACEY while bishop was giving announcements but I was so pumped to say the least! haha He sat by us and during the sacrament he was just sitting there and smiling and he said to me "makes you just wanna smile" probably the best thing I’ve ever heard! "makes you just wanna smile" and man how true is that!? Nothing makes me wanna smile more than feeling the spirit.

 

After church he said "yall changin lives here, I don’t know  why I say that but something was telling me to tell you that" and that my friends is why I love this mission because the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives for the better. So I hope you all will let it do just that and are open to it. 

 

love you all, love this work, it’s all just amazing! I hope my rushed stories make sense. 

 

much love 

Elder Demkle

 

 

 

Well hello people I love!!!

 

Sorry but today might be short 

 

We had an amazing zone conference this week witch seems like last year and it was AMAZING!! just one part of it that I would like to share from Sister Porter who reminds me so much of Aunt Kim! She’s so nice short so loving, loves to talk and will do anything for anyone. So aunt Kim I enjoyed listening to her and thinking about you. Anyway she talked about how everywhere in the scriptures they are always going somewhere... traveling through the wilderness... or whatever the case may be. She said how each and everyone one of us all have a place to go, a next step in life. Something that we are working towards, and how they all had different struggles and challenges through their journeys and how we all have our own struggles but God never took their struggles away from them because challenges change us and we were put here to change. If we aren’t changing we are not progressing. She said however just like the people in the scriptures we can all make it through our challenges as we rely on Christ and he will help us get through hard times. So simply my message to you this week is we all have struggles and challenges in our life some may seem harder than others but as we rely on Christ an do the things we know we are supposed to be doing we will never have a challenge that we cannot get through.

 

As far as the crazy person story of the week we were way out in the most southern part of Kentucky that our mission goes into to visit a family that we were assigned to see. They were not home so we went to the next store neighbor to see if they knew them or a better time to catch them. You know just the normal thing us missionaries do. However the next house down was a mile away.... so we roll up on this sweet house with sweet trucks and a sweet Polaris razor and tons of kid toys so I was way pumped to meet these people. I quickly learned that people that live that far away do because they dont want to be bothered as we were greeted with an AR15. Scared the crap out of me at first but I wish I could have at least talked guns and trucks with him :(

 

The two pic are of Cliff Henn. He is a guy I just wanted to talk to and didn’t care for the church so we just talked and I got a new friend he was so nice. He’s 88 and when I asked him "what advice does a wise man of 88 years have for a young boy like myself" he said "just keep going" .... I like it. So everyone listen to cliff and "keep going"

 

Love you all so much thanks for the birthday wishes I’m looking forward to Saturday! Elder Demke

well HELLOOOO family and friends!!

 

     seams that everyone is doing well and I hope that to be true. I want to first start off by telling you all how much I love each and every one of you and how thankful I am for your love and prayers I have truly felt of your support the last few weeks and I am very thankful for that. well this was a very long busy hard and amazing week as im sure all the weeks ahead will feel the same as I keep putting all my effort into this work. I had many very cool experiences this week as a missionary I wish you could all just experience it for one day! its so fun hard scary interesting funny and spiritually uplifting thing ever. just one experience I would like to share will you all was from just the other night. we had a lead on a girl who lived in our same apts. so we went to stop by. I knocked on their door then hear a loud voice scream something I have no clue what. the door swung open and this girl stood there and just to give you a visual description of this lady she was wearing those really big baggy pants with all the chains on them (you know the ones that those scary people dancing in vines wear) grandma if your not sure what they are trust me they are unusual. then she wasn't wearing much on the top half of her body but she did have about three choker necklaces a million pricings and look like she just snorted a pound of cocaine. she quickly told us that she was just "looking through my attempted murder paper work" and that she was a stripper atheist... sooooo being human I quickly started to judge her and think man this is a lost cause. why are we wasting our time? but as she began to tell her story and explain her struggles I began to look at her through Christ eyes as I strive to be like him every day. I quickly felt a love for her as a fellow sibling of god and thought how much the gospel of Jesus Christ could help and guide her in her life. we shared a short lesson to her and I have no idea what she felt or what she will do because of it but I know that I felt the spirit as I boor testimony our saviors love for us to her. I have made it a goal now to never judge anyone I know at times it can be hard (trust me there are some characters out here) but you never know what they have or are going through but I do know that Christ loves all his children and I hope that will this each and every one of you will reach out to someone you know or maybe a random and help them feel of Christ love I know that as you do so you will feel a great joy.

 

 it’s so exciting hearing about everyone preparing and leaving on missions I wish you all threw best of luck and be prepared for an amazing experience! 

 

aunt Marcy happy birthday!

 

everyone please wish my favorite little sister a very happy birthday Sunday. she is turning the big 1 7 !!! love you Carly!

 

well I leave you all with a quote that I found this week "if you want something you've never had you have to be willing to do something you've never done" 

 

love you all so much and you are all in my prayers hope you have a great week and strive to draw nearer to Christ in every aspect of your life 

 

sincerely your friend Elder Demke

hello family and friends!!!

 

Coming to you live from Highland Heights Kentucky!! (my second area of my mission so far) it looks like everyone is doing good and having fun witch I love to hear. well... I guess we will start back in the MTC it feels like forever since I've been able to hear anything from anyone since I didn't have p day last week because I came out in the field. so ill start with the 4th! wow that seems like forever ago. the fourth was amazing we had an incredible devotional and after they even let us go out into the parking lot to watch stadium of fire! it was way sweet! so Sunday night my last night in the MTC we had an amazing music devotional by this amazing violinist and her little family of course I can’t remember her name (something baker... I think) then I said good bye to all my sweet girls who I love so much witch was sad but they are all so amazing. that night we didn't get to bed until like 12 because we were packing and we were back up at 3 am to catch the bus... train.... tracks.... then plane... but eventually we got to OHIO!!!! is soooooooooooo green! sooooooooo beautiful! we spent the day at presidents house playing games and what not then the APs took us to the top of this hill that looked out over down town cinci and part of Kentucky it was such a spiritual experience as they 
​talked about us serving in a land with so much history. the next day we went to transfer meeting where I was assigned to Laurence burg Indiana with Elder MacFarlane!!! who is amazing I love him!!!! he's totally a cow boy grew up in a town of 500 and has said things like "NBA now that's basketball right?" hahah what a goober but his knowledge in the gospel and his love for the work is unreal I look up to him greatly! he has helped me grow so much! anyway we got to Laurence burg after a lot of driving and got into this nasty apt set our crap down and went out into the rain to start prosolighting (fix that spelling) and to be honest I wasn't feeling it... later that afternoon we got a call saying that we transferred to the wrong area and we were moving into highland heights! I was so pumped and I knew nothing about it. when we got that call I knew that's where I needed to be! so we waited for a ride and then made the long fried to Kentucky and what a blessing! we took over the sisters apt (very neat very clean) and they had a car!!! but I quickly learned that having a car in a mission means nothing! the sisters wrecked through our miles so we have walked walked and walked but it’s been way fun we are not new to the area along with Elder Bunderson and Elder Bluth (from gilbert) who split the are with us they have downtown ghetto and we have a little city and a whole lot of hicks. yesterday in our lesson there was about half an inch of dirt on the ground I kid you not and all the sudden two muddy pigs and two huge muddy dogs come running through the house my comp said that's normal..... but yea there are some interesting people here to say the least and its great entertainment. we have done a lot of walking and just getting to know the area and the other day I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad but as we sat there for the day and added up how many new investigators we had found it brought a great since of joy and happiness. it’s so great being able to do the lords work! so many spiritual experiences every day I wish you all could join for just one day its awesome! I know I’m leaving out so much but it’s been a crazy busy week! if someone could send me a nice what's up in the mail that would be awesome so I can have my address for a library car. much love (1815 highland ridge Blvd. highland heights) oh yea! sister haws! mom cindi McGrath idk how you know this sweet sister but she is amazing she brought three pizzas and cookies and a hand written note from everyone in her family we have been living off that food all week. what a great blessing she was! please please have the missionaries over for dinner it’s the best thing ever! love you all so so much I pray for you all every day. my testimony has grown so much here and my love for our savior is incredible I hope that each and every one of you are striving to draw closer to him every day. 

 

until next time your favorite Elder Demke

Made it to Ohio!

We are so happy to start this blog for anyone wanting to here about max and his mission! emails,pictures, and other updates will be posted here. thank you all for your love and support that you have given to our elder demke!