January 23, 2017

Sorry, life has been busy lately so I barely have time to write my emails, so I've been slacking on little spiritual thoughts. I'll try harder...

As you guys may have read, his area has been sloooww. No progressing investigators in at least 2 months or baptisms in a year. It's pretty unmotivating. At the beginning of the week not much happened. All the up until Friday when we felt we should go tracting in this one area. It was probably the most unreceptive neighborhood here. So ya, we were not super pumped. But here's the important thing about all this, keep going. That's something we can all learn. A lot of us have heard that Heavenly Father has something in store for us so we just have to get through the hardships and take them well and he will give them to us.

Next day is Saturday. Just dumping rain (you'll read more about it). We didn't want to go out and bike in the rain, especially since the week has been so slow anyways. But alas, we did. We were blessed with the most successful day this area has seen in a long long time. You'll read about it in the Saturday section. It was awesome, and we got rides almost everywhere because people just kept taking us places. It was awesome! 

As long as we

"...press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end..." (2 Nephi 31:20)

We will be able to receive all Heavenly Father has in store for us, even if it means biking through a hurricane to get there.

Even Alma after being persecuted left the city and pretty much gave up on them. But then he was told to go back. Instead of second guessing it or ignoring it he went straight back.

 "Now it came to pass that after Alma had received his message from the angel of the Lord he returned speedily" (Alma 8:18)

Tuesday:

We were driving home from the stake center 45 minutes away with the other Elders when they realized they forgot the keys to their house and wallet, so we turned around. By the time we got back there was no one there and the building was locked up. We both had dinner appointments we were going to run late to. So we were kinda toast. We walked around and I saw a key box with a code. So I tinkered with it and clicked in a code, 23479...it opened! Pretty sick huh? I got that number because that's what the code at the Roswell building used to be before they changed it. So I thought it was worth a shot. It's crazy I even remembered that code or that it worked there too. I wasn't even supposed to know that code, but I heard it five months ago, and remembered it. 

Wednesday:

So today I went on exchange with an elder from Brazil, he being black. We were walking and this car pulls up and stops in the middle of the road with these two black guys in it. 

"Aye! Y'all Mormons?"

"Yeah!"

"When'd Mormons start letting black guys join into their church?"

"Always"

"Not until 1960"

"No we've always let black people join"

"Oh, is it your v day?"

"P day?"

"No V day"

 "The day we have a break? That's p day"

"Ya, do y'all get a break cuz it's Martin Luther king day?"

"Uhh no...that was two days ago"

"Oh. Alright, that's cool man"

*car pulls up behind

"Alright see ya later man!"

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

So it was dumping rain all morning and afternoon. We thought that maybe we should just call former investigators and whatnot since we only had one confirmed-ish appointment. So we prayed about it. Afterwards, in Elder Knight's words, he said, "The spirit was like, 'Yeah you already know you're gonna go work.'" So we did. Well in the span of the day we got 5 lessons with investigators. Some of which with people we'd just met. We started talking to one person in this random trailer about the restoration and as we introduced the Book of Mormon she said, "Oh I have that book! Some girls came by a few weeks ago and shared that with me!" Another guy who we didn't have a completely confirmed appointment with we stopped by and he was sitting in his garage reading the Book of Mormon. Another lesson we went to that was confirmed was with a new investigator we got my second day here. He'd been reading and said he knows it's true and it's brought him much peace. He wants to keep learning and reading more so he can feel more of that. Another lesson we went to was unconfirmed, we had an inactive atheist member who loves the missionaries drive us there and he said he wanted to come in, so that was awesome too! We got more success lesson-wise in one day than I have in the past three weeks combined. Pretty exciting!

Sunday:

Today the heavens opened up and gave us not a shower of blessings, but a torrential downpour of rain. It rained all day. We were biking today and it was coming in so hard and so fast that we could only see half a second in front of us due to the fact that we couldn't open our eyes. And that's especially scary when there's no bike lanes and we're in the road, I kid you not, cars coming within a foot at 50 mph (I don't know why they put us on bike in this place, pray for me). The rain was on and off. It always stopped within a minute of getting in a house and started up again within 5 minutes of being back out. It rained so dang hard that it started flooding in 15 minutes. 

January 17, 2017

It's been a crazy and busy week so I don't have much to say spiritually-speaking. But I can say this, the second coming is pretty soon. Probably not this year or the next ten years (I don't know, maybe with Trump in office it might), it'll get really rough here shortly before and there's going to be a major separation of the wheat and tares. It's prophesied that it'll even begin within the church and some of the strongest won't even make it. So stand on your own two feet and prepare yourselves. We gotta build the foundation on the rock. Not the sand. And make sure it's pure granite cuz it's not a normal storm this time, it's a hurricane. Tuesday: I said bye to a couple people tonight, the hardest was Lisette. It brought me back to sad times of leaving for the first time. But I'm fine now. But looking back and seeing what I've done, how little it may have been, makes me feel like an actual missionary now. I always see bye bye pictures with missionaries at member's houses and on their phones, and now the next couple generations will see my bye bye pictures on the member's phones and such. Just so weird. Wednesday: Woooow this place is different than anywhere I've ever been. It's semi-sticks here, very Southern, but not tooo many rednecks. It's also really really run down. I get along pretty well with my new companion, we don't have much in common but thats totally fine with me. This area is even slower than Roswell. It's about how bad it was a few weeks ago when nothing was happening. We have 1 investigator and his parents won't let him come to church even though he's 19. There hasn't been a baptism here in a long long time and is known to be a slow place, so I guess it's time for that to change, though it will be hard considering most people have lived here their whole lives and know about us and have been attending "their church" forever, guess it's time for new strategies and lots of finding. The ward from what I hear would be a branch if wards could be demoted to branches. So this is definitely new. But I also heard here's generally nicer people here, I was told there might be some gun lovers and other crazy Southern people. My companion sad that he's only ever met two people not Christian. In Roswell I met probably around 100 not Christian, we had lots of Muslims and Jews there amongst other diversities, but nope, this is a churchy church town. There's two roads here that have a sign saying "prayer mile" and a mile later a sign saying "amen." Haha what the heck. Also, we had the biggest apartment in the mission, but now I'm in the biggest place in general. Let's just say the downstairs is as big as my whole first apartment. It's 3 bed 2 1/2 bath. The reason it's so big is because there are no apartments around here, lole. So we got a nice town home. Thursday: So I learned two more things today. One of which is that apparently everyone here smokes, that'll be fun. Also, to all those on missions and/or about to be serving missions, there's supposedly big changes coming to missions worldwide, only a select few here know about it, I'm not one of them, but it'll be announced on the 25th. There's rumors it has to do with schedules and p days. Friday: So I guess I don't have a car 3 days out of the week. We share the car, there's lots of hills and country here, so I get to keep my thunder thighs and still be able to visit the outskirts of the ward 4/7 days. Best of both worlds. But get this, we got a new investigator! Sweet!  Saturday: So imagine this. You're biking for several hours in the night. There are literally absolutely no street lights for miles at a time and it's so dark to the point where your light barely cuts it. As you bike on the road with lots of turns and twists you're cautious while cars occasionally come speeding around and may not see you, and no, there's absolutely no bike lanes anywhere, so yes you're in the street. It's cloudy and there's not a star in the sky, making it truly truly pitch dark. The roads you're biking on runs through forests with tall dark trees, to top it off, you hear large animals running through the forest along side you, but you can't see them. When you get out of the forest from time to time there's patches of heavy fog to ride through where you can see it if the corner of your eye a silhouette of a large moving animal, but it's just cattle. Ya. That's what it's like biking here. SKETCHY. To top it off, all the crazy people are out who like yelling as they drive by, it's scarier when you're already scared. Sunday: So this is how small our "ward" is. At the highest point there was only 1/3 of the pews filled. There was one young man to do sacrament, so we of course helped. There wasn't any black people (that'll be fun bringing black investigators). And after the meeting people were saying that was largest attendance they'd had in a long long time. I also found out bad news...the storms apparently always just miss this town by about 30 minutes. And I'm going to be here for tornado season. That's my luck, my second thought when I opened the call was "I get to be in big ol' storms and see tornadoes!" Sike. New Address 1481 Box Circle, Winder, GA 30680

January 10, 2017

For those of you who don't actually read my emails...read Monday at least. Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: We had a lesson with one of our investigators today for the third time. And man! He's ready to be dunked! He believes in everything, has a family, loves everything about he church from the art we use to the doctrine. He knows anti stuff but knows it's just to be used to bring us down. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc. I've never had someone like that! There is one issue though, he doesn't want to leave his church that's already done so much for him, as he has been there for a while and is pretty tight knit with them. But he said if he hadn't already developed that relationship with his church there'd be nothing in his way from getting baptized. So we just need to workout that difficult little bump. Too bad I'm most likely getting transferred!  Friday: Well today the governor said for no one to be on the roads past 4:00. Well we had an appointment an hour away with Deshawn (went really well by the way, still wants to be baptized) at 5:00 and another at 7:00 and are on bikes. We also had some finding to do, we don't take breaks for weather. It's supposed to snow "a ton" tonight, I'm calling an inch max. But there's going to be lots of ice because of the rain. Walmart is being raided and everyone is fearing snowpocalyose 2.0. I'll attach pictures.  But holy crap! Lemme tell y'all. I rode in the nastiest and heaviest sleet storm I have ever seen! My jacket, bike, and gloves were all frozen in 10 minutes. And it hurt! But it's so awesome! By the time I got in there was a 1/2 inch layer of ice on everything! Currently it's half snow and half sleet. I'm stoked out of my mind! HOLY CRAP! ITS SNOWING NOW!! IM LOSING IT!! (Daniel serving over there in Alaska is mocking me right now). Ps. I'm 6 months old! Officially not a greenie  Saturday: I'm disappointed. It stopped snowing after 15 minutes last night and sleeted all night long instead, even though it was in the 20s. Our weather thing said 9 inches of snow. I promised the missionaries an inch. Guess who was right? Me. As always. So now we just have a sheet of ratchet ice everywhere and it was 7 degrees today. All our appointments texted us cancelling because of the weather, but what they don't know is that we are going to be out anyways! So now we'll just have to be outside longer. And I wouldn't mind if there was a ton of snow because that's cool, but it's just ice. So I'm pretty disappointed. I'll attach a picture of the state of emergency statement. So much for that...But it was so cold today, that we tossed flowers against a wall and they shattered into pieces. Only saw one car wreck. And I also fell on my bike. Ice just slipped that sucker right out from under me and I splattered all over the ground. Sunday: We went out to go to church and the wind chill was 1 degree, plus humidity. I died. (Elder Daniel Rykowski is still making fun of me). We had two, almost three investigators at church today! That's blazing hot! I haven't had that for about four months now. Of course one of the speakers went off into the dark abyss of deep doctrine, but one of them barely speaks English so it's ok! Monday: I caught the kitchen on fire today. Yup. I made the mistake of trying to cook potatoes. I poured some vegetable oil in the pan, turned the heat all they way up, and to nobody's surprise, got distracted. A couple minutes later as I'm folding clothes in my room the fire alarm goes off. I say, "What the heck," look over as the kitchen is glowing red and black smoke covered the top three feet of the apartment. I then proceed to say, "freak!" and run down the hall. There were a lot of flames emitting from the pan and yes, the cabinets and wall, too. I put it out and everything is ok now. No one was hurt, just my dignity. Elder Wix was pretty mad at me for a little bit. The call to the housing coordinator was pretty scary, especially since we have the nicest apartment in the mission. The lady at the leasing office that I talked to apparently had her couch go up in flames last week, so she felt me. We had the other Elders come too, partially because I just lit the kitchen on fire, and partially because Elder Wix was mad at me and needed to cool off. There was also a ridiculous amount of smoke by the time it was all settled, I was blowing blackness out of my nose hours later. I felt really really stupid and dumb, and frankly I still do. But uhhh, ya...this is why I don't cook. Tuesday: So I found out this morning I'm going to Fort Yargo first thing tomorrow. My first transfer! Finally. And get this, I'm the older companion, I'm getting so seasoned! And I have a car finally! It's in the semi-sticks of Georgia and near Athens. I have three hours to pack and say goodbye to everyone.

January 3, 2017

Wednesday: Thursday: A member in our ward has been feeling like we should go see someone go quite some time, so we did. We couldn't stay, but she was super super happy to see us and said to come back tomorrow. Friday: We went back to visit the less active lady today. Long and confusing story short, she's been wanting some visitors from church, particularly the member we went out with. Her friend said that he'll come and when he does to let her know. She said he would get that feeling and just come visit her, so that's what happened. Kinda cool. Saturday: Yay New Year's Eve. Georgians are a bunch of crazy pyromaniacs! From 7-1:00 there was consistent fireworks and gunshots. Especially at 12:00, I've never heard such a loud New Years midnight. And on top of that, it was raining all night. Craziness. Also, exactly two years ago I was coming home from my mini mission, kinda weird. Sunday: What. A. Day. I've been feeling kinda like I don't have much influence on anyone as a missionary lately, but today a lady who was baptized a couple years ago got up. She explained the story about how a few months ago she had to move that day. But the movers didn't show up and no one else could help her. Then right as she was about to close the door and just take the fine for the night, two missionaries showed up, eventually four more showed up. We were able to move her before the day was up. She didn't remember who it was, but it was me. I was on exchange and leading out the area. We were in her area and I felt we should go see someone before we left, lo and behold we passed her place and saw them. So we helped. It was pretty encouraging.  Also, I've been noticing lately that I have been loving reading scriptures and studying the gospel. It's all I want to do. It's gotten to the point to where eating is a burden and I wish sleeping wasn't necessary. Also. The other Elders in our ward got the cops called on them by two different people whose doors they didn't even knock on. They're supposed to have a permit to solicit, even though we aren't soliciting. While they were dealing with cops we were biking in the rain. I got absolutely soaked all the way through. Monday: It rained pretty good all day today. And we didn't have our bikes so we walked. But it was much better walking, less wind and tires flicking up water. It felt good. Also, today us and two other missionaries went to Arby's after a meeting and I didn't have my wallet. A lady came up and offered to pay for all of us, super nice! Made my day.

December 27, 2016

Monday:

Tuesday:

Nothing out of the usual. For some reason though today I was freezing my butt off and my hands burn in agony as I type this, it was extra humid so I might as well have been wearing short sleeves and shorts. But for once I want the one who fell on my bike. My companion did. We were biking and I heard unusual noises behind me, sure enough...He hit pretty hard and got all scratched and bruised up. He also hit his head, good thing we have helmets. He's doing better-ish. We went over a little hill and there was a random trash lid on the ground. The ridiculous amount of humidity made for a slippery ground so that plus the trash lid on ground was ugly. A member drove by on the way from the temple and saw one of us on the ground and the other (me) standing and figured he'd stop and see if we were ok. He also has a little bit of medical background. So that was a tender mercy.

So bike crash, we know that means spiritual analogy.

We always need to be aware of what lies ahead. Things can be going well and then all of the sudden Satan places something in our path that we may not see if we aren't watching. This is why we need to be knowledgeable about the gospel, we need to understand where the garbage lids will be. Otherwise we'll hit them and fall, we can't be saved in ignorance.

D&C 131:6

It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.

That is why we are counseled to study. Then we can choose whether or not we want to avoid those places where random trash lids lie hidden and not have to worry about falling. 

But even if we are prideful and worldly just wanting to do things our way even with the knowledge that there's (spiritual) danger ahead and we fall and get hurt, God has provided us with a Savior. Just like the member came and helped my companion out, brushed him off and told him it'd be ok, Jesus Christ can and will pick you up when you're down, dust you off, and tell you it's ok. Except he knows how you feel exactly and will help take those pains. It's a matter of whether or not you're willing to let him help you and what you do after. 

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Today we moved into our new apartment. And holy crap, it's three times bigger than our old one, has more lighting, is cleaner, and newer looking. In fact, it's the biggest apartment in the mission. And it's on the first floor so I don't have to haul my bike up the stairs after a long day. It's super legit. Too bad I probably only have three weeks to enjoy it before I'm transferred.

Friday:

As we were biking past Walmart we saw the sisters caroling, so we joined them. Funny thing is, we were going to go with them, but they said they're going somewhere hat 1 1/2 hours away by bike. They also said there was four of them, meaning if we got a ride we'd be 4 Elders on 4 sisters which isn't allowed. But nope. There were six of them, and they were a 5 minute bike ride away. I suck at singing but I'm another pretty face...maybe that's why they lied to us Then I went in Walmart when we were done to buy over priced egg nog because I can. 

Saturday:

We went caroling and such today, we're still bad, but people usually enjoy it anyways. We also have our lemonade with Christmas cards attached to the cups in front of Kroger. Then we got told to leave. 

Christmas!

What do missionaries do on Christmas? We visit members and teach lessons and skype. Now you know. I've always wondered so there it is. Today was craziness. Skyping my family was a trip, like no time passed. The only change is Kai's voice. It was so nice to talk to them though. Noah made the remark, "Its so nice to see you haven't changed at all and are still immature." Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing  But afterwards skyping (and all missionaries I've talked to so far can agree) you feel like you were in a trance and you have to snap back to reality. It's weird, it actually feels like you came from home and aren't a missionary anymore. But after biking a while it came back. And you know, I wasn't that sad after. It was nice because I could see that there's nothing back home that there's really nothing amazing I'm missing out on and that if I'm gonna be doing something I might as well be serving the Lord.

Monday:

The has been the slowest week number-wise ever. Even for my old companion who has been out well over a year. We had 0s all the way across the board and haven't had a lesson in over two weeks and have none scheduled for this week either. Roswell is not the hot spot of the mission right now.