February 20, 2017

Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Today I went on exchange in Athens. Man, I met a gangster with an r. Not a gangsta that cusses and through around drugs and thinks they're cool, a gangster, one who makes millions upon millions. I won't get into details, but he's now a baptized member with a past. Long story short, he was running the show in Athens and Atlanta. So much so, that the Elders I was on exchange with use his name when people threaten them and they get scared and back off. If the Kripps had the same organization of the church, he was an apostle. But now he's baptized and in the short time I was with him he really got to like me he said, so I guess I'm cool with the gangstas of Athens/Atlanta. Thursday: We had a lesson with the guy I talked about my first week here and it was awesome! He's the only one so far since I've been here that actually keeps his commitments so it sets things up for great lessons. And today we asked him about baptism and he said he would be! Friday: So as we're driving home already 30 minutes past curfew we get a call from a new investigator of ours asking us to come over real quick because his niece was going through a tough time. So we said we'd stop by and say a prayer because we were going to actually pass his house on the way. It ended up being 30 minutes. We got in and she had a recent death of a close one and needed someone to talk to because she was confused and just needed us. We started talking and the spirit was very strong, but then our investigator (who is super drunk) kept interrupting and really just saying dumb things which made it hard for the spirit to be there and for her to express her feelings. So ultimately what happened is Elder Knight taught her and got to have this awesome spiritual discussion, and I talked to our drunk investigator to keep him distracted. Kinda annoying, I could overhear parts of their conversation and hear crying and feel the spirit emanating, I just wanted to be in it so darn bad, especially because it was a long hard day and this was a little bit of spirituality I could have. But it's ok. She was able to be comforted and is going to sit in on our lesson next week with our investigator since it's on the plan of salvation. He also tried to set me up with her for marriage, and said it's ok if I kiss her, it's always awkward when that happens, especially when they're 28. We got home ridiculously late, but I think it was worth it. The fact that we were on his road that far past curfew is a miracle. We had lots of things fall through and lots of rescheduling and an appointment run way long which put us on his road when he called. Saturday: Sunday: We had an awesome lesson planned for the guy I talked about on Thursday. He let us in and sat us down with the member we brought (which isn't easy to do). He then proceeded to tell us it's not for him and that the Book of Mormon isn't inspired scripture. According to the things he was saying we're 99% sure that he got into anti (typical) and there were things we could've said to throw back at it, but he got so far from his testimony that he's shared with us so many times, that it would've done nothing. It hurt. It's already been such a rough week with having to drop so many people and that was the saltiest salt on woundiest wound. Now we're back at square one where we started a transfer ago. So I'm not gonna lie, it's hard as junk to stay enthused.  Monday: Transfers...I'm leading out the area (yikes). But guess what? He's going to ROSWELL! Whuuut? He's gonna see all my people!!! I'm jealous, yet so excited.