Monday, October 7, 2013

7 Oct. 2013

Hey hows is everything in Indiana! Conference was awesome! We watched all the sessions at the members homes in our wards. I loved all the talks, and there were a lot of talks about womanhood, the priesthood and families this conference. I don't remember who said it, but I liked the quote the mans laws do not change Gods laws.  I thought that was pretty powerful and pretty direct. The speakers did not beat around the bush when they were giving their talks. It was all pretty direct and in a such a way that there was no room for interpretation. Watching the priesthood session at a members house was kind of weird, but it was good. Apparently they don't show conference in this stake in the ward buildings, only at the stake center.  The stake center is about 8-10 miles round trip so we don't try and bike over there a lot.
We had both district and zone meetings this week and they were both at the stake center (sigh). I got an interview with President Winder and that was pretty cool, he is truly called of God. Zone meeting was mainly about working with the members, and we've been talking about that a lot lately. We try to get the members more involved with missionary work and we are beginning to see some of the work and counsel pay off. We are getting more and more referrals to go and talk to people. It keeps us busy all the time. So cool story time. After the zone meeting we went to lunch at Costa Vida and had huge sweet pork burritos which were awesome. As we were pedaling home, a woman flagged us down so we pulled over to her. As we started to talk to her, she completely broke down and told us that her daughter was in the hospital and that her son in law whom she was staying with assaulted here. She openly admitted that she was a less active. She said she couldn't feel the spirit anymore and she just wanted to pray with somebody. We stood there and said a prayer and she left that parking lot with a smile on her face. The blessings of talking to the missionaries.

This week started suit coat season for our mission meaning, we can only wear suit jackets and/or sweaters. I've got two sweaters and two suits so I think I'll be good until it really gets cold. Hopefully I'll get my visa by then.  We were talking to one of our ward mission leaders ,Brother Berg (hes really chill and cool) and he said that I might not get it for awhile because apparently the US government was shut down b/c Congress couldn't pass a budget so I don't know if the State Department is working on visas. Well, hopefully it all gets resolved soon and I will be off to Brasil. Boise is awesome, but I can't wait to get to Manaus.

This next part may not be a good thing to read out loud at dinner so just giving a heads up.  So as were pulling up to the Stake Center where we email we see this funeral processional leaving the chapel and so we  go around the other side of the building to get to family history center where we email from. It wasn't open so we were standing around talking to some members when one of them mention that apparently there was an accident on the other side of the building so we start heading around to see what had happened. We get there and there are 6-7 people lying on the grass with people huddling around them and a car parked on the grass as well. Apparently an older man had gotten into the car and gunned it, lost control and went up onto the grass hit some people and managed to come to a stop. There were fire trucks and ambulances all over the place with police officers coming up as well. Some kids were crying so we talked to them and tried to distract them from what was going on.  After that we just went around to people who looked like they needed a comforting word.  It was quite sad and it looked like everybody was going to live, and we had a prayer to bless anybody who injured and then left to get out of the way of the first responders. Hopefully everything will be all right.

How is marching band going? When is district and regional competitions? I didn't know that there was a BOA thing up in Muncie. Thats cool. We still do eat in members home every night. We don't every cook for  ourselves b/c the only meal we really make is breakfast and thats cereal. Nothing major. We actually do have bunkbeds in our room since there are three of us! I'm the only one who is not on the bunk bed so its pretty great. I don't think I need anything right now. If I need anything I'll let you know! Thanks so much! I miss you all!
Love Ben/Elder Battraw

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