9 April 2018

Well, this week we had Zone Conference. It was in Wilmington, which is a two hour drive away. It was actually really awesome. One of our members drove us down and took us to the beach before, which was super cool and made me realize that I really love the beach even when I can't go into the water and it's 40 degrees with a high wind and I only have a suit jacket to protect me. It was really great, even though it was cold. Even with all the weather it still made me think about moving to Wilmington post-mission. Who knows, though. After ZC we went to this garden place (see title) and we just spent a few hours wandering around and taking pictures. Also a lot of fun because I got to see some of my friends out here that I haven't been able to see for a while. Also, I got a haircut and decided to actually try doing something with my hair. For the first time. Unless you count senior prom, but that kind of failed hair-wise.

In terms of the work, it's been rough. Almost no one will go to church ever, partly because we have to try to get them to go somewhere they've never been before that's 45 minutes away. It's pretty hard even just knocking doors, because we have to really search out the Hispanics over an area that's huge. Most of the areas where there are any are super far away, too, and we have limited miles. The branch itself is slowly improving, and more people who haven't been in a long time are showing up after we've visited them a few times. The coolest experience we had this week was being able to go to the baptism of someone that we found a few weeks ago. We were knocking doors and at one of them a teenage girl named Sam answered. It turns out that she is very religious and loved what we shared and wanted to hear more. So we talked with her for a little while and then set up a time when other missionaries could come by. We definitely would have come back and taught her more ourselves, but in our area we aren't allowed to teach anyone who doesn't speak Spanish any more than the first lesson. So the English missionaries took over and she got baptized two weeks later, the fastest that you can be out here because you have to go to church at least twice. She already has a whole bunch of friends in the Young Women and is doing super well. The only sad part is how we couldn't teach her ourselves, but it's always great to see people improve and develop a deeper relationship with God.

 

  

This was one of the weirdest things I've seen while tracting. We thought it was actual people inside at first, but nope. Just some mannequins. 

 

Some of my favorite pictures of the beach that I took.

 

Seriously though, the signs in the South are just the best.
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