27 August 2018

By way of explanation, my companion this week was freaking out a little bit about how fast his time goes because he just hit his 10 month mark. I'm about to hit 13, and it feels like 10 was yesterday. Time really is flying by ridiculously fast. (Yes, Mom, I'm aware that you don't feel the same way.)

But back to the stuff that matters. We got to visit with some really cool people this week, including with J and with William again. J said that he wants to be baptized, and so we set a date with him on the 15th of September. He's been going to church regularly, we just need to go and teach him everything! He's so ready to be baptized, we just can only meet with him 1-2 times a week. On the plus side, he's just absolutely plowing through the Book of Mormon! He's almost finished with 1 Nephi, and we gave it to him about 2 weeks ago! William is a little more hesitant about baptism, but he's also going through and reading in the Book of Mormon. He says he wants to read the whole thing before he gets baptized. He does have some good questions, though, and he went to church for the first time yesterday! He lives with a less active family who works a lot and so can't come to church much, but they've been trying to get going again. 

Last night, we got to visit with some cool people to. We knocked on one woman's door, and she invited us in after a bit of talking. Her name is Rosa, and is super religious. We gave her a Book of Mormon and showed her Moroni 10:3-5. She loved it a lot. In fact, she loved it so much that she read half of the chapter while we were there. She just wouldn't stop. She said that you could really feel the love in it. We're going to be able to meet with her again on Friday and hopefully teach all of her family. Later that night, we knocked on someone else's door and they invited us right in as well! They were also really receptive, and we're going back to visit with them next Sunday. There's big things happening in Wallace!

In more fun, random news, we had a branch activity called the Shrimp-a-Roo! Basically, we just had food and games for a few hours. We had to show up at 7 in the morning to help set up and to paint the soccer field. That was pretty cool, but ended up with us being outside for a total of about 10 hours that day. More on that later, but check this out! 

 

Missionaries getting artsy. By the way, that says SUD LDS. SUD is the abbreviation of Santos de los Ultimos Dias, or Latter Day Saints in English. And yes, that is Moroni up top. This picture was taken by my comp up on my shoulders. This was the center of the field. We had a few mini soccer games, but they were interrupted by the arrival of a huge inflatable waterslide. My comp had to go down due to losing a bet with someone for who could make the longest shot into the net. J and William went to that, too. It was a ton of fun. About an hour after this, (it ended at one and we had to help clean up) we went and helped William do some yardwork. It was pretty hard stuff for another few hours, and so by the end of it my neck looked like this: 

 

 

 

It's only a little bit painful. But overall, it was a really great day. We had a lesson with William then, too, and talked more about the BoM and why we are baptized. He's such a great guy. Also, while we were helping him, we found this little guy! You can't see his bright blue tail. 

 

We also had our first full Zone Conference with President Holland this week. It was super great! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how important it is, not only for our people we're teaching, but also for us. He's a really awesome mission president. He knows how and when to be serious, but he can also have a lot of fun and make jokes. I can tell that it's going to be a fun last year with him. 

The only other thing that really happened this week was a "Family Home Evening" that we have with all of the Hispanics in the branch. We played Human Battleship with sponges, but in order to  be able to throw a sponge you had to be able to answer a gospel question right. That was a ton of fun, too. Here's me giving a sponge to one of the kids to throw. 

 

 

Well, I think that's all for this week. Bye!

20 August 2018

So I have been moved to my new area. It is called Wallace, and it's this tiny little Southern town. There are only about 4,000 people who live here. We have no other missionaries close, and so we go to Wilmington (40 minutes away) for district council. Hey, at least it's close to the beach. Wilmington, that is. Wallace is still way far away. We're going to be having a zone activity sometime soon, so that should have some fun pictures. Also, every Monday here we have a family home evening with all of the Hispanics in the branch, and we're doing Gospel- themed human battleship. It'll be way fun. My new companion is called Elder Escobedo, and I'll have some pictures of him attached.

This week started out pretty interesting. So, Elder Hull and I were packing up so that we could both leave the area on Tuesday morning. Then, at 8:58 a.m., we got a text from the assistants. They asked us if Elder Hull could come and play piano for the new missionary meeting. At 9:30. The problem was, he was maybe halfway packed, if that. And we lived 25 minutes away from where we needed to be. Previous to that text, we had almost three hours left to pack and get ready. Now, we had 7 minutes. We told them we'd be there as soon as possible, shoved everything into bags and into the car, and left. We got there at 9:39, which was pretty good time. They were running late too, so we weren't even actually late. So I just spent the rest of the morning just waiting for all of the other missionaries to show up. It was pretty nice to be able to talk to all of the other missionaries again before my exile to Wallace. 

Once I got to Wallace, the first thing I noticed was how absolutely tiny it was. There's just not very much here. It's crazy. But we got working pretty soon, and we have already been knocking quite a few doors. We have some really good people here. One of them, J, is super great. We gave him a Book of Mormon on Saturday, and then we talked to him on Sunday after church. He had already read up to 1 Nephi 11! He is so great, and we just need to help him understand it a little bit more. We're going to teach him again tomorrow, and we're super pumped to help him. Unfortunately, he has to have a surgery soon, so if y'all could keep him in your prayers, that would be awesome. Other than him, we don't have a whole lot of people who are really progressing a ton. One is named William, and he seems to be a pretty good guy. He just has trouble waking up for church on Sundays. (It starts at 9 in the morning.) We got to help him out with his yard on Saturday, and that was pretty fun. First time I've ever used a machete. Apparently when your grass is too tall, a lawnmower just won't cut it. (Get it?) Unfortunately, I had neglected to wear jeans, and had opted for shorts instead. There were a lot of thorns out there, and so my legs got kind of cut up. Also, I'm way allergic to some kind of grass, and it turns out that it's in William's yard. I had bumps going up my wrists, my knees, and had a rash rapidly spreading across my body. It was insanely itchy. At the same time, I had some bug or another bite me in three places on my legs, which then started to swell. My comp was genuinely concerned that I would die. I took an allergy pill and hosed myself off, and then faked being okay for a while. He had wanted to take us out for tacos, and I'll stand being way itchy for a little way if it means that I get authentic tacos. They were some of the best I've ever had, and it was definitely worth the wait. After that, we went home and I took a shower. By that night, the rash was completely gone. No more emergency visits for me! Last time that happened, it was so much worse. But it wasn't too bad this time. 

I think that's about all of the news for the week, see ya!

 

Elder Escobar in a field

13 August 2018

As my mission president informed me Saturday night, I am leaving. In fact, this area is getting whitewashed. That was a surprise. I've been here for two transfers, and my comp has been here for 4. I thought I was staying and he was leaving for sure. I was half right. Unfortunately, I have no way to get my ~8 lbs. of frozen blueberries to my next area. So they're getting left behind. I'm going to be in Wallace, a little city about 40 minutes from Wilmington. I'm pretty excited, but every time I start to pack I always have to wonder how I got all of my stuff there in the first place. I have to leave stuff in every area, and I don't even remember picking up anything. I'll figure it all out.

The work here this last week kind of is suffering. We still haven't been able to get up with that one really cool family (Luz, Maria, Anthony...) but we've finally been able to make an appointment for tonight. Hopefully they'll be back on track for when the new missionaries come in. One of them is actually one of my old companions from Raeford, and he'll be training here. I'm excited for him to see how they're doing. Another family kind of told us that they want the mom to heal up from a broken leg before we go and see them again, but we'll have the other missionaries at least stop by soon to say hi and get to know them. They have a lot of potential, but they just need to get reading in the Book of Mormon. We've also been talking with another man named Nelson from Honduras. He really wants to learn more, but can't go to church right now because of work. We are going to try to get him a job with someone in the ward who owns their own construction business, which just happens to be what Nelson works in. So hopefully that'll help. He says that he already knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, "I mean, just look at it! There's no way he could have written it!" (rough translation from Spanish.) So that's exciting. Hopefully he'll continue to progress. 

Not much has been going on in terms of just random area stuff. It's been kind of slow. My dog bite is almost completely healed, so that's good. Mostly just some bruising that's still hanging around. The dog's owners were also located by animal control and the dog is current on all of its vaccines, so I don't have to worry about getting rabies either. Nice way to end the transfer.

6 August 2018

So, to start it all off this week, I got bit by a dog on Saturday. This particular dog has the nickname of "The Tank," given to it by one of the previous missionaries who served here. It's actual name we found out is "Muñeco," which means "little doll" in Spanish. We think that The Tank is a much more accurate description. He's a big pit bull who is always chained up in the front yard of some trailer, and whenever we pass by him he runs to the end of his chain and barks like crazy. Well, on Saturday, they didn't have him on a chain. I don't know why, but they didn't. So we were walking by (we frequently visit this particular trailer park) and as we were turning his corner, he starts to run at us. I was used to this, but I thought he still had a chain on. He didn't'. I saw that and still wasn't too worried because he wasn't barking like normal. I thought he was being friendly. (We've tried to befriend this dog, but it wasn't happening.) Then, as he was right in front of me, he jumped at my arm. At that point, I realized, "Oh, he might not be so friendly right now." This is where I think that God intervened. I hadn't even really comprehended what was going on when he had jumped. I don't remember pulling my arm back at all, but apparently I did. And I'm pretty sure it spent a lot of time in his mouth, because I had slobber on my arm almost from elbow to pinky. I'm pretty sure that I can't move all of my lower arm past a dog's mouth before it has time to really bite down, but that's what happened. I did get bit a little, but it wasn't anything major. At the same time, I kneed it in the chest/side to get it away from me a little, and then the owner called it off and it walked away. I was bleeding a little bit, but if God hadn't intervened, I would have had a 75+ lb. pit bull hanging off my arm. So that's really my miracle of the week. I'll have a picture at the bottom, but it's not bad, almost just a scratch. With some minor swelling. But that's since gone down.

In terms of the work for this week, it was pretty good. We got to meet a family of 3 who seem way open to listening more, and they really want to learn. The dad is named Roberto, and he's a taxi driver, so he even has a pretty regular schedule, which is super uncommon out here. Like, ridiculously uncommon. I think he's only the second non-member Hispanic I've met out here whose schedule isn't just absolutely insane. We're really excited for them, and we're meeting with them again on Wednesday. And something very interesting happened in terms of less-actives: We found two that we didn't know existed. One is from the Dominican Republic and hasn't gone to church in over 15 years, and the other is a 16 year old girl from Hondorus who got baptized when she was 11 and just fell away. But she seemed super open to us, and she and her aunt live with another person we've been trying to teach. She said she wanted a Book of Mormon, so we're going to go by and read with her and everyone there in it, and hopefully they'll both start going back to church. That's it for this week, talk to y'all later!