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