18 March 2019

So we had a few interesting events happen this week. Mostly on Friday. That was one of the strangest days on my mission, and that's saying something! It started off pretty normally, we worked out and had an inspection planned for a little later at about 10. Then, stuff got weird. Elder Lacey (my new comp) went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet as normal, then went and took a shower. The problem is, you can't flush that toilet like normal, because it'll seem like it flushes normally, but just keep filling the bowl after everything has been flushed away. So he went to the other bathroom and started to shower and thought nothing of it. I was eating breakfast on this pretty high up stool. A few minutes later, I started to stand up to put my bowl in the sink. Strangely, when I put my foot on the ground, I felt in become enclosed in ice as I stepped in the freezing half inch of standing water now in our kitchen. I quickly ascertained the source, shut it off, and promptly worried my companion by saying, "Hey, Elder.... We've got a bit of a problem..." He was still in the other bathroom, and came out to see water spreading out further and further. It was a ton. Fortunately, it was all on the tile area. So we broke out this massive pile of towels that we had and it did very little. We ended up sweeping and mopping the water out the back door, and would sop up as much water as possible with a towel, wring it out, then repeat. It was crazy how much water there was! Also, a member last minute the night before had asked us to go to the hospital with them to translate right before the inspection, which we had to push back for them. We had just about finished with the water after fighting it for about an hour and a half when the member knocked on our door to pick us up. So we got ready really fast and went to the hospital with him. While there, we got a call from the Boutons (the senior couple inspecting our apartment) asking when we'd be getting back. We had no idea, so they ended up just asking the Tyndalls (our branch president, neighbor, and landlord) for a key to get in. We told them what had happened that morning, and they must have taken pity on us because they're notoriously picky. Our apartment wasn't very clean, it wasn't fully dry yet, and stuff had been all pushed to one side for clean up. When we got back, Sister Tyndall said that we passed. Surprised, we went in to see a bag of desserts laying on the counter, something they only give to the missionaries who miss almost no points on the inspection, and another fan set up to help out with the drying process. I was surprised, but I'll take the pity points there if they're being handed out.

That particularly eventful morning is kind of dominating my memory right now, and I can't remember too much else from the week. We did get a really great text Saturday morning, though. Nisha texted us back for the first time in probably 3-4 weeks and said that she was coming to church, which she did! It was really great, and we're going to be able to start working with her again. Also, we had another appointment with Wayne. Previously, he had mentioned that his nurse wanted him to stop putting sugar in his tea, but he never would because he loved sweet tea too much to ever give it up, and was getting irritated with his nurse for asking him. There's a saying out here that goes, "Water is for washing your hands, sweet tea is for drinking." Wayne abides by that fully, and we were pretty unsure coming in. However, it ended up really well! He agreed to live the Word of Wisdom and to live the Law of Chastity with very little fight! It's great to see the Lord changing people's hearts and minds and preparing them to receive the gospel! 

I think that's it for now, have a good week y'all!