29 April 2019

I've been doing my fair share of yard work this week, we've been helping clean up someone's yard. They have a tree filled section where there was an unbelievable amount of undergrowth and vines everywhere. After many hours of help, you can almost make it the 30 feet to the creek behind it. We were getting really close when on Thursday I had a bit of a scare. So you know how bad my poison ivy reaction is, right? Well, it turns out that there was some in the area I had been working, in some cases actually crawling on the ground. So we bailed quickly, used the hose and some soap to scrub my arms down really well on site and then we ran home and I showered thoroughly. So far, no reaction! So if you want a blessing of the Lord, there's a major one right there! I was fully expecting a hospital visit after that. But we're doing good over here.

22 April 2019

So this week the weather continued to be absolutely crazy. We were visiting some members on Friday morning when one of them told us to be careful because the weather was going to be really bad. Well, this was news to us. Apparently, there were some severe thunderstorms coming in and tornadoes were an option. Never ones to be beat, we took it and all the rain in stride. That is until, of course, we got a call a 5:30 locking us down in our house. So that made it a little less fun. The result was a lot of wind and rain with  tornado warnings and watches all around. Nothing but another fun day of weather in North Cackalacky!

In random news, Elder Lacey and I are both staying in Clinton for another transfer. That means that the chances that I finish my mission here are pretty high. 

And on to the people we've been teaching. Elizabeth went to church again this week, which was awesome. She's been going consistently and we've been working with her still. We had an appointment with her, but we had to cancel after a bunch of confusion after church. Still, we plan on setting a baptismal date with her in this next week. It'll be great!

Wayne has starting progressing again. We call and read the Book of Mormon with him every few days, and he really likes it. He says that we've been able to answer things for him in ways that no other church has been able to. He still needs some time and consistent work, but we'll keep it up with him. 

Damaris didn't go to church, and we stopped by after to see how she is doing. She said she doesn't like it because she doesn't really understand what is being said. Now, I could see this as a genuine concern if she hadn't turned down the offer of a translation headset. So, we're a little stuck with her.

Gio is also going slowly, he isi just really busy all of the time. When school is out we'll be able to go and visit him a lot more often. 

We have some newer people, Nino and Maria. They're a really nice couple, but they haven't been able to go to church because they have to take their daughter back to college in Fayetteville on Sundays. We'll try to work it out with them, and maybe have them bring their daughter to church with them as well! They're a bunch of fun, but a little hard to keep on track. We taught them the Plan of Salvation the last time we were there. Maria was really focused on it and seemed to like it quite a bit. Nino was all over the place. 

On Sunday we got to have an awesome Easter lunch that some of the members had made. We had steaks, chicken, rice, beans, rolls, potato salad and lemonade. Very filling, and very tasty. 

Saturday we had the branch Easter activity. That was a bunch of fun, and more good food. They had a dessert auction and and thing of Jello sold for $20. The bidding got pretty intense. I put in a bid of $1 a few time for some plates of cookies, but was unsurprisingly outbid every time. Someone evidently took pity on the missionary budget though, and gave us a plate of the cookies I had bid on! So just a good day overall. That was also when they had the Easter Egg hunt for the little kids, and they had laid them out all over the place. They also had a scavenger hunt, and they dragged us in on one side. That was pretty fun, but when we got to the chest that they had locked, the lock was jammed and we couldn't get the key in. Well, that ended up getting cut off. You know that all activities end best with someone breaking out the bolt cutters. And yes, they had them on hand because you know, it's North Carolina. But that was about all the fun from the activity. Time for pictures! 

15 April 2019

This week continued to keep it interesting here. Firstly, we were eating lunch with our district Wednesday at a Wendy's when some random Hispanic man walked up to us, and started talking. Now, there are three companionships in our district, and only one speaks Spanish. So the other two just watched silently as we had a five minute conversation with him, where we found out that he has gone to church twice and is neighbors with the first counselor! We set up another time to come by and talk with him, and started teaching both him and his wife! I wasn't personally there for this, I was on exchanges at the time. We have a new thing in our mission, the Spanish Training Leaders.  They're a couple of the more experienced Spanish missionaries who go around and help train and evaluate the missionaries, kind of like zone leaders but for all of the Spanish elders in the mission. They came and really helped us out with our miles as well, because I had to go to Fayetteville and do a baptismal interview for the sisters in our district. The STLs have unlimited miles, so we went in their car to Fayetteville. I really enjoyed the interview, the person being interviewed (Kenzie) is a 15 year old girl who has been going to church for over a year now, but just hasn't been taught before. She was super excited to be baptized and knew a lot more about the church than your average convert. The sisters say that she's actually already planning out her temple marriage with her member boyfriend in the Hawaii temple. It was a cool experience. After that, Elder Rasmussen and I went to try to contact a few people in a trailer park. It reminded me why I don't like trailer parks after dark. This huge dog started running at us while his owner shouted "No les hace nada!" (He won't do anything to you!) We stood there until he stopped with the owner chasing him and calling him to stop. The dog backed off, then came at us again when we had turned around. He called it off again, and we started walking past the truck (the STLs drive a weird car for missionaries) when the dog took off after us again. The owner was screaming again, "NO LES HACE NADA!" At this point, we weren't feeling very trusting in his ability to hold his dog in check and I ended up on top of the cab of the truck and Elder Rasmussen ended up in the bed. After that, the dog backed up and we decided that it was expedient that we leave the trailer park at that time. Reminds me of Alma 55:23. 

In other news, Elizabeth went to church again! She says that she likes it more and more every time she goes. We're going to invite her to baptism this week, and we're super excited for her! Damaris is also doing well. We invited her to be baptized, but she said that she wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true first. Still, we're going to keep working with her, and trying to involve her oldest kid, Joseph. We had a little object lesson with them where we copper plated a nail  and related it to the Atonement. It worked out pretty well, and actually managed to hold his attention for a while. 

I think that's about it for now, see y'all next week!

8 April 2019

Another conference has come and gone again! There were a ton of really great talks, and some of them are really going to help with missionary work. My top three were

1. Takashi Wada

2. Jeffrey R. Holland

3. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Also, President Nelson calling all of the men of the church to repentance was pretty crazy.

But this week was pretty good. We had another lesson with Damaris about the Plan of Salvation and she had questions as always. Brother Navas is always a great help with her and her questions, and this time was no exception. She said she would be baptized if she came to know the church was true, which is exciting!

We also got a Book of Mormon referral named Elizabeth. Her brother is a member in Virginia, and said she'd be interested. We went over the Restoration and she really liked it. She watched Conference as well, and said it was definitely different than other churches she had gone to. Overall, she's doing really well! We're visiting her again this week.

And now for the fun story of the week: I got bit by a horse! So we were coming back from a service project and went around back where there is a large fenced off field, only to see a horse standing maybe 20 feet in. So, naturally, I called it over and pet it. Then, I took a picture with it. It apparently really wanted food, and at about that moment decided that my arm resembled it closely enough and went ahead and bit me. It wasn't much, but definitely got my attention. Not every day that you grt bit by a horse! That brings my animal bite count on the mission to

Dogs: 3

Cats: 1

Horses: 1

Fortunately, only two of these drew blood. Have a good week y'all!

 

 

1 April 2019

It's a big day today, I've now hit my 20 month mark. That's right, only 4 more months before people back home have to deal with me again! And in revelant news, on to the work!

So we finally got Damaris to church! It's taken some effort, but she's got some good member friends now who were able to take her. She really liked it, and is going to watch conference next week as well, hopefully with the same members. Nisha also came to church, but we found out why she only comes every other week: she trades off going to her daughter's boyfriend's church. This could probably be more easily addressed if the daughter wasn't 7. We've gotten ourselves in quite the pickle with this one. How do you convince an irate 7 year old that she shouldn't be "dating" someone?

In big news for over here, Wayne is going to watch General Conference too! Well, as much as a 90% blind man can watch it, but you get it. He thinks it's pretty funny that we want him to sit in front of a tv without being able to tell what's going on. I've never heard so many blind jokes in my life as I've heard from him! Honestly, his biggest holdups right now are stopping drinking sweet tea and Joseph Smith's name. The first thing he asked us is if he was a plumber. He then explained that in his base as a special forces troop people would frequently come in dressed the exact same way, carrying something that looked suspiciously like a rifle bag. When he asked them who they were, they were always a Smith and a plumber, so he's trying to change his mental association of the name Smith with CIA covers. I think that's the big news for the week, but I'll send more if I remember it!