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!