6/27/16

6-20-16
It was a good PDay today! Bro. Tadlock took us out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and brought his nephew Wyatt. After that, we waited on E. Staley to get a haircut and then played tennis. We played a game of doubles! Then, we got our groceries home and headed to the church to play some basketball. Little did we know that about 30 people were going to show up! We played a bunch of games. I had the game winning shot at the end. 😎 Dee was telling us about how he enjoyed church on Sunday. He plans to come again and bring some friends that we met playing ball!

6-21-16
It was a slow day today... We couldn't catch very many people home. So we went to go help Patti & Dave, but Patti wasn't feeling well and Dave wouldn't let us! We sat and visited with him for a little bit while we watched "Conan: the Destroyer 1982"
with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's a new favorite for me! I hope to someday, be half the man that he is. After that, we tried to catch Dee at home and a few others, but no one was available. For dinner, we made Quesadillas and headed out to the other side of town. We caught the guy who let Elder Rose and I in while he got the bloody nose, but he wants to stick with his own religion... We went to stop by the Thompson's to see what they were doing and just Jakob and Liam were there. They just ordered pizza, so they gave us some and we played a little basketball with them.

6-22-16
We had Zone Conference today which was really awesome! We had some good trainings by the APs, Zone Leaders and Pres. Turner. This went until 4:00 pm, so we got back just in time to get ready for Ward Coordination. That meeting went well and we talked about Tammy getting ready to go to the temple. After the meeting, we saw her before she talked to the Bishop and she said it went really well! Now she has to meet with the Stake President. I am so excited for her! We kept Jake preoccupied while she was in there. When she left, Dee and some friends and some investigators came and played basketball. We played ball with them for a bit and showed the investigator who came around the church a bit. We also, shared some scriptures with Dequan on the Sideline. The bishop is trying to shutdown us playing basketball on Mondays because he said the facilities need to be shut down Monday because it should be family night. Uhh we're missionaries? The ward doesn't organize any activities to get the community involved, so we took it upon ourselves to organize basketball where nonmembers can come and play! We open with a prayer and spiritual thought. We are just making them feel welcome and comfortable in our church and that we are normal people! That's a big reason why Dequan came to church last Sunday because we gave him a tour of the church and played basketball. Now, he is comfortable enough to bring his friends with him. He already calls it "his church" haha. We see them around town all the time and they'll honk at us and talk to us. We are pretty popular now! So we are going to go talk to Bishop about it Sunday and make sure he doesn't shut it down...

6-23-16
This morning, we got up and helped the Barefoots clean the church.
They were really grateful for that. After that, we played some basketball and kicked the ball around with Jake. He was laughing hard.
He cracks me up. After we went back to the apartment and finished our studies, we set out to go proselyte. We went to the ghetto to go try by some potentials. We went up and talked to a group of black guys for a bit. It reeked of weed over there while we were talking to them.
Haha we ended up having a good conversation with them and they were really nice! The potential investigator we taught before was out there, so we taught her a little bit too. We also, set up a return appointment. After that, we stopped by an investigator named Candice.
She was passed out asleep under her garage, so we decided to take pictures with her! Haha

6-24-16
We helped Sis. Mason mow her lawn today. There was a friend of hers that came over and we got to teach them! Her brother was there for a bit too. After that, we went to the church to give Sister Jones (Sister Missionary) a blessing. Her eye was completely swollen shut for some reason. We finally, were able to get some lunch. After lunch/dinner, we tried by some people and called a ton of people to stop by and see them. No one was available... It was just one of those trial days.

6-25-16
After we set out for the day, we tried to catch some people at home who weren't. Then, we went over to Dequan's because we were going to cut his lawn. Dequan said that their mower caught on fire while they were trying to mow last time. After about 8 weeks of it being really long, we decided to go help them cut it. The day we decided to do it, was the day they must've decided to have someone else cut it! That was kind of frustrating. Haha but it's turned out to be a good thing because it dumped rain a little after we drove by there. Bro. Solomon took us over there with his mower, but since we couldn't mow... He took us to get milkshakes at Cook-Out! It cleared up after about an hour and a half, so we headed out again. We finally met the guy we saw at Lowe's who randomly invited us over for burgers! He is this really nice black guy named Freddie. He used to play baseball for USC and now he works at a Chrysler place making bearings for the cars. He has met with missionaries before and is still in contact with one on Facebook!
He invited us back over on Tuesday for burgers, so I can't wait for that! To end the night, we stopped to visit with Bro. Moles. He has had some health issues, so he hasn't been able to go to church lately.
We had a good visit with him and shared a message.

6-26-16
After Sacrament meeting, the Bishop called us in to visit with him about basketball. We talked to him about a member named Ziggy Ansuh
(sp?) and he plays for the Detroit Lions now in the NFL. We talked about him because he was introduced by the missionaries through a simple game of basketball. That's how he joined the church! We talked about Dequan as well. He didn't get to go to church this Sunday because he was out of town, but he started coming once he came to play basketball. He plans to bring some friends to church as well! He agreed that we can continue playing, but we have to keep the numbers down to around 10 people. After church, we went over to Sis. Tingen's and Pete grilled some awesome pork and chicken. I was stuffed! Then, we went to visit Sis. Mason and talk with her for a little bit. We stopped by some investigators named Doug and Desi. They were playing board games, so we played a little bit with them. One was called "Exploding Kittens." They cooked some curry for dinner and fed us!
They are some really nice people. They told us that they want their house to be a "safe house" where we can feel comfortable to stop and get a drink or food anytime. Then, they drove us home for the night!


-Elder Mitchell

6/27/16

6-20-16
It was a good PDay today! Bro. Tadlock took us out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and brought his nephew Wyatt. After that, we waited on E. Staley to get a haircut and then played tennis. We played a game of doubles! Then, we got our groceries home and headed to the church to play some basketball. Little did we know that about 30 people were going to show up! We played a bunch of games. I had the game winning shot at the end. 😎 Dee was telling us about how he enjoyed church on Sunday. He plans to come again and bring some friends that we met playing ball!

6-21-16
It was a slow day today... We couldn't catch very many people home. So we went to go help Patti & Dave, but Patti wasn't feeling well and Dave wouldn't let us! We sat and visited with him for a little bit while we watched "Conan: the Destroyer 1982"
with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's a new favorite for me! I hope to someday, be half the man that he is. After that, we tried to catch Dee at home and a few others, but no one was available. For dinner, we made Quesadillas and headed out to the other side of town. We caught the guy who let Elder Rose and I in while he got the bloody nose, but he wants to stick with his own religion... We went to stop by the Thompson's to see what they were doing and just Jakob and Liam were there. They just ordered pizza, so they gave us some and we played a little basketball with them.

6-22-16
We had Zone Conference today which was really awesome! We had some good trainings by the APs, Zone Leaders and Pres. Turner. This went until 4:00 pm, so we got back just in time to get ready for Ward Coordination. That meeting went well and we talked about Tammy getting ready to go to the temple. After the meeting, we saw her before she talked to the Bishop and she said it went really well! Now she has to meet with the Stake President. I am so excited for her! We kept Jake preoccupied while she was in there. When she left, Dee and some friends and some investigators came and played basketball. We played ball with them for a bit and showed the investigator who came around the church a bit. We also, shared some scriptures with Dequan on the Sideline. The bishop is trying to shutdown us playing basketball on Mondays because he said the facilities need to be shut down Monday because it should be family night. Uhh we're missionaries? The ward doesn't organize any activities to get the community involved, so we took it upon ourselves to organize basketball where nonmembers can come and play! We open with a prayer and spiritual thought. We are just making them feel welcome and comfortable in our church and that we are normal people! That's a big reason why Dequan came to church last Sunday because we gave him a tour of the church and played basketball. Now, he is comfortable enough to bring his friends with him. He already calls it "his church" haha. We see them around town all the time and they'll honk at us and talk to us. We are pretty popular now! So we are going to go talk to Bishop about it Sunday and make sure he doesn't shut it down...

6-23-16
This morning, we got up and helped the Barefoots clean the church.
They were really grateful for that. After that, we played some basketball and kicked the ball around with Jake. He was laughing hard.
He cracks me up. After we went back to the apartment and finished our studies, we set out to go proselyte. We went to the ghetto to go try by some potentials. We went up and talked to a group of black guys for a bit. It reeked of weed over there while we were talking to them.
Haha we ended up having a good conversation with them and they were really nice! The potential investigator we taught before was out there, so we taught her a little bit too. We also, set up a return appointment. After that, we stopped by an investigator named Candice.
She was passed out asleep under her garage, so we decided to take pictures with her! Haha

6-24-16
We helped Sis. Mason mow her lawn today. There was a friend of hers that came over and we got to teach them! Her brother was there for a bit too. After that, we went to the church to give Sister Jones (Sister Missionary) a blessing. Her eye was completely swollen shut for some reason. We finally, were able to get some lunch. After lunch/dinner, we tried by some people and called a ton of people to stop by and see them. No one was available... It was just one of those trial days.

6-25-16
After we set out for the day, we tried to catch some people at home who weren't. Then, we went over to Dequan's because we were going to cut his lawn. Dequan said that their mower caught on fire while they were trying to mow last time. After about 8 weeks of it being really long, we decided to go help them cut it. The day we decided to do it, was the day they must've decided to have someone else cut it! That was kind of frustrating. Haha but it's turned out to be a good thing because it dumped rain a little after we drove by there. Bro. Solomon took us over there with his mower, but since we couldn't mow... He took us to get milkshakes at Cook-Out! It cleared up after about an hour and a half, so we headed out again. We finally met the guy we saw at Lowe's who randomly invited us over for burgers! He is this really nice black guy named Freddie. He used to play baseball for USC and now he works at a Chrysler place making bearings for the cars. He has met with missionaries before and is still in contact with one on Facebook!
He invited us back over on Tuesday for burgers, so I can't wait for that! To end the night, we stopped to visit with Bro. Moles. He has had some health issues, so he hasn't been able to go to church lately.
We had a good visit with him and shared a message.

6-26-16
After Sacrament meeting, the Bishop called us in to visit with him about basketball. We talked to him about a member named Ziggy Ansuh
(sp?) and he plays for the Detroit Lions now in the NFL. We talked about him because he was introduced by the missionaries through a simple game of basketball. That's how he joined the church! We talked about Dequan as well. He didn't get to go to church this Sunday because he was out of town, but he started coming once he came to play basketball. He plans to bring some friends to church as well! He agreed that we can continue playing, but we have to keep the numbers down to around 10 people. After church, we went over to Sis. Tingen's and Pete grilled some awesome pork and chicken. I was stuffed! Then, we went to visit Sis. Mason and talk with her for a little bit. We stopped by some investigators named Doug and Desi. They were playing board games, so we played a little bit with them. One was called "Exploding Kittens." They cooked some curry for dinner and fed us!
They are some really nice people. They told us that they want their house to be a "safe house" where we can feel comfortable to stop and get a drink or food anytime. Then, they drove us home for the night!


-Elder Mitchell

2/15/16

2-8-16

The Cheraw Elders came to Hartsville to hangout with us for my birthday! They made me pick where I wanted to eat, so I picked Zaxby's! After lunch, they took us to go get our groceries since they have a car. Then, we went to the church and played basketball. It was a lot of fun! After they left, we went to the Edward's home for dinner. Bro. Edwards made steaks, flattened them and rolled bacon, pickles, cheese and mustard in them. It is supposedly a German dish and it was amazing! Then, we had cake with cream cheese icing!

2-9-16

It was a pretty good day today! We met some nice people who weren't always interested... But they were nice! Later tonight, we went over to Juwan's to visit him. We went over the interview questions and helped prepare him for the actual one on Friday!

2-10-16

We taught the Plan of Salvation to one of the people we have on date. When we left, the guy said, "next time y'all come over, I'll have something to share with you!" Haha I wonder what that's going to be. We went over to a member's for dinner and had some pizza. Then, we went to ward coordination to address the needs of our investigators and how the ward can help.

2-11-16

We did quite a bit of ghetto stomping today. We got some lessons in as well! We decided to go see a less active we have never met before. I just felt prompted to do so. We knocked on the door and talked to the lady who answered. She told us that the person we were looking for moved... So instead, we talked to the lady who was there. She seemed pretty interested in our lesson and would like for us to come back! It's amazing how much the Spirit can work with you. As long as you put your trust in those promptings and follow them, things will work out. It's really neat to see how we are led to certain people by the Spirit or they are led to us. These people who have been prepared by Heavenly Father to listen to the message of the restored gospel.

After that lesson, we met a member back at our apartment and went out teaching with him for a bit!

2-12-16

We had ZTM today and it was awesome! All of our key indicators as a zone have increased. Afterwards, we went on companion exchanges with the zone leaders. I stayed in Hartsville. So big news!!.. The District leader came to Hartsville as well so that he could interview Juwan for baptism! He is ready and excited to take the step of faith he needs to come closer to Christ. He requested that I should baptize him! We have had the date set with him for the 20th of February. It's amazing because Elder Siebers and I started this goal to pray daily and reason with the Lord on how to accomplish the goal of baptizing someone by the 20th. Our faith has paid off after we have been tested and tried. We used faith as a power to accomplish this goal. After the interview, we went finding for a bit and found 4 new investigators!

2-13-16

Comp. exchanges ended today. We went to drop E. Lambert off and picked up E. Rose. When we got back, we went tracting and found a few people to teach. To end the freezing day, we went to a member's home and visited with them. I got along really well with them. They filled us in on all the crazy political stuff and all the great movies I'm going to be missing out on. Haha. We shared one of my favorite scriptures with them (Helaman 5:12) and talked to them about how a Christlike centered home is so important. We will build that foundation that will be steadfast and immovable.

2-14-16

Happy Valentine's Day! Church went really well today. I wrote our Juwan's program for his baptism and a couple people to make some desserts for it. They announced his baptism time at church, so I really hope a lot of people show up! After church, we went over to see the Thompson's and have lunch with them. They grilled up some steaks! It was around 28° today, so biking was freezing! This humidity makes it so much colder too... We knocked into a Jehovah's Witness today and that was interesting! They have such a cynical view of Christ. It makes it difficult to no just unleash a bunch of doctrine on them, but that would just make them mad. We are told to stay away from bible bashing. Haha so I just shared my testimony and told her to have a good day. We ended up teaching a total of 20 lessons this week! Most of them are from tracting, but we are going to focus on getting more members our teaching with us next week.

-Elder Mitchell