2-23-16
We had DDM today and it was really good! They trained
on keeping the vision to baptize. Afterwards, the Cheraw Elders, Zone leaders
and us went to eat at Ruth's Drive in. Later on in the day, we taught a few
people and put one on date! For dinner, we ate at Fuji (Japanese Steakhouse). It
was misting outside most of the day. All of our plans and appointments fell
through, so we decided to just knock some doors. People go to bed at like
7:30-8:00 here so it's hard to tract at night. At least it didn't start pouring
on us like it did yesterday! We met a younger guy and taught him a quick
lesson. He seemed pretty interested, so we will have to try back later.
2-24-16
Today was interesting. After lunch, we went to go
give a member a blessing at her work. When we got done with that, we got a text
from the ward mission leased saying; "Sisters just had a wreck, corner of Fifth
St. And W. Carolina Ave. Can you go there and give a blessing. I'm at a
funeral." ...so many thoughts ran through my head: what am I about to see? Are
they okay? Who needs a blessing? The Bishop called us telling us about it as
well. We were already on our way. I had never biked so fast in my life! My
adrenaline was going crazy for some reason. I was just praying the whole time we
were riding over there.i We got there and the police, a fire truck and ambulance
were there. We were looking all over for the mission car and didn't see it. One
of the sisters popped her head out of the window of a Chrysler and waved us
down. They were all okay! The lady from Florence who was driving was really
shaken up. I reached my hands in her car door and gave her a blessing. They were
riding back to the church and someone ran a red light and hit them on the side.
The Florence and Hartsville sisters were in there. There was a pretty big dent
on the side, but none of them were hurt. The lady in the other car has a
daughter who broke her arm. The other car was pretty torn up. After that, we
taught a couple lessons and then had to go in because we are under tornado
watch.
2-25-16
We went to go see a less active today. He lives in
the ghetto (he's the drug dealer). We had a really good lesson with him. He had
a friend over who is actually a member as well. He's a less active that we've
been trying to locate. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about
repentance. His friend had to leave, but we talked to Rickey about going to the
temple. He remembers going and wants to go again. He's been sealed to his family
there. I'm not sure where his family is right now... We invited him to come to
church and that it would be how he can end up back in the temple. And a couple
other changes. Haha. He was all excited when we started talking about the
temple. It was really neat because I could see the Spirit working within him. He
asked E. Rose to give the closing prayer. Now, here in the south people like to
give something called "prayer help." They'll say; "yes!" "Yes Lord."
"Amen" or "Hallelujah!" The first time it happened to me it really threw me off.
But he started giving E. Rose prayer help. I got the clever idea to join in too!
He said thank you for us being able to sit down with Rickey and I chimed in and
said "yes!" Haha he just paused during the prayer for a little bit. I could tell
he was try I got really hard not to bust up laughing because I was about to as
well! We kept it together well, but I could tell it threw him off when Rickey
did it, and especially when I did!
Later tonight, we had an appointment to meet with
someone. Unfortunately, he was admitted into the hospital. He told us that he
still wanted to meet with us, so we went up to the hospital to visit him and
teach him a little bit. He's an awesome guy. He had a lot of questions for us.
The lesson went well, but he was pretty loopy after he took some pain pills.
Towards the end, he started falling asleep while we were talking to him. But I
could tell the he is really searching for the truth! It's amazing to see how the
Lord prepares certain people to learn to the Gospel. The hard part sometimes is
their agency! A lot of them don't know what to do with these new feelings
they're getting of the Spirit, so they might just brush it off. Some will also
feel it and be sucked right into what we are talking about. It's just really
neat to see how the Spirit works within others.
2-26-16
Today was a pretty good day! We taught quite a few
people today. Most of the. We're doorstep lessons. For dinner, we went to a
members house to eat chicken and dumplings! It was really good. Then we had
peach cobbler.
We had planned to go teach someone and bring a member
with us, but the investigator cancelled. Instead, we went by a couple other
people to see if they were home. Most of them were already in bed, so we went
over to see Bro. Haney. We talked to him for awhile and then he took us home! We
finished planning and now we are listening to some Christian gospel rap prepping
ourselves to go tracting in the ghetto tomorrow!
2-27-16
We went and ate lunch with an old lady from the ward
today. After that, we went to tract in the ghetto for a bit. We met a
couple people and taught them. Our dinner plans fell through because they've had
a bad week, so they cancelled. I also wrecked my bike.. Again. There was a curb
that I was going to bunny hop onto from the road to ramp off a spot where the
cement angles up. My tire caught the curb and three me off the bike! I didn't
get hurt because I landed in a soft pile of leaves luckily, it was a night so no
one witnessed it except for E. Rose. I just didn't jump the curb soon enough.
That's my second wreck. The first one happened the other day. I went to cut
through a bush thinking it was a shortcut and my bike found the only parking
block in the lot... I hit it straight on, so my crotch quickly, met the
handlebars and I flipped over the front. That one didn't feel very good. Haha
they were both caused by myself and my stupidity trying to do cool things!
Hopefully, I won't have anymore any time soon. Nevertheless, I've gotten pretty
experience pad at riding a bike now! We found a little area where there is
bamboo growing, so I cut a piece off and made a blow gun. It works really well.
Haha E. Rose cut a big piece off and is making a walking stick. It was a pretty
productive day! I am looking forward to church tomorrow because there should be
some less actives coming that we met with during the week.
2-28-16
Today, we taught a lady who seemed pretty interested.
She enjoyed hearing about Joseph Smith. I felt the Spirit so strongly during
that lesson! Hopefully, we can sit down with her and her husband and kids soon.
They seem like a really neat family! We planned to eat with some members, but
they cancelled last minute due to a family emergency. They still dropped off
food which was really nice! We taught quite a bit of lessons this week. The only
thing is that we need to work on getting them progressing now by helping them
follow through with commitments. I have been having E. Rose take the lead in
door approaches and some lessons now. His confidence is starting to increase a
little which is good! Frank dropped off some nice tennis racquets yesterday
because we are going to go play tomorrow for PDay with the Florence Elders.
-Elder Mitchell
