It was a needed PDay today... We were able to get some groceries and
actually have food at the apartment now. Haha. Then, we met up with
the Zone Leaders and we are at Olive Garden. A bunch of Elders usually
meet up at the gym to play basketball/dodgeball so we went there and
had a lot of fun! When we got back, we cleaned a ton and the apartment
feels a little more like home now.
8-2-16
Today was our first day going out proselyting with the car which was
pretty exciting. Haha, I remembered how to drive too! It was a pretty
good day. We tried to visit some less active's, but could catch any
home. We knocked around some and got 2 return appointments for
tomorrow! There was a Spanish Elder in this area before so the few
people that they had been teaching speak Spanish... Our teaching pool
is all tried up at the moment, so it's exciting when we get return
appointments! I don't think they were doing very well which is why
they whitewashed the area. We stopped by a family who are active to
get to know them and they're really awesome people! They're the Smiths
and they have three kids Kylee (17), Easton (15) and Landon (11). They
moved here about a year ago from Utah. Kylee had a friend over so they
invited us to stay for dinner! Bro. Smith grilled some awesome pork
chops! We had a good visit with them and I got along really well with
the dad! He served his mission in the Raleigh, NC mission. After
dinner, we went to the apartment where Bro. Adams picked us up to go
visit a recent convert and his wife who is an investigator. His wife
was the only one home, so we visited with her and shared a short
message with them. They're some interesting people!
8-3-16
There were some really neat things that happened today besides getting
stood up with those two return appointments. That wasn't very cool...
But we got a new investigator and stopped by a less active's house and
it was definitely inspired! The less active lady hasn't had
missionaries over there in years, so she was surprised and happy. She
was talking about how she could've really used us yesterday to help
move a swingset in her backyard. Her and her two daughters couldn't
budge it. We went in the back and it was a pretty solid swingset. I
got underneat the heavy end and put my shoulders underneath and picked
it up while Elder Elmer picked up the other side and we were able to
move it for her. Haha she was very grateful and talked our ears off.
She was talking about how people from the church judge her for having
a lot of cats (14) but they're all rescued animals that she hasn't
refused to turn down from people. I was surprised with how clean her
house was! She was really grateful that we didn't judge her for it and
she invited us back over for dinner on Sunday. She works as someone
who speaks for children who are in foster homes in court and does it
for free! She was such a nice lady and always seems to serve others.
She would be such a great asset in the church, so we have decided that
we are going to reactivate her! As for the investigator we found, a
rough looking guy stepped out of this apartment we knocked on and was
talking about how he was a Christian. We shared the Restoration with
him and he listened very intently actually! He was blown away about
the part about the apostasy. He said, "could you imagine being one of
those apostles at that time after Christ died and everyone is
rejecting you? That's chilling man." Haha, so he was actually
understanding our message! He told us to come back tomorrow at around
4:00 and we committed him to read the pamphlet.
8-4-16
We stopped by a house that we knocked on last week and realized that
missionaries had met with them in the past. The guy's name is Simba
and he's a Rastafarian guy who thinks that he is like Moses. He
started talking about some deep doc stuff that made no sense. He tried
to teach us more than he let us teach him... After we left, we biked
back over to our car and a guy named Jason approached us. He said;
"y'all are Mormons right?" We talked to him for a bit and come to find
out, he used to live in Georgia and went to church with his friend
named George who's a member. He was talking about how he used to have
a BoM, but lost it in the move. We gave him one and he was really
thankful for it! We gave him our number so he can call us whenever he
needs a ride to church. He promised to call us sometime! We also, got
his address and he said we could stop by anytime. We then, headed to
our 4:00 appointment with Steffon. When we got there, his fiancé
answered the door and said that Steffon was about to get in the shower
and that they were Christian. She was about to shut the door on us
while we were explaining to her that we are Christians as well,
Steffon poked his head around the corner and saw us. He said, "Hey
guys! How's it going?!"
He came over and started talking to us like we are good friends and
his fiancé was really confused! He said that he read the pamphlet and
thought it was "a lot to take in," but didn't say anything about how
he doesn't think it's true. After his fiancé noticed what was going
on, she asked a question about what Christ is to us. I talked to them
about that and Steffon really opened up to us. He talked about how he
used to be addict to heroin and his hit rock bottom. When he went to
jail, he read Job in the Bible and related with him. He came to the
conclusion that he is going to do what the Lord wants from him and
since then, he's met a girl, got an apartment, quit drugs and has a
daughter. He went inside and grabbed a book that was about a Christian
family growing up and some of the struggles the author went through as
well. The author was his mom and she had it published! They were
showing us a bunch of old family pictures in the book pointing out who
is who. At that point, I felt prompted to ask if they are very big
into genealogy. They were stunned that I had asked that because they
were JUST talking about that before we showed up! They have been
wanting to do more family history, but don't want to spend the money
for it. We talked about our free website for a family search our
church offers and they were so excited. We stepped inside and I got on
my iPad and showed them my family tree. They said they're part Irish
and Scottish, so I went back to show where I was part Scottish and
showed them. I learned something new as well... I am related to King
Henry!
After that, he asked all kinds of questions about Joseph Smith. He
asked about the Liahonna, Seer stone and the BoM. We answers his
questions and taught him the Restoration. It was neat because it
seemed like he looked up things about our church which shows interest!
We gave him a BoM to read and told him we would call him Saturday
about the family history account. He was so happy to receive a BoM and
was looking forward to reading it!
This evening, we had Ward Coordination and that went really well! We
talked about some less active's we should visit and the members that
would be willing to go teaching with us!
8-5-16
ZTM was today and it went really well! I got to see my really good
friend Elder Wille from the MTC and I also, saw Elder Rose! They're
both District Leaders as well in the zone. That was awesome to see
them both. There was a training about a goal that we are setting as a
zone to get a baptism from each district this transfer! The other was
about the importance of effective planning. After our zone meeting, we
had a leadership meeting and discussed the needs of each of our
districts and what to discuss with them. After that, we went to a soul
food Buffett called "Mutt's BBQ" with the elders in my district. We
finally got back and tried by a few people that were on the way. Then,
we got ready and went up to the church to play some basketball with a
bunch of nonmembers. There was about 20 people there and about half of
them were nonmembers. It was a lot of fun!
8-6-16
We had a busy day today. We stopped by a few less active's who weren't
home, but met with an active family. We went their because we noticed
that there was a less active that lived there. Come to find out, it
was their son and he was there as well! We shared a spiritual thought
with them and committed them all to read scriptures together as a
family each night. After that, we parked out car at a Walgreen's and
took our bikes off the rack and rode through some neighborhoods. We
caught a less active guy at home and talked to him for a little bit.
He was a nice guy who likes to go deep sea fishing, so I was talking
about how that's something I really want to do. He showed us a bunch
of pictures of the fish he caught on his trip last weekend. After we
bikes around knocking on a few doors, we went back to the car and got
some dinner. Then, we made our way over to Steffon's house to try and
set up an appointment with him to go and search his family history. We
got there and he was at work, but his fiancé was there. She just had a
death in the family today, so we said a prayer with her at the door.
She was really thankful for that and then we went over to a member's
house. They're the Fish's and they're a young active family. We had a
good visit with them and they gave us some awesome chocolate covered
almonds, so that was pretty righteous.
8-7-16
Church today was a better experience! The people were more welcoming
to us and some introduced themselves. Before church, we had ward
council and it went really well. They are all excited about missionary
work, so hopefully we can keep them that way. After church, we went to
the Boisher's home for dinner. We had a really good visit with them!
Sis. Boisher made some awesome lasagna and biscuits. Their daughters
were there who are members, but haven't been in years. One of them has
two sons and the oldest is 8. While we were visiting, they told us a
story about a family here (the Hughes) who are members, but murdered a
guy at their house! It was a very gory way too... They told us the
whole story behind it. Then, after a few seconds to let that soak in,
we realized that we had tried by that house just last week!! That was
where we saw the Mexican fiesta going on and we shook the guy's nub!
😳 the Hughes don't live there anymore because they live in.. Jail,
but it was still creepy that we were standing exactly right where that
guy was murdered!
-Elder Mitchell
