8-1-16
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
