11/7/16

11-1-16

We stopped by to visit Kristin today who is a less active's wife. She was busy, but told us to come back Thursday at the same time. We tried by some other people who weren't available or home. We had another lesson with Ana and the Bishop came with us. It was a great lesson and the bishop gave some great input. Ana is super solid, but she isn't married to the less active guy she's living with. That is only because she is trying to file for a divorce, but can't locate her husband. It's an odd situation. We went over the Restoration even though she's already been taught it. We refreshed her memory and focused on the importance of reading the BoM to find out if it's true. She hasn't done that yet, but she committed to baptism if she knew this was the right path to take. She is coming to church on Sunday! 

11-2-16

This morning, we had Mormon.org time which we get to do up at the apartment office since they have computers there. After that, we had an appointment cancel last minute, so we tried by some other people who weren't available. We were able to set up a couple return appointments though. We went to go track down a referral to see him, but he wasn't home. There is an older less active couple who live right around the corner from him, so we went to go and meet them. They are nice people, but have trouble getting around. We talked about their conversion stories and some of his stories when he was in Desert Storm. We shared a scripture with them, then asked all of them their favorite BoM stories. The wife said that she like the part where it outlines the Plan of Salvation, so I told her to look up Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from this last Conference! We left to go and meet with a less active we had an appointment with and talked to him about receiving the priesthood. He seemed excited about that, but won't be able to come back to church for a little while since he will be traveling the next couple weeks. After dinner, we went over to Bro. Taylor's house to have Ward Coordination. We scheduled a BoM/Bible study class tonight, so we invited an investigator of ours to come. She confirmed that she was coming right before dinner. Luckily, she didn't show up for whatever reason. Let me explain; The sisters invited a recent convert of a couple months and an investigator they have. They showed up and the investigator was very weird... the first thing he told people is that we can call him "Catdaddy." When we got started, he kept interrupting with these off-the-wall comments and questions. The whole time he was just trying to start a debate with us. Supposedly, he wants to have a vision of God or just proof that He is out there. We tried to explain faith and how we should walk by faith and not sight, but it wasn't good enough for him. He asked all these questions to the recent convert to try and tear down his newly found testimony of the BoM and it was making us mad... he brought of Revelations (of course) where it says that we should add to the Bible. That's when you know the people aren't very educated in their rebuttals. We ended class early because we couldn't get him settled down and no one could feel the Spirit. He was definitely on something. 

11-3-16

This morning, we had an appointment with Kristen and her kids were crazy! It was hard for all of us to focus- especially her. I am convinced that Satan gets in the way of lessons through children. That has happened a lot on my mission. Haha after that, we went to go wash the car and then grab some lunch at Panda Express. We ran back to the apartment to go get some food that the Clark's dropped off for Taimi and his family. We took that over to him and had a good visit with him. Then we went over Sis. Cooper's who is a less active. We were going to teach her granddaughter, but she had to leave. Sis. Cooper talked about the rough times that she's been through and how she became converted to the gospel. We went to visit the Reynolds again and had a nice visit as usual. Her son, Michael is really warming up to us and he read Alma 36 that we left with them last time! I really want to see him go on a mission! We had to rush out and go to choir practice. 

11-4-16

We had ZTM today and interviews with Pres. Turner as well. They both went really well because I was "nourished and edified." Haha then, there was a Mexican guy who catered the meeting and brought a ton of authentic tacos and taquitos! We had exchanges today, so I went to Ridgeway with Elder Michaelis. We had a couple lessons with some less actives and brought a member with us to fellowship. E. Michaelis is a cool guy and plays the guitar really well! He came out on his mission when E. Winn came out. We got trapped on a porch because there was a dog that was going to bite the crap out of us if we stepped off the porch. We waited to catch the dog off guard, and took off for the car. It was pretty scary! Dogs don't like Michaelis most-likely because he is 6'6. Haha 

11-5-16

This morning, we were heading over to a member's home to do some service before we finished up exchanges. We ended up getting in a pretty bad car wreck. We got T-boned on my side of the car by a truck going about 55mph. It totaled the car and knocked me out. We were luckily, wearing our seatbelts and the airbags deployed. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance where they got me all fixed up. I was so out of it! I got some X-rays because it felt like I had broken a rib and I had bad whiplash. Everything seemed to be normal, but I did get a CT Scan and it showed that I have a concussion. I started throwing up while we were in the room. Haha but I am so thankful that the Lord watched out for both us. I truly believe in the ministry of angels because there's no way I could've lived from that-let alone not break any bones. I crawled out of the car by myself and I have no recollection of any of it. I joke around and tell people I stopped the car from hitting me with my hand, but I truly believe an angel must've stopped it from seriously injuring me. I don't remember this happening, but Pres. Turner called to checkup on me and I was probably way out of it. It was amazing because I managed to get the only nurse that was a member to take care of me. Haha 

11-6-16

I am so freakin sore this morning! My whole body just aches and the right side of my torso is swollen. Haha my right pec is a lot bigger than my left. It was hard to get up and go to church, but we went! We stayed for sacrament and gospel principles, but left after that because I was starting to get a headache. Bishop Lenker invited us over tonight for dinner with a recent convert and the sisters came too. They made some really good lasagna and salad! We visited with their son the whole time who is a senior in high school and talked about his plans to serve a mission after he graduates. I went by Rite-Aid to add my insurance card to get a refund on the prescription I got and to buy some Aleve. Pres. Turner called me again to make sure I was doing better. I asked him if I seemed out of it on the phone yesterday and he said, "I think you were in another universe." Haha

On the bright side, Ana came to church with Oliver's daughters who are members and it was great to see them!

PS: Ford Fusions have great crash ratings!

-Elder Mitchell

11/7/16

We just drove back to where we got in the wreck and I found this
laying down next to glass where we got hit from the truck that hit us.
We also, missed to big trees luckily.

10/31/16

10-25-16

This morning, we had DDM and I gave a training on faith. I focused on the power that faith has and how we can use it more fully. The APs showed up for it too, so that was a little nerve racking, but it was also good to see E. Overson again. After that, we stopped by some less actives and tried to set up some appointments with them. One of the less actives we stopped by is actually, Elder Staley's aunt! When I found out I was going to Blythewood, I remembered that his aunt lives there... so I went up and talked to him at transfers and got her contact info. She was a really nice lady when we met her and knew me from E. Staley's emails! It was a great way to break the ice and visit with her. Then, we stopped by a part member family where the wife is just the member. We pulled up to this really nice and big home and matched the address with who we were looking for. Her name is Sis. Lyons and we were able to catch her at home! Her mom and dad were there as well. Above her fireplace was a really big painting of lions laying down. Haha, so come to find out... her and her husband are owners of Auntie Anne's! We had an appointment that set up yesterday while we were biking around and went to a less active's house. He wasn't there, but his fiancée (Ana) was there and had met with missionaries before. We brought a member with us this time and his name is Steve Dobbs. And he looks just like Steve Jobs so it was hilarious. He also works on the circuit boards for work, so they're practically the same. He's just the off-brand version of Jobs. Haha but we got there and Ana was the only on there, so we taught her and one of her daughters. She's such an awesome lady and understands the Restoration! Bro. Dobbs had a lot of good input as well since he is a convert. 

10-26-16

We decided to visit a lot of formers that we have so we can figure out if they're interested in sitting down with us again or not. So we parked the car and biked around to each house. We decided to visit a less active who was in the neighborhood we were at, but she wasn't home. BUT her sister in law was and she was really nice and seemed interested, so we set up a time to meet with her again! After that, we loaded our bikes up and went to another area where there's a less active named Taimi Hill. Come to find out, it's this big Samoan dude. His wife answered the door and let us in. He just had surgery only his leg, so they were coincidentally, home from work! His wife was really nice and she's Puerto Rican! She called their kids SamoRicans. We talked to them for awhile and got to know them. Taimi played on a Samoan Rugby team out in New Zealand, so he knows how to do the Hakka. We went to the apartment to get some dinner and remember that there is a "Meet & Mingle" at the front office building of our apartment. They had a ton of pizza and cupcakes, so we had that for dinner! They had a raffle giving out gift cards and prepaid cards. There were five people that could win and we won! We didn't get any cards though. We got a voucher for a free carpet cleaning... haha but that's okay because we still won something! We had an appointment with a less active family we met last week named the Reynolds. There is a lady and her 18 year old son that lives there. We went there and ended up just talking to the son, Michael and built a relationship. He showed us his Mustang that he has and he took us for a ride. He's very proud of that thing! Haha we talked about how he needs to take us out teaching in it, so maybe he will come out with us sometime! We set a return appointment so we could actually share a message this time with him and his mom. 

10-27-16

I read over my Patriarchal blessing this morning which is always so neat. There are many things that I have already noticed in my life and so much more to come! We went to visit a guy who called us last week to set up an appointment. He was such a nice guy and had some great questions for us. We talked about the BoM and gave him one to read. We are going to go see him again on Sunday! While we were knocking around a less active woman, we knocked on this one house that is really nice with a big pond in the back. A really nice lady answered the door and knew we were Mormons. She started talking about her family history, so we gave her a pass along card for our family search. After that, she went off about Hillary Clinton and the refugees here and how she thinks white people will "become extinct if we keep bending over backwards for other races." Let's just say she was a racist! This sweet little lady was bashing on other races! Haha after that, we went to an appointment with... ironically, a black lady who's a less active (Sis. Lyons). And we shared the talk by Russell M. Nelson this last Conference called "Joy and Spiritual Survival." She asked for another blessing, so we did that as well. After dinner, we stopped by a few other people and then had choir practice. 

10-28-16

We were trying by some investigators and less actives and we noticed that an older lady who is a member lives around that area. We decided to stop by and introduce ourselves. Her name is Frona and she's this really sweet lady who has MS. Her house recently flooded, so she had a ton of things just scattered everywhere since they just put down new carpet. We could tell she was embarrassed about it, so we decided to help her organize her living room. We put some shelves up again and her decorations. She was so thankful and happy that we came because she rarely has visitors. Before we left, she gave us a big box of all kinds of food and a framed pictures of the temple. Haha she wouldn't let us say no! After we dropped the food off at the house and had dinner, we went to ward Coordination at Bro. Taylor's. We discussed the people we are working with and then afterwards, we got into some deep doc questions which was fun! Haha I love learning about deep doc because it's so intriguing. 

10-29-16

Today was a pretty slow day. We had three set appointments today and they all fell through... We were able to get in contact with a less active we have been trying to meet and he said we could stop by later to see him. We went over there and got to know him which was nice. He is from New York and that's where his wife still is. After we met with him, we got back to our apartment and got ready to go to the Ward Fall Festival (Trunk or Treat). There were a lot of people there including another Ward, so we got to talk to and introduce ourselves to a lot of people. We ate some hot dogs and talked with some of the young men and the other Elders. 

-Elder Mitchell

10/10/16

10-4-16

It was a crazy day today! We had DDM today which went well. Sis. Bassett (senior missionary) made us lunch for afterwards. We got back to our apartment and started cleaning it for our apartment inspections. We got a call at around 5:00 saying that they're evacuating missionaries from the coast because of Hurricane Matthew, so we are going to have to host some at our apartment. We are going to go pick them up at the church at 9:00 tonight. They told us to go and get groceries and water to prepare. We had a lesson this evening with Leigh again and her less active husband. It went really well! We committed her to baptism and set a date with her then, invited her to church. After the lesson, we got back to the apartment and the APs came by to drop off a couple beds. We went to the church and picked up the 5 Elders that are staying with us. One of them is E. Leuluai who was in my District when I was in Simpsonville.

10-5-16

Every morning this week, we have been getting up at around 5:15am to go and play basketball at the church with everyone! After studies this morning, we headed to Walmart to get stocked up on food and water to prepare for the storm. When we got back, 2 of the Elders staying in our apartment left to go to another apartment. We dropped off the Elders still with us at an apartment complex so that they could go knock around some people while we contact Bible referrals. They got us a new investigator while they were doing that! After that, we took them back and got dinner before our appointment with Chanta. We went over to Chanta's and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ again. Her daughter who was baptized when she was eight but isn't active was there and participated as well. Two of Chanta's kids got baptized when they were really young because her mom was a member. Chanta wasn't ready yet, but now she has been ready and is progressing so well with her new member lessons! We left her house, then went to see Brian and his family. We talked about the BoM with them since they haven't been reading it. His wife opened up with her concerns about the church and we did our best to answer them. I could tell she just didn't really accept our answers.

10-6-16

President Turner said that if we don't have any appointments or anything, to look for service with the Elders her from the coast. So we contacted Relief Society president in our ward who is moving and all 12 of us went over there and helped her pack. She bought us a ton of Little Caesar's pizza afterwards! We went straight to Ward Coordination afterwards to meet with our ward mission leader. We talked to him about some of the things we will need to bring up in Ward council. Then, we went to the church and had Soccer night. There were a ton of missionaries there this week and we almost outnumbered all the Mexicans there (not really)! Haha

10-7-16 & 10-8-16

Today, we had an appointment with a new investigator, but they weren't home. We also, went over to do service for Sis. Ammer's where we do ceramics and painted a little bit too. We were then, put on lockdown because the weather is supposed to get worse later in the day. So we have been taking naps and watching training videos for Elder Winn. The Bishop came by and dropped off a bunch of food. He gave us some sandwich stuff, juice, pop, muffins and got us all Bojangle's fried chicken! We ate a bunch of that and then took another nap. The lockdown lasted until about 6:00, then we all went to the church and played some basketball with the Zone Leaders and all the people with them. The weather wasn't very bad at all! Just some higher winds than usual and heavy rain.

10-9-16

Sunday: a bunch of the Elders came to church so it was fun to have all of them there! Chanta was there and brought her daughter with her.

-Elder Mitchell

9/19/16

9-13-16

We finally had a DDM this morning which was in Orangeburg. It went pretty well and one of the senior missionaries made us lunch! We tried to catch a few people on the way back in our area and didn't have much luck. We did catch this lady that is a less active and she was very different! She was watching a movie when we came in and we apologized for interrupting it and making her stop it. She went on about how it wasn't a very good movie because he involved a lot of "intercourse." She said, "you know how boy's hormones go all crazy and they get all horny." Haha it was very awkward, so we quickly changed the conversation! She is a very blunt person who doesn't really hold back anything. After that visit, we went to see Craig who is the excommunicated guy. We had to find out where he was excommunicated and when so that the bishop could request his file. He seemed pretty open about it, except for telling us what happened. It made it a lot easier and less awkward! Later this evening, we went on Splits. We had an appointment with Chanta that we couldn't miss. E. Scarff had to go and interview someone in the district for baptism, So E. Winn and I went to see Chanta. Our lesson went really well! I tried to get E. Winn involved as much as I could. She is still on date for the 24th of this month and she has to be smoke-free by Thursday because that's the deal we made with her. Technically, she can't smoke for at least a week from her baptismal date, but we pushed it sooner. She said that she won't let us down!

9-14-16

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders today and that was a lot of fun! E. Jacobsen came to Congaree with E. Winn and I. We had quite a bit of appointments today, but most of them fell through. We met with Bro. Newhouse and talked about the importance of scripture study since he hasn't been reading lately. We got to do some service for a less active lady who is a single with 6 kids. She had mattresses and box springs outside along with a big fish tank and other junk. She asked to have it all taken to the dump because her home owners insurance guy said it needed to be done in the next few days. Otherwise, he would take away her insurance. So let's just set the scene... It had just gotten done pouring and everything was soaked making it stinky and heavier. They had been outside for awhile so bugs were crawling all over and inside them. We forgot gloves, so we got to do it all with our bare hands! We went over to Brian's house and taught him some of the commandments for his new member lessons. They're going to work on having more family scripture study.

9-15-16

We finished up exchanges today and met up at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We got a gift card from one of the Spanish Elders because he's trying to watch his weight. Sis. Jenkins who is the less active lady with 6 kids invited us back over since we didn't get to see her yesterday. She thanked us for what we did and we shared a message with her. We offered up more service for her since she needs a lot of help painting and patching holes in the wall. Ward coordination was tonight and we talked about the "Open House" that we are planning to have as a way to find new investigators. We are going to do a church tour and have some speakers by the presidents of the quorums and auxiliaries. They're going to talk about family history, the role of men/women in the church, the youth program, baptism (showing the baptismal font), and sacrament in the chapel. Then, we are going to have some recent converts bear their testimonies on how they came to know the church was true which one of them is Brian. We also, talked about Chanta who is still on date for the 24th and seems really solid still! After Coordination, we went to soccer night at the church where a bunch of Mexicans that that Spanish Elders invite each week who are nonmembers come and play. I scored a goal, so that was pretty dang sweet. Haha This evening, we were playing football in the apartment with the Spanish Elders like we usually do and E. Scarff was getting mad at us. We yell out calls, plays and audibles before we hike the ball to eachother and it's so funny! E. Gerardo recorded it, so I'll send the video out! 

9-16-16

Our day didn't seem like it was too eventful, but it actually ended up going pretty well! We went over to the Capell's who are active and got two referrals from them. One isn't in our area, but we can refer them to other Elders. We had planned to bike over there, but E. Winn got on his new bike and popped a wheelie in our parking lot and knocked off the whole tire. Haha he got it back on, but it fell off again so we gave up and Bro. Capell picked us up. When we got back, I made some awesome fried shrimp with the shrimp that was caught from Charleston. I made some really good StirFry with it last week! After dinner, we went over to see Chanta and teach her. We taught her the 10 Commandments and went into detail with them, so that she understood all of them. 

9-17-16

Chanta came to church again today and we taught her about tithing and fast offerings after church. She is going to get interviewed on the 22nd this next week because she's going to be baptized this coming Saturday and I'm so excited for her! We headed home and got a little food and then, headed to a member of the Elder's quorum. They are doing something called the "Shepherding event" where they're going to the less actives in their given areas to visit and invite them to the Fish Fry and let them know we are thinking about them. They split us up with members of the Elder's quorum, so I went out with Bro. Capell. They are doing this once a month with different people covering different areas. We only caught one person at home, but we left notes and invites.

Elder Mitchell

 

9/5/17

8-30-16
This morning during personal studies, I finished reading all of the
New Testament. I have been able to learn so much from it. Some of the
parables are hard to follow and a lot of Revelations, so I looked up
some of the meanings in the institute manual! I'm going to read the
Pearl of Great Price now. When we went out today, we stopped by a lot
of les active's and didn't catch them home. We knocked a little bit
around the members, but no one was really interested... We had an
appointment this evening with a lady we have on date for baptism. We
taught her the Plan of Salvation and we had a young couple there from
church as well (The Blacks). The lesson went well and she plans to
come to church Sunday! We were supposed to have another appointment
tonight, but they cancelled.

8-31-16
We started our day off right by having Mormon.org time to get on and
watch some videos of crazy Mormons. After that, we went an visited
Bro. Newhouse. He is a less active we are working with to get him to
church and to quite smoking. We talked to him mostly about the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. We discussed with him a lot about the repentance
process and how that involves forgiving ourselves. He seems to be
struggling with that and feels like Christ won't forgive since he
knows it's wrong and keeps doing it. It was a good visit all around!
We were knocking on some less active's and we came across a single
lady who has 6 kids ranging from 8-19 years old. She wasn't home when
we knocked, so just as we were about to leave, she pulled the driveway
and ran inside. I was very confused at this point. Then, she came back
out and told us she had to get some shoes on and now has to pick up
some kids. She told us to come back in 20 min. Well, we tried by a few
people around there and waited until she got back. She came back, and
we went back over there and had a nice conversation with her. She's a
really nice lady who has been through a lot. She hasn't come to church
because she said it's too much work to get all the kids ready in the
morning and she has narcolepsy. We scheduled a time to come by next
week and share a message with her! We had dinner and then went to
another appointment with a couple named Tamera and Jonathan. We shared
the Restoration with them and it went really well. They seem really
interested and set a return appointment for Sunday.

9-1-16
It was a good day today! We started our day off by getting lunch with
the Spanish Elders. E. Scarff didn't feel very good after that, so we
stayed in for a little bit until he was feeling better. Then, we
stopped by a former and she said that she would like to meet with us
again! We had a good conversation with her and set up a time to see
her tomorrow. For dinner, we went to a less active family's home. They
made some spicy chicken and French fries that were good. We talked to
them about why they haven't come to church. They had a really bad
motorcycle wreck and the wife's had bleeding in her brain and crushed
her leg and arm. The husband got his ankle broken too, because they
ran into a boat and trailer. They shared a neat experience they had in
the temple when they went and we talked about how we want to help them
get back. It seemed like that's something they really want to do.
Their youngest son who is 19 has had it pretty rough and give them a
hard time it... He's into drugs and dropped out of highschool when he
was younger. His teeth are all rotting which is sad at such a young
age. We left their house and went to our ward coordination meeting
with the ward missionary leader. We addressed some of the people we
are working with and then he kicked us out soon. The USC Gamecocks
play their first game tonight and everyone here are diehard USC fans.
It is always a hard time for missionaries here where there's USC games
on. We went over to Bro. Avery's house to see how he was doing and
they were watching the game and grilling out. They gave us some
burgers and we got to get a sneak peak of the game. I miss football
season so much!

9-2-16
ZTM was today, but I didn't go. One of the ZLs, E. Overson got sick
and couldn't go. So we had a mini exchange and I went with him to an
Urgent Care. We got to their apartment and took naps until ZTM was
over. Haha, so it has been storming and pouring consistently the whole
day. We got back to the apartment and called a few people we have
appointments with and they all cancelled today. We ended up stopping
by this older less active lady and her 40 year old son. We talked
about the BoM and its importance to our testimonies. On our way home,
we decided to stop in Wendy's and get a 50¢ frosty which was bomb.

9-3-16
We got a call this morning after studies from President. He has asked
the both of us to train a new guy in a 3-pack. This will be my fourth
son. We are picking him up on Wednesday. After that, we went up to
the hospital to give an elderly lady a blessing. We came back for
lunch and then went to stop by a less active. I felt prompted to go
and visit a guy named Terrell we have stopped by before, so we went
over there. He was home and we ended up having a really awesome lesson
with him. He opened up about how he has had a rough life in the past
and has grown up to realize that he needs God in his life. He said
that he knows that we showed up in his life at that time for a reason.
We basically, taught him the Restoration lesson while just conversing
with him and he helped teach himself! He plans to come to church
tomorrow, so we will see. We had an appointment with Wayne who is on
date, but he called last minute to cancel. We had a member that was on
his way and all dressed up to. We met the member at Wendy's and had a
nice little visit with him. He just received the Melchizedek
Priesthood a few weeks ago and joined the church two years ago. He
shared his conversion story and talked about his family. He also said
that he grew up next to the farm of Truett Cathy who was the founder
of Chick Fil-A!

9-4-16
Church was awesome because we had two investigators at church today!
Chanta and her daughter and Wayne came. Wayne actually went up and
bore his testimony of God. He says that he wishes he could climb to
the top of a mountain and yell how much he loves God. Haha, he
believed that was his mountain. He's a funny old guy. When he sat back
down, about five minutes went by and he passed me a note. The note
said, "Am I aloud to add more to my testimony?" We had already
broke into a sweat about him going up the first time, but he ended up
going up there a second time. oh well! Luckily, he didn't say
anything that was too out there. They seemed to enjoy church. We had
an appointment just before dinner, but they weren't home... Brian
Avery (the recent convert) invited us over and we had ribs, pasta and
deviled eggs! He is such an awesome guy and he likes the Oregon Ducks
too. He has a huge German Shepard named Bosco and he's such a baby-
it's hilarious. He is scared of the outdoors when it's dark, so they
threatened to put him outside when he was over by the table because
his head is above the table and tries sniffing around. He ran away
into the other room because he really didn't want to go outside. Haha

Bosco!

8/29/16

8-23-16
It was just an off day today... We went and tried a few people in the
morning who weren't home. Then, we headed up to the hospital to give a
lady a blessing. We stopped by the church to meet some Spanish elders
there. We planned on doing an exchange for one of their appointments
since one of them was sick. They got there and then their appointment
fell through. While we were at the church, the zone leaders showed up
for a meeting. I was talking to Elder Overson and he's from St.
Joseph, AZ. We talked about where I was from and he asked if I knew
the Avilas?! Usually you don't know random people that they ask about
since it's just a shot in the dark, but that was crazy! I talked about
how I grew up with them and that they just went to visit my parents.
He said that he would go on vacations with them all the time.
We left and then, tried to visit a few less active's around by the
airport that I flew in at. That airport is in our area! We went to see
a lady who had just had a knee replacement to see if she needed any
help. She has 3 little chihuahuas and two cats, and there was poop all
over the floor... Our shoes were sticking to the floor because there
was pee all over too. We made sure she was okay and then dipped out of
there. We had an appointment with the Knox family and that went well!

8-24-16
Interviews with the President in this zone were today, so I had the
privilege of meeting with him again! Before that, we biked around for
a bit and it was hot... I was glad that I'm still in shape for it
though. Haha
We taught a recent convert (Brian) some of the lessons. We taught him
and his nonmember wife about the priesthood and the blessings from it.
He is giving a talk this Sunday, so that will be awesome! He was
baptized about 3 months ago and is really solid. Then, we all went to
Book of Mormon class.

8-25-16
It has been a really slow week... We haven't been able to catch anyone
at home lately. We stopped by mostly, less active's today to see if we
can set something up to meet with them. They didn't want to talk to
us... We set up an appointment for tomorrow with a former
investigator. For dinner, a less active (Sis. Watson) met us at
Zaxby's and she got us some food. We met with her for a little while
and got to know her. Then, we went to the church and met to zone
leaders there to do a baptismal interview.

8-26-16
It's Friday finally! We had our weekly planning this morning and tried
to contact a bunch of people. After that, we had an appointment with a
less active named Bro. Newhouse. We are working with him to get him
back to church and quit smoking. He's a funny guy! We had another
appointment, but they called an cancelled. We went to go visit a less
active lady and do service for her with the Spanish elders. We raked
bagged her yard because the grass was cut. She made a big bowl of just
butterbeans so we ate a lot of butterbeans which was nice of her. Haha
We had another appointment this evening with a less active guy and his
girlfriend. His girlfriend is really interested and the lesson went
really well! The guy is around 35 or so and he hasn't been to church
since he was sixteen. It really seems like he is gaining a desire to
come back though.

8-27-16
We got up really early this morning with the Spanish elders and met
the APs, and ZLs at the church to play some basketball. We went back
and had our studies, then went to Waffle House to meet a guy named
Bernie who is a former investigator. He didn't make it there in time
until we had to go to the church to the ZLs baptism. After that, we
met a recent convert named Brian and his family at a taco truck for
lunch. That was an interesting experience because the workers at the
taco truck didn't speak English. We had Spanish elders with us, so
they translated for us. Haha knew they were good for something! We
attended three baptisms today at the church! The APs, the ZLs and the
Spanish branch had them. The Spanish one was fun because it was like a
whole fiesta afterwards! They made a bunch of authentic Mexican food
like tamales and we chowed down. We finally, made it back to our
apartment and about to crash.

8-28-16
Church went well today and the rest of the day! Brian a recent convert
gave a talk today and it went really well. His nonmember wife we've
been working with and his daughter came. After church, we came back to
the apartment and got some grub. We finally got back in contact with
the three people we have on date. One of them has been really sick and
the others, have been busy with work. We tried by a few other people
and tried to contact some former investigators. We got to the
apartment and finished planning. The Spanish elders came over and we
had a nerf gun war and wrestled around. Haha, Elder Casey (the one
with the mom that went to KU) used to wrestle in school so I had to
whoop up on him!
-Elder Mitchell