October 3, 2011 - Email
Conference weekend is like a spring break full of Super Bowls when you are a missionary! I did have some favorites, and I was going to bring my conference notes to write more about them, but I forgot... haha One of my very favorites was by Tad R. Callister who
spoke about the Book of Mormon and basically proved it was true. He is the one who used the example of drawing lines through dots. You can draw an infinite number of lines through one dot (or make many different interpretations of the Bible) but when you have two dots, there is only one line that goes through them both (the Book of Mormon supports and clarifies the doctrine in the
Bible). I basically want to show that talk to every one of my investigators after the lesson on the Restoration. haha I also loved the quote from Elder Hales when he said that, "many of us pray for patience, and we want it right now." We found out this week that the area with which we were sharing our car, Prairie Grove, was becoming a full-bike area and that we get the car full-time which is sweet. The switch happened on Thursday. We might go back to sharing again depending on how things work out, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Tuesday we went and saw a lady who called us when she experienced the passing of a good friend of hers. It is really difficult to keep the lesson on track with her and keep it from turning into a confessional but we're hopeful for her and she lets us come back to see her. We also saw the lady who is getting baptized this Saturday the 8th that night. She always just agrees to everything whether she understands it or not so we have been working on checking her understanding other ways than yes or no questions. We had dinner that night with someone who fed us some chicken from Wal-Mart, where she works. We also had a cool lesson about families with Rus the blind guy. It was ironic that that is what we taught because his wife wasn't even there that night, but he wanted to meet with us without her to tell us some concerns that she has, but wasn't comfortable sharing because she didn't want to hurt our feelings. Her concern was basically about what the role of women is in the church but we talked about how important they are on Friday and showed them a talk by Elder Cook from last conference called, "LDS Women are Incredible" so that was sweet. They are such sweet people and they even watched all the sessions of conference! Rus even came to the priesthood session and the barbecue that we had before hand. Wednesday was cool because we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and
so Elder Gordon (Carbon) came back to Fayetteville 2nd with me which was way awesome. Just like old times... haha We went and did some service (unloading pallets full of food) at a place called LifeSource. Then we stopped by some people to remind them of conference and stuff on our way to our appointment with Mary (the one who is getting baptized). Actually, it was kinda funny
because we were able to see both Mary's that night. On Thursday, President and Sister Merkley came to our district for one-on-one interviews that they do every quarter. He is such an amazing, loving man and you can really tell that he cares about you. He gave some instruction to our district about making sure that we have names behind all of the numbers that we report. We stopped by Cello, who was baptized over a month ago, and taught him about the priesthood, to which he had been ordained. It was good but
he's afraid that the service and stuff will be too much of an extra work load added to his already stressful life. We just told him of the blessings we recieve when we put God first. That night, we taught a lesson to a less active member, Linda, who is definitely open and excited to come back. She was looking forward to watching general conference. Now, we just need to help her quit smoking. Friday was kinda crazy. We didn't have time for weekly planning on Thursday, our usual day, so we decided to do it on Friday. We went and did some more service (sorting and boxing cans) at LifeSource before we were able to finish planning. That night we had a couple of appointments and so we ended up finishing planning later that night at almost bed time. Then, of course, it was time for the weekend and with it came General Conference. A time of inspiration and spiritual rejuvination. I already told you about Rus coming to the Priesthood session which was way awesome. On Sunday, we had a teaching appointment between sessions with the man from Iran. We talked to him about what his plans were after school and made sure that he knew the consequences of joining our church (if he ever was interested in doing so) if he ever went back to his country. It's so sad that there are places like that and I'm so blessed to live in a land of religious freedom and tolerance. The sister you mentioned who owns Debbie's Beehive is Sister Harvey and their whole family is way awesome. They had a lunch in between sessions on Sunday that I took advantage of. I sat by their family and talked to them while I ate my lunch which was way awesome. Everybody out here is way nice, and that goes for the members of the church as well. I'm well fed and well taken care of. I love you all! I hope that all is well back home. I know that this is the Lord's restored Church in these latter-days! I do appreciate your prayers very much. I know that prayer is very powerful. Peace and blessin's, peace and blessin's.
spoke about the Book of Mormon and basically proved it was true. He is the one who used the example of drawing lines through dots. You can draw an infinite number of lines through one dot (or make many different interpretations of the Bible) but when you have two dots, there is only one line that goes through them both (the Book of Mormon supports and clarifies the doctrine in the
Bible). I basically want to show that talk to every one of my investigators after the lesson on the Restoration. haha I also loved the quote from Elder Hales when he said that, "many of us pray for patience, and we want it right now." We found out this week that the area with which we were sharing our car, Prairie Grove, was becoming a full-bike area and that we get the car full-time which is sweet. The switch happened on Thursday. We might go back to sharing again depending on how things work out, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Tuesday we went and saw a lady who called us when she experienced the passing of a good friend of hers. It is really difficult to keep the lesson on track with her and keep it from turning into a confessional but we're hopeful for her and she lets us come back to see her. We also saw the lady who is getting baptized this Saturday the 8th that night. She always just agrees to everything whether she understands it or not so we have been working on checking her understanding other ways than yes or no questions. We had dinner that night with someone who fed us some chicken from Wal-Mart, where she works. We also had a cool lesson about families with Rus the blind guy. It was ironic that that is what we taught because his wife wasn't even there that night, but he wanted to meet with us without her to tell us some concerns that she has, but wasn't comfortable sharing because she didn't want to hurt our feelings. Her concern was basically about what the role of women is in the church but we talked about how important they are on Friday and showed them a talk by Elder Cook from last conference called, "LDS Women are Incredible" so that was sweet. They are such sweet people and they even watched all the sessions of conference! Rus even came to the priesthood session and the barbecue that we had before hand. Wednesday was cool because we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and
so Elder Gordon (Carbon) came back to Fayetteville 2nd with me which was way awesome. Just like old times... haha We went and did some service (unloading pallets full of food) at a place called LifeSource. Then we stopped by some people to remind them of conference and stuff on our way to our appointment with Mary (the one who is getting baptized). Actually, it was kinda funny
because we were able to see both Mary's that night. On Thursday, President and Sister Merkley came to our district for one-on-one interviews that they do every quarter. He is such an amazing, loving man and you can really tell that he cares about you. He gave some instruction to our district about making sure that we have names behind all of the numbers that we report. We stopped by Cello, who was baptized over a month ago, and taught him about the priesthood, to which he had been ordained. It was good but
he's afraid that the service and stuff will be too much of an extra work load added to his already stressful life. We just told him of the blessings we recieve when we put God first. That night, we taught a lesson to a less active member, Linda, who is definitely open and excited to come back. She was looking forward to watching general conference. Now, we just need to help her quit smoking. Friday was kinda crazy. We didn't have time for weekly planning on Thursday, our usual day, so we decided to do it on Friday. We went and did some more service (sorting and boxing cans) at LifeSource before we were able to finish planning. That night we had a couple of appointments and so we ended up finishing planning later that night at almost bed time. Then, of course, it was time for the weekend and with it came General Conference. A time of inspiration and spiritual rejuvination. I already told you about Rus coming to the Priesthood session which was way awesome. On Sunday, we had a teaching appointment between sessions with the man from Iran. We talked to him about what his plans were after school and made sure that he knew the consequences of joining our church (if he ever was interested in doing so) if he ever went back to his country. It's so sad that there are places like that and I'm so blessed to live in a land of religious freedom and tolerance. The sister you mentioned who owns Debbie's Beehive is Sister Harvey and their whole family is way awesome. They had a lunch in between sessions on Sunday that I took advantage of. I sat by their family and talked to them while I ate my lunch which was way awesome. Everybody out here is way nice, and that goes for the members of the church as well. I'm well fed and well taken care of. I love you all! I hope that all is well back home. I know that this is the Lord's restored Church in these latter-days! I do appreciate your prayers very much. I know that prayer is very powerful. Peace and blessin's, peace and blessin's.
October 10, 2011 - Email
Elder Holmes made up a joke! How come the gadianton robbers couldn't unlock their bikes? Because they had secret combinations. LOL This week has been the best week ever! (Every week is the best week ever. I'm a missionary.) On Tuesday we had an apointment in the morning cancel and so we stopped by a referral who wasn't home. After that, we went to LifeSource (the food pantry where we go do service) to sort, box, and stack an obscene amount of various canned goods. The local sororities apparently have a food drive each year and it is sort of a contest between them all. It is always really cool to go and help out and really gives you a good feeling. Dinner that night was pretty awesome, it was fried wings and you mixed your own sauce to put on them! Once you made the sauce you put it in a bowl, put the lid on, and shook it around. They were pretty good! Wednesday I went on exchanges in Prairie Grove, another area in our district. I was there with Elder Eyre and Elder Pickens went to our area. While there, Elder Pickens' knee started to really hurt and so the next morning they took him to see a doctor. He hasn't made it in for the MRI yet, but the doctor said that it is probably a meniscus tear. Hopefully he can heal soon and stay on his mission.
Figuring out that stuff took a lot of Thursday during the day and then that night we taught a cool lesson to Mary (the older African-American lady). She asked us about people who aren't able to accept the gospel on this earth so we taught her about the spirit world and how everybody will get the chance to accept Jesus Christ, whether in this life or the next. It's so cool how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is! I just love it. Saturday was Mary's baptism! (not the Mary we taught about the spirit world) She was way excited and I was too. I was also a bit nervous because it was my first time performing the baptismal ordinance. I was able to do it right the first time though which was good! I'm glad that the words for the baptism isn't long. They were on a paper inside the font so I was just going to read them, but then when we got in I realized she was standing in front of me and I couldn't read it. haha Fortunately I was able to do it from memory. That night we had another cool experience. We were stopping by some people and we saw a house with a moving truck parked out front. Thinking they had just moved in, we knocked on the door to say hello. We then came to find out that
they hadn't just moved in, they were moving out that night! It was crazy because it was just him, his wife, and his little girl and there were some things that there were no way he was going to be able to move them. Of course, we offered to help him, and we did. He kept telling us how grateful he was and that we were literally an answer to his prayers. Through that, we were able to share our
testimony of the Book of Mormon and give him a copy, which he said he would read. I love how the Lord prepares people like that to be open to talk to us and I'm glad we were being diligent enough to talk to him. Earlier that evening we had something funny happen. We were walking around a neighborhood talking to people and we came to a group of kids playing outside. They were really friendly and one little girl asked us what we were doing. We told her that we go around and talk to people about Jesus Christ so she asked,
"are you going to talk to my mom next?" So we told her, "Yes! Where does she live?" haha Nothing came of that house but another little boy took us to his house and we spoke to his father. He seemed receptive so hopefully we are able to teach him. We told him we'd stop by Sunday night, which we did, but he wasn't there. So we are going to keep trying. The mission is great so far! I can't believe that I'm over 1/8th of the way through my mission! time has gone by so fast and I know that if I stay diligent, it will only go faster. I know that my testimony has been strengthened so much while I've been out. Especially my testimony of the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is The Lords true church on the earth today! I know this to be true.
Figuring out that stuff took a lot of Thursday during the day and then that night we taught a cool lesson to Mary (the older African-American lady). She asked us about people who aren't able to accept the gospel on this earth so we taught her about the spirit world and how everybody will get the chance to accept Jesus Christ, whether in this life or the next. It's so cool how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is! I just love it. Saturday was Mary's baptism! (not the Mary we taught about the spirit world) She was way excited and I was too. I was also a bit nervous because it was my first time performing the baptismal ordinance. I was able to do it right the first time though which was good! I'm glad that the words for the baptism isn't long. They were on a paper inside the font so I was just going to read them, but then when we got in I realized she was standing in front of me and I couldn't read it. haha Fortunately I was able to do it from memory. That night we had another cool experience. We were stopping by some people and we saw a house with a moving truck parked out front. Thinking they had just moved in, we knocked on the door to say hello. We then came to find out that
they hadn't just moved in, they were moving out that night! It was crazy because it was just him, his wife, and his little girl and there were some things that there were no way he was going to be able to move them. Of course, we offered to help him, and we did. He kept telling us how grateful he was and that we were literally an answer to his prayers. Through that, we were able to share our
testimony of the Book of Mormon and give him a copy, which he said he would read. I love how the Lord prepares people like that to be open to talk to us and I'm glad we were being diligent enough to talk to him. Earlier that evening we had something funny happen. We were walking around a neighborhood talking to people and we came to a group of kids playing outside. They were really friendly and one little girl asked us what we were doing. We told her that we go around and talk to people about Jesus Christ so she asked,
"are you going to talk to my mom next?" So we told her, "Yes! Where does she live?" haha Nothing came of that house but another little boy took us to his house and we spoke to his father. He seemed receptive so hopefully we are able to teach him. We told him we'd stop by Sunday night, which we did, but he wasn't there. So we are going to keep trying. The mission is great so far! I can't believe that I'm over 1/8th of the way through my mission! time has gone by so fast and I know that if I stay diligent, it will only go faster. I know that my testimony has been strengthened so much while I've been out. Especially my testimony of the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is The Lords true church on the earth today! I know this to be true.
October 17, 2011 - Email
HE'S BEING TRANSFERRED TO ELDON, MISSOURI. I'm sorry that my email this week probably won't be as long as you'd like
it, but I don't have to terribly much to say. haha On Monday, we had an appointment with Mary (the one who just got baptized) and afterwards when we went outside there was this drunk Pentecostal guy who was talking with us and telling us how he could never believe the Book of Mormon. Of course, he had no idea what it really was. He thought it was our translation of the Bible or
something. He told us that he would love to talk with us but it's difficult to reason with a drunk man, so hopefully we can find a time when he isn't completely hammered. haha Wednesday was really cool because we were able to go and give one of our investigators, Becky, a blessing. She is Rus' wife and she has a bad abscessed tooth so her face is swollen because of the infection. She wasn't feeling very well and they called to cancel an appointment with us because of that. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. Blessings are really great at bringing the spirit so hopefully she will be able to recognize that. Talking to Rus later on, he thanked us for the blessing and said that the last time someone blessed him it was freaky because it was at a Pentecostal church and they all started babbling in tongues and stuff. I'd be freaked out too! On Friday we were able to meet with Rus and Becky again. At first we were going to just meet with Rus because Becky wasn't feeling well, but when we got there for the lesson she came down too. That really showed her desire to investigate because it would have been really easy to just skip the lesson anyway. We were able to have a great lesson about the Priesthood and explain why that is important and how it is organized. That was one question that Rus
had and I really feel that this lesson answered his questions. It is good for him to know, seeing as how they are going to be baptized on the 18th of November! Setting a date with them that night was really cool because we just felt that that was a good day and then when we told them, they said it was Rus' Birthday and they were discussing how cool it would be to be baptized on his Birthday. I love inspiration! That baptism date is a bit bittersweet though because as of this coming Thursday, I won't be here in Fayetteville. I am being transferred to Eldon, Missouri. I'm sad that I will miss their baptism because I've really grown to love them. Especially Rus. We went over today and played his guitar (a 10th anniversary John Petrucci signature Music Man guitar for anyone who cares) for about an hour which was sweet! It's crazy how little I remembered how to play at first. haha I will be serving in my new area with Elder Rich. I have heard good things about him and that he is a really fun Elder. It sounds like we will get along really well. Saturday night we went to the adult session of Stake Conference which was way awesome! Pres. and Sis. Renfroe spoke about how we don't have commandments to "prove that we love God" and that they aren't just hoops to jump through to make life harder. We are given commandments because they will bless us! He is a Baptist convert and my favorite quote from what he said when telling of his
conversion story was "the Mormons were more Baptist than the Baptists!" The Stake President also gave a really great talk about having a good marriage. I left my notes back at the house, but remind me and I will address his talk in greater detail next time. I really want to be able to do it justice. Today is the last Preparation Day for Elder Thomas and he is trunked out of his mind! haha He has every right to be too. Before coming here, we went bowling with him, Elder Gordon, and a few other missionaries. It was pretty fun but I'd rather not talk about my score... haha I hope that you are all doing well! I appreciate your prayers and your
thoughts from back home and I know that they really do help! I love you all very much!
it, but I don't have to terribly much to say. haha On Monday, we had an appointment with Mary (the one who just got baptized) and afterwards when we went outside there was this drunk Pentecostal guy who was talking with us and telling us how he could never believe the Book of Mormon. Of course, he had no idea what it really was. He thought it was our translation of the Bible or
something. He told us that he would love to talk with us but it's difficult to reason with a drunk man, so hopefully we can find a time when he isn't completely hammered. haha Wednesday was really cool because we were able to go and give one of our investigators, Becky, a blessing. She is Rus' wife and she has a bad abscessed tooth so her face is swollen because of the infection. She wasn't feeling very well and they called to cancel an appointment with us because of that. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. Blessings are really great at bringing the spirit so hopefully she will be able to recognize that. Talking to Rus later on, he thanked us for the blessing and said that the last time someone blessed him it was freaky because it was at a Pentecostal church and they all started babbling in tongues and stuff. I'd be freaked out too! On Friday we were able to meet with Rus and Becky again. At first we were going to just meet with Rus because Becky wasn't feeling well, but when we got there for the lesson she came down too. That really showed her desire to investigate because it would have been really easy to just skip the lesson anyway. We were able to have a great lesson about the Priesthood and explain why that is important and how it is organized. That was one question that Rus
had and I really feel that this lesson answered his questions. It is good for him to know, seeing as how they are going to be baptized on the 18th of November! Setting a date with them that night was really cool because we just felt that that was a good day and then when we told them, they said it was Rus' Birthday and they were discussing how cool it would be to be baptized on his Birthday. I love inspiration! That baptism date is a bit bittersweet though because as of this coming Thursday, I won't be here in Fayetteville. I am being transferred to Eldon, Missouri. I'm sad that I will miss their baptism because I've really grown to love them. Especially Rus. We went over today and played his guitar (a 10th anniversary John Petrucci signature Music Man guitar for anyone who cares) for about an hour which was sweet! It's crazy how little I remembered how to play at first. haha I will be serving in my new area with Elder Rich. I have heard good things about him and that he is a really fun Elder. It sounds like we will get along really well. Saturday night we went to the adult session of Stake Conference which was way awesome! Pres. and Sis. Renfroe spoke about how we don't have commandments to "prove that we love God" and that they aren't just hoops to jump through to make life harder. We are given commandments because they will bless us! He is a Baptist convert and my favorite quote from what he said when telling of his
conversion story was "the Mormons were more Baptist than the Baptists!" The Stake President also gave a really great talk about having a good marriage. I left my notes back at the house, but remind me and I will address his talk in greater detail next time. I really want to be able to do it justice. Today is the last Preparation Day for Elder Thomas and he is trunked out of his mind! haha He has every right to be too. Before coming here, we went bowling with him, Elder Gordon, and a few other missionaries. It was pretty fun but I'd rather not talk about my score... haha I hope that you are all doing well! I appreciate your prayers and your
thoughts from back home and I know that they really do help! I love you all very much!
October 24, 2011 - Email
ELDER HOLMES HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO A NEW STATE! He was sent to Eldon, Missouri. (I asked Elder Holmes about where he lived and this is something funny he said that I thought I'd share) Yeah haha we live right on the strip. To get to our place you actually have to turn off where a swimsuit shop is and every one of their windows has a large poster of a bikini model in it. haha Elder Rich said he has tried to talk to them and see if they wanted to hear the gospel, but they didn't wanna talk to him. Too bad.
The drive to get here ended up being at least four hours or so. I'm not sure on the exact time haha I wasn't paying too close attention to that. Elder Rich and I get along quite well! How did you get all of that information about him? Did you locate his mom so you can stalk her now? haha So, I totally forgot to bring my old planner and/or my journal so I can only write as much in my journal as I can remember, which probably won't be much. haha I also only have a one hour time limit here instead of two. Eldon is way different than where I was in Fayetteville. We were pretty much in the big city compared to where I am now. There are a lot of dirt roads
and double-wide trailer houses. haha The apartment isn't too bad but of course nothing can compare to the Renfroe mansion. I'll take some pictures of the apartment so that you can see it for yourself. On Friday we went and did service for Bro. Miner for most of the day. We went to his house and chopped and hauled wood with him. He had planned on cutting down this huge dead tree on his property, but the chainsaw that his dad let him borrow turned out to be dull and so that didn't happen. We just ended up chopping up some wood for kindling. Then later that night we saw an investigator named Maggie, who lives down the street from where we live, and her son's friend, Nick. We shared a lesson with them about Lehi's vision and made sure that they realize the importance of the Book of Mormon. On Saturday we did weekly planning during the day and then we went and worked on one of the projects we have this transfer, which is to go down the ward list and find all the unknown and/or less-active members and get some notes on them for when other missionaries come in. We also saw a recent convert named Maria. I guess she has a lot of questions and so our lessons with her typically turn into a Q and A session. The question she had for us this time was where God came from. That was a fun one! It was kind of tough to explain it in simple terms but I think that we did a good job. That night we had dinner with the Miner's and we helped them make it as well. We had eggrolls which were very good but take way too much time and effort to cook. haha I'll stick to eating them at Chinese restaurants where I don't have to make them. I helped by stripping the shrimp and I also folded most of the eggrolls. During dinner we got on the subject of movies and stuff which was pretty trunk-tastic. Sunday was my first day in the Eldon Branch. The building that they meet in is a church that was previously that of a different denomination, but has been renovated a bit to accommodate for LDS services. The couple who spoke spoke on the pioneers and the sufferings that
they went through. The teachers of the Sunday School class are in a course about being better teachers right now, so they put us Elders in charge of teaching the Gospel Principles class. We only had one person in the class (two if you count a baby) and she didn't really participate much which was kind of awkward haha the lesson was on the Spirit World though which was pretty sweet.
I love how perfect and fair the Plan of Salvation is even for those who didn't have the chance to hear and accept Christ's Gospel here on earth. After church, we went to the Wilson's place. They are a really sweet family in the branch who have a lot of children living at their home. The situation is pretty complicated, but there are a few kids there who are not their grandchildren or children. One of the children, Jarod, is in the process of being adopted by them I believe and so we are teaching him so that he can be baptized when he actually does get adopted. Bro. McWhinnie is an awesome member of the branch who actually drove us from the transfer point to our apartment on Thursday. He is a single older man and he is sarcastic and hilarious haha he reminds me of a slightly more vulgar (for lack of a better word) and sarcastic version of grandpa Don. Every Monday he drives us around as well so that we can have a no drive day and save some miles on the car. A couple of things that you missed about Elder Rich: He is absolutely obsessed with Taylor Swift and all he eats at the apartment is breakfast cereal haha for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He and I do get along really well and I am really going to enjoy this transfer. I love you all! I hope that everything is going well at home.
The drive to get here ended up being at least four hours or so. I'm not sure on the exact time haha I wasn't paying too close attention to that. Elder Rich and I get along quite well! How did you get all of that information about him? Did you locate his mom so you can stalk her now? haha So, I totally forgot to bring my old planner and/or my journal so I can only write as much in my journal as I can remember, which probably won't be much. haha I also only have a one hour time limit here instead of two. Eldon is way different than where I was in Fayetteville. We were pretty much in the big city compared to where I am now. There are a lot of dirt roads
and double-wide trailer houses. haha The apartment isn't too bad but of course nothing can compare to the Renfroe mansion. I'll take some pictures of the apartment so that you can see it for yourself. On Friday we went and did service for Bro. Miner for most of the day. We went to his house and chopped and hauled wood with him. He had planned on cutting down this huge dead tree on his property, but the chainsaw that his dad let him borrow turned out to be dull and so that didn't happen. We just ended up chopping up some wood for kindling. Then later that night we saw an investigator named Maggie, who lives down the street from where we live, and her son's friend, Nick. We shared a lesson with them about Lehi's vision and made sure that they realize the importance of the Book of Mormon. On Saturday we did weekly planning during the day and then we went and worked on one of the projects we have this transfer, which is to go down the ward list and find all the unknown and/or less-active members and get some notes on them for when other missionaries come in. We also saw a recent convert named Maria. I guess she has a lot of questions and so our lessons with her typically turn into a Q and A session. The question she had for us this time was where God came from. That was a fun one! It was kind of tough to explain it in simple terms but I think that we did a good job. That night we had dinner with the Miner's and we helped them make it as well. We had eggrolls which were very good but take way too much time and effort to cook. haha I'll stick to eating them at Chinese restaurants where I don't have to make them. I helped by stripping the shrimp and I also folded most of the eggrolls. During dinner we got on the subject of movies and stuff which was pretty trunk-tastic. Sunday was my first day in the Eldon Branch. The building that they meet in is a church that was previously that of a different denomination, but has been renovated a bit to accommodate for LDS services. The couple who spoke spoke on the pioneers and the sufferings that
they went through. The teachers of the Sunday School class are in a course about being better teachers right now, so they put us Elders in charge of teaching the Gospel Principles class. We only had one person in the class (two if you count a baby) and she didn't really participate much which was kind of awkward haha the lesson was on the Spirit World though which was pretty sweet.
I love how perfect and fair the Plan of Salvation is even for those who didn't have the chance to hear and accept Christ's Gospel here on earth. After church, we went to the Wilson's place. They are a really sweet family in the branch who have a lot of children living at their home. The situation is pretty complicated, but there are a few kids there who are not their grandchildren or children. One of the children, Jarod, is in the process of being adopted by them I believe and so we are teaching him so that he can be baptized when he actually does get adopted. Bro. McWhinnie is an awesome member of the branch who actually drove us from the transfer point to our apartment on Thursday. He is a single older man and he is sarcastic and hilarious haha he reminds me of a slightly more vulgar (for lack of a better word) and sarcastic version of grandpa Don. Every Monday he drives us around as well so that we can have a no drive day and save some miles on the car. A couple of things that you missed about Elder Rich: He is absolutely obsessed with Taylor Swift and all he eats at the apartment is breakfast cereal haha for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He and I do get along really well and I am really going to enjoy this transfer. I love you all! I hope that everything is going well at home.