Another week down and this puts us half way through the transfer. Ugh. But it was fun with some adventures in there this past week. So here's how it went:
9-4-17 "Winna winna, chicken dinna!" Preparation day! And it was more of a boring day for the most part. We didn't have the Spanish missionaries with us during the preparation day part as they have their preparation day tomorrow. So just English elders but there was still 6 of us so we had some fun. We just talked mostly though. We did go eat dinner at the Bennetts though for dinner, the new bishop, and that was fun. Learned a lot about him and their family. He was the elders quorum president before. Then we went to the church and prepared for bible study and elder Cahan and James taught it tonight finishing up Christ's ministry with His crucifixion, death and resurrection. Next week I teach starting off with the acts of the apostles first few chapters. Cleaned up and headed home. 9-5-17 "Yeah, there's a few things you've missed while doing time as a cap-sicle" We had to accomplish the things we needed to today as yesterday was Labor Day and Costco was closed. So we went to Costco and got food to last us a while and shipped off a package. Ate lunch and had companionship study in the afternoon and made calls until dinner. After dinner we went to Kris' and ended up helping him now the lawn before the storm tomorrow and they also had their house flooded today from their toilet. So we also were on the backend of the clean up. Then we went to the church to message Kevin as he had more questions about recommends and how they work. 9-6-17 "Ah, I oughta punch you in the nose, hopscotch." Meeting day! We had the district leader training meeting after studies and elder Cahan gave a workshop on working with members and I gave my testimony on the importance of district leaders. I was a district leader for a bit but I have also been a district leader's companion for 6 transfers. So I have not been in a district leader pool for 3 transfers of my mission. Then after that meeting, we had district meeting with the district. Nothing too exciting but it was good. Finally ate lunch at 3 in the afternoon at 5 Brothers Chicken and Waffles which was really good. Ate it at the church and I put together my pictures for the departing missionaries slideshow. It took a while to go through all my 1500 pictures to find my 7 best ones. That was difficult. And then we had a surprise meeting by the zone leaders calling us over video call and asked for some help in preparing a workshop they are giving at the Mission Leadership Council meeting on Friday. It is on using technology as leaders so I had a few ideas to implement and then Elder James had a few as well. But what took so long was trying to help them put a video into one of their PowerPoint slides. So that took up until dinner. Then we went to see Kris more in our usual setting, not service setting. And headed home after that. 9-7-17 "We are not going to attack, right, now!" It was more on the normal side of days with weekly planning today and I also worked on My Plan in the afternoon. Had companionship study and dinner. But then it gets fun. So we first started off prime time going to see a referral that wanted a Book of Mormon and a bible so we stop by and drop that off. They weren't interested to hear our message sadly but it was in the same area that Kris lived in so we stopped by and we get a call right after walking in from another set of elders that their car broke down. We tried to make a diagnosis over the phone asking about battery and whatnot and turns out, they ran out of gas. Luckily Kris let us borrow a gas can and went to a gas station, filled it up and gave them 2 gallons of gas to drive to a gas station and finish it off. That took up most our night so we ended up having to go drop the can off and head home. 9-8-17 "Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out." Well we woke up to a fun email this morning on emergency preparedness from the mission telling everyone to stock up supplies for an emergency so we started off the day getting supplies at Costco. Then went to the church and did somethings on the computer to organize the area. Did companionship study and went to visit the rest of the Referrals. Dropped off a card at one as it was a business and she wasn't there. Dropped off the Bible at the other and ate nearby so we didn't have to go all the way home to eat and back. So we ate at Wendy's and visited Corrin who was dealing with house issues when we got there. Then saw a less active up the street Bishop wanted us to visit. Then Kris called stressed out over the family situation with his fiancé. So we talked about it with him and headed home. 9-9-17 "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!" Its Saturday. And it's too cold for my liking. It's in the low 70s as a high and this morning when we walked outside was low 60s and we got back tonight to low 60s. Too cold. But we walked out into the freezing weather to go to correlation that took an hour and a half as we cover what has happened for the past month basically. I can't remember when the last one was but at least 5 weeks ago. Then had lunch and tried visiting DeQuan but no one was home so we went to the church and I prepared for bible study and had companionship study. Then had dinner and went to teach Dan. He is planning to attend church on Sept 24 as he is busy these next 2 sundays. Progress! And then we taught Cynthia the first parts of the restoration as we are keeping it basic. Not too much background in religion so we have to start small. Then headed home! 9-10-17 "She did it! She's the criminal! Arrest her, not me! I didn't do nothing... oh, sugar rush." Today was a nice day as Kevin got the priesthood and a temple recommend! But that's not the crazy part that happened when we got to church. So we got to church and talked for a few minutes with Kevin 10 min before church started when we got a call from the sisters saying they got in an accident and the other people were screaming at them so they needed help. By the time we got there, the police were there doing their reports and handling the crazy people. There are no more mission cars available so we had to tape up the front end with duct tape to drive but it still works! We missed sacrament meeting though so when we got back when it was gospel principles. The rest of church was good. Then we ate dinner after church and went to Kris' for Elder James birthday party which his birthday is today. Fun party and then did look ups the rest of the night.
Kevin is amazing as always and is planning to go to the temple this Saturday now that he has everything. We won't be able to go with him due to my departing temple trip this same month but he isn't waiting around any longer to figure out a different solution. He's going. Dan is doing good. Busy on the weekends with other obligations but is committed to coming to church in a few weeks. So hoping to get a member over there for a lesson before that member will give him a ride. Just so they can meet and plan when to pick up. Cynthia, Kris' fiancé, we've started teaching a little. She hasn't shown much interest in religion before and is only curious about us because she wants to know what we talk about when she comes to church with Kris. So it is slow and covering the basics of religion right now as she has no background in any religion.
That's our people. Hope everyone has a great week, I'll see you in the next one. ✌🏻 This is my usual nightly routine of studying.
Car crash! Both sisters are fine and the other car is a truck so took hardly any damage.
Amazing, this week was amazing. Usually the week before a baptism sucks and is terrible cause Lucifer is the devil that way but not this one. It was so smooth and couldn't have gone better. Sure Kevin had temptations, he told me about a few, but he didn't give them heed. And Saturday night after the baptism he went to say goodbye to a friend that's moving to Hawaii. Like NY young adults, there was alcohol and drugs there but he said he didn't feel tempted anymore so thats a great sign! He even drove lots of people home they were so drunk. Haha
So here's how it went as a whole:
8-28-17 "What a wonderful smell you've discovered, princess." Preparation day! And we are back to the normal routine for these days. Laundry and emails in the morning and went to get Chinese food for lunch/dinner. This is because they give me enough I don't finish it during lunch and save the rest for dinner. Played soccer, apples to apples, talked, and then got ready for the night. Kevin came right at 6 and we talked about some questions he had about family history and finished teaching him the lessons so he will be ready to focus on the interview now. Then we had bible study where elders Cahan and James taught and both did really well. Then cleaned it up and headed home for the night. 8-29-17 "Snakes...why'd it have to be snakes?" Today was a good day. We went to a lesson in the morni hut the person wasn't home so we drove all the way back home because it was like a 30 min drive and we don't have their number. So we went home and ate lunch. Then had district meeting and then starting planning out Kevin's Baptism and asking people to prepare talks. Then we went to Kris' and gave him a blessing. Ate dinner and met with Kevin to go over the baptismal interview questions. He answered them all perfectly. Then we messaged some investigators and did look ups the rest the night. 8-30-17 "I know more about casino security than anyone, I invented it!" Happy 23 month anniversary! Only 1 to go! Thats insane. So we had a meeting day, well this is actually a meeting week. We had a zone leader/district leader video conference call after our studies. We talked about the zone group chat that started yesterday to what we can improve it with. It also got started late so it took an hour. Ate lunch and did companionship study. Went to Costco to get pizzas for our next meeting which was a Bible study planning meeting to what we want to do for the next phase of classes. We decided to do the acts of the apostles after Christ and came up with a lesson schedule and assigned who is teaching. I start it off not this Monday but the one after it. But that's all I have to teach. Then we went to the Snows for dinner and went to see Corrin afterwards. Talked about what happened Sunday as she didn't come to church and then we went to the church to get the Bible class flier to send to the zone leaders to then send to the assistants to announce at mega zone conference Friday. That ended our night! 8-31-17 "When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay. Oh, I wanna be there in my city, oh-oh-o." Amazing day as Kevin had his interview! But we'll get to that in a sec. probably literally with how fast you readers skip over the boring parts and get to the good parts, but we had a lesson with DeQuan scheduled this morning but he didn't answer. So we called and got no answer. Instead we got our car washed in preparation for Mega Zone Conference tomorrow. We then gave a blessing to a missionary who asked for one and ate lunch. Went back to the church and worked on Kevin's baptismal program which took a while as all the missionaries needed a computer today apparently. Everyone had something to do so we had to wait our turn. We got one and spent about an hour getting it set but not finished. Then I worked on My Plan. That took forever compared to the other 2 I've done. It was on continuing discipleship so I had to write my plan for every part of continuing discipleship such as prayer, scriptures, church, temple, etc. Too much. Then we visited a member that Kevin wanted to speak at his baptism and he accepted to assignment. Ate dinner and went to the church for the interview and Kevin passed! Got the paper work filled out and filled up the car wish gas. Did the car reports and talked about the upcoming zone initiative with the zone leaders giving us a preview and sneak peek to what it is and I'm excited for the month of September. It's gonna be great. 9-1-17 "Summer has come and past, the innocence has never last. Wake me up when September ends." Today was a sad day for me. We had mega Zone Conference today and it was my last one. But it was a great mega Zone. We first started off the day with getting smoothies with elders James and Mansfield. Then drove to plainview and had the Conference. It was great throughout the day and learned a few things. Then for the last part the departing missionaries give their departing testimonies. There was 4 of us, 2 sisters and then elder Ramos and I. Then we said our goodbyes which was weird as I just said see many of you at transfers for the last time or in the mission home for the other 3 going home with me. Headed to our church building and finished up the baptismal program for Kevin's Baptism. Then went to dinner with Kris and Cynthia. We also talked about church for Cynthia so she knows better what is going on at church. That ended our night. 9-2-17 "Sing with me, sing for the year, sing for the laughter, sing for the tears." Today was amazing. It's just been a great week leading up to this baptism as a matter of fact. So today we got up and did studies, went to the church and cleaned the font and set up the chairs and tables. Printed off the program and then helped the other missionaries with some of their needs to. Then we went home and ate lunch and had companionship study. Called and made sure everyone was good to come to the baptism and grabbed a quick bite at Wendy's for dinner and went to the church. Filled the font half way with hot water so it could sit for a bit and cool off and in the mean time, we helped the missionaries write scriptures on cards for a jeopardy game that the seminary students are playing. They had a dinner night an hour before our baptism. Then Kevin showed up and talked through the program and changed. The program went perfect and the baptism was awesome. Kevin said it was faster in the water part than he was expecting. We changed and he said he felt different for sure. And he had talked a lot about temples and family history so he is super excited to get on that this week. Finished the program, had desserts and cleaned up to set up chairs for church tomorrow. Great day! 9-3-17 "Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it." Kevin got confirmed today but that wasn't the shocking part. So we did the usual morning and went to church and I confirmed Kevin as I was asked to. Then the bishopric got released and brother Bennett was called to be the new bishop with the same counselors. Wasn't expecting that. Then helped Corrin all day as she has had a rough morning trying to figure out a family situation. Then got the baptismal form signed after church and ate dinner. Elder Cahan hasn't been feeling too well past few days and fell asleep so I let him sleep and slept till 7. Then made calls and he showered so we stayed in tonight. But he's feeling better now. I think he just needed sleep.
So I baptized Kevin and confirmed him as well in sacrament meeting. They didn't have a mic so they said to speak loud. Hopefully I spoke loud enough. There's so much I could talk about with him and how prepared he was. And he has talked about the temple and family history so much that he is so excited to start going to the temple. Hopefully he gets the priesthood and temple recommend this Sunday so he can start going! Dan and Dequan are still the same as we have not met with them this week. Tried to for both but Dan cancelled and DeQuan wasn't there.
So we had an interesting week of craziness with transfers and new missionaries. We have a bigger district than last transfer and we have 8 elders. That's the most I've had in a district. But here's how the week went:
8-21-17 "It's the final countdown! We're leaving together!" Preparation day! And today was so long. Didn't do the usual. We got up at 5:30 and went to the beach near our house to see the sunrise and walked around the area a bit to find a better view. Took an hour and a half. And then we waited around our apartment until laundry was open in our apartment complex, which is 8. Got our laundry done and emailed. Had transfer calls and elder Cahan and I are staying together for my last one. Then we went to the church and played sports all day. Soccer and basketball. Also, Elder Rammell bought these soldering goggles to view the solar eclipse today and so we used them and we could sort of see the solar eclipse through them. But I used my good camera and the goggles as a filter and it came out much better with it zoomed in. Ate at Wendy's for dinner and elder Hansen and I prepared for bible study as we taught it tonight. Got it all set up and got ready ourselves. Then waited for everyone to show up and got started. I learned a lot from it actually when I taught. It was pretty cool. Afterwards, we talked with those that came and hung out with Kris till his ride got there. But his ride forgot about him and didn't end up getting there till 10:30 at night. We didn't want to leave him there stranded just in case something happened so we got home really late. We went from 5:30 in the morning to 11 at night. It was a long day. 8-22-17 "We've come a long way, from where we began. Oh I'll tell you all about it when I see you again!" Transfer day but these kind of transfers are my favorite when neither my companion or I are leaving. Makes the day fun as we can talk and not worry about where we are going or who our next companion is. So we did our morning usual and had lunch. Went off to the leadership meeting but this time it was held at Woodside chapel because of construction going on outside of the Rego chapel. It was weird thinking the next time I go to a transfer exchange, I won't be going back to an area. But leadership meeting was good and very insightful. Also realized that was my last leadership meeting. Then we headed home and ate dinner in our area. We went to the church for a few minutes and then it turned into helping the members clean the church for a little bit. At least we didn't do all of it this week. Went out to do a few look ups and headed home. 8-23-17 "Sugar, yes please. Won't you come and put it down on me. I'm right here, cause I need, a little light, a little symphony." Today was interesting. We did the usual morning stuff and we weren't able to get a hold of a companionship that got blinded in yesterday so we tried stopping by but they were out and turned out they were at the church. So we were able to have district meeting and meet everyone. I realized that half the district is still under 6 months in the mission. And we have a 10 missionary district. Then there's me that goes home this transfer. So I actually gave the workshop for district meeting on letter and spirit of the law. Then I did my first week of the My Plan course. Interesting. And Elder Cahan was hungry so he got pizza at a shop and took it home to eat while I ate at home. Then we were going to go to the beach for our ward's weekly beach night but not many people showed up so they said we didn't need to. So we saw Kris but Cynthia wasn't there. She was at work. Finished the night with look ups and knocking. 8-24-17 "Out of curiosity, which casinos did you geniuses pick to rob? "Uh, the Belagio, Mirage, and the MGM Grand." "... Those are Terry Benadict's places. What do you have against Terry Benedict?" Average day today. We had the fun morning of doing the same stuff and went to the church for weekly planning and also set our transfer goals. Then went knocking for a bit and did a look up near by. Picked up medicine for Elder Cahan and ate dinner. Went to see Corrin first and then Kris wanted us to stop by real fast. Finished the night with knocking. Very basic day. 8-25-17 "Is this going to hurt?" "If you are doing it right, it should be pretty excruciating." Thanks dad for the quote! Today was another basic day. We had to go get a box from the post office so I can start sending stuff home. I picked that up right after we had lunch. Went to the church and made calls and did some messaging to investigators for a bit. Then we went knocking again but found no one again. Afternoons are always hard, and it is still summer for these people. Ate dinner and went to do some look ups/knocking for a bit until they get mad at us and then went to the church and tried more calls later at night. Better time. Then headed home. 8-26-17 "I want you to play dirty but don't get caught. Alright, bring it in. Break someone's clavicle on 3 ready? 1, 2, 3, break someone's clavicle!" Great day today. Great day. We had a usual morning, blah. And then we went to a lesson way out in Mastic but it got cancelled as they forgot about it. So drove home for lunch and went to visit a referral. Turns out the address is their work, so we tried calling but no answer. Tried to ship off my package but all the post offices closed super early on saturdays so I couldn't. Went to see Kris for a BBQ but we had a miscommunication and ended up staying for an hour with no BBQ until 8 tonight. Too late for us so had to leave and get dinner at Taco Bell. Then we did a mini exchange with the Spanish elders so elders Cahan and James could start working on bible study. I went with Elder Mansfield to knock for an hour and tried to go to their lesson nearby but it got cancelled. So headed back and exchanged back and we headed home. But then the best part is Kevin started messaging and he wants to get baptized in a week from today, on Saturday next week. We are super excited and started planning it tonight with him. 8-27-17 "He'll kill ya, and then he'll go to work on ya!" Today was a nice day. We had a good day at church and everything was neat to learn and useful for Kevin I thought. Then after church we met with Kevin and a member of the bishopric and went over a few things and taught a few more which Kevin already knew. He's done his research. He so awesome. And then we ate dinner and messaged Glen who is now living in river head and he was telling us how he went to the LDS church there. Met the missionaries there so he will probably start working more over there. Went to a lesson near our home but the person wasn't home and then it may have been a half hour later so we knocked but still no one came home. So went to the church to sync areabook and finish putting in lesson plans for the week.
We just finished my 99th week. We are now in my 100th week. Welcome to triple digits. And it's gonna be good with Kevin's baptism! He already asked me to baptize him so I'm super excited! Maybe my last one, but hopefully not. I still got time to find another. And this is similar to my last baptism with James. Kevin went to Utah and decided he wants to be part of this religion while there, same with James. Kevin wants to be baptized in a week, James notified me 6 days before. They are both awesome! We meet Kevin again tonight at 6 to finish the lessons and then tomorrow afternoon we meet to go over the interview questions. DeQuan is having some troubles with organized religion as a whole. He is the one that believes if you are spiritual, you're good. So we've been working with him to help him understand but so far nothing is making a whole lot of difference, and he feels he got an answer that the Book of Mormon is not true. Haven't been able to see him since so it's hard to tell if he did everything he could and explain real intent. So that's hard but hopefully he doesn't get to the point of dropping us or discontinuing meeting. Haven't found anyone new but we're working on it!
See you all next week, ✌🏻
EJH 🔥🔛
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Device audit in district meeting nowadays. And we are missionaries with that much tech.
Well, I'm not ready for this. The last transfer. So we're not talking about it.
This week was a pretty great week overall. The weekend was full of craziness it seemed like and the weeks was busy. It was really nice to be busy and feel like I'm actually accomplishing something but then again, it flew by. So here's how it went as a whole:
8-14-17 "If I got locked away and we lost it all today, tell me honestly, would you still love me the same?" Preparation day and it is the usual. Did our shopping and laundry in the morning and had lunch at home. Then went to the church and played soccer mostly today and some basketball. Emailed throughout and went to see Kris before bible study but he had a rough day and isn't doing to well so we decided to stay and help him out tonight. We talked with him for a while and stayed the entire night until we had to head home. He was very grateful we stayed. 8-15-17 "We used to build a rocket ship and fly it far away. Used dream of outer space then they say, 'wake up, you need to make money', yeah" Today was pretty good. We had district meeting after lunch and it was our last one of the transfer which is always sad. Then we went directly to a lesson with DeQuan and it was an hour and a half going through all his questions he had about the plan of salvation. We then got to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and ended. Then we had companionship study at the church and dinner after. Went to see Corrin and was able to follow up from Sunday. Then we did look ups the rest of the night. 8-16-17 "Anyway you want it, thats the way you need it. Any way you want it!" I was tired today because it was hot. But we also did deep clean in the morning after studies and then went to this place that was supposed to have unlimited wings for a certain price but turns out they didn't do that deal anymore. And we were with the other elders so we decided to go to Applebee's instead for lunch. Then did companionship study at the church and went to do look ups during the day that we needed to do. Had dinner at the Snows and went to visit a referral but they weren't home. So we stopped by Kris' since he was down the road but he wasn't there so we talked to everyone else in the house. Went to see a member for our usual Wednesday night visit and she was home this week. That ended our night. 8-17-17 "Oh, but when I look back now. The summer seemed to last forever. And if I had the choice, yeah, I would wanna be there. Oh, those were the best days of my life." Pretty good day today. Usual morning routine and lunch and then we made beignets with lunch. I got the mix for my birthday and just made it for the first time today. Super good. And then we went to the church for weekly planning and calls until I had to pack for exchanges and went to Alive After Five. We were there the entire time tonight and tonight was the last one for the summer. An hour into it, we started exchanges with elders Rammell and Hansen and I'm with Elder Rammell. We manned the stand for the first half an hour and went street contacting the rest. Helped a lady take down her stuff at the end and she gave us free soda. Also gave her a Book of Mormon. As a district, we gave out like 15 Book of Mormons tonight. Then we grabbed my stuff from the car and headed to their apartment. 8-18-17 "Cause baby now we've got bad blood. Now we've got problems. And we can't solve them. You made a really deep cut." Exchanges were fun. We did the studies and planning in the morning and then went to see their investigator getting baptized this Sunday, JoAnne. We brought Arthur along, the recent convert, and it was a good lesson. Just doing the last minute questions and baptismal covenant teaching. Then dropped off Arthur and had lunch. Went to the church to make calls and help clean out their area book. Went to look a few of them up that didn't have numbers and that ended our exchange. Elder Cahan and I had dinner and he went to give the interview to JoAnne at the church. Then finished off the night by going to see Kris. 8-19-17 "Drink your prune juice grandma!" It was a pretty good day today. We had the usual morning and went to teach DeQuann in the morning. That was good but he has so many questions it takes forever. Then went to get our car back, the Subaru. So changed cars and Jay came along with the senior couple for the ride so I got to see him today. That was fun:) The we were going to eat at Wendy's for lunch but then the stake president called and asked for us to help with a blessing so we drove back to the church and helped with that. He heard my stomach in the blessing and so he took us out to lunch at a deli he knows so that was super nice. Then we had companionship study at the church and went to a lesson but got cancelled. So we did look ups until dinner with a member family and the stake president came to that dinner with us too so it was a fun day with him:) Had to leave to go straight to a lesson with Dan which we finished the plan of salvation with him and he's been reading the Book of Mormon so that was good! Then went and saw Corinne to talk about coming to church tomorrow and finished the night by helping brother Elliott clean the church and set up the chairs for tomorrow. It was a long day but a fun one. 8-20-17 "That man is playing Galaga. Didn't think we would notice, but we did" Today was a busy day. We were doing studies when the Spanish elders needed to go on exchanges for elder James to get some rest. Not feeling well so I went with Elder Rogers for the 3rd hour of church in the Spanish branch. Then went and exchanged back and we went to our church. Kris and Corrin came today! Then after church, elders Rammell and Hansen had a baptism and DeQuan came to that. Then headed home after a long day at church to eat dinner and went to see Kris. Felt bad because his fiancé also came but didn't know what was going on so we didn't explain that very well to her. So we will be working more with her. Then went to the church to make calls to end the night.
So Kevin has been in Guatemala this past week and I've chatted with him everyday for like 20 min each day. He's doing good there and even went to church! Been reading a lot and had lots of adventures. Then DeQuan didn't want to come to church and the baptism so he decided to come to the baptism only which was good. He really enjoyed it and said how different it was. Next week he said he'll make it to church. Kris and Cynthia came to sacrament meeting which is a start! Next is to Sunday school. Corrin is doing good. She's been going through a rough patch these past few weeks so we're trying to figure out how to best help her as missionaries. That's most our pool for now. Hopefully in this next transfer Kevin and DeQuan will get baptized! That would be amazing to see right before I go home.
Hope everyone has a great week. See you in the next one, ✌🏻
When you realize how much time you have left, the more you realize how much you love this work.
What's up guys, another week down...sadly. This week was amazing with 2 exchanges we went on and had interviews with President Reynolds. What an amazing experience that was. We talked about what I wanted to accomplish in the next few weeks before I return home and I had no idea what to say. So I just said I wanted to go home with no regrets. He had some inspirational thongs to help me see the purpose of the next few weeks and to see the purpose of returning home. I am forever grateful to be able to serve with him.
And here's how the week went as a whole:
8-7-17 "I am Iron Man. You think you're the only super hero out there?" Preparation day! We had a fairly boring one today too as the Spanish missionaries didn't have their full preparation day today due to temple trip Wednesday. But we did laundry and got Chinese food for lunch. Then we played some basketball with the other elders and Jay gave us haircuts. Then we ran home and cleaned up and back to the church again to play a board game with the English elders. Lasted all the way until the end of preparation day and got ready for bible study setting everything up. Had bible study but we left early to go see Kris and his fiancé who is in the hospital. Went and saw them for a few minutes and headed home. 8-8-17 "Wake up, wake up. Daddy's home." Today was pretty good overall. I still feel a little sick where it is an energy drainer so I have little energy and a minor sniffle with a sore throat. Nothing to keep me in bed but annoying. But we had to switch out our car from a 2017 Subaru Legacy to a 2013 Toyota Carolla. Then we had the district leader training meeting which was fun. Went on forever. And then we had companionship study and went home to pack for exchanges. Then we exchanged with the English elders, Rammell and Hansen and I'm with Elder Hansen! He is in training right now, just got here 5 weeks ago. So we ate dinner and went knocking for a while. Found a lady that was interested and then we went to look up a couple less actives. No success with that and then headed back to their apartment. 8-9-17 "How fast can we buy this building?" Exchanges were fun. We had the morning of studies and went to Panera Bread for lunch before daily contacting their investigators. Went knocking for a bit and taught a woman about the Book of Mormon and got a return appointment for 2 weeks from now as she is going out of town this weekend. She was pretty enthusiastic about the Book of Mormon though. Finished knocking and went to the church to do 12 week training as he is in training. Then did an exchange review and exchanged back. Elder Cahan and I then went to the Snow's for dinner and they were doing a mock camp out in the backyard with their kids so we got to roast hot dogs over a fire. Tried to go visit the member we usually visit Wednesday's but she wasn't home so we went and visited Kris. That ended our night. 8-10-17 "Phil? Um, his name's 'Agent." Today was a pretty amazing day. To start off though, not so much. We got to the church for district meeting early in the morning to find the other members of the district walking around the church building outside looking for a stolen purse that might have been dumped. I was confused and then they told the story of how the sister's car was broken into last night while they were at the church, in the church parking lot. One of their purses was stolen and so they were looking to see if it got dumped in the woods near the church. Nothing so we went in and had district meeting and immediately afterwards, we had interviews with President Reynolds. And this was the highlight of the week for sure as it was the most spiritual interview I've had. Very inspiring and informative as I learned a lot too. Then we taught Kevin one last time before he leaves. Turned out he leaves this week end, unlike my original thought where he left last Monday. He just is crazy busy this week so we met briefly and had lunch at Wendy's afterwards. Went back to the church and weekly planned until we went to dinner with a recent convert in the ward named Arthur. Older guy but super nice. Went to visit another member, the one we tried last night but wasn't home, and she was home this time. Finally, we ended the night by going to look up a potential in area book but they apparently don't know where the guy is that we were looking for and doesn't know when he will be back. 8-11-17 "No hard feelings. You got a mean swing." Fun day today. We had the usual morning and went to the church to do companionship study and then we exchanged with the Spanish elders, Elders Rogers and James and this time I'm with Elder James. We then did a companionship study in their pool and language study until dinner. Took a while as we talked a lot about studies and then we went on a lot of tangents for over an hour. So we ate at Taco Bell real quick and went contacting near the beach. Talked to a lot of people and ran into a member family visiting from Maryland. Then taught a less active that was amazing. All in Spanish but it was translated mostly for me and I contributed. Then we went to the church to pick up a few things and ended up helping give a blessing to a missionary and heading home. 8-12-17 "I designed this suit to come off, ow!" It was a fun day of service. We got up and went directly to the park where we were going to help run a soccer tournament that a recent convert here signed the Spanish elders up for and I just happened to be on exchanges that day. So we helped set up all morning and then helped fill water jugs during the matches. It was a mix of guys and girls teams for the tournament and elders Cahan and Rogers came around 1 to help out with serving lunch. Continued helping throughout the afternoon and then we exchanged back and we went home to clean up and have dinner. Went to teach a part member couple which went really well and then went to visit a new investigator we haven't seen in a few weeks but found out he is in West Virginia. So he's not home. Then we did some daily contact at the church and set up the chairs for church tomorrow. Headed home after that. 8-13-17 "Aww, you're gonna break your old man's heart." Sunday and it was packed. Once we left for church after lunch, we didn't come home until at 9. We had church and Corrin came today! Kevin is on a plane to Guatemala. Then after church we took sacrament to 2 different homes. And some members invited us over for a BBQ and they were all the college aged kids here for the summer doing internships and summer jobs and they are leaving this week. So they invited us over and most were married but all return missionaries within the last 2-3 years. Some were out on missions when I started. And they are going to BYU some of them and others to Idaho so it was my age group. I realized that half way through that this is the group I'm hanging out with in a year from now. Or sooner. Then after dinner we went to see Kris and headed home. Dinner started late and went a while so we got to Kris' late and they had cake for us there. Couldn't say no.
So Kevin is off to Guatemala and he said that he took a shirt and tie to attend a Spanish congregation down there! He found I he is going to a different village half way through which that second village has a chapel. Doing good though, he's read up to Alma 13 as of yesterday but he started in Alma 1. He said he wanted to read that one first because it is referenced so much in his other books he reads. Then Kris is doing good but his fiancé is still battling sickness a little so he takes care of her a lot. Corrin came to church yesterday with her family and even brought her niece that got baptized in Utah a while ago. So that was cool to see. And nothing much else for people. I wasn't in my pool a whole lot this week but I heard Dan is doing good and reading and DeQuan is out of town until tomorrow.
Hope everyone had a great week, I'll see you in the next one, ✌🏻
