11/14/16

Hey folks.

This week we did s'more raking because if it ain't broke don't fix it. At least thats what I hear. We went back over to Ms. Bator's house this week and re-raked the yard and got to ask her about her Book of Mormon reading. She hasn't read too much because there's a lot of new names she's heard. But when we left, we asked her to write down questions she has and we'll answer them the next time we're over, which will be sometime this week. So that's been pretty awesome.

On another random raking we met a really nice guy. He's from Greece and he gave us some super awesome honey that his dad in Greece harvests...grows? Plunders? Not sure on that one. Regardless of method, it tastes awesome. He got a Book of Mormon as well.

We also gave a security guard of a shopping center a Book of Mormon. It has been awesome to see some "fruits" by being able to give out the book. 3 books in the past 5 weeks and I'm happy about it! (I was rereading my journal of when I had first came out and I was having "rough days" when I had only given out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon. How life changes.)

So things are heating up around here. Speaking of heating up do I need to mention the craziness that happened with Good ole America? Probably not. Especially when the house that this narrator's writing to is divided. :)

Honestly pretty much everyday I raked. And it has been exhausting and awesome. I get to feel like I'm working hard.

But we do plenty of playing hard too.

Today we went down to Baltimore and visited Fort McHenry. It was pretty awesome.

Making painting great again...

11/7/16

Hey people of not Maryland. The new thing to do in slow areas is service. So we raked leaves all the week long. It's been pretty awesome what's come from it. Really the only super legitimate thing that has happened came from raking a lady's yard. She has some good Mormon friends, she's 83 mind you, and really appreciated us helping her. The first time we met her was when we were raking her neighbors place and she asked if we could help the next day. The "only thing" I had to write our number in was a Book of Mormon obviously. But she was happy to get a book as well. I talked to her a few times when we helped her out. She said she had skimmed around, and she asked about the names Joseph Smith and Moroni. It's all in the introduction. She said she was going to start reading the book. she also said in a half joking way that she was going to tell her children that she is going to leave Catholicism. She mentioned that actions speak louder than words. So she could be really epically someone who's ready. We're going back Wednesday.

Another highlight of the week was going to a Hawaiian restaurant that some members in our ward started up. It has to have been some of the best food I've ever had. Thank goodness we're missionaries because the check wasn't going to be afforded by my wallet anytime soon.

We had a zone conference this week, which are some of the hardest meetings I have to go to. I mean that more literally because I'm sitting on a metal chair for 8 hours. It's rough. In the fifth or so hour, one of the Assistants to the President told us, "It's not our job to be buddy buddy with people. Friendships come through the Atonement." and later he re-emphasized by saying "It's not our job to be their friends." Maybe he got a little too into his training and pulled a Brigham Young. But either way I don't agree with that at all, and was pretty done with the meeting. It just felt like robot training, thats the truth. though I did really like what President had to say to us. Next paragraph please.

We also had stake conference this week, but in between time we've been able to rake a few more yards. One guy was so beside himself that we wanted to rake for free for him that he called us crazy a few times haha. We also raked a Pastor's yard, the other Elders haven't gone back over yet. All in all almost every time we've raked it's been a really positive experience. I'm ready to be doing that for the next few months. Stake Conference was good though. Our missionary choir did mediocre. Which was a miracle in itself, hahaha.

Monday we've gone to a military base and got to see some awesome helicopters.

Companionship Pull-ups the best unity builder around.​

10/31/16

Tuesday was quite a day. We didn't have too many set plans, which turned out to be good. We went to a park and I, being so tired of not talking to people, was determined to talk to the few people at the park. I started talking to a to a guy that was obviously having a bad day. His name was Aaron and he was living at his parents place after getting out of the hospital drinking too much. He took a walk from his parents place and he knew he was just going to get alcohol. and he did and that's where I found him. He wasn't very drunk at first, he wanted to change and make his life better, he was saying that God sent us to him, all good things. But then he just kept pounding the Vodka, chugging that bottle down to the point where he was happy with being drunk. It is sad to see people's lives go to words. There was nothing we could really do, he didn't want to read the Book of Mormon, or learn about the Word of Wisdom so what were we supposed to do? Leave him like the past missionaries have done apparently? Nah, we walked him back towards his parents house. It was quite the walk, we sang songs, he peed on trees, played the harmonica together, asked a guy in a truck for a ride. And for a few seconds he wanted to stop and say a prayer. So we knelt right next to a loud road, with a cop watching us in the parking lot. He felt that everything would be alright. His plan was to grab his guitar at his place and then get even more drunk and sleep in the woods. Not what we wanted but we were just there to walk the 2 miles with him home. Near the end of our sojourn a truck pulled up, it was his dad. Who was probably glad that we were there helping. Aaron almost got in the truck after he waved goodbye. But then they started fighting, and we figured we better leave because if he didn't get in the truck it would be an awkward situation to be in. So we started walking away, but he still wasn't in the truck. "Get in the truck Aaron." we'd say to ourselves, "Get in the truck man." We went over the hill and never saw him get in the truck or not. I don't know what happened to Aaron, but I do know that we did our part and that he's got a great book to read in his backpack now.

That was too long of a story, sorry.

Wednesday we had the ward's fall fest, which is a relief society way of saying Halloween party. It was a good time, I really enjoy this ward. We got to help with parking, and I had a good time. But I took my job very seriously.

I've been making some good friends. I went on exchanges with Elder Ainsworth, we had a good time. And I had us walking all day. We walked 8 miles and it rained all day. But we happened to come across on a big ole mansion built in the 1890's. The sign said open so I went in and announced to the place that we were visitors. A lady named Leslie came and gave us a great tour. The house was a summer home of a doctor who was a founder of John's Hopkins University/Hospital. It was super cool, we also met a guy who got to play in the house when he was a kid. Also an artist who was setting up her gallery in there. It was quite the place we found ourselves in.

Saturday was fun because we went leaf raking, which is my new found passion of doing missionary work in a rough area. It's great. I raked two lawns-and when I say I, it was just me because we only had one rake. then a guy was started raking his leaves so we went over and helped him. He was super grateful and it was such an awesome way to meet some one. When he learned that Mormons were helping him he said, " no wonder! Mormons are the nicest people ever!" He and his wife are Catholic, I asked if we could swing by again sometime and he is now completely down to let two strangers into his house, "..whenever!" So that made me happy. Things are starting to slowly happen around here.

I've got too many tags.

I had a little fun with Elder Ainsworth...