Thrill of the Hunt

So howdy do this week! I guess this weeks headline would first be related to Richard. So apparently the Old Mans dog yanked him while he was out walking her (she's a yellow lab by the way) probably saw a rabbit or something like that but anyways on the way down he hit a railing and got a big gash on his head and broke the number one bone on his spine.

So ya we went to the dinner appointment he had planned for us and were very surprised when we found him in this condition. Can move around and everything but has to wear a neck brace and such for the next two months as it heals. He told us he had thought about cancelling but he didn't wanna stand the missionaries up so he went ahead and made us dinner anyways. Such a tuff stubborn old dude lol.

Anyways we had a good night with him. He made the most delicious spaghetti ever to which is crazy since I've always kinda looked at spaghetti as a quick fix meal lol. Anyways he is doing alright besides the neck injury and was very glad to have us over.

We also had a lesson with the Bassfords again, this is while I was on exchange with one of the Zone Lords here :3 Elder Shamo. Nice guy, we had a good day that day. Well just like the first time we met with them once again we got there and it was just Brother Bassford and just like the first time the first ten fifteen minutes was awkward. Takes ten minutes for him to get the dang Rottweiler Bane to shut up (good dog just barks and growls) so we just kinda sat there again.

We tried to teach and follow up on how his reading and prayers were going but he shot us down really quick stating that he didn't have time for em'. Also mentioned he didn't know exactly know why he became a Latter Day Saint and then asked us why God allows bad things to happen to good people. So we went into that, Stephany showed up a little while into this and helped us teach it. That went well, after that we gave Stephany a blessing since she went into surgery on Thursday so we will see how they are doing tomorrow.

Now the reasoning behind the name of this letter :3. So Friday and Saturday I was feeling pretty darn crappy, mostly do to the fact that I was getting so aggravated with Hunter and another Evangelical online over facebook. He kept bringing up the same stupid faith vs works argument which is one of the dumbest circle arguments I have ever found here on the mission. Both saying the same thing just using the terminology differently but the wires don't seem to be connecting on the other side .

Anyways the moral of the story is like always I find a way to bounce back and it has become a game to me. Also another principle I've learned is in these situations don't get worked up or flustered since thats what they want and ya feel crappy for most of the rest of the day since contention is with ya.

So yesterday he tried to attack the Doctrine and Covenants and that we must hale Joseph Smith to retain our Salvation... Coming from a guy who hasn't even read the whole thing as well as never having read the B.o.M. Well I flipped it onto him with me being the one controlling the conversation by asking him questions, needless to say he really doesn't like it cause he tried to snare me but he's recently found that I just put him between a rock and a hard place ;). Sorry if I bored ya with this but keeping cool allows one to feel things out better :).

Also one last bit of exciting news is that we can officially declare that we have a RCLA pool to teach and that the investigator pool is waiting to be sparked. We received about four referrals this week, found two other really good potentials, and have a lesson with a part member Less Active family on this coming Sunday :D. Took three months but the potential energy is creeping over the edge to becoming kinetic!

Chastening! 6-23-14

Welp my eyebrows were a bit singed this past week. Remember how I said that
the week was a bit of a bust? Ya well seems President Anderson wasn't to
fond of that so I got chewed up just a bit and was given a list of things
that we needed to do. I'm trying Pres. So we managed to get on the numbers two lessons this
week but we also made some stop by's to members which were good, so lets
see whats going on here this past week.

I went on exchanges with Elder Park this week for the first time in a
while. He's our district leader this transfer and we will see for the
coming one. I very much dislike going on exchanges but once I'm on them I
am ok. I went to his area in Georgetown and it was pretty sweet at the end
of the day. We were knocking on a potentials door who didn't answer so we
walked down the drive when a white guy with his black buddy called us over.
His name was Hunter and he originally thought we were Jdubs but he quickly
found out we were a kind of religion that he hadn't heard of before.
He has some serious drug problems and knows that it is bad and wants to get
off but is scared of the doing part. Heroine addict, been here before ;).
So we were talking with him and I handed him a B.o.M. which he was a bit
confused about since it wasn't the bible. We are still talking about just
dropping the drugs right then and there when he opened it and the first
thing he opens to is a chapter in Alma and the verses he reads were don't
procrastinate the day of your repentance. Elder Park and I just kinda look
at each other like,  "WOW" while Hunter is like wow that just spoke to me, but
this isn't the Holy Bible but that just spoke to me.
He unfortunately didn't drop the drugs, actually he snuffed a pack right in
front of us which was an interesting experience to witness but that's ok.
His buddy's name is Gibby and he was super drunk, he was staying away
to until the end. Talking about how he believes there is only one God and
we are like same here ya know? Well Hunter calls him over and I tell ya
this guys eyes were glazed and red from so much alcohol. Came together and
said a prayer which Gibby just broke down crying as we did. Never given so
many hugs in my life to a drunk man, or ever lol.
They said they would be at church yesterday but I didn't see em' so I'll
have to see what the Spanish elders were able to find out on the situation
there. Saturday was a bit of a bust. Elder Whitney and Dalling didn't do
anything while I was on exchange and didn't plan anything for the day I got
back, so we got some stuff together and went out. Contacted a referral and
saw a member who is going through a bit of a ruff time, we were able to
answer some of her questions about Patriarticle blessings to which was
awesome :).

Elder Olsen and his new friend!

Seaford goes Boink!

Ya so this week was a bit of a bust... Like literally in terms of lessons we didn't seem to catch a bit of luck until yesterday. We did a lot of calling and stop by's with less actives since that's what President Anderson wanted us to do. All but one appointment fell through this week but that's OK we were able to reschedule for the coming weeks and we were able to pick up some more LA's that we can work with.

So on Tuesday last week my goodness it was humid! It would rain and the sun would come out then rain again, wet lather rinse repeat ya know? We were out doing service and we hadn't been out for more than ten minutes before we were just completely soaked by the air here.... It was pretty dang nasty if ya ask me :P.

On Wednesday it would seem that we offended a less actives husband and friend too... who we never met but the story is,  we stopped by to see if we could help them with car trouble since Elder Whitney is a whiz with cars. Ended up being a problem with the automatic window not going up or down, the motor worked though.

Knowing doors all to well Elder Whitney didn't really want to touch it do to there likely hood to break, I guess. So the husband felt like an inconvenience to us and his friend, who I only saw outside of the garage briefly was a bit mad that we didn't stay to receive the food she prepared for us... Never met her lol.

Saturday we went out to an event that was being held by a member in the ward to help support veterans. We set up a booth and listened to the music as we waited for people to come by. They did towards the end and we hope that a few of them, we will be able to see here shortly :D.

Hey we got one tonight :D Paul, is a sweet RCLA and I can't wait
to continue working with him. He's on the road back and hopefully he
will either go on a mission or get married :3. I'm fine either way,
anyways we will see.

Atlantic from Lewis

Pentacostals, Birds, Bee's, Service

So this week was individual, not to mention I hit the five month marker :P. Seems I only have a year and a half left. Not sure how that happened or where summer came into play but hey, I'm on the round about turn real soon here. 

So lets see, we had a ton of service this week. Like from Tuesday we were going from service to service and all of it was good. I wouldn't be surprised to receive an email from Pres. as to why numbers are so low but that's ok, it was all for a good cause ;). We are having a member move out unfortunately Mr. Brother Ballard. One of those guys who's been here forever and now that he's moving your like what?!

Super cool guy and really nice, probably in his 80's. It was so funny though, we went over on Wednesday to help him move out but what we found is that this will probably be more than a one day move. He had barely packed anything and had to go through everything before he decided whether or not to keep it. Lets just say that we barely finished one room and we have the rest of the house to go through.

Also on Wednesday they had us set up the new security system for the I-pads which didn't work for mine funny enough. But ya they are tightening things down here which I'll harp on later but I'm on the old system with no instructions on how to get onto the new one :/... FREEDOM!!! Na I won't do anything bad ;).

On Thursday we had zone training again do to it being the beginning of the month again. And we had a really awkward training on members and how to get them interested but one thing that's been bugging me lately is that a lot of missionaries have been starting to smack the things that Members do or don't do.

Maybe I'm wrong but lately meal appointments have been getting smacked in our weekly news and missionaries just overall not having the best things to say about member presents or things like that and I just don't like it ya know? They do a lot, sure could do more but so could we, why use them as the scape goat?

Later that night though we went with Brother Heder who is one of the members we do quite a bit of stuff with to help him with an old ladies lawn again, but what was really cool is that before going and doing this we learned that he is a bee keeper which is really sweet. I asked him quite a few questions on how to do it, fun things about it and other such things but he was very informative and once I find a place to settle later on I wouldn't mind picking up on the hobbie :D.

Friday was another move of members but they are staying in the ward fortunately. Oh I forgot to tell ya that we came across more less actives on Tuesday. The Bassford couple and they are totally coming back to church, we hope at least. They haven't had any home teachers and in their opinion didn't feel welcomed to the Seaford ward so they quit coming. They know its true though and said if they receive some love and some Home Teachers that they will becoming back :D.

On Saturday we went to Dover to help with a family history Fair at the church, it was mostly a get outta work day cause we manned a missionary table, were greeters, and sat in on some of the lessons. Sorry I fell asleep during most of the lessons but I did learn a few things. For now though I think I'll stick to indexing since I know how to do that and have the time to do so ;).

However it didn't just end there that day. There was going to be a baptism at a beach in Lewis that required some witnesses so we decided to go to that.

Well on the way we received a call that they had forgotten white pants so we went all the way back to Georgetown to get them. And then the address they gave was faulty, then the directions they gave made no sense, and then we spent about an hour driving around this state park beach looking for them with no phone service, and then we found em' but the baptism was over hahahahahahaha.... my goodness we were so tired by that point :3.

Now yesterday was good. We had a meeting with Hunter again and when we got there we saw that he had brought along more equaling his group to three and we were like oh gosh no, not more of them lol. Well it ended up being alright, the third person actually his brother didn't do a thing and the meeting went well overall. Things were a lot more relaxed and we had a good discussion.

What was really weird but super cool is that a member from Cambridge who we don't even know popped up outta no where and jumped in and was super bold. I feel he thinks that he messed things up but he totally did what we needed and I really wish that he was in our ward cause he new how to get things done.

Asking if they had read the Book of Mormon and if they had fulfilled their end of the deal to come to our church since we went to theirs. Really nice guy, gonna make him a thank you card this week :).

Bu,t so with Hunter and his mentor, something really cool is happening and we hope to be able to connect the rest of the dots. Unfortunately at this time Hunter is not progressing but we've set up a fellowship between us and his denomination. So what we are hoping to do his to get an inter faith relationship with them and our ward to help each other out with service projects or things like that, we need to talk to Bishop Gordon his thoughts but Elder Whitney and I think that would be super awesome.

Another cool thing is that they even offered, a Pentecostal missionary group at that, to share their booth with Elder Whitney and myself for an upcoming event called river fest which is supposed to be really big around here :). I find the idea interesting but really cool at the same time! Welp that about does it, saved another baby bird yesterday :D, little robin, I'll send ya a pick, talk to ya more! 

Not much!

Hurro!

So this week has been a bit rough. Orlando hasn't answered a text or a message yet besides the one phone call where he said hello and then hung up so we are a bit worried about that at the moment. Also our not so recent convert Brian is moving and would rather us not come in contact with him for the next little bit. Said he didn't want his records removed but that he needed some time to think about things :(. So we will see what the members can do or if he just needs some time to think about a few things.

So Hunter did not show up yesterday, might have been his mentor or might have been that they actually had something to do we don't know, we are going to meet up with him again sometime soon and I had a random thought to throw a scripture he gave us to beware false teachings and prophets and to make sure to test the spirits. Silly goose already done that, now I'm going to invite him to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so that he himself can test it all :3. Trololololololololololololol.

So that's about all that happened this week besides the leaving of both mine and Elder Whitney's trainers.

Sheep Stealing (5-26-14)

So Orlando earlier this weeks was awesome and Elder Whitney and myself
have great hopes for him. We were originally going to meet with him at
Micky D's last Tuesday in Bridgeville but we got there a bit late,
then he got there a bit late do to work but the point is rather than
just missing an appointment he actually came out and told us it would
be better to meet with him the next day. Very few Gatorz do that. We
taught him the restoration which he liked and understood so ya,
totally getting baptized :D.
Let's see here what has also been going on around here. Have a less
active to work with now a Richard. Older guy almost eighty who
is just plain awesome. Love the missionaries just has a few issues we
need to work with such as the law of tithing. And though he denies it
he really wants to go through the temple and be sealed to his deceased
wife since he almost breaks down every time he talks about it.
I had a funny thought about him. Almost like Michael ya know?
Recently past wife, wants to be sealed, just has a few things that he
needs to get past. Biggest difference would Michael wanted to come
back first visit with him. We'll get him ;).
So we went to Hunters church yesterday, the Pentecostal church. It was
interesting but good, we either got a very laid back pastor or
missionaries just really hype how crazy pentacostals are but it went
alright. The pastor talked about Memorial Day and related it to Christ
which was nice. However the singing of Long Black Train, the offering
plate, and then putting the plate under a cross and praying for it
were definitely things that I wasn't expecting ya know?
Anyway, we then met with Hunter later that night along with his mentor
who he brought along at the last second -_-. Topics received some heat
but it was definitely the best discussion I ever had with another
faith since it didn't become a bash. However once again there are
those shuttle things they try to work at ya with which I'm just like
really? Come on lol.
I could go forever on some of the things that fire me up but I'll save
ya from the boredom. Let's just say I am really sick of the of the
phrases trinity, I've been around awhile (so obviously we got it wrong
:P), and that of you just read the word of God... Ya trinity is never
once mentioned in the bible sooooo.... Bad Elder Olsen bad don't rage
:3.
But so the reason why the title is called sheep stealing was something
I found extremely funny at the end. So originally it was supposed to
be a we go to your church you come to ours right? Which Hunter is all
over, but his mentor doesn't like that idea :3. Ya know where this is
going right? We reminded Hunter about that and he's like ya I'll come
and his mentor is like well, um, we, um, We have our service and
Hunter has things he needs to do there.
Hunter gave him a funny look like what? And then said I'll come to the
last two hours then and his mentor once again tried to do the same
thing but it was very stupid and comical. One we gave up our service
time for yours, two the only thing Hunter did there is give an
offering, three we are fully aware that you know that those who come
to a latter day service have a higher chance of what you would deem to
be a stolen sheep :3. It's true and the older man knows it all to well
hahahahahahahaha. Sorry I'm going crazy outa boredom and people like
Hunters mentor.