Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Double dipped, white book, crysco cookies

Woof, this was an interesting partly hard blasted right past week.... Yup bout sums that up, anyways as I already let ya know we moved on Tuesday. Ya that was nice news to receive on Monday night but oh well. We got er all done anyways ya know :P. The main problem now is the fact that we are struggling with miles do to the move and the fact that Georgetown is just out there all by itself :/. I gave Elder Jones a call who is a senior missionary from Blanding (it's ok, he went to usu) and is our vehicle coordinator and used that amazing Moab-Blanding USU bond we have to have us not get yelled at once we send in our mileage report, lol. So on Monday we met with Cynthia and we were reviewing with her since it's been probably fifteen years since she's heard any of it, turns out she remembers practically everything which is pretty dang good for a lady who's suffered from brain cancer and tumors. She's interesting but a really nice old lady. We also saw Gloria after her and she should be reactivated soon :D! Just need to get her to church two more times and she'll be golden. So that'll make two re-activations so far on the mission :D. Older people are awesome and I hope to see Richard reactivated but I get the feeling that he's going to take longer than the time I have to spend here :/. I hope to stay here longer but ya never know ya know? Always keeping ya on the move :P. Tuesday was interesting, we got everything moved out and into the Georgetown apartment by about two o clock and made way to the Bassfords. Everyone thinks I'm saying something else when I tell them who we were going to see that day lol. We brought Brother Smith along with us and the lesson went pretty darn well. I've never seen brother Bassford talk so much since we usually get in there and wait ten minutes for him to get the dog to shut up :). We hadn't eaten all day and right before them we went to Taco Bell. Then out of the blue, afterwards, Brother Smith took us to a resteraunt and then we ate at the Heders before going and doing service for them :P. It was a pretty crazy day and Elder Leavitt and myself were sore the next couple of days afterwards. I'll be honest but I had a pretty big low after the move until Thursday. For whatever reason I had to fight with myself to get rolling just fine again but for now I'm good. I would have to say that just for myself that transfers, exchanges, or anything in the likeness is the hardest thing for me about the mission to which I just gotta go through cause I ain't got no say in the matter :3. We also picked up two randomly awesome investigators. Their names are Nichole and Olivia a mom and daughter, guess the past weeks Sunday they showed up after all the meetings when pretty much everyone was gone and wanted to learn about the church. So we got a hold of them on Saturday and they seem pretty legit. Nichole used to be a Methodist years ago but do to a very unpleasant marriage she kinda fell out of it and now years later has a re interest in church, and so her father who I guess is a former investigator said why don't you try this one, and so they did :3. Man we are a bit disappointed though. We were supposed to have like ten gators at church yesterday and then none of them showed up... It was the weirdest thing ya know? E only Spanish member there was sister Valentina so there wasn't even a Spanish Sunday school class which hasn't happened at least of my knowing for the first time I've been here. Welp that's about the most major news I can think of at the moment.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

O.o

So this was a pretty good week, was pretty dang good, but for whatever reason my head seems to be pulling a blank on quite a bit of it :P. So you'll have to bear with me as ye old pistons upstairs try to warm up and get my memory moving. Anyways, on Monday I may have already told ya this, but we were looking for a potential when we knocked on the door it wasn't the man we were looking for and the man only spoke Spanish (zebra power!) so we went in and talked with him a bit. His name is Saul, has lived in the U.S. For about a month now and has run into missionaries twice since then and said, 'must be for a reason ', hahaha :3 We were supposed to meet with him again yesterday but it would seem that he forgot but like all missionaries we will be following up again here ;). On Tuesday we were up in Georgetown and my goodness a lot of the earlier week has been raining cats and dogs around here. The rain left some huge poodles :3. Elder Leavitt taught a family who has been taught by the previous Spanish elders for some time now and we will probably be dropping them since they know it's true but the catholic religion tradition is stingy :P. David and Roberto are doing alright. We aren't sure of Roberto's comprehension level though, since we got him a Haitian Book of Mormon and he still doesn't really pick up much from it besides don't disturb god? David is a kid so it's expected but we are trying to do some new methods to get him interested since he's the one who sent the referral in the first place lol. Richard fell again this week do to his sugar dropping on him :(. He was in a lot of pain and wasn't feeling to good. We shared with him the good things to come video since he feels that things seem to just be getting worse and worse for him ever since he bought land in South Carolina. He felt better after we showed it to him which we were glad to see. So on Friday, early in the morning, we were notified that we more than likely will be moving to Georgetown XP. Not good not good! Though Georgetown is more center, it is also farther away from everything besides Millsboro, which means we will have to use more miles that we don't have to get around this already bulky area. I don't want to be a thorn in Presidents side but I do want to at least bring this up to him. The area over here finally has life in it and we can reach all the places that have work using less miles here and I don't want to see it crumble ya know :(? I know I personally don't want to move either but that I'll just have to get over if we do. Elder Leavitt thinks it's a lost cause to try but I'm tired of never saying or doing something when I had the chance even if there's a small likely hood of it doing anything. Am I doing an ok thing? We had a pretty cool experience while we were in Georgtown on Friday. Our appointment cancelled with a recent convert so we went over to this section living complex to look for some people. Elder Leavitt talked with a guy working on a van and when he gave him a Book of Mormon, he was like for me? It's free? Thank you Jesus! It was the funniest thing. Apparently he was asking elder Leavitt who the Mexican was... Implying me lol. Saturday was pretty ruff. We had to go down to Salisbury Maryland to have our oil changed at pepboys. We had an appoint,eat schedualed at 11, we got there early, and we left at 3:15... Bleck lol. Kinda did a lot of Facebook but not really, for myself no one ever seems to be on. On the way home elder Leavitt was extremely tired of the junk we went through that day and I guess I offended him when he couldn't tell where the gps wanted him to go and I brought up that I was the junior comp. and my job was to just handle the phone :P. We didn't talk for a bit on the way home lol. We got in contact with a homebound man this week who Whitney and I had thought moved since someone told us that. His name is Keith and he's on an oxygen machine that doesn't allow him to get to church, he wasn't to happy about the reason why we hadn't been by in a while :P. Yesterday was pretty sweet. For the past three months Whitney and I had tried to get a hold of two formers who were really close to baptism last year and from what a former elder told us is that they know it's true. I guess what was going on is that they just had to quit smoking which she did and he was working on but he got tired of it being the only conversation members would bring up to him so they took a bit of a break, we'll be with them again tomorrow :D. So that's how the week went thus far.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Spanishiwa

So ya thats an interesting title to put for an email but I'll reach all of those points real quick here and translate their meanings for ya :3. As I already told ya I am now in a zebra companionship with Elder Leavitt. If the Leavitts there came from a poligamist from yonders past storys then yes they are related in some sort of distant fromat hahaha. So that was Tuesday of course and I must say that transfers are one of the roughest part of the mission for myself since I would actually rather see some people stay around for awhile but it would seem that the 80's style mission as Richard Darling put it has all but left for the backyard :3. He's good though and a really nice guy. It's going to take me a bit to be up to par since as we both know Elder Whitney got really relaxed this past transfer and there are a few things that your never sure how a missionary is going to interpret or do compared to the last. Anyways, moving on, things have started off with a bang and he and I have a goal to get both sets of missionaries down here again within the next two transfers, we hope. Mainly the English side just needs to pick back up (which is explain in a moment) so that the need for two sets is viable again here. So Elder Leavitt is almost a replica of Brennan which I find very funny. Unique in his own way yes, but very closely related, at least in my opinion. If he lost about five inches, dyed his hair blonde, and used the phrase "what what" and tossed his head back when he laughed he would almost be an identicle twin :P. He's been out fourteen months and from what I've been told he is really good at getting areas going so we shall see if I can keep up with him lol. Spanish lessons so far, I just mainly take up space but he's teaching me to read Spanish which is actually pretty easy, but on the speaking part of things I don't really get foreign languages, at least for the moment that is. One thing that I've been working on is the game of endurance this week. I probably told ya this already but sleep doesn't seem to work out for me and I hate mornings lol. It's also put a lot of stress on me along with transfers and everything, so I've had to beat my head over a wall again to get thoughts out :P. Just keep chugging along. I am also excited to say that we have some English work going on for once. Roberto and David who are Dad and Son and are both Hatian. I don't know if I exactly know their interest level but we will find out. Leavitt and I had a bit of a disagreement on how the lesson should have gone with them. It just seemed a little bit stiff to me since we didn't even get to know them really and just went down the blocks of preach my gospel. Don't get me wrong, the systems been tried and tested and works fine cause we wouldn't have it otherwise but we didn't really ask any questions that would make them think or give em' an interest though. Just heres this, heres that, and will you be baptized? I know I need to do better at inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson but in this case scenario I didn't feel the vibe. Then again maybe I'm doing it wrong, cause he has a good track record but yet I don't know ya know? It bugs the heck out of me and I don't like it. Moving on I guess. So Spanish side of things is going well from what I can tell. They talk so fast and I literally don't have any idea whats going on in those lessons lol. Just get told afterwards that ya know we have Miguell and Elena who will be baptized once they have their marriage license, which will be cool. We also picked up someone who might be an ex Mormon but we shall find out. Got a random call yesterday from a Cynthia saying she wanted to be baptized. Didn't have a male with us so we didn't get to know her to well but she said she was a Mormon in the 1990's and then a few events happened and now she wants to get back into it before the second coming happens. We'll see how this goes :). Yesterday I saved another baby robin... I hope lol. Cause there was this big ol' knot in a tree ya know and well I finally caught him and put him in but when I did so it was no longer visible so I hope the knot hole didn't just have a big ol' hole in it as well lol. Richard is doing well. Just got out of the hospital for a weeks worth of time in there and is as stubborn and fun as he always is. Got some things to work with him on of course. And last but not least is the last subject on the title to this email home. So just sitting at home around nine thirty ish at night, Leavitt and I are talking when I feel something on the back of my neck. Thought it was a piece of dirt ya know, well I pull a little bit and then a bit more and with a bit of pain and a tiny click as it hit the table I realized that I somehow had a tick on me?! And I was like what the heck, how did that get there? And its holding a chunk of skin in its mouth and I kinda freak out thinking there might be more on me lol. Well I'm clear as far as I can tell but I have no idea how long that suckers been there and I made sure it still had its head and wasn't still in me XP. Super gross little thing, burned that sucker alive once I made sure it still had its head... I think it did at least. But anyways if I have lime disease I'll see ya a little sooner than I had expected :P. Don't worry I don't have plans on coming home anytime soon at all lol. I love you guys and am glad to hear that y'all had a fun time this past week. Last things I have to say is I don't know if ya remember the band I was getting into before the mission the Gorillaz but with Dad's eye and all it almost looks like he has an eight ball fracture like 2D from the Gorillaz lol. Sorry but it does :3. I hope it gets better soon!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

All Alone



So ya this week was the bust of all busts so far... No lessons... besides
with members but those don't count for anything so anyways I'll give ya
what I got thus far. I think I'll start from Thursday since that's at least
where a few interesting things popped up. On Thursday we had zone training
like usual but we were going to have interviews afterwards as well since
they were cancelled the first time do to an emergency. So President came
and sat in on our training with the Zone Lords and put in some really cool
comments. Learned that a few things had changed but the only one that
really stuck out to me is that we are now allowed to write previous
investigators in past areas... Would seem I'm a bit apostate since I
already have done that with Bill and Ricky along with Michael since that's
the only form of communication they have :3 woopsie!
Anyways it was probably one of the few zone trainings that I have liked.
The Sister Training leaders weren't as high and mighty this time and the
zone leaders had a good message along with a role play that wasn't
ridiculously weird 0.o. But what I liked the most would be that we finally
had interviews! Man I've been waiting some time for this lol. Being at the
bottom of the mission really doesn't help them come quicker but at least
they came. President and I had a good chat, I think he was a bit
surprised when I came in happy and chipper. I told him I was tired but that
I was doing well, just the trunkyness for the past transfer has been a bit
hard to deal with but overall good.
It was fun to talk with him, I think what was really funny though is when I
mentioned if he could believe that I was already out six months and he was
like what!? And I was like ya, remember that first interview when we got in
the mission it was crazy. He chuckled and agreed, and so we talked some
more about the area and other things. It was really good and feel a lot
better after having had it. One last thing that I found really funny is
that at the end he asked how well we were fed down in Seaford and I said
pretty good, we get about one to two meals a week on average. He told me I
was very refreshing cause he has a lot of missionaries that complain if
they aren't fed every day or every other day :3... Point Olsen!
After that we went to the Robinsons and had dinner which was good as
always. There son Samuel who turns eight really soon here was super bumbed
out though that more than likely most of the missionaries that he knew
would be leaving which was pretty sad to see but he need not worry cause
missionaries will always be here :). Friday was the biggest bust of them
all though. Whitney got the signal that he had about a 90% chance of
leaving this area so he kinda shut down on me that day... literally.
Didn't do much that day, and we didn't receive phone calls that night
either but that's alright. What isn't alright though is the patriotism in
this state. For being the first state I was very disappointed to have never
seen fireworks in any store, and to have only heard a total of three go off
that night... >.<. So thank you Dad for sending that video cause we really
missed out here on the show. Those looked like some really nice fireworks
:D.
Saturday morning we got the call for transfers and I am the only one
staying and that's about as much as we know so far... Look at all the
lonely people... Sorry ;). So ya we don't know if there will be two new
Spanish elders or if I'll be in a zebra companionship or if Spanish will
just be shut down which we really hope not since we will lose our Spanish
members and gatorz ya know? But we will find out tomorrow on the subject I
guess. Ya remember me mentioning some super cool people that we found at the
Laundromat last Monday? Well heres the story hehehe.
So we go to Georgetown and we are looking for the house number, find it and
start to pull into the drive when we go "Oh no...". Its one of those houses
that the entire exterior has been thrashed and at the present moment there
are four cats of different ages visible, two inside a window and two
outside. Well we walk up to the door and an older lady answers with a
stream of cats coming out the door... We proceed to ask her if Thomas and
Kimberly were around and she notified us that they were arrested earlier
that week for something and she hasn't seen em' since... Gosh dangit. Well
we asked if she had interest which she said no. Realized more cats had come
out, the floor was covered in poop and Elder Whitney and myself were
probably a bit to eager to be on our way lol. He later noted that the
welcome mat was infested with fleas :P.
So that's what happened there and yesterday mostly the same thing happened
with a members LA son and non member future daughter in law but this time
its different cause they want to get back into the groove and learn :D. So
we will be setting up a future appointment with them. We also learned of
some more future potential for our area (hahahahahahaha) but these ones
will be sooner to crack down on and I can't wait to see this area flip
after three months of waiting. God will know best when it needs to get
going though :).