Baptism

Side step over, B-Day, Long Exchange feeling :3

So, I see that you saw on Facebook, I put down that I now live in Easton Maryland, so that's good, was hoping that would happen :D. So don't have any worries about letters or packages cause I'm still in the same district and everything... this past transfer was a wacky one but I'll get to that in just a second. Things are going pretty well here. Easton is extremely nice my goodness I feel like I went a generation back or two when nice things were still being made for little towns such as this one ;). Its really weird too cause we have a ton of tourist towns within this area so I kinda feel like I'm in Moab again from time to time but instead of red dirt shirts and bike shops its crab cakes and sea related things :P. So not quite as good but we'll give it an A-. Also, this area is probably the second largest area in the mission since I guess a couple months ago it used to be two but then got absorbed and its just this big ol thing that covers the entire Delaware peninsula. Seaford being within the top five as well :P. So now that the scatter brain has kicked in lets see where the best place to start things would be... I guess Tuesday since that's where all of the craziness began. So before transfers even happened, on our way up to them, Leavitt and myself got caught in the midst of a closed down road that we looped through two or three times before we finally figured out how to get past that point and move on with our little road trip. My goodness I've never seen him so stressed, but that's ok cause we still made it relativily on time. But about a two hour trip got turned into a three hour trip so luckily we were able to leave a little bit earlier than normal :P. Transfers was really weird and when I say that I mean there were some very out of the ordinary things happening there this time. A Spanish tripod, two missionaries who had served with each other twice before becoming companions again and then like myself just making a mere sidestep in the district which like never happens hahaha. So, I'm with Elder Ballif now, who is pretty sweet. The only unfortunate thing is that I didn't have the area book for this area for three days so it felt like a ridiculously long exchange for me and still kinda does at some points since Seaford is just right there and I used to visit this area from time to time. This area is a bit slow at the moment but no where near like Seaford was just two months ago, my goodness its changed so much. ). Gosh I'm trying to think about what to report this week since most of the time poor Elder Ballif has been carrying me everywhere since I didn't have an area book. Anyway, Ballif has lost about fifty pounds on the mission which is pretty awesome but I am a bit worried about him since his diet seems to consist of grits and rice on a regular basis when we don't have meal appointments and such. Is a big fan of the Brat Diet I guess. Any who we have a lot in common which is pretty sweet. Debate, games, band, referencing everything all come into play here and its been pretty sweet thus far. He's also helped me to kick the 10:30 bad habbit of mine so we'll see how long of a streak I can hold for that one cause I'm almost a week through with being to bed on time hahaha, not like me at all right ;)? Thanks so much for all of the birthday gifts and wishes. They were really nice and very much needed. Especially the pants I was in pretty big need of them since I haven't been able to get to a dry cleaners yet to get my gray suit pants hemmed back up along with my black pants. So the Cambridge Branch is a bit of a peculiar branch. Probably the best way to describe it is that its a bit different. From what Elder Ballif has told me is that they really don't have the want to grow along with the fact that the big reason this branch exists is do to our ward mission leader who pretty much created and brought everyone into this branch. He however would like to see some more growth so we will have to get this area on fire too! Cambridge is the last branch in the Dover Stake and we had a man by the name of Brother Victory come in yesterday who is on the Stake Presidency and you can tell that his eyes are targeting Cambridge like non other. He wants to see full wards as a listing for this stake :D. He gave an epic talk yesterday too which isn't something I say very often besides when it comes to conference. We've got some potential coming up. Not too much happened this week in terms of reporting. I was offered a prosthetic leg by a man who is married to a member which I might actually receive this week haha. I told him I had the thought of going into prosthetics and he just right then and there was like ya want one? I got one in the shed from an old buddy of mine and if you want it you can have it.... Made of titanium too...

Mission Roulette, Get Dunked, Randomosity

So, I guess the first and most recently pending news that I can give for the time being is that I will be on the move again, no idea where I be going but it twood seem that the mission roulette system will tell me where that will be tomorrow ;). I'm pretty sad to be leaving this area, but I know that it is in good hands and that it will continue to progress well over the next few months. More details on that in a second. For now I'll let ya know how the week went. So, we started off pretty skiwompas as I probably told ya in my last email, on Monday we had service with Brother Horsely till about three that afternoon, setting us up for not having to much time to do anything else that P-Day but to get laundry done and then to move onto going out and working. Brother Horsely is awesome and we still have no idea as to why he is less active. Super smart and active in mind and heart but for whatever reason he just doesn't come to church. Guess Elder Leavitt will have to figure that one out won't he :3. But it was good and I wish I had been around him more but better luck next time. Not much happened Monday evening so fast forward zippppp! Tuesday hmmm, what happened this past Tuesday. Tuesday was a really strange day in that nothing really happened till later that evening. We went and tried to stop by a few people and appointments cancelled along with someone Jose who we were supposed to take with us to mutual that night with the young men at Bishop Gordon's house. But we weren't going to have that so at the very least we were going to bring the young men over to his house to meet him cause the only reason he gave his mom for cancelling was that he didn't wanna go. Well we all jumped into our cars and Elder Leavitt and myself were the flagship leading the way to his house so that he could meet all of the young men lol. He stood no chance and when we got to his house with about ten young men all fit into one room in a trailer we said a few words to the mom and him and then Jose became a part of the mass and was shuffled outta there to Bishop Gordon's, hahaha. I loved what Brother Whitmer said as we did this, "now that's how you do a kidnapping!" :3. We played a game called curses and Jose who is a pretty shy kid totally had a blast and from what we were told by his mom (well Elder Leavitt that is, I speaketh picito spanish) is that he loved it a lot and she loved to see that he was out having fun with kids while yet not doing stupid things :D. This is where she actually got the interest in the missionaries cause she wanted to see if we could be a good influence on him :). Oh I remember what happened on Tuesday afternoon now... So we received this referral from church headquarters that morning for a "Brian Williams" :/. So funny story here, we go down to Seaford and its raining like heck this fine Tuesday and knock on the door. Leavitt states that he saw a woman come to the window and then leave so we both think that they saw us and then ditched us... Well the door opens and low and behold there is Hunter, hahaha. Well, it would seem that his brother Chad had used a fake username along with a fake number (sent us to the church referal system) in hopes that a Book of Mormon would be mailed to him... Well if ya know the church system at all we like to hand deliver our items, hahaha. So we are invited in and Chad isn't there but what I like to call silent bashing proceeded. Leavitt's never been in a bash before either so this was very awkward for him haha. We left there with Leavitt fuming but he's ok now. They want us to deliver that Book of Mormon to Chad directly so we shall see what goes on there. I doubt Leavitt has any plans to go back since I am now leaving ;). I was on exchanges this Wednesday with Elder Shaw up in Harrington. We had a really good time together and had quite a few lessons that day. Overall I would say that it was a success and I really hope that I will get to serve around him agian before he leaves this winter but only time will tell... again :P. I feel that that phrase is oh so common here on the mission ;). The main cool thing that happened on exchanges besides bonding was that we had a lesson with a Less Active who, for whatever reason that day I was there, really got into the discussion and was making all sorts of good comments. The only problem I had with this exchange is that I like slept but not really at all. So that next day was a rough one and of course the Zone Leaders, Elder Shamo and Hansen just had to be there when I was tired and grumbly :3. I don't really like it when ZL's sit in on weekly planning sessions since I feel the last part is mainly meant for just you and your companion but it is what it is. Shortly after that we went and had our interview with Katelyn :D. It was really cool and she passed and looked a lot more excited about it this visit compared to the last! Had a short little lesson with her and then right before leaving her brother gave me his watch? Its a really nice watch and I have no idea why he gave it to me but I'm thankful for the offer :3. Friday hurt a bit. It was a the last time I saw Richard Darling and it was cut short do to another appointment (that ended up cancelling :( ) and of course I forgot my camera >.<. So I'll have to have him send me a picture of him while he's down in South Carolina. He told me that if I wrote him letters that he would write back so I'm super excited for that :D. On friday we also helped out a Less Active named Joe, move into his new house which was pretty sweet. Really nice guy and because we helped him he said that he's been having the feeling to come back and that he is going to start doing so. I guess he used to be a ward mission leader up in Potsville, PA and do to an experience with some disobediant missionaries and a very angry ward he felt unwelcome and offended since they were angry with him though it wasn't even his fault. So, That's something that Elder Leavitt will get to continue working with. Really nice guy. Both Friday and Saturday we were supposed to help out Dave,at some metal pile but both times he wasn't there so we wasted about twenty miles each day just trying to go out and help him :P. Saturday is when the picture masacre started and that began in the evening with Miguel, Ellena, Juan, and Roberta. Man I'm going to miss these two families. They live together in the same house and they are just super nice. This was the first time we had contact with them in the past two weeks too, besides Ellena over the phone. They will be getting there marraige licence this week!!!! Finally after four and a half months they will get married and after that baptized! Sheesh thats all thats been asked about every week since I got here and even before that :P. The mission is crazy like that. I had hoped to be able to go and be one of their witnesses for the licence but that will happen most likely on Wednesday so I miss it by a day :/. Then Sunday, the day of days that set us up for success. I am leaving this area having gotten us four new investigators because of yesterday :D. Or rather God did since he sent em' but I gotta teach em and set up return appointments so I'll call that good! They will be really solid for Elder Leavitt too seeming how the one may or may not already be a member trying to get back into it with his catholic wife and the other couple the Hammond's are brother Horsley's friends who I've tried to have contact with the entire time I've been here :P. Goodness :3. We then had the baptism of Katelyn! Her cousin flew in and did it for her. He leaves on his mission in two weeks and will be working in the West Jordan where abouts so he might actually have Sandy in his mission :). That would be cool now wouldn't it? But then again him meeting the grandparents in Sandy and then retaining who they were is probably pretty small since there are so many of y'all out there :P ;). Utahs good but when someone knows who you are out here it means a little more ;). I got a lot of pictures at church this Sunday cause thats the only place where I'm going to be seeing all of these people haha. So hopefully the next time I send ya the flash, which will be real quick here... I'll have some pics to show for this area :). Welp, that does it for about the week. I was going to learn to reload shotgun shells with Bro Horsley but it would seem that will be on hold until President and God send me back here which I dearly hope will happen but yet again... Only time will tell :P.

Days of our Mission Lives

Ya a bit of a ridiculousness title but I thought it would be pretty fun to change it up a bit :3. So let's see here. I don't remember to much which is the interesting part but I was gone a lot... Like a lot a lot... Anyways on with the story ;). So let's see here, on Monday we only had one lesson and that was with a Hispanic mom and son who we've met with before. According to elder Leavitt this was not one of his crowning moments, lesson wise, on the mission cause the entire time I was sittig there thinking it was going good, I guess this plan of salvation jumped from almost every point imaginable. We are seeing them tomorrow along with the young men so I guess it wasn't too bad ;). Tuesday was work a holic day. We first went and mowed sister Valentina's yard which was extremely thick and somewhat wet, but we got er done. To then go all the way down to Laurel to do yard work for sister Williams, cause things are getting over grown again. Man it was a sweltering humid day that day too, and with only Bridgeville to go to next we really didn't get a shower, so it was just all kinds of nasty. We saw the Bassfords that day too and they are Doing well. We have some word of wisdom problems to fix but it'll be alright. I shaved my head this week as well and got it a bit shorter than I would have liked it to have been, but trust you me, I ain't scotch taping it back up there ;). Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Cambridge elders for the first time. With a Mr. Elder Balliff. Really cool guy and a lot of fun to be around. He also knows his comic strips so we had a good little geek end out chat about that :D. We went to go and see a man named Tyrone who they didn't imagine having much potential since he told them that and just wanted help with family history but his internet was down and he's a talker (like everyone in this area my goodness) so we sat down, had a chat and he said he might be Mormon at some point haha. Strange things on the mission :3. After that, not too much happened, I started a new game with the missionaries called describe your perfect woman and down to hobbies and everything ya know? Seems to have been a big hit with Elder Balliff cause he told Elder Smith about it and Elder Smith knew just the friend that matched Balliffs description lol. Thursday we had zone conference which was good but ima stick to watching the comments roll in cause I felt like a bit of a dope this time around :/. We had a workshop where they were like express some of your finding ideas and think outside the box, we are going to make a list... And then they generalized everything to topics and if ya repeated anything that resembled anyone of the prescribed topics they would point to it and act as if it was null and void already... >.<. We got some more rules and restrictions :/. Oh bugger I won't bore ya with them lol :P. I'm just a bit confused why they keep tying down rope. All our appointments cancelled that day which was nasty. I found out that night though that Elder Smith wouldn't be able to do exchanges next week so it was changed then and there to the next day. I also made the mistake of telling Leavitt that Balliff speaks a bit of Spanish so off I went lol. Smith is awesome and I'm super sad that he will be going. I've served around him the most out of anyone thus far. We met a jerk of an atheist who I guess they had run into before at the library, but at the door Smith told me once he saw who it was when he answered was like aw crap hahaha. Very depressed looking angry man that we even looked in his direction, kinda poor sappy thing. His loss. Oh I should probably mention this. BAPTISM THIS WEEK!!! Her name is Caitlyn, is fifteen and her Mom is a member who used to be less active thus not being a member but I guess she finally said she's ready to be baptized. So we went over this Sunday and reviewed all of the lessons... All of them... Except for fasting so thbtbtbtbt :P better luck next time. Her interview is this Thursday so we shall see how things go :). Sorry this email is so late. We had a service project that started at 8:30 this morning and then we got off at 3:45 lol.

The weekly report of the one and only Elder D. Macrae Olsen

So this week zipped right out from under my feet and seems to be hiding under the bed never to be found again... Like many real life items back at home :3. Anyways things started off really weird with Cynthia. So apparently she has a boyfriend who is very anti Mormon who has never met a Mormon but knows that they are evil and doesn't want us around Cynthia so we weren't able to have a lesson with her. Elder Leavitt and I get the feeling that there is a lot of domestic violence going on cause she is really scared of him and talking about the entire topic and yesterday we got a random phone call that she felt there is a demonic force in her house by the name of Donald. Talked with her a bit and then she said he called her and said she had to choose so she chose him and wouldn't be talking to us anymore (rolling eyes). Anyways Elder Leavitt and myself don't believe that this is the last time we will hear from her cause she's already given kinda the same dissertation to us twice so we shall see in the coming future. She really needs to get that guy outta her life. She's like in her sixties too so why does she care what this guy thinks :P. I'll move on. Richard is doing better but the topic of tithing finally came up and it is so interesting to talk about. Richard is one of those that you know he knows its true but with what happened he's still trying to hold onto a bit of that grudge for whatever reason. I know he'll come back but it is going to be a slower process than I originally thought and ya know its going to be him making the decision in the end. On Wednesday I went on exchanges up into Harrington with Elder Thomas. Elder Thomas is one of those people that is like super nice, short, and ya can't say anything bad about him but yet also don't wanna touch him cause ya might break him lol. It was a fun exchange and he's really good at street contacting. It was a bit interesting when we went tracting and he used the pamphlet at first right at the door which I was say weirded me out a bit. Here's a tip if the girls ever go on a mission and that is that the pamphlets are the easiest way to teach a lesson. However I would not recommend them when your tracting and letting all of the flies into someones house lol. Now one very interesting point to make about this exchange was when the night came along and it was time for bed. If you see a purchase for a yoga mat and a blanket show up I'll explain this now. I don't think once Elder ____ has ever washed his sheets and the smell was rank XP. It was super nasty, the bed terrible, and I froze so I got about two hours of sleep that night lol. So ya I feel that this might be a worthy purchase if I can find the items here today at Walmart :3. Ya the next day we had zone training too and the zone leaders or rather Elder Shamo tried to have our exchange changed to that day (never told his comp, which lead to an interesting conversation ;) ) to which I was like nooooooooo! In my head that is but I said yes. And then we changed it back to friday and I said like yesssss! So tired! I found my weakness that morning at zone training. When I'm super tired I found that I'm more suseptable to trunky thoughts and am quite irritable so new rules don't always come across the best at those times. Solution is to make sure I sleep :3. Ya, not including the email stuff we received more rules and stuff to that effect which worries me a bit. I feel like we just keep getting restrictions and though some may be good but others feel like a slightly tightening noose ya know? Like if I do this I'm unknowingly going to break more rules by accident lol. But thats how life goes. Apparently before Thursday we could go to professional sporting events? I have no idea how I could of done this but ok, lol. That one ain't going to bother me one bit... I hope ;). Friday was an interesting exchange with Elder Shamo. I was super excited for it since my last time with Shamo we had a really good time but that was quickly dashed. The best word I could use to describe it is that it felt like he was jittery... or on the edge... I don't know it just felt like he was always wanting to be on his feet and moving ya know? It didn't help that we had no lessons that day either so we just did a lot of finding which I learned a little later is his least favorite thing to do on this mission. Really good at teaching but finding I guess isn't his forte. Like street contacting for me :). But it was good we found some people for later and I hope we will be working with them real soon here. I had a few of those oh crap moments though. Those moments your with a higher up and your like gosh dang it. There was one lady we found named Carol who yelled at the door for us to come in. Well with Elder Whitaker in this case scenario as long as you were just in the door way and got out as fast and curtious as possible it was ok to be in a room with just a female ya know? Get the info ya need and leave. Well I was the only one who went in the door while Shamo poked his head in letting all these flies in going male? I hate those situations cause your like dang it! Why was I with a zone leader when this happened lol. Maybe I explained this situation terribly but I hope ya get the jist of it. So another stress factor that we have going on is with the ward council. Bishop does stuff and so do the missionaries. But nothing else is getting done and nothing is changing which is bugging the crap outta us. Take case scenario of the Bassfords. Been working with them for three months and yet they still don't have any home teachers :/. That is the big thing I've noticed on the mission is that if you have an active ward, especially a ward that actually does home teaching there is a huge difference in its strength and relationship so I have to give Dad props here for dragging my sorry but every second Sunday out the door to go Home teaching :). FOR THE GOOD OF THE WARD!!! It does make a difference. We had a lot of new finds this week and a complete list for ward council :). Now we just need some help from them :/. Draggin them by the collar on a leash :/. One thing we are noticing though is how the ward treats the Hispanics in the ward and Elder Leavitt and myself had a good discussion about this. Very few people talk to them and there is a bit of a segregation problem which we are finding to be a big problem :(. So we are going to be working on that cause we don't want them feeling excluded ya know? It aint right cause they are all really awesome. So last up in news is I'ma try out the promise that if ya read the book of Mormon in another language you'll be able to speak it or at least understand it so wish me luck lol. It's going to be an interesting ride since Leavitt flinches pretty much every time I pronounce the words lol.