Susquehanna Depot, Pennsylvania Priesthood Restoration Site October 20, 2015

Priesthood Power!, Such Friday's

Well my dear friends and family members, another week has come to pass and a new one has been set forth for adventures of a new and different kind! They better come since my very new and also quite young zone leaders seem to feel it their duty to let me know how things are supposed to be run around here -.- (squinty face). I love advice but please come on... I have more time on the mission than both combined. I'm working on my old missionary pride but in the mean time I'll let you know what has been up this past week. Monday we had some tracting going on around these parts as I looked for a smiley individual who said good morning to us days before. I never found that person but on the other hand we had one of those awkward moments where we knocked on the door just as the man himself pulled up on the road and then proceeded towards us and his dwelling place. His name is Mike and was obviously a native African due to his accent. He loved the conviction we had as we told him what we do. Said we could come back, but as of the moment, it would seem that he is now ignoring our calls and is never home... I'm getting tired of this haha. So we shall move onto the more exciting news of the week and that was our trip to the Priesthood Restoration Site on Tuesday. It was amazing. The trip there was beautiful with all of the trees changing color out here as well, so it was stellar. I have plenty of pictures to send, but yes it was awesome! The chapel there is a bit on the small side but on the other hand it is quite unique and the front wall is situated with stained glass which I wish we did more of in our other chapels. We sang hymns and learned about the sight as we were also taught a few principles from the leaders there. It was a very spiritual experience and I would greatly recommend the visit! Went down to the Susquehanna river and then to the re-made houses of Joseph and Emma's home as well as Emma's fathers home. It would have been a whole lot better had I been in a different group. The group I was in seemed to feel obligated to touch and move stuff as they felt, which was annoying so I stayed towards the rear to soak it all in. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences that I have had on the mission. We got home later in the evening, just in time to go to Melissa's for our second visit with her but as we approached the door she came out and told us that she no longer wanted to meet us and that she agreed with somethings but other things urked her. She gave us no time to ask what it was either but that is that. Wednesday we saw the Elderly and reset our time to see them on Sunday's from now on. We were also able to see our new investigator Trey and we had a good time with him. We talked about the Holy Ghost with him and after that discussion we asked him to be baptized. He told us that he wants to wait a bit longer so that he knows for sure that it is true so we will let him work on his own time line. We saw Debra twice this week and she came to church so I guess she is now a full fledged reactivated member but we still have things we need to work on there. She is so awesome and she had a great trip down to Florida this past week. Our main thing now is to help her quit smoking so that she can then go to the temple in about two months if not sooner. Thursday didn't have to much going on besides district meeting as the zone leaders hovered. It went alright and I shall now skip over to Friday. It was one of those days that you have a lot to do and then suddenly one thing gets you behind so thus it translates to everything else as well. We went and saw a new Recent Convert who moved into the ward named Laura. She is from Staten Island, New York and is now living with a friend and her kids. Such a fun lady and the four kids were cute as can be while the big ol' dog roamed around saying hi to his new visitors while showing off an injury where you could actually see the muscles move yeck! Well that's about where this past week winds up. I'll catch y'all later and wish ya the best! Love, Macrae

Walkin Horse, Greenie Moment, Can't Reach+Blue Eyes=Sky=God?

So apparently I represent God... I will explain this towards the end of my letter but I felt that everyone should know that though I was threatened for the first time on the mission, that I was not harmed since I represent God... Not in the black name tag way either. So our adventure doesn't really start until about Tuesday since Smilly packed the whole day but thats alright I guess. On our way down to transfers since we didn't have a car of our own we all crammed into a nicely compacted 2012 Ford Fusion and the only thing visible of my petite companion was the top of his hair as suitcases and boxes separated us. So my new companion is Elder Kester. He is from Lehi Utah and has been out for almost five months now which is good. Though he isn't the Golden that I had requested he has enough fresh blood in him to help keep me going over the next few weeks and I am excited to see what we can do together. Tuesday night we were able to see the 8:45 miracle we had about two weeks ago for the first time. Her name is Melissa and she is quite the hoot. She's been to a ton of churches throughout her life and most recently for the past 8 years has been a Jehovah's Witness but after all of the cancelled birthdays and having to sneak Christmas presents to her Grand Kids behind the churches, cough I mean Bible Scholars backs, she finally decided that a lot of their stuff didn't really make sense. We weren't able to share with her the Restoration that night, since our member present gave her a 13 articles of faith card, but in my personal opinion that was probably the best thing to happen that night. She loves #2, by the way, since it never made sense to her why we were punished due to someone else sinning. She stated that she just wanted to do this since it would be informational to her rather than to convert, but I get the feeling that if we can get her into the reading she won't mind reconsidering, if ya know what I mean ;)! Wednesday we had a pretty well empty day but with no car it didn't work out to badly for us. We began the day by just street contacting within Easton where I flubbed up pretty hard when I tried to use the Book of Mormon as a finding tool. It was a true Green Missionary moment at its finest as I talked with a lady named Evet, but the mission has taught me quite a bit that those can actually be the best of experiences since God makes up for what we lack. I was super surprised when she accepted the Book of Mormon and asked a few more questions but a darn bus arrival kept us from getting her address and number so I guess we were just meant to plant a seed. That day we even walked all of the way to Phillipsberg but don't worry, unlike one of my past experiences with a certain companion we knocked more than just three doors this time ;)! As we tracted around within a neighborhood, when I felt we should go and knock a door back up the street from where we came. We hadn't knocked it since I like to just go down one side of a street usually but going with it we met a lady named Shannon who came right out and sat down to talk with us as she busily tossed a baby from arm to arm (he was a heavy sucker). She used to live in Vegas and knew a lot of Mormons but had never looked at the book so we gave her one and allowed her to get back to her other kids :D! Later that evening we would also see Debra which is always awesome. We finally finished the last half of the Plan of Salvation which she loved and we asked her to set a goal to make it to the temple. No specific date yet but I am hoping that we can have her ready for the New York trip in December if not sooner, woot! Also the ward stated that they would like to count her as reactivated which is sweet however she still needs a review on a few things so we will continue to work with her. Thursday didn't have to many things going on for us besides giving a district meeting and having an appointment with Brother Emmons. District Meeting was good but the Scriptural apples to apples game didn't work out the best, but I'm fine with that, it was supposed to be a test run. Brother Emmons was pretty happy that my past companion was gone. I had always wondered why he was so anti social when we visited but apparently my companion had offended most of his family :/.... Smilly... Not to much Friday, besides Brother Adams like usual and getting our car back. Saturday however holds and interesting note. As we were trying to scout out and see how the South Side of Easton worked out for street contacting (it didn't), we had an interesting experience. While looking to cross a street there was this extremely nice car approaching but waiting at least 25 yards back from a stop sign for us to cross. Weird right? But we crossed when suddenly he zoomed to our side of the street and this Hispanic guy gets out and starts to bash with us in pretty good English, but it was apparent that he didn't have the vocabulary that he wanted for the occasion. He got angry with me saying "I understand" and always referring to him as sir and kept threatening to drop me! But not on "black top but grass" he stated. He also kept putting his arm up as if to measure and saying that because he couldn't reach he couldn't strangle me... I just stopped talking at this point since everything made him angry and I was just getting ready to hit and run when he suddenly gets in his car and begins to drive... to then stop and get out again, do mostly the same thing, but state that the reason he can't hurt me is due to not being able to reach and that "You have blue eyes, which represents sky, which is like God since God is in Sky. Can sky come down here? No..." Make sense of it if ya want but I'm to tired. Well the last up in news is that we found another Less active family to work with. We had heard the name tossed around and I had looked them up but couldn't really make any sense as to why they were less active. So after a failed phone call we showed up Saturday to be asked to come back the next day since their baby might have just gotten a concussion. So we did and they are a super cool family. The Garrido's. The wife is a talker but we were able to get all of the info we needed. She said that it was a sign to come back since she was debating to change jobs which would allow her to come to church and then when she got our message she knew what she needed to do. Her husband on the other hand is going to be a bit tricky. Can't tell if he has been antied or just needs a good push, guess we shall see. Well I'll see y'all later. The weather is cold and due to a mission trip to the restoration sight tomorrow I can only email till about 2 today before they are having us out again. See Ya!

Gabbin Gabbers, Potential Energy, Sick Dog Days and Nasal Cavity Experiences

Well the transfer calls have come and I feel relieved to say that this one will be staying here rather than having to figure out how to pack away all of his junk. Quite gratifying and with the end of the transfer I now have a new sense of energy... Most likely due to mostly getting over being sick but hey it works either way. So as it would go I would like to report on our the weekly events but I will keep them short and simple since that is what they were. Tuesday was a strange day. Busy but super strange with how it worked out. We weren't able to find a male to see our one investigator Jean Johnston at the park and without a guy our mission has moved in the direction that you can't have outdoor public lessons anymore. So we were just going to say hi check up on her and move along but quickly it became more than it was supposed to :/. We then moved onto a new Less Active of ours and his name is Daniel. Mid twenties and has been a convert for about five years now. Super cool guy but apparently also nerdy since before being hit by a semi truck he used to go out LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) for fantasy stuff and what not. We quickly came to the conclusion that there were two things we needed to take note of here. One is to help him have more of a spiritual conversion rather than just analytically. Two is he can jab and jab forever. But it didn't stop there... We went to Brother Adams and the same experience occurred while Devils Due played in the background🌊... I don't like it. We then went to another new Less Active of ours Susan. She's been less active for some time with no detail as to why besides the fact that she said a total of fifteen words the whole time while her nonmember husband talked and talked for the entire time while we waited... We never had the chance to give the lesson... So we then go to Sister Timari who has been my ray of sunshine here. We had an older couple with us named the Smiths who are great members... And though there was a lesson one could relate the entire experience to a pinball machine with little people inside trying to dodge the steel balls. Not much happened till Thursday in which was the day that I started to get sick but by and by I was fine to work. The big news however was at our dinner appointment when my comps. stomach for whatever reason didn't really agree with something and then decided to release itself from bondage back to the dinner table. Memories! By the time Friday came I wasn't so up to snuff but pressed on as we met with Debra later that night. She had bought a dress and was super excited to be coming to church! We had a strange lesson mixed with relating the scriptures to ourselves as well as the restoration, to then go back to relating the scriptures to ourselves as my comp. explained to Debra how she needed to "Slay!" Her wicked self. Interesting. Saturday I finally went out of commission since my head was to the point where light made me cry since it was so stuffed and ache. But never the less I am still yet to miss a full day and later that night after feeling a bit better we went out and though no success I bought this strange bottle of sinus cleanser and might I say that it was probably one of the weirdest sensation I have felt. Gave me a huge headache that night but by the time the next morning I was pretty well all cleared out! That's about all of the news I have, I will be getting a new comp tomorrow and I am now the imposing Relief Society President (district is made of all sisters) so we shall see how it all goes down :D. I love ya and wish ya the best. Also Debra came to church!

District

Hard Pressed, Golden Shepards, Pointed Aurguments and Name Slandering, Scar

So we had some really good things his week but for the most part we had a pretty dang ruff time trying to accomplish all of the things that we needed and wanted to do. Just another one of those weeks where you have plans to conquer the world but the world just didn't feel like it.... So mostly it all fell through. So Monday we went through all of the drama of my companion being sick but don't worry cause it continued from there ;). Tuesday we had zone conference which was a blast and a half. I got to see Elder Litton an old Comp. of mine one last time before he takes his daring flight back into the real world so for the time being I just sat in nostalgia since my boy Elder Crowthers was there as well. Not only good friends and tidings but our mission was finally nailed with the black boxes known as Tiwi.... He has a very creepy voice and though he was worked up to being more obnoxious than he actually is I still have to question myself how he deems our church parking lot to be a speed limit of only 5 to 10 miles per hour and barks at me for going a mear 15 :/. All nostalgia aside I'll move on with the week. Wednesday due to me having never reset the GPS "Home" Function my companion and I wandered probably about ten miles into what is probably the New Jersey Trenton Mission before realizing our mistake and then proceeded to drive on some sketchy roads and go over a few hills known as Appellations.... Thursday we had our first lesson with a semi active lady named Sister Loma. The biggest reason we were there is that one of the Bishopric members suggested we start to work with her son and to just help Sister Loma with spiritual things. We had a good time and met some gorgeous looking dogs that looked like small wolves known as Golden Shepard's. All was well until we reached a point where we realized that Sister Loma is fully active in heart but can't always make it to church and that we should have probably talked with her a bit more about whether or not she wanted us to work with her son. No offenses and no arguments I just received a look of "what are you up to" from her when I issued a Book of Mormon challenge :/. Oh well, she's feeding us and I think we will probably be done there haha. Friday I dragged my companion through weekly planning as we received rain from a distant hurricane but not much else. Saturday then picked up with the conference grind which was awesome. I put my votes on Eyring, Bednar, and Uchtdorf (of course!) for the whole thing. And though cold I still fought the sweater weather as we went to see Debra. She is my favorite and we have had so many spiritual experiences in her house it's quite amazing. Just a simple lesson on scripture study and prayer but good non the less. She will be reactivated soon! And then for our day of Sunday.... Pretty well sick of how the week had gone and that I now have to wear a sweater though it's still in that awkward stage of "too hot but not" (thank goodness for sweater vests!). I made a promise that I'd work a bit extra so that we could get a new investigator or lesson in. Well after a couple of door slams and an Indian Lady scared half to death when I waved through the car window at her husband we finally knocked the right door! Her name is Melissa and she was a bit interesting but she seems pretty Golden to me! Her father was a Mormon but died when she was little and never learned much about it. Has been through tons of churches and used to study with the JW's but found it all exhausting and kinda gave up on finding the one church. Has done a lot of family history and we asked her if she would at least give us one shot at a lesson she said she would love it. Took a Book of Mormon and we are now going back this Friday woot! Well that's about it besides small arguments about picking Brian back up while yet Brian called us and had small arguments with us I think it was finally clear for my companion when Brian knock named him Elder Snotler. Brian's been leaving obnoxious voicemails but what can ya do?