October 10, 2016 Hurricane Matthew Survivor

Hello Friends and Family, I am still alive. I survived Hurricane Matthew. In Gaffney, we got a whole 3 inches of rain and a little bit of wind. In other words, it wasn't much of a storm. I haven't heard much, but the missionaries down in the lowlands are probably going to be doing a lot of hurricane cleanup. I still don't know if I will be headed down to do anything, though. 

Something else cool that I got to do this week was work in the local soup kitchen. We made a bunch of hot dogs, chili, and macaroni. It ended up being a really good opportunity to meet people as they were coming in. I don't know if any of the pass along cards that we handed out will go anywhere, but I hope it will. 

One of the coolest things that has happened this week is that the efforts that Elder Wille and I have put into looking for people to teach by referrals have paid off. We set a lofty goal of 4 referrals for the week, and we ended up with 6. To put into perspective exactly how awesome that is, 2 referrals for the whole week was a good week. It is amazing to see what prayer will do to help us solve our problems and meet our goals. 

Anyhow, I hope that y'all are doing well. I pray for y'all every day. 

October 3, 2016

Hello Friends and Family. I have been informed that I spend a lot of these emails talking about food, so I'm going to try to do less of that. That should be pretty easy, since this week was pretty eventful. First of all, we had a lesson set to teach a really solid investigator named Candy. We had taught her about the Book of Mormon and how to pray to know if it is true or not, and that first lesson went really well. Anyhow, we called last Thursday to confirm that we were still good for our second lesson with her, and found that she had died a couple days after we had taught her the first lesson. As sad as that is, it is good to know that she is being taught by much greater teachers than I like Brigham Young  and Alma right now. 

This week I also went on a companion exchange with the Zone Leaders in Boiling Springs. I went over there to Boiling Springs and Elder Wille stayed in Gaffney. It is my second exchange so far on my mission, and it was great. I learned a lot about stress management and how to get referrals from everyone, not just investigators and members that I know really well. 

I also really enjoyed watching General Conference this week. For those of you that haven't been on missions before, watching General Conference is like Christmas. It is one of the only days where we don't have to be out proselyting all day. We went to a members house to watch most of it on both days. The members we went to have a tradition of making crepes throughout the conference. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed eating crepes all day. Don't get me wrong that the only reason I enjoyed conference was because I got to eat. I learned a lot about how to involve members in missionary work, particularly less active members. 

I also realized that I haven't included many pictures, so I took a picture of the district this morning so y'all can see my brother and sisters in arms. See you next week! 

 Sister Graham is in the floral dress. Sister Smith has the dark blue shirt on. Elder Wille has the red tie on. Elder Thomas is the hardest to recognize. He is wearing a green Goodwill tie.

September 26, 2016

With the exception of the last couple days, last week was pretty normal. I did hit some milestones, though. I had catfish for the first time on Friday at the fish camp, and it was pretty good. That, and I had gumbo for the first time last night. After all of that, I think I am starting to develop a drawl. The most eventful thing that has happened all week was the fact that I got food poisoning for the first time on my mission. Consequently, I got stuck in the apartment for most of the day. That wasn't fun. 

Another thing I have learned is that the best way to be invited to a meal on short notice as a missionary is to fast. In all seriousness, we were given food by four people yesterday. That, and some members invited us to their house after church to have supper after three weeks of not going to a single meal. It has really shown me how good Satan is at tempting people. 

I hope you are all doing well. I pray for you every day, and I love y'all!

September 19, 2016

Sorry about the lack group last week. With the way P-day worked last week, Elder Wille and I didn't have time to go to the church to use email. Thus, we used our iPads, and with the way that the iPads we have are configured, I could only send an email to one person at a time. So, just to briefly catch y'all up on last week, Elder Sherlock has left and is now serving in Cheraw, which is near Florence. Elder Wille is still with me, though. I have learned that it is a lot simpler to only have one companion in many things. Like, for example, daily planning at the end of the day. 

On to this week, there a couple really eventful things that have happened. Elder Wille and I have moved into Gaffney itself. See, we have been living in the far Northwest corner of our area, so we wasted a lot of our very limited miles getting places. Now that we are pretty close to the middle of our area, we use a lot less miles. On Saturday, we used a grand total of five miles the whole day, compared to the forty that we used to use. Moving itself was a pain in the butt. We moved into a third floor apartment, and had to get a washing machine and a dryer up there. That was the hardest part about moving. Fortunately, we had a few people with trucks come and help us, which was good. We managed to make it with all of our stuff in one trip. Our apartment right now looks like a bomb went off, but it should be a lot better since we plan to spend today cleaning. 

Speaking of the new apartment, we have discovered our apartment has some unexpected issues. The first one was the fact that the shower didn't have a shower curtain. Our last apartment had a shower with the glass doors, so we didn't have a curtain to put on it. Then we came up with the brilliant idea to string up a tarp by the shower to act as a curtain. It would have worked really well had we had a functional shower head. See, the shower head is really rusted out on the inside, so when I actually went to turn it on, it sprayed more water out of back of the shower head than the front where there was actually supposed to water coming out. When I got finished with my really fast shower, the bathroom and everything in it was completely soaked. That still isn't fixed, so maybe I'll keep taking glorified sponge baths for a while. 

The last weird thing about our apartment is the fact that the AC doesn't turn off when it gets to the shutoff temperature. When we walked into our apartment, it had gotten down to Fifty something degrees, which is freezing cold compared what I have gotten used to. That isn't a huge deal, since we have AC to begin with. 

The second major thing that has happened this week is Sister Graham has finally gotten here from the MTC. She is going to be a great missionary, but she is having a really hard time adjusting. Any prayers y'all can send her way would go a long way. One thing I know is that all of your prayers have really helped me. I love y'all!

September 5, 2016

Hey yall. It has been a very good week, productive week. Probably the most noteworthy thing that happened this week is the first baptism on my mission. Tammy Littlejohn, one of the sisters' investigators, was baptized a couple days ago. Besides the fact that the baptism started late, it went really well. I was sitting next to Sherri Spake, a recent convert, during the baptism. She is quite possibly the most bubbly person I have ever met. She spent most of her life in a Baptist church, so whenever you sit next to her in meetings in church, you always hear quiet amens and hallelujahs. She actually reminds me of my sister, Catherine, plus about 60 years. 

Another item worthy of note is Bryson Addy. He is really the only progressing investigator that we are teaching right now, and he really wants to be baptized, but his dad won't let him. Basically, we have asked him to pray, study the scriptures, and fast yesterday so that he can prepare to ask his dad himself. We promised him that this would go a long ways to toward softening his dad's heart. That is actually what I spent yesterday fasting for. Prayers on his behalf would go a long way.

There have been many who have sent me emails to warn me about Hurricane Hermine. I really appreciate the concern. I was actually really surprised when all that we got in Gaffney was a thirty minute rainstorm. With 20 mph winds. In all seriousness, all we had to do was talk to a member on their porch and we stayed pretty dry. Granted, the rainstorms here are a lot bigger than out West. This one happened to be big enough that the drains on the Spencers' roof couldn't handle all of the water. Most of it spilled off of the top. But it still wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. 

Last night we went to the Devaney's house for a visit. Just by way of background, the Devaneys are a young family with three kids. There oldest child is named Jewel. She is five, and is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. Every time we see her in church, we compliment her dress, to which she says "Thanks" and promptly twirls. Anyhow, when we went to go visit last night, she gave a painting of a flower garden that she made. It is my favorite gift from a member so far, and so we hung it up on the wall. 

I hope you all are doing well and really wish I had time to email all of you individually. I love yall!

August 29,2016

This week has gone really well. We have been finding a lot of people as of late, though no one is on date for baptism. Probably the most exciting person being taught, though, is Tammy Littlejohn. Sister Morris and Smith have been teaching her since Saturday before last, and she is going to be baptized on Saturday. I personally haven't been super involved in her conversion, but this will be the first convert baptism I see on my mission. Another person of note is a guy named Robert. We were visiting with the Walls, a less active family, last night and they invited us over for steak and said they would also invite Robert over so that we can teach him at their house. Just as a bit of background, he broke his back and his wife left him with their three kids, all under the age of 4. Needless to say, I think he has being prepared. 

I also made fried chicken for the first time. I was surprised at how good it ended up. I did take pictures since this is the first time I have really tried making Southern food, which I consider to be a milestone. I also have been collecting souvenirs a lot quicker than I had expected to, including comic books, a Motab record, a sock monkey, and a  palmetto tie. 

There is also a really cool story that happened on Saturday. There was a ward picnic that had planned and it started out being freakishly hot. At one point, though, it started getting windy and sprinkling, threatening to turn into one of those legendary Southern rainstorms. Anyhow, Elder Wille was sitting with a kid named Mouse, who is about six years old, holding his hand because he was scared he would blow away. His mom after chasing down flying tin foil and whatnot, took him back to the SUV so that he could get out of what we thought would turn into a really epic rainstorm. Mouse walked out of the SUV a few minutes later and told his mom that he prayed, and Jesus said in would be alright. It was at that point that the storm died down very quickly, almost to the point of totally clear skies within the next hour. It was absolutely incredible. 

I love yall! 

August 22, 2016

Things have started to look up finally. We now have a few investigators and a great story to go with a couple of them. On Thursday we met Cassie Jeffries. She was having a rough day to say the least, and prayed for God to send her help. Then we knocked on her door not five minutes later. We had a good discussion, and found out while we were talking that this isn't the first time that missionaries have shown up within minutes of praying and asking for help. We also met a guy named Chad, and he basically taught the lesson while we were in his house. He was telling us that in the last year since he dropped the missionaries, he realized that he needed to turn his difficulties over to God. He also started reading the Bible voraciously and talked about faith and its role for nearly 45 minutes, and it was incredible. He also showed off his '78 Camero that he is working on after the lesson. It has been incredible the difference that the Purification Challenge has made in hastening the work in general. Thank you for praying for me! I love you all !