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 !

August 15,2016

This week has been a rough week to say the least. So, all of those investigators that we put on date for baptism a couple weeks ago just dropped us. When Misty Parris, our golden investigator, dropped us it was particularly difficult. It has ended up being a good thing, though. It has made me realize that perhaps I had gotten lax in doing things like my personal study and, in general, focusing on the mission. The sentiment is the same throughout the district, and we have decided because of that we are going to do what is referred to as the purification challenge. Basically, you start with a fast, make a list of everything that inhibits you spiritually, and then you don't do those things for forty days. So far it has gone pretty well. As far as things that we have done this week, we basically have spend the entire week trying to find people to teach. So far we haven't had any luck, but that is the point of the challenge. I love yall! See you Next week!

August 8,2016

Howdy Yall. Suffice it to say that the last week has gone by in a flash with a few noteworthy events. First of all, my apartment got attacked by fire ants on Wednesday. We came back from proselyting one day and there were ants everywhere! Between vacuums and re purposed lint rollers, we thought we had gotten all of them after battling for nearly an hour. As it turns out, they weren't brought in by food that we had been given like we had thought. We figured it out when Elder Wille, who's bed in right next to the wall, was bitten just shy of twenty times over the course of the night. Not long after getting up, we noticed that the ants had gotten everywhere again. Shortly thereafter, we had a pest control party and treated pretty much everything in the apartment. Between that and the pest control guy that the landlord sent, we managed to get them under control by Saturday. 

Another thing worth mentioning is an experience I had earlier this week that really strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood in our lives. My mom ordered me to get tested for Diabetes, which requires getting your blood drawn. Many of you know how afraid I am of needles, and how stressed out and dysfunctional I get for sometimes weeks before and after a given shot. I realized that I had tried everything except a priesthood blessing to try and deal with my phobia, and I felt like that would be a good idea to ask for a blessing. It is a good thing that I did, and the promises made in the blessing did come to pass. This is the only time I have ever had a clear head and been totally in control in general when getting poked, and that would not have been possible without the blessing. 

I also got my first hardcore rejection this week. We were teaching a kid named Jordan on his porch, when his dad came out in the middle of the lesson and told us that our church was false and that he would have none of it. He then basically told his son that he washes his hands of any condemnation that comes from listening to us. It was at about this point that they both walked inside without a word. This isn't to say that people haven't told me no yet, but most of the time it basically amounts to them being nice while you are there, hoping you leave soon, and never answer the door again whenever we knock. One thing that has helped a lot is what is called the South Carlina Initiative, though. Basically, it is a plan that focuses on reactivating less active people, and teaching only referrals from members. In other words, we don't ever tract. 

The other thing that I didn't expect was the meal policy. Basically, we can only go to dinner at a member's house if there is a non-member there. Granted, people are still really keen to feed us, almost to the point that I wonder why we went grocery shopping last P-day. In the last week, we have had spagetti, cookies, rice, chicken, creamed corn, funeral potatoes, a 10 pound chocolate cake, jalapeno chips, orange sherbet, 3 bottles of soda, etc. We haven't even touched the food that we bought shopping because we have so many leftovers, except for milk. I drank most of the gallon that we bought, but that is beside the point. 

The first week that I got here was apparantly a dry spell. I got my first true South Carolina rainstorm last week and it scared me a bit. It was raining so hard that in the fifteen seconds it takes to back out Elder Sherlock, I was completely soaked. It is probably worth mentioning that rivers form on the sides of the roads a couple feet deep when this happens. This happened every few days, by the way. It really puts to shame most "thunder storms" I have seen out West. This especially makes me really glad that I have a car. 

Anyhow, I have really enjoyed all of the emails yall have been sending me. Bye Yall!

August 1, 2016

Howdy y'all! This last week has been very exciting as this is my first full week in the field. I actually have two mission daddies (trainers) and they are named Elder Willie and Elder Sherlock, who happened to have a car with a lot of miles when I got here. Elder Sherlock comes from Oklahoma and has been out for Sixteen months thus far. Elder Willie grew up on a ranch in Wyoming and has been out for nine months. Anyhow, my first area is in Gaffney, South Carolina. In proper Southern, it in the upstate. In the upstate, people have really thick drawls that I am actually starting to understand now, and the other day, I actually caught myself slipping into one myself. I haven't quite got the ma'ams and the sirs down yet, but yall is staring to become habitual. People here are really nice and will let you eat the table cloth should you want to. There are fried chicken places everywhere, and they are all way better than anything out West. I actually had mashed potatoes with sausage gravy the other day at Bojangles the other day, and it was delicious. Bojangles, by the way, is to KFC as In-n-Out is to McDonalds, for those of you who don't know what it is. Something else worthy of note is that I am apparently in the best possible area for the summer months. Reason being, it isn't very humid relatively speaking and it hasn't gotten over 95 degrees here. I have actually gotten used to the humidity and now, it actually feels pretty normal now. Granted, I do spend the majority of my time indoors. That is not to say air conditioned indoors, because the AC systems here are run 24/7 and break pretty regularly. There other really eye opening thing for me here are the ghettos. We have been in some sketchy parts of Gaffney to try and contact members, and it has really surprised me some the places that people will live here, especially given that a lot of those houses will have really nice cars out front. Prosilyting there has paid off, though. We met a family there on Saturday who committed to baptism on the first lesson. Later that day, we met a sister name Misty. She had actually prayed the day before that God would reveal himself to her, and the next day we showed up at her door looking for her sister originally. She is very accepting of what we have taught, and seemed really happy in church yesterday. In our district, there is only one other companionship of sisters, who serve in Blacksburg. There are a bunch of other weird things that people do here that I think is worth mentioning. For example, most of the cars at the end of a demolition derby would still be considered roadworthy here. My companion was telling me that he once saw a car that looked like it had been cut clean in half, and the two halves were being held together with bungee cords and duct tape. In terms of the work in general, it is definately being hastened here. I love yall as always! Until next week!