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!
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