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!