This past week has been one of the coolest/best weeks ever! There was so much that happened, but there was a ton that needed to happen but didn't.
I'd say one of the best parts of this week is we got fed every single day! I've never had that happen before, but it was definitely a highlight of this week.
But one of the worst parts of the week was all the stuff that happened to S___. The devil is really trying to get to her right now, and she is experiencing trial after trial. First of all her pet goat, Lenard, got attacked by wild dogs, twice! And he unfortunately passed away. S___'s oldest brother had been in the hospital dying and she had to make the decision to pull the plug. Then her dog, Nigel, who was 14 and older than her youngest son was hit by a car on Saturday night. It's been a hard week for her.
Monday we ended P-Day a little early because we had an investigator that said to come back around 4:30. So 4:30 rolls around and we pull up to his house. When we get up to the front door we see the Book of Mormon that we had left him sitting on the front porch with a note that says, "sorry gentleman but were not interested anymore." it was a bummer.
After that we finished up our P-Day and went to see B___, turns out he had broken the word of wisdom and had smoked, so unfortunately we had to push his baptismal date back to the 28th. Hopefully he can stay away from those death sticks!! Afterwards we headed out to see the Czaplinski's, W___ was in Arkansas till Thursday so it was a good chance for us to have a short lesson with his sister A___. She is one of our top priorities right now, but she is hard to teach because of how shy she is!
Tuesday started out with the routine trip up to Derby for our Zone Pow Wow, one of our Zone Leaders just recently got Emergency Transferred, so I got to meet the new ZL. He is a super cool guy, and his first area was actually here in Ark City.
Our first stop when we got back was to see B___, he obviously still has some issues with the word of wisdom and doesn't understand it fully, he thinks smoking pot should be okay. So we've been helping him out the best that we can. Afterwards we headed to Winfield to have dinner with our Branch President. They are the coolest people and it's always fun to go up there. After a little while in Winfield we went to go see the Czaplinski's and see how they are doing, and we taught the entire plan of salvation!
Wednesday started off with a great lesson with B___, we showed him the restoration video, it's about 20 minutes, and had a solid lesson with him. He knows that this church is true and he really wants to try and live the word of wisdom. But giving up smoking after 30 years is hard for him. There wasn't a lot of lessons Wednesday and we were a bit discouraged at the end of the day. But it was 8:55 not time to go home and we wanted to see a miracle! So we parked the car and walked around a block. There was a guy just getting out of his car, so we stopped to talk to him. He had just moved in and he was looking for a church to go to! We were able to leave him with a Book of Mormon! His name is N___ and he is a super awesome dude.
Thursday was the best day this week. We went off to see B__, and he finally gave us all of his cigarettes! There was 12 packs, which is $60 worth! And he told us to get rid of them! We were pretty ecstatic. After we met a new investigator, T____, whose dad died last month in an accident at General Electric, and she is a single mom with two kids. Bit of a tough situation, but she is one of the nicest ladies ever!
After we went to try and meet up with someone who we meet a few weeks earlier on the street, we pull up to the address he had given us and there was a big, BIG, dog in the driveway barking at us. We are manly so we slowly walked towards the door. We got there alright, but it turns out the guy is in a hospital cause he's a crazy old veteran. We also learned that the dog wasn't even a normal dog, it was a wolf. A full-blooded wolf! I was even able to pet it. But barked at me and I thought I might lose a hand.
W____ had finally made it back so we went and saw him and had a really awesome time with him, but we weren't able to teach A____.
Friday was another super awesome day because we had interview with our mission president! Prez Bell is a really awesome guy, and 15 minutes with him is life changing. Afterwards we were able to go and see both of our new investigators, Taylor and Nate, but we were total slackers and didn't invite them for baptism!!! We were all pretty upset that we didn't do it, so the week wasn't as awesome as it could have, should have, been.
Saturday almost all of our set appointments had fallen through. But we were able to take W___ out with us for a team-up and he came and taught B___ with us. It was awesome, he bore testimony, gave him advice, and even prayed for him! It was something that really helped us, W__, and B___! That night we had dinner with the Czaplinski's and they cooked the most tender piece of meat ever! I could eat it every day if I could! We then had an awesome lesson with W___ about the temple and the priesthood. This coming Sunday he is going to receive the priesthood! Then on the 27th all the Young Men are going to Nauvoo! That will be such a neat experience for him.
Sunday a lot of our planned out lessons were busy and didn't really have a lot of time to talk with us. But we did have a cool experience when we went to the Branch President's house for dinner. One of the recent converts was over there, super old lady with very poor health, and she was going to receive her patriarchal blessing! She wasn't able to make it out to Derby for that so instead the Patriarch went there! We had a cool lesson on the blessings and she was really excited for it!
Not much else happened this week, but it was a good and fun week. My biggest goal for this coming week is to put as many people on date for baptism as possible. I know that there are so many people who are ready for us to meet them, and I just can't wait to find them! Missions are the bomb, especially this mission which is the greatest mission in the World!
