Week 5: He’s Leaving (leaving) on That Midnight Plane to Georgia… and then on to West Virginia

3rd May

I woke up at 3am and checked out of the MTC. Very weird feeling! Thirteen of us were off to West Virginia so we all travelled together. Took the FrontRunner (which is a biiiiig double decker train) to the airport. And then a three or four hour flight to Atlanta, Georgia! It took about 30 minutes to walk 40-odd gates and then a 100 minute flight to Charleston, West Virginia. We got picked up by the mission president and the Assistants to the President (APs – the most senior missionaries). Very groovy. They fed us some amazing burgers and we stayed overnight at the Assistants’ apartment.

4th May

We had breakfast, and then first interviews with President Lindahl. He’s a cool guy, pretty chill and in tune with his emotions. His whole thing is not suffering in silence. If you have a problem, tell him.

And then we met our trainers! So because we’re new, we need someone to show us the ropes. They’re often referred to as “Dad”, pretty cool and important part of mission culture. So I met my trainer! Elder Smith. He’s from Salt Lake City, Utah… BUT… he’s normal! He’s a chill guy but follows the rules. He’s been out six, almost seven, months so he’s fairly young for a dad. Also, I was able to meet my grandad (my trainer’s trainer) and great grandad (my trainer’s trainer’s trainer). A family of young dads, I guess! We headed to my first area which is covering the town of Logan and the surrounding areas. It’s an old mining town which has fallen on hard times when the mines closed down and is now a pretty poor place.

Now my first experience was a trailer park… luckily the guy wasn’t home… and then something I will never forget happened. We went to a place called Madison to visit a family. Small house. Walk in and it’s overrun with fruit flies. A man is sat by the TV with his arm in a sling because he’s just had surgery. We start chatting and it comes up that I’m from England and he LIGHTS UP. He’s so excited. He starts telling me that he’s technically a “royal”. So I asked, “Oh, wow, how come?” Apparently his great-great- grandfather married Queen Elizabeth’s sister. He then said that that makes him entitled to loads of royal money and puts him in line to the throne and he deserves a house with land. He claimed that people are only friends with him so they can take his money. Apparently, all his friends ask him why he doesn’t claim his inheritance and he said its not worth the hassle and, “All I want to do is just tour my country (he means England…) but I know I’ll get kidnapped and held to ransom so they can extort my family (he means the Royal Family…) out of loads of money and I just don’t want to cause that sort of drama for them.”

Then we headed to a members home for dinner and oh my… some of the best food I’ve ever had. Pot roast beef, cornbread, cornbread casserole, fresh lemonade, and a mandarin and orange cake for dessert. SO GOOOOOD! She feeds the missionaries every Saturday and Thursday. She’s a star!

Then off to a member’s house for a lesson. He has a 75lbs pit bull and, boy, is he a scary dog!

 Driving through the “hollers” here is really fun! A holler is a remote valley between two hills. They’re like the roads back home but with more altitude change. I’m in a quad at the moment (a house with four missionaries). We only act as a quad when visiting members, and one of the missionaries is from Arizona so he’s getting really freaked out by the roads here. He is used to straight open roads. I don’t think we were going fast at all, but he was constantly telling us to go slower. I tease him a lot about it because he puts on this personna of a really masculine man, but he properly freaks out when driving through the hollers… poor guy!

5th May

We had District Council today (where four or so companionships meet up and discuss how we can help each other out). That was in Huntington, which is a 1.5 hour drive away. The drives as a quad are so vibey! I met the the other peeps in my district, we had District Council, and then went to get lunch at a place called Cookout, which is an Appalachian burger chain. It’s sooooo good! Got a double burger, onion rings, ‘slaw, and a big milkshake for $7… what a steal! The food here is tres bon! Afterwards, we went to teach a lady in Logan (logan is a pretty poor old timey feeling town). She’s great! Then onto a lesson with another lady, who is sooooo cool! She’s a real character who talks incessantly She has a super strong testimony and we have her baptism booked for the 20th, but it may get pushed back ’cause we need to do a “stop smoking workshop” with her. It’s actually super cool! It’s a seven-day thing we do and 80% of people who do it quit smoking in a week… THEY QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK! It basically just kills the desire to smoke (a magician never reveals his secrets) but if you want to quit smoking… message me… I’ll hook you up g.

6th May

I woke up at 6am to see the Coronation. Very cool! Good way to start the day. The rest of the quad were very confused and intrigued about the whole situation. We then headed off for our Saturday morning breakfast appointment, which was Biscuits and Gravy. Biscuits are awesome… would recommend… Gravy however is meh… I could live without it. But free food is good food, so I’ll happily keep going over! Elders Oldfield and Dana (the other two missionaries in our quad) felt sick so didn’t come along (the slackers).

We went home and got a call from a brother who needed help moving some big bearings used in mining (EVERYONE here is involved in mining somehow). He offered to buy lunch so we travelled on down there. We moved some bearings, he bought us Little Caesar’s pizza, and we got chatting.

We had a lesson with a couple who live up another holler. The view from their home is insane! And then you realise they live here because they have to, not because they want to… and then you get depressed. Anyway… the lesson went well! They’re cool people. I feel like everyone here is super funny, sarcastic, and down to earth! They agree with everything we say, they feel God’s love and the Spirit… but the never keep commitments… it’s rough.

After the lesson we headed down to a town called Man. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to live in Man! We taught a lesson there with a brother who is so cool!!!! He’s super funny and loves an inappropriate joke. My kind of man! He says he needs to grab something and then walks out with a Confederate flag guitar… he can’t even play guitar. He bought it as a joke… he “played” Take Me Home, Country Roads and I’ve never heard something more West-Virginian. Lots of fun!

Chicken, broccoli and rice for dinner. Getting swole!

7th May

We are all feeling pretty under the weather with colds so that’s been fun!

Church was at 10am. The branch has 21 people, including me and Elder Smith. Pretty small.

Went to check in with some people at one trailer park and I got SUUUPER sketched out. I was not feeling good. Very uncomfortable feeling. As we left, we saw a dog and the whole side of its face was dripping with blood. Vibes.

Went to visit with some members. First to Sister Smith (no relation to my dad/trainer). She’s so sweet! Her husband’s awesome. He’s just finished fixing up a red 63′ Thunderbird. It sounds LUSH! He gave me its older number plate and anothe one from 1972. He’s a righteous dude (I may have watched Ferris Bueller on the flight here). And then off to another family who have over 1200 acres of land. Boy, is it NICE!

We chatted a lot about hunting (because I know sooo much about guns…) He made us dinner and showed us his guns. They’re gorgeous!

8th May (P-day)

It’s P-day today so we went out fishing with the Zone Leaders (a Zone is made up of two or three Districts. A District comprises two to four Companionships of two missionaries in a geographical area). We had a pretty chill day, gorgeous weather!! We went for my first ever Wendy’s. It’s decent! I called home and then we went to Walmart for groceries. Walmart is a magical realm. Lots of interesting characters! After we unpacked the groceries, P-day was over so we did the Stop Smoking Workshop with the lady I mentioned earlier. SHE’S SO COOL. I LOVE HER!!!! She was really into it! Destroyed her cigarettes and got rid of her lighters. We’ll check in with her in a week!! Got back and cooked some Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese with chicken and Nandos peri peri salt… SO GOOD! And here we are… Life is groovy, baby!

Hope you’re all well! Let me know what’s happening in your life!! 

Elder Oldfield is pretty sick so pray for him, and for those who are trying to quit smoking!!

Miss y’all 

Elder Bishop 🙂