Week 7: Death Threats & Baptisms

No… the title isn’t click bait… unfortunately 🙂

I’ve not been the best at doing journal entries so this may be a short one, but we’ll see. Apparently my last email was four pages long and it wasn’t even that busy of a week so you never know!

Let’s get ‘er done!

16^th May

We started the day off with some dotting but to no avail. It’s crazy that no one’s home on a weekday morning! We have something called “Infield mentoring sessions”, which is basically someone giving you advice once a week. We booked our session and it was with a guy I had met at YSA activities back home! He’s a pretty sound fella.

Went to do some tracting (door knocking). I kinda hate it because I don’t see it as massively effective… but we found someone! We try to just have normal conversations with people and then they eventually ask us what or who we are. Seems to allow people to be more open. So we knock this street and no one’s in. We are running out of time as we had a lesson booked, but the last house we go to knock on has a REALLY nice jeep outside. The guy comes out without us even knocking and I think that he’s just gonna tell us to get lost, but Elder Smith immediately starts complimenting the jeep and the guy welcomes us to have a look, and we just start chatting. He’s a cool guy, retired, his son’s a bluegrass musician, he goes to church when he can, and is interested in our beliefs. We chatted about the differences between our faith and he invited us to come round again! 

Quickly ran to our lesson that we had booked but she wasn’t in. Sad times. It then started raining! I love the rain here!! It’s warm and before it rains it kinda sucks, but when it rains… it RAINS. love it!

We went to see if a lady who had previously expressed an interest was at her house… she wasn’t… BUT this man answered (same age as the lady). We introduced ourselves. He cut us off and said, “We know who you are. We’re witches, and I suggest you don’t come back or we’ll sacrifice you to our gods” . . . WHAT! I’ll be honest, when it happened, I turned around and immediately started laughing because it was such a goofy thing to say… but it’s a weird experience to go through. Never had someone say they’ll sacrifice me before… don’t recommend. Fun times!

The L*****s fed us spaghetti… I think people use noodles here instead of spaghetti… interesting experience, but the home-made garlic bread was phenomenal!

17^th May

So Elder Oldfield went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders (ZLs) so he was up in Huntington and we had Elder Nelson, my great grandfather (my trainer’s trainer’s trainer). He’s a really cool guy. I think he has about two transfers left! For the whole morning we did service for the J*****s (an old couple that feeds us every Wednesday and gives us LOADS of snacks). We cleared I think five or so trees from their yard, and tons of bushes/shrubbery. It was pretty sunny and hot out. Hard work but fulfilling! We found a copperhead snake (or a baby rattle snake, it’s hard to tell which one… I think it was a juvenile rattler). The J*****s fed us stew and mash which was amazinggggg! I convinced everyone that I had never had watermelon. Oh that reminds me, fruit seems really common here… everyone put it on their plate with their dinner. So everyone had peaches in juice next to their mash potatoes and peas which is next to watermelon. They also do mash as a side to stew… so the stew was in a bowl but the mash was on a plate… interesting.

After stuffing our faces, Elder Nelson and I headed to S*****’s to do her baptismal interview and see if she was ready… and boy is she ready! She’s so excited and confident in her decision now!!

Ran by Brother M*****’s home just to see how he’s doing and he was entertaining as ever!

We then headed over to a place called Midkiff to end exchanges. Nelson is a really good missionary. He’s a hard worker, loves the work and the people, has a real passion for it, he knows what’s important and has fun with it. Sort of missionary everyone wants to be really!

18^th May

Nothing much happened this day.

We went to T*****’s for dinner. I love her so much. She’s basically the missionaries’ grandma out here. She’s awesome. She’s invited us to her 100th birthday and I fully intend to travel back in 13 years and attend that party! The food was BBQ and it was life changing. Never had a bad meal at hers. Its also fun hanging out with the branch members (the branch president is her son). Always a good time, kinda feels like family a bit.

We then headed to Brother B*****’s for a lesson. His dog, Cash, was wayyyyyy more relaxed then usual… still scary though.

19^th May

We had District Council. It was sad because Elder Ruchti left that morning for medical reasons. He’s truly an amazing guy and I wish him a speedy recovery and return! We made preparations for S*****’s baptism and then had a lesson with our friend S*****. We get those names confused all the time and it kind of embarrassing. We invited her to be baptised and she was unsure, explained it a bit more and she was more into it. She said she’ll pray about it. She’s a cool lady, really open and has a strong belief in basically everything we teach her!

20^th May

Breakfast at T*****’s as usual and then we got ready for S*****’s baptism!!! It was really nice, there was a strong spirit. Elder Smith baptised her and as soon as she came out of the water she went “woo”! She said she was exhilarated which is great, she’s so awesome! We went on to Brother M*****’s and, of course, had tons of fun! He showed us this awesome magic trick where he pushes air out of his belly button. Apparently its a side effect of loads of health problems he had. I’ve kind of made it a goal to ask him to get his guitar every time we see him. The only time he plays is when we’re there so it’s the only practice he gets. You can see him getting frustrated because his brain knows the songs but his hands have forgotten. After some warming up, he improves massively, so if he gets consistent practice he’ll have no problem at all with it!

21^st May

We had church and I confirmed S***** a member and gave her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was cool! She said that it felt like her spiritual birthday! It’s been a magical few days! Went tracting for like five minutes and the street we went to was soooo English it freaked me out!! It was identical to a standard English street. Weird.

Then we went to visit with members as a quad. Ended up at the J*****’s and Brother J***** was playing his guitar. He’s really into early metal like UFO, Black Sabbath. Scorpions etc, and also “second wave English metal” like Iron Maiden and that lot. He’s sooooo good! He’s a tad stiff but when he loosens up he’s really impressive. He was playing The Trooper, Run to the Hills, and Flight of Icarus. I was just vibing out! All the other missionaries were so lost – they have no taste! He then played “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd on his acoustic and it reminded me of home a lot. I’m pretty sure the only song my dad can “play” on the guitar (very loose definition of play) is Wish You Were Here. It was really bittersweet, I guess. It’s nice and strangely comforting, but reminds you of home.

22^nd May (P-day)

So, as of writing, we went into the nice area of Huntington and played pickle ball with like six other missionaries and some old guys. Really good fun! It’s always a laugh hanging out with other missionaries; good to build those relationships! And then went to B-Dubbs… again. I’ve gone basically every week since being here. It’s sooo good and reasonably priced! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to steal one of their pens 🙁 They’re honestly some of the best pens out there. If you go… steal a pen!!

I feel super comfortable here! It’s still work and some days are hard… but you kinda just enter this flow state where you just do the work. The weeks are starting to move pretty rapidly. It’s been said the first transfer is the longest, and it’s already starting to feel short! It’s like you blink and the week’s over.

I love this area so much, the people are fun, the scenery is amazing, the church is small but there is so much love in it. Good vibes all round.

Much love homies!

Elder Bishop