Week 8: Right Place at the Right Time

How’s it going?!?

Again… I am a failure. Journaling is pretty difficult after long days BUT I’M GETTING BACK INTO IT. Pinkie promise!

Any who…Let’s get ‘er done!

I apologise in advance for spelling mistakes!

23^rd May

So, a lot of this morning was filled with helping Brother C***** sort out some crates that have been sitting outside, unopened, for 21 years. It’s safe to say they were some heavily rusted bits of metal. The sun here is STRONG! It’s weird. It could be a fairly pleasant temperature but the sun just BEATS down on ya. Feels like you start burning after about five minutes but, don’t worry, I am getting a sweet farmer tan. I’ll be a real redneck when I return home! One of the benefits about helping Bro. C***** out is that he’ll buy you lunch. One of the downsides is having to listen to his “interesting” political views. I don’t know if there’s a word for “enlightened about bad things” but if there is… I’m that!

We visited some peeps and then went to the church for interviews with President Lindahl. He’s cool! Not just saying that, but he’s genuinely a cool guy! We’re fairly similar in regards to our opinions on missionary work, so having open and honest discussion is never hard with him. 

Then off to the L*****s! Couldn’t tell you what we ate; imagine a venison stew but Asian flavoured. Yeah, it was wild. It was decent… but interesting. The best part was the chow mein noodles they put on to garnish. I just took the tub and chowed down on those!

24^th May

Zone Conference! So, a zone conference is basically a big meeting of about 40ish missionaries, and there are some short lessons on how to improve in certain areas. Pretty good! Hanging out with other missionaries is always a blast!! Elders Oldfield and Dana got a new 2023 Nissan Rogue and it’s sooo much nicer then the Equinox! Love it! The zone conference was up in Huntington so the 3 hour round trip is always fun.

Okay, so… two weeks ago,  I simply wrote that “we met with an old guy from the ward” and I don’t know why I didn’t go into more detail. He took us to Wendy’s, and, when we were there, a lady was like, “Hey missionaries”.

*Confusion*

How did she know who we were? Well… the white shirts and name tags are pretty iconic but still… weird!? We chatted briefly and it turns out she’s from California and wants us to fix her grandkids basically. “They need Jesus”. Anyway….. We get taken to Wendy’s again, but the old boy is running pretty late! This lady, Sa****, walks over to us again and we get chatting. She’s tells us her story… She’s the survivor of a serial killer. Yep. Back in California a couple years ago, there was this man that killed women. He had gotten close to Sa**** somehow and had shown her where he had hidden his victims. Yikes. She went to the police and they put him under surveillance. They arrested him AS HE’S ON HIS WAY TO KILL HER! That’s why she’s in WV! We chatted some more and she wants us to go round again, so we set up a time when she’s going to be there too! If Brother J***** hadn’t been late, we wouldn’t have had that conversation! She told us that she met us for a reason and I think she’s right!

Met with A***** again. She’s still elect, of course!! We just had a really good lesson with her and set a new date for her baptism! She’s fab!

25^th May

Thursdays are slow in the morning because of weekly planning, but after lunch we went to a lesson we had planned… they weren’t in. It sucks so much! We’ve had that a couple times and it really gets you down BUT we went to see an old boy called E.T and he’s a cool guy! And then on to our lesson with Sa****!! It was cool! Her grandkids aren’t that bad, they just mess about. The youngest has pretty bad ADHD so I imagine he gets bored, tries to entertain himself, and then gets in trouble. Anyway, we chatted about the importance of families. It was an okay lesson ’cause we didn’t know what to expect, but promised that we’ll play with some water balloons the next time we come round as it’s heating up here. They were super excited! At the close of the lesson, Sarah was super appreciative and said that she’d “Been looking for a church and wants it to be ours”. E L E C T !!!!!

26^th May

We had district council again, which meant driving up to Huntington… again. Had cookout for lunch, of course, and then the very entertaining 1.5 hour drive home on Route 10 which is notoriously bad to drive on.

The J*****’s are on holiday so we get to feed their dogs!! Love em!!

On our way to do some dotting, we get a call from Sa**** and her grandson! He’s wondering if we can come round Sunday for the water balloons and a lesson!! 

We knocked a door that’s been catching my eye for a while (it’s a nice house). They answered and invited us in. He’s a Baptist pastor and has been for like 30 years. We got mildly bashed again 🙁

Then we met with A***** again! We’ve finished off everything we need to teach her so lessons are basically just answering any questions she has now. She’s awesome. It was an amazing time chatting with her as usual! We invited her to church and she said her and the kiddos would be there! Elect!! She’s awesome! Lots of seeds have been planted in her life and I feel like the harvest season is fast approaching! I genuinely think she’d be willing to be baptised tomorrow in a murky creek!

I was on top of the world!! And just to top it off, as we walk out one if my all time favourite songs is BLASTING from a parked car! EVEYTHING IS AMAZING. LIFE IS GOOD!

27^th May

So no breakfast at T*****’s :(( BUT WE WENT TO HER FAMILY REUNION INSTEAD! It was blessedddddd! Everyone is related and everyone is a phenomenal cook! Then we went dotting and visited a lady who was very confusing:

“Could we come back Friday?”

“Mm not sure, I’ll think about it”

“Well, what day works best for you?”

“Probably Friday”

“Soooo… we’ll come back Friday?”

“OK, that’ll work”

WHAT?!?!?!?! I felt like I was having a stroke!

Anywayyyyy, met with Sh**** who got baptised last week. Still amazing! And then Brother M*****, who was on a roll! His jokes weren’t just over the line, they were in a different UNIVERSE. It was NUTS!

28^th May

I gave a talk in church. For having not prepared it, it was all right! 

We went to see members after lunch. We went to the *****’s. Boy, can Bro. ***** talk! He’s kinda just the classic old man. Dog on lap, stories that last for ever and don’t have a real conclusion. It’s amazing!

Then we went to see Sister F*****. She’s 98 and recently broke her back. It’s so sad. Kinda makes you feel helpless. You want to help them sooo bad but you can’t. It’s tough 🙁 

29^th May

P-Day! So we went up to Huntington AGAIN! Kill me. Oldfield needs glasses and it’s basically the closest place we trust, apparently. Glasses are glasses… surely any optician will do?? Well we drove there… and the optician was closed. Ya know, you’d think that Americans would realise NOWHERE IS OPEN ON MEMORIAL DAY?! Whilst we were there I asked if they could maybe replace my nose pads and they said they’d do it for free! Looked around for a bit and then returned. Guess what… they broke my glasses. THEY BROKE MY GLASSES. And guess what their solution was… put a Band Aid on them. A BAND AID?!?!? I was so annoyed. She went into the back and comes back after 25 minutes with a new pair of glasses and says, “I swapped the lenses over, let’s see if this works”. I was PANICKING! I was thinking she was then gonna charge me $300-500 for new glasses. They were Armani glasses, too. And then these words escaped her lips, “So, I’ll just give these to you”. ELATION HAS NEVER BEEN FELT SO STRONGLY BY ANYONE IN HUMAN HISTORY. I wouldn’t pick the glasses myself, but it’s better than wearing broken glasses. I now feel like Jeff Goldblum’s weird adopted son. Oh well!

That’s the week thus far. It’s been pretty good! The ups and downs are being experienced but I think were on an up!! Hoorah!

God bless,

Much Love,

Elder Bishop