Monday, June 19, 2017

Howdy howdy howdy! This week as been exhausting! I know I say that every week, but this week really was exhausting. It kinda carried over from the previous week. I got so tired I got sick. Then I got more tired. I don't  have a ton of time to write because we have to go pick up new missionaries from the airport this afternoon, but here are the deets (details..).

We had to go to Greensboro twice this week, once for a weekly planning session with some Elders and again the next day for Zone conferences. It was the last conference for the transfer and went pretty well.

I also went on exchange with Elder Christensen from Gastonia. We were in Matthews and it went pretty well. Saw a car crash and taught someone a lesson over the screaming arguments between the two drivers. Elder Christensen gave me a lot of advice about school. He went there for about a year before he came out.

Transfers was this week. I'll be staying, and finishing my mission, in Matthews. Elder Hampshire will be a traveling assistant. I'll get a new companion named Elder Grieve. I know him pretty well and he'll be a great companion to finish with. So things are looking pre fresh!

Love ya!

P.S today we went to top golf😎



Monday, June 12, 2017

Howdy! So Ganesh got baptized on SaturdayπŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰! We couldn't attend because it was outside our mission boundaries, but we were able to Skype in from Charlotte. Probably one of the best baptismal services I've seen on my mission. Apparently the whole Relief Society room was packed with people. His girlfriend and her whole family were there and his brothers and a bunch of nonmember friends of theirs they know from Chick-fil-A. There were also a ton of families from the Ward he attended with his girlfriend there. Our bishop and one of the councilors and our WML and his wife and the Spencers all drove up. Ganesh's girlfriend's dad baptized him and her brother confirmed him. We got special permission to have him confirmed there since all of his friends and family live there. This week he's going on trek with their Stake. That should be a really good experience for him right after his baptism. I'm so happy he got baptized though because he's seriously sooooo solid.

I also found out this week that the Cartrette family got sealed in the temple! We helped reactivate them in Lexington, and I had to get in the baptismal font to help Brother Cartrette baptized his daughter Zianna. She was like 3 days away from turning 9 so it was practically a convert baptism. Brother Cartrette has bad health and has to walk with a cane and was scared he would "trip n' fall in da font n' kill my youngin" so that's why I got in too.

We also had a ton of Zone Conferences this week. Our training was on using all of our finding tools, so we got hard hats and a tool box and did some fun activities learning all about using the tools we've been given for the purpose they've been given to us. (Teach repentance and baptize converts).

So this week has been extremely busy and I'm extremely tired, as usual. We also started transfer planning and went on an exchange and had to plan Ganesh's baptism which was kinda hard. I'm still not entirely sure if our Bishop from Matthews presided over the baptism or their Stake President in Apex did. We've got more Zone conferences this week and another exchange and a bunch of appointments and have to finish transfers still. Then we'll be up till 2 in the morning doing transfer logistics Saturday only to wake up early to go to Ward Council Sunday. Next P-day we'll only have half a p-day because we've got to pick up the new missionaries from the airport and then the next day is transfer day which means the day after that we get up at 4 in the morning and take missionaries to the airport to go home. I think the best skill I've developed on my mission is getting 8 hours worth of sleep in 3 1/2 hours. Glad to hear graduation went well! Hope to hear from y'all soon!









Monday, June 5, 2017

Fire noodles of death

I AM SO TIRED! This mission is going to kill me before I get home. The worst part is, I don't even know why I'm tired. It wasn't even a nutso week. We were supposed to go to a Zone Activity in Concord today, but we chose to take naps instead. Being with someone that's been out the same amount of time with you when you have less than two months left is exhausting for both of us. I hope I end up training next transfer because I need someone with a lot of energy to keep me going.

I went on two exchanges this week and somehow got roped into helping people move on both. The first move was a lot worse than the second. I'm always shocked when I show up at a move and the people haven't even  finished packing. I really shouldn't be shocked, it happens like 97% of the time. The second move was more of the rare 3% where all of his stuff was boxed up and we just had to move the boxes from place to place. Anyways, on the first exchange I had a huge steak dinner with one family and afterwards we went to teach their African investigator, Umo. It was a good lesson, but then afterwards she really wanted to feed us. I was already full but seeing as she was a refugee I figured she would have much for us to eat. Wrong. She had the biggest plate of noodles and ground beef I've ever seen. She plopped it down in front of me and it looked like it was really bland. Wrong again. She'd put two habanero peppers in it. It was the most difficult thing I've had to eat on my mission. It burned, and hurt my stomach and I couldn't just not eat all of it because Africans get offended if you don't clear the plate. Luckily she wasn't sitting at the dinner table with us so I was able to dump some of the fire noodles of death into my satchel and dispose of them later. My tongue is still all tingly..

Ganesh gets baptized next week! We had dinner with him at the Spencer's this week and it was a great time. During the lesson we taught him about church organization and we asked him who was under the prophet. He replied "Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf". So elect. We're also working with a wonderful part member family right now named the Watts. Their 16 year old daughter needs to get baptized so they can go get sealed in the temple. They're really nice people and Amy is a good girl. She just needs a little more direction when it comes to getting up on time to come to church.

It sounds like there's a lot of fun stuff going on in Redmond right now! Congrats Mattie & Lauren on graduating!!! Your senior party sounds way more fun than mine was! Jonas, your hair continues to bedazzle my fancy and Quinn: I know you already know this, but by graduating middle school you've overcome the worst three years of your life. It all gets better from here.  So there's only one picture from MLC this week. Sorry. I'll try and do better this week.