"The Wintry Day".....

Welp it's been another crazy week.

On Thursday we were volunteering at this thrift store and all of a sudden I heard this terrible scream and when I went around the corner there was an older lady laying on the stair steps. She'd fallen and hit her head and couldn't remember much and was flipping out. It was pretty freaky and the ambulance had to come get her. Then the very next day I walked out of the stake center from Zone meeting and saw a huge car crash on the road the church building is on. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I heard one car honk and fly into a side road and another car smash into a telephone pole at 40 mph. Elder Watson ran over there and helped the ladies out, who miraculously both could still walk and I called 911 for the 5th time on my mission. It was really scary, I hate seeing that kind of stuff. That fact that those things happened two consecutive days in a row made me think I might be
cursed or something, so the next day I was super careful. Luckily the only noteworthy thing from that day was good!

We were out finding and were running a bit behind our plans to be at a certain complex to find people. The complex was on the other side of town and there wasn't much time and it was about 97 degrees and 60% humidity so we really didn't feel like going over there. We tried finding around where we were and nothing was working, so we decided just to stick with our plans and push through the weather. When we got there we went to the former investigator's door and they weren't home, so we started walking around and this lady called us over to talk to us. She was super nice and really interested in what we were doing. Turns out she's also an excommunicated Jehovah's Witness and none of her friends or family will talk to her now as part of the shunning. Pretty sad stuff. But she said we could come and share our message with her this week!!!! So pray that Erica will be ready to receive our message and be baptized in the next month or so!!!!

Last night we were out finding and this guy walking his dog told us to leave because it was a "no soliciting" neighborhood. (I didn't see any of those signs, and I actually keep my eye out for them.) That being said, I didn't want any trouble so I said "okay!" And we started walking off to our bikes to leave. I could hear him cussing at us
under his breath and then he turned back and said "and stop ringing the doorbell! My wife is disabled and... JUST STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!" like the situation escalated really quickly. I'm sure he's had some terrible experience with some "soliciting Jehovah's Witnesses" and was just taking it out on us or something, so I just said "okay, have a nice evening!". Then we got to our bikes and I was undoing the bike lock and I noticed he was just standing there with his arms crossed watching us. I was like "really?" So I took my sweet time undoing the lock and he was still standing there watching us. Then as we rode off I yelled, "we love you sir!" And he kindly replied with "f***ing idiot!!!" Like super loud for everyone to hear in whole neighborhood. Like what the heck? He told us to leave and we did and then he got mad at us!? It was ridiculous... The funny part was he reminded me SO much of Mr. S (a teacher at the high school). He looked and talked just like him.

We also had a great lesson with an investigator named Lamont on Thursday. Committed him to baptism on the 25th of this month. Then we went back for his return appointment Saturday and he wasn't there and we haven't been able to get a hold of him since. Classic. Also, we're in the ward choir now!!! There weren't a ton of people helping out so we decided to show up and it was actually pretty fun. We're singing hymn 37, "The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close". I've never heard it before, but it sounds pretty cool.

So that was my crazy week! How was y'alls? Today for p-day Elder Leach and I are going fishing so that should be pretty fun. Oh yeah, on Tuesday I had MLC and I got to see Elder Galvin!!!!! It was super great.

Alright, love and miss y'all!

Elder Earnest