Week 39, 6/21/16

This Elder is a little stiff, but we love him anyways!

Hey squad.  This week was pretty dece!  Well first things first transfer calls were yesterday and we didn't get a call so things are staying the same here in Greenfield for at least one more transfer. Super excited to see what good work Elder Jenson and I can do for the next 6 weeks. 

Well here is the lowdown of highlights from this week: Wednesday was a bit different, we were in a trio with Elder Wilde all day!  It was a pretty sweet day, we got a ton of work done because we had a car.  We did a lot of good work in the Greenfield area and found two new investigators in the evening!  Hopefully you will hear more about them in the coming weeks. We also did some work in the Rutherford area in the middle of the day.  We visited a returning less active they have been working with who I have also met a couple times. His name is Mando and he is 19, and he is a funny dude.  He recently got a job with a landscaping company and his boots are terrible, and gave him HUGE blisters.  He could barely walk, and Elder Wilde being the fearless and charitable guy he is offered to drain his blisters and cut the skin off for him (Mando couldn't bring himself to do it alone).  So we watched and helped Mando through the procedure haha, it was literally like foot surgery.    Super interesting experience, I never thought I would end up doing that on my mission lol.  It was a great day though! 

Thursday the highlight was our lesson with Zeke, we brought our new ward mission leader with us and it was a great lesson :) I can't even remember anything about Friday other than weekly planning of course.... On the mission days just blend together. Saturday was sweet.  Well actually most the day was pretty lame.... We got kicked out of this one place we tract a lot by a cop.  Somebody called the cops on us lol.... Apparently we "can't solicit on private property owned by this particular company's policy".  Pretty lame... It was fun while it lasted though haha.  There was this group of 5 little black girls following us around to each door speculating about whether or not they would let us in and cheering us on and asking all sorts of questions.  

Just think of all the missionary work we could get done if that was our mission car

After we got kicked out we went back to do some work around our apartment for another hour until 9.  A lot of times around 8 there are a whole bunch of what some might call "hoodlums" or "dope boyz" or "thuggin gangstaz" playing ball on these hoops by our apartment.  I have been wanting to do this for a while, and now the situation was perfect, we had nothing else to do.  There were about 8 playing and the rest were chilling on the side and we went over and started talking to all of them.  It honestly took more courage than anything else on my mission so far, I don't know why haha.  But they are all super chill guys, most of them are around my age.  I talked with a bunch of them about a lot of different things.  A lot about what we do as missionaries though.  Apparently the missionaries last year used to ball with them every so often (that's kind of what I was wanting to do as well!), and they all were totally down with us jumping in and playing when the current game was over.  Unfortunately we didn't get to play that night, but we hopefully will later.  I don't really think Elder Jenson was into the whole thing, but I am super excited to go back!!! They were all really good though.... I don't know if I can quite hold my own against them in proselyting clothes😂 They can all dunk too so if I get viciously posterized I'll let you all know.  I think this could be a great opportunity to share the gospel.  

 I have really been looking for and praying for opportunities like this that are different and not just ordinary missionary work.  Tracting, street contacting, and bus contacting is great (kind of...) but it has been pretty discouraging to deal with the constant rejection we have been getting lately.  I'm hoping this is the answer to my prayers. :) 

Sunday was good.  Shout out to my dad for being the best ever, happy Fathers Day padre!  We got invited to a BBQ a couple families in the ward were having.  I think they just invited us because one of the families they invited couldn't come, so they needed someone to eat all the extra food.... We definitely helped solve that problem:) I probably ate more food there combined than I did the whole rest of the week haha.  The whole day I was having a hard time staying totally focused on the work because I heard game 7 was that night.... CAVS WON THOUGH AND I'M SO HAPPY FOR LEBRON:):):) 

Well those are all the highlights from this week.  This week was full of a lot of unsuccessful finding and rejection.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from some of the people we tried to talk to:    "I hate you guys,"    "I will have a good night, the devil always has a good night,"    "Ohhh my heck you guys are always so annoying,"    Haha I love these Canadians.  Don't get me wrong there are still some exciting things that happened that will hopefully bring fruit in the future!  Things may not be blossoming here at the moment but we will keep soldiering on and things will eventually happen. I know this work is the Lords work and I'm happy to be a part of it! I hope you all have a great week, love you all :)  - Elder B

Weekly Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:7-8 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

                        

                Samples of my gourmet cooking above. My first attempt at eating fried chicken feet below.  - Yum!