Just because it has flowers on it doesn't mean it's good

Hola y'all!

One of the best ways to start out your week as a missionary is to have your scripture knowledge tested by a member of the Seventy. This last Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference, and we got to hear from Elder Eduardo Gavarret of the Seventy at all 3 sessions (leadership, adult, and general). And the best part by far was when, during the leadership session he was talking about teaching and learning by the Spirit. He stepped down from the pulpit and was addressing us from the front of the pews. I was sitting on the end of the front row.

He started down between the pews and stood right next to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder pretty firmly while he was talking. I figured the trial was over but no. He asked where in the Doctrine and Covenants it talks about being edified. It took me a second before I realized he was asking me specifically. I knew exactly what verses he was referring to, it's one of my favorite scriptures. But I did not know the name of the section! He gave me a second and I clearly couldn't figure it out. He said it was section 50 and he asked me if that's what I was going to say and I said yes sir. I will for sure not forget that section from now on. He was a cool guy, we got to take a picture with him as a zone.

Money is such a struggle as a missionary. I have to resist the urge every week to not buy a bunch of nice ties. My floral tie collection has grown a lot on my mission but mostly by luck, I haven't really spent much on them. But yeah sometimes I see some sweet Tommy Hil or Calvin Klein and I want them but I always get sense talked into me. By far the greatest advice of any kind received on my  mission is, "just because there's flowers on it doesn't mean it's good". True poetry 🤑🤑🌺🌸🌼

We've got our investigator, Jimbo preparing for baptism. This will be Elder Edwards's first baptism and actually mine too haha  Hopefully next week we will have pictures from the baptism! Everyone
pray he makes it!!!

Ok well that's all I can think of writing about, see ya next week on Spooky-ween! Missionaries are on lockdown for the evening, I guess people think we're in costumes or something

Oh yeah something cool happened today, our cashier at Walmart had the last name of Bible! She's catholic but we were all Mormon before we came here and we will all be Mormon when we leave 😉

"I feel like I'm too busy making history to read it."  — Kanye West

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Keep your lives long and your emails short

Hola y'all!

Transfers  are here once again, which means that Elder Edwards is halfway done training me. I think after that I will finally be able to train him. Transfers are on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, I think because there might be limited flights coming in to the east coast for the incoming missionaries, because of the hurricane. But I'm not sure

Not much has happened since last week, we've mostly been doing service for people. The main part of the damage from the hurricane is downed trees. We're not allowed to use chainsaws but we sure are allowed to move branches across someone's yard! I've been eating a lot of peanut butter, hopefully some of this tree dragging turns into cold hard muscle 💪

Here's a spiritual thought: read the talk Why The Church by Elder Christofferson and go to church if you're not already. If you are already attending church, turn to ch. 8 in Preach My Gospel and ask  yourself what you can do to continue to have a spiritual experience at church. If you have a boo boo, you go to the hospital, and we've each got a lot of spiritual boo boos, like it or not.

Fall here is awful, it's just a weird combination of sand and leaves and it's gross

Motivational quote of the week: "I'm a star, how can I not shine?"  —
Kanye West on album Graduation

K love you all bye

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That's my wagon bo

Hola y'all!

I'm sure you all have been terribly worried about us out here on the beach, what with all the souls in spiritual peril, the question must be: Did you have a productive week bringing souls to Christ?

The answer is No. The reason is Hurricane Matthew.

So the hurricane (more like Him-icane) has struck the east coast, beginning with Haiti and the  Bahamas, scraping up 90% of Florida, and finally gouging the Carolinas before heading back out to the Atlantic to take a well-deserved nap.

On Tuesday we got a call from Pres and we started to pack up and we headed to Florence. We had a 5 day slumber party with the Florence elders! On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we broke into two 3-packs and proselyted hardcore. Saturday was when Matthew arrived and we didn't leave the apartment. Just the six of us hanging out in the Florence apartment from 6:30a to like 9:15p. By that time, the rains came down and the floods came up. Not much flooding, I mean, enough to make small lakes on some roads, so you would have to drive around them, but not too many buildings seemed flooded. So not much damage, I would say the biggest thing is South Carolina is loaded with trees. We saw hundreds of trees broken and uprooted and flipped over and laying on people's houses.

DON'T PLANT TREES NEXT TO YOUR HOUSES AND DON'T MOVE INTO HOUSES WITH TREES AT ALL NEAR THEM IT IS A DUMB IDEA

But yeah we went out Saturday night and there was no power. There was seriously no light at all anywhere except for our car lights and the few other cars on the road with us. I almost hit a cop because he didn't have his lights on and he was just sitting around the corner.
Nice try buddy 👍

We went into proper Florence and there was a little power. The McDonald's had power and there was a quarter mile line for the drive thru. We needed food because we couldn't open our fridge without losing precious cold air, so we got in line for McDonald's. We waited twenty minutes or so and then we got to the menu. I tried to order but no one was answering. After a couple minutes we pulled forward and realized there was no one going to the window. THERE WAS NO ONE WORKING THE MCDONALDS. All these cars were lined up and they had no idea that it wasn't open. It was hilarious, I would say they're all stupid but hey we fell for it too. The line got longer after we left 😄😄😄

But yeah everything here at Myrtle Beach is ok. Some members need help with their yards and stuff, but there's really not much damage. Just debris everywhere. Leaves and branches and buildup just like everywhere. So we won't have crazy cool service opportunities like the demolishing of houses back in the Columbia floods last October. But we will help where we can.

Haha on I think Thursday we went and helped with this charity fundraiser. It's put on by a bunch of different ministers and preachers, it's sweet. It's a chicken bog fundraiser. For you heathens who don't know what chicken bog is, I'll explain. It's rice, chicken and sausage. That's it. I mean they cook it in chicken broth and add salt and pepper, but that's it. It's great because they cook it in these huge pots like three feet across. They've got like twenty of these going at any given time. It's funny because all these pastors are just like grumpy old senior citizens and while cooking chicken bog may sound simple, they all have their own way of doing things, so the best part about the whole event is watching these guys bicker with each other about chicken, sausage and rice. Disagreements among
ministers, gotta love the great apostasy!

Let's turn this into a teaching moment. Chicken bog is like the Bible. Everybody loves it and it's easy to see why. The principles taught are simple, and it's a gift from God to help guide us. But just like chicken bog, preachers and pastors, fellow Christians, all have different ways of doing the same thing, aka living the gospel. But which one is right? Well luckily they had worthy Priesthood holders
and representatives of the Savior present to make sure everything was within God's will and not man's. I was one of those representatives and the chicken bog was most certainly a part of God's will for his children.

Our job as youthful volunteers is to do anything these fogies ask us to. Like lifting pots, pulling around carts carrying buckets of chicken broth, or dumping chicken or sausage into the pot. The bog is then packaged up and people come and buy chicken bog plates, all the money goes to a family in need. They do this every six weeks, it's awesome. Plus they make bank, a plate is like $7 and thousands of people come.

The best part is: we got to take some home! Chicken bog is one of my favorite things ever, man.

Florence was great but I was there so long I started talking like the people there. They say things like "what color it is?" Or "that's my wagon, bo. We use it to catch chickens."

Ok love you all stay safe, who knows, the hurricane may be underground and heading for the west coast 👻👻👻👻👻☠️👽☠️

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It's starting to get cold here kinda

Hola y'all!

There's nothing to talk about except General Conference.

I imagine Uchtdorf's comment about the anonymous diet soda sparked some controversy. Let me know if people leave the church because of it. Just kidding that's rude

We got to hear Pres. Monson speak! I thought it was really interesting that he chose to speak on the Word of Wisdom at Priesthood Session and the physical, mental, and spiritual blessings it brings. Clearly he's not able to speak for very long, so whatever he does speak about should be of immense importance to each of us. He's God's mouthpiece for this time in history. So what he says is what we need. So when he says very little, MAKE SURE YOU'RE FOCUSING ON THOSE THINGS. I know that he is a prophet and if we heed the counsel of him, his apostles, the other general authorities, etc. then we are on the right path.

Things never change in this church. People think they do, like when the church has a policy change or whatever. But it's not God changing, it's his people. The church is made for us, so naturally as the world around us gets worse, the church has to build more fortifications just to stay in the same place, to keep the same standards. The church is a place of safety and guidance for each of us. A common theme this conference session is how important it is not to lose your faith. People losing their faith isn't a sign that the church isn't true, it's a sign of the last days and that we need to work harder than ever to be firmly planted next to the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can't afford to lose our faith because our conversion isn't only for ourselves, others need to hold onto it too, from time to time. The church is all about self reliance, the welfare program of the church has been a model for governments and societies everywhere as a great way to get people on their feet and self-sustaining. Similarly, it's each of our responsibilities to be spiritually firm, so we can help other people become spiritually self reliant.

I hope each of you will go back and read or watch or listen to the talks from conference. A lot of times people say you can just read one for now, but I care about y'all too much to deny you the blessings that come from reliving this divine intervention we receive every six months. READ THEM ALL

The beach is doing fine, don't worry. Elder Edwards and I are a third of the way through training, so I'm a third of the way to being stress-free, and Elder Edwards is a third of the way to being able to have a competent missionary as his companion. But for now he's stuck with me 😸😸😸😸

Have a good week and to quote Chance the Rapper: "Everybody's somebody's everything, nobody's nothing." Love each other!

Attached is a picture of us yesterday in our everyday best, just a couple fathers and their sons

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