PRINCE DIED?

Hola y'all!

I say hola because on Saturday our Ward Mission Leader and his wife (the Calderons) took us out to eat at a Puerto Rican restaurant called Latinos. Yall were right, the food out here really is different! I had no idea plantains and arroz amarillo were staples of South Carolina cuisine! Just like anywhere, we were the only white people there. Although Puerto Ricans have really fair skin so they almost had me fooled! But the food was really good. They're only open 3 days a week (Thurs-Sat) because they go down to Florida every single week and get their ingredients and make everything fresh. When they run out, or the ingredients are a couple days old? Well, it's time to close until next week. The Calderons themselves are Puerto Rican, so they did a really good job at making us feel even more disconnected from the whole thing since they know a little more Spanish than me.

But oh my gosh Prince died??????? I heard that a couple days ago and I'm so confused. I thought he was immortal????? I'm sure there's plenty of people in the spirit world partying like it's 2016 and teaching him about the gospel. I would do his temple work but I'm a little busy 

I've been sick the last couple days, which is so fun! At least it used to be. Before my mission, being sick was the best thing ever. But out here you just feel awful. The fact that I've gotten more than 8 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours disgusts me. But never fear it's P-day so we'll stop by Walgreens and get some NyQuil or something.

Hmm what happened this week? Not a lot, I don't think. We did a lot of service but we always do a lot of service. We gave a blessing to a guy named Gill (can't remember if I've mentioned him before) who's getting his leg cut off to the knee. Well actually he already got it cut off, that was like a week ago. Well I guess nothing has really happened. Oh on Saturday I went into the Family History app and I traced my lineage back to Abraham, Noah, and Enoch! The only problem is it says that Enoch is deceased which I'm pretty sure isn't true, since he and his people were translated and they live with God now.

But yeah this week has been pretty ok. Transfers are coming up though, that explains it. The calm before the storm. Elder Browne, one of the bike elders in our ward, and one of my favorite people ever, goes home this transfer, May 4th. That's so close! And so scary! Also I feel so vulnerable! Pretty much the only time I was guaranteed not to have anything happen to me at transfers was my first one. Now that I'm done with training, anything can happen. Technically speaking I could be training someone in two weeks. I could be in Charleston on bike sweating in the SC summer until I die. I could go AP! I could become a Spanish-speaking missionary. After all, our ward has a stronger group of hispanics than the actual Spanish missionaries do. Think about that for a second. Either they suck or they should not have put me and Elder Robison here.

To end this week's email I'm gonna give a quote I heard from a very old man who we helped on his farm. "The best thing for the inside of a person is the outside of a horse". I'm not sure what that means but I do know it doesn't make me any less afraid of horses. They can still bite my hand off when I offer them a sugar cube and they can still kick me and break my back. The worst thing for the outside of a person is the outside of a horse, I have a testimony of that.

Anyway stay fresh yall and if I had to give you one challenge, it would be watch all 3 Toy Story movies back-to-back-to-back. If I had to give you a spiritual challenge, get better at prayer. Don't ask God to do things for you. Ask God what you can do for him. Faith is aligning your will with his so your desires and His desires will be the same. See what happens when you try and achieve your divine potential! I double dog dare you!

I have no pictures because there was nothing to take pictures of literally the whole week.

 

     

When in South

Hola y'all!

This week was very average! Which is a good thing! Actually no. Never mind that's like the worst possible thing ever. Because if it's a good week then awesome, it's a good week. And if it's a bad week, awesome, we get to grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we're better! But average is awful. We don't have a good time and we don't grow. We just sit still. But I still have stuff to email about!

I want to tell everyone a couple southern phrases. I think in one of my last emails I said the "I'm finer than a hair split 4 ways with a broad axe" and "I'm finer than chickens' teeth". Well today I'd like to share something I heard from an 80 year-old man with hair just like Donald Trump, and who claims the Civil War is still happening and refers to the Confederate flag as "ours". We were driving back from a lesson with a potential investigator, and it was raining but the sun was shining. He said "Look at that, the sun is shining while it's raining. When I was a kid we said that meant the Devil was beating his wife." Haha! He grew up baptist in case you're wondering.

Another southern-ism I noticed at least a couple farmers say is about electric drills. They don't say "drill". They say "screw gun". That looks normal now that I've written it down but it sounded hilarious when I heard it.

Progress on Al: our one investigator. He loved church last week, and he said he would come back, but this Sunday he did not show. We called him and he said he went to another church that was closer. NOOOOOO. We're gonna visit with him tomorrow and throw down about the importance of going to our church because that helps you to know it's true. You can't know of the truthfulness of the gospel in a church that doesn't preach it! Oh well. We've got some work to do. This is negative, but he's definitely not going to be baptized on April 30. But that's ok. He's not a failure and neither are we, at least we hope.

Elder Robison got his replacement Tiwi card in the mail, so no more driving for me and I'm back to full-time trainee/junior companion. Not for long though, I only have one more week of training so I'll be running Simpsonville before he knows it! That also means that next transfer I'm supposed to be capable to and I might even be assigned to train a new missionary. Oh jeez. God is watching me write this email and even worse, he knows how I feel deep in my heart. And he just might inspire President Turner to have me train some poor kid who is coming into the mission expecting a competent trainer to look up to but he's going to be stuck with me. I still don't know what "referral" means. I guess we'll see what happens on May 4. Actually I'll probably know by May 1 or 2.

On Saturday we helped the Young Women here in S-ville 2 with a fundraiser for girls camp. They did a car wash. Or I guess I should say we did a car wash. We came half an hour before it started and helped set up, washed and vacuumed cars non-stop for 5 hours, then stayed an hour to help clean up. The young women, bless their hearts, got tired after about an hour of work. And most of them showed up a couple hours late. Oh well. I'm going to go install a lightning rod on our apartment roof so I can probably catch all the blessings God's gonna send us for picking up the slack.  They did raise $870 though! Good for them!

Oh and big news: Simpsonville 2nd ward is getting a new bishop! So sad!!!! Bishop Powell, that big stud, is moving to Aiken for work or something else equally stupid. Gonna be sad to see the only family that feeds us leave. But we are going to have to get a replacement and I've done nothing these last two days but speculate. We'll see what happens I guess!

Alright yall that's it from me, if you're worried about which macaroni and cheese brand I should be buying, don't worry because I have made the greatest compromise possible (Cracker Barrel is still the best though)

Sent from the Lord's iPad

Al Dente

Hola y'all!

This week was killer!  I went to Bojangles on Wednesday and I got 6 Bo Berry Biscuits for $3.21. If you don't know what Bo Berry Biscuits are then I feel bad for you son. Because I got 6 of them and I ate every one. No but really they are Bojangles biscuits which are good on their own, but they put blueberries in them so it's like a dessert biscuit, and then they drown them in icing. Worth it!

In our cars, we have this thing called Tiwi. I don't know if they're worldwide or only in certain missions but it's a little black box in the bottom corner of the inside of the windshield on the driver's side. Every missionary has to qualify to drive obviously, then once they are qualified they get sent a Tiwi card that you have to hold against the box and it will sign you in electronically. If you don't log in, and you drive the car, Tiwi will say "no driver. no driver. no driver." and then it keeps track of how long you drive without logging in. I think the record is 21 miles which is insane. He also yells at you if you're speeding, driving aggressively, or not wearing a seatbelt. If you continue to do those things, it will go on your record and if you're a bad enough kid you will have your driving privileges revoked. Also if you drive after 10pm it will alert the mission president and church headquarters. THAT'S RIGHT Tommy Monson can see if I'm out late and he can pray just for me 

But so Elder Robison is the designated driver and he's driven every day the entire time we've been together. But his Tiwi card fell apart and is not working. We can't drive without logging in, so luckily I got my card in the mail this week! So I've been driving the last couple days. I'm pretty much the senior companion now. It's fun! South Carolina drivers are the worst! NO ONE in SC pulls over for ambulances. So ambulances have to do evasive maneuvers like all the time. I'm nice and a person with a functioning heart and brain so I always pull over for them and they always give me a thumbs up, without fail. The Greenville Medical department must love me.

This week I started eating Kraft Deluxe instead of Velveeta Shells & Cheese. It's a big change but I'm pressing forward. They each have their own pros and cons: Velveeta tastes better, but Kraft has more servings. I can eat a whole box of Velveeta for a meal but Kraft Deluxe is just a little too much, especially since it isn't as good. It's good though because then I'll only make half the box and I can stretch the box to two meals. I don't know, I'm still trying to figure things out. I've still got my whole life to figure out which mac & cheese is right for me so I'm not worried.

Well Al, the investigator I've talked about the last couple weeks, he came to church this Sunday! Hooray! My first investigator on date for baptism became my first investigator who attended church, alright alright! He wore jeans and his trademark camo "I  Jesus" hat so he stuck out a bit but I promised him that no one was going to judge him. Simpsonville 2nd ward is too great, probably 25 people came up and introduced themselves and offered any help he might need and made him feel welcome. Yesssssssss. Some members care!!!! We're really excited to see what happens with Al, he was on date for April 30th, but if I take faith out of the equation, it's not too likely he's gonna be ready by then. He would have to quit smoking this week, which is going to be hard for sure. But we're still doing really well with him!

This week was awesome in terms of people seen and lessons taught. We taught 12 lessons this week, and only 7 of them were to less active members! That means the rest were taught to investigators. We're finally catching our groove.

In all ways I am doing fine. To quote a guy I met a couple weeks ago, "I'm finer than a hair split four ways with a broad axe", or "I'm finer than chicken's teeth". And that means a lot coming from the guy because he just had his foot amputated and he's getting his leg amputated up to the knee this week. That guy's name is Gill and he's a stud!

But yeah hope yall have a good week and try to read or listen to a talk from General Conference, you can keep getting revelation the more you read! Modern day scripture! Sorry I don't have any pictures on this email, I might have some on my iPad that I could try and send later. But yeah see ya later!

Actually I do have a picture, it's of a sign down in Laurens, my favorite little ghetto town. Hope y'all enjoy

 

Two months down, only 22 to go

Hola y'all!

I wish I could tell yall what I did this week but I can't for the life of me remember. I can't remember if I ever said this in an email but we did NOT win the cleanest car mission-wide. At least I assume. It's been weeks and I assume they would tell us before one of the months that you get to use those 50 bonus miles in ended. I don't know what lucky companionship won, but it's probably sisters with a 2017 Ford Fusion that has like 200 miles on it and they didn't even have to clean it. Or maybe the real winners were inside our hearts all along ❤💙💜

Update on Al, the really cool guy we met last week whose friend and member of our ward pretty much saved his life. We met with him a second time and it went really well (I thought) but we've been trying to call him to schedule another visit and he hasn't been answering his phone. I would assume his phone got canceled, but his friend paid it last week. So I guess if he's not answering or returning our calls he's not interested anymore? I'm working on having more hope and positivity so I'm not really letting myself assume that. We're going to keep trying to get in touch with him, spiritual fingers crossed!

Oh, I remember what we did this week. This week was a week full of disappointments :)  There were several occasions where we managed to set aside a day and enough miles to get down to the majority of our area, and on the way we called to confirm all of our appointments, and every single one canceled. Oh well! Success of a missionary is measured not by how many people we meet with or how many people we baptize, but how hard we try. When bad things happen that are out of our control, our Heavenly Father knows that and blesses us as long as we try anyway. We always end up finding something meaningful to do every hour of every day, so no complaints here.

We did a lot of service this week! We do a lot of service every week I guess, and this week was no exception. We volunteered at this place called God's Pantry, that gives food to homeless people and stuff. We packed food in boxes for a few hours and they were super appreciative. That's the best kind of service, because packing those boxes was scraight up fun, plus we got the reminder and reward of knowing that it was all to help people in need. Pretty great.

And of course we had General Conference this week! Highlights:
Uchtdorf with the best lines (Chewbacca, the perfect woman, the Celestial language)
Hales being missing the whole conference and then giving an awesome Holy Ghost talk despite his health
Monson giving 2 short but killer talks (I hope he's doing ok)
Russell M. Nelson being a boss
Holy cow Big Jeff at the end of the last session, it made me laugh and cry and PONDER

If yall didn't hear all the talks I would recommend you do that right now. And I would also recommend to have a good week! 🤑🤑😁

❤👔🍓