Book

Hi everyone, 

This week was great! It was super fun:

Monday I went on exchanges with Elder Rainey. We walked around the super poor streets of College Hill and had a lot of fun talking with various people. We also went to Sam's Southern Eatery and had one of the best burgers I've had in my enrire life! Which is saying a lot cause I lovee burgers and have had most burgers in the world! They also had amazing Cajun tarter sauce. 

Other than that and the bear riding Monday was pretty relaxed.

Tuesday was fun, I went on exchanges with Elder Bagley. We went to New Boston so I got to show him the ropes. We walked around a lot and found 4 new people to teach! We also talked with a girl we are teaching and put her on date! She was concerned about receiving the Holy Ghost cause of Pentacostals but we explained how the dumb stuff they do is not the Holy Ghost haha--and that the Holy Ghost actually brings peace and comfort, not snakes and nonsense words and death. 

On Wednesday we gave Sister Carr a blessing cause she had been sick for a while. After that we exchanged back. We did a lot of walking around on Wednesday, and met a girl named Desire who was really interested in our message! We are running super low on copies of the Book of Mormon because I've been overzealous at giving them out haha--so we've had to resort to giving out pamphlets and the Book of Mormon app. If you haven't downloaded the Book of Mormon app, go do it now! 🔫 It makes it super easy to share with people and if it's on your home screen it might remind you to talk to people around you more about your beliefs. (Don't you like how I just ordered you to do something? Hehe)

Later in the evening on Wednesday I found another person on Facebook. He wants to make us steaks! 

Thursday was wild, it started out like any other day. We did weekly planning, and taught a bunch of lessons. We also had meetings with the Social Media Specialists. In the evening we knew a member we had never gone out with would be taking us out, so we planned some lessons and stopbys that weren't too far to drive to cause we wanted to be considerate of his gas. As soon as he arrived and we got in his spotless car and started talking with him, we knew we shouldn't have worried haha--he came with us to a lesson and it went super well! He taught with the spirit and really related to the guy JJ we are teaching and even invited to take him to church! It was awesome. Afterwards we stopped by a few people and then after hardly any time he said, "Well, let's take a break and I'll get yall a treat" and we of course did not turn down the offer. Then he hopped on the freeway. 

We passed Hooks, then Leary, then next thing you know he points and says, "That's the border for your area, right?" And zooms right passed it hahaha--we replied "Yep that sure is the border" in voices of dismay haha--We are supposed to get permission before leaving our area but here we were haha--next thing you know he says, "Do yall like Sushi?" And of course we answered in the affirmative, we aren't crazy. So he took us to this fancy Sushi place in Texarkana. It's been a while since I've been to a fancy sit down restaurant, I guess that is Brother Bush's idea of a "snack" haha--it was soooo good I got the Pink Lady roll which had crap, a slightly spicy sauce, cream cheese, avocado, and all the other ingredients usually in sushi. It was some of the best sushi I've ever had. The while time he talked about his motorcycle racing days, and how he got in a crash going 152 mph and broke basically the right side of his body. He had so many cool stories. At the end he ordered a giant platter of fried rice with shrimp and chicken and gave it to us to take home! It was definitely some of the best fried rice I've ever had in my life! It was even better than the sushi. Overall it was a fun night.

Friday we realized we had 350 miles left and only 3 days to use them haha--and we don't want our miles getting cut so we decided to go to Foreman, Arkansas for the first time ever since I came to this area haha--We always joke about going there cause we've been low on miles haha, so it felt surreal actually going to Foreman! It was a pretty drive up there, and we got hit by the rain so that made it extra fun! We stopped by a bunch of people and found a couple new people to teach. Then we drove to the other side of our area and stopped by people on that side too! Overall we burned 110 miles on Friday.

Then on Saturday we burned another 120 miles by going to people at the far reaches of our area. It was also stormy on Saturday so it was really fun to be driving all around the countryside knocking on trailers deep in the forests. We also walked around in De Kalb and it was the most beautiful weather I've ever seen! It was 73⁰F and 94% humidity and overcast which is exactly how I love it! We talked to a homeless dude, but other than that almost nobody was out tsk tsk

Sunday was also fun, Elder and Sister Atkinson who are in charge of the TDEM Service mission came and spoke in church. They are super cool, and it was fascinating to hear how much service missions are evolving. After church we decided to go to Foreman for comp study just cause we could haha--We drove up there and sat at a picnic spot to study.

Later in the evening I found someone on Facebook who wants a large print Bible and Book of Mormon! She's really cool, and is definitely elect. We are now teaching 43 people, so my plan is to just put them all on date to be baptized and then when I leave my companion can deal with all the Baptisms :)

I think that about covers it, I wish there were more funny or intriguing stories from this week to share, but overall it was a blast! You just kinda go with the flow and it's fun

-Elder Nielson