Paintball Boy and His

Hi everyone, good evening.

We had a week that just flew by, and it was crazy!

Monday we went to Shenanigans and had a blast as usual, and then in the evening we got to go out with Chase and Brother Hobbs again! We visited a guy named Rob, who opened the door, muttered "they're back" under his breath, and then just started repeating "go away, go away, go away..." while pulling out a gun and showing it to assert something or other I would assume. We promptly left, I think I was the only one who saw the gun though because everyone else had been sideways up the walk a bit and didn't have the right angle. 

Tuesday our personal study was interrupted with a knock on the door from Elder Cooper and Elder Morriss. Apparently someone in our complex needed some extra hands moving a couch, and the rest of our district was there but they needed us too. So we went and bit off more than we could chew because we also had a heavy washer and dryer we had to move down two flights of stairs with 3 different turns and very little space haha--but we did it. It took our district about 3 hours to help with the move because then we helped them unload too at a storage unit. The whole time they barked orders at us (it was an old mean lady and a moody 40 year old guy chewing tobacco), and were very rude considering they had a team of 8 helpers for free. Tsk tsk people are so ungrateful these days. 

After service we did District council and then exchanged. I went with Elder Cooper down to Forney. We had a great night and talked to 2 YSA people who didn't seem interested but then their interest grew the more we talked about the Book of Mormon, and found common beliefs! It was pretty cool, one of them is an aethiest who believes in a higher power, however that works. We taught them about the Restoration and gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon! Elder Cooper is super funny, and great to be around. There are some unique struggles in Forney for sure though.

 

On Wednesday we exchanged back and then went to Greenville's District Council. It was super good, Elder Layton is one of the best DLs in the mission. We got to share our testimonies, and then after district council we got Freddy's with the Greenville Elders. Then we had a surprise exchange with Greenville West, so I went back to Heath with Elder Castillon. We did some service for Ruth, and then got dinner with Alex Milstead at In-n-out. Our evening ride cancelled so we called Abe Smith and he came with us instead! We went out to Rowlett/Garland area, and talked to some cool people, found some new people we can teach!

Thursday we did service at the Thrift Store, it's always fun to hang out with Elijah who works there. We always end up testing interesting things haha--and a LOT of lamps. After we exchanged back we went out with Jack! We worked in the Heath ward, and then ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse. In the evening we went up to commerce, and talked to some cool YSAs up there! We taught this girl named Rachel, and afterwards she informed us of a sticky cat situation she was dealing with. Apparently they have a tree house, which was going to be taken down the next day, but the problem was a cat had a bunch of kittens up there, and one of them couldn't get down. It was so scared that they were afraid of scaring it off, so she didn't know what to do... luckily we are professionals. So we went back, and Jack made the treacherous climb to the top of the tree, and the cat got as far as he could from Jack and started meowing in a scared fashion. The closer Jack got, the more the kitten retreated towards the edge. He was about to jump, so Elder Bjazevich and I quickly got a Towel, and created an emergency landing pad for the kitten in case he fell. Jack started to approach him more, and the kitten tried to climb the tree but instead just fell backwards out of the tree house right on to our towel. He boinged off of it, jumped on my shoulder, and then fled into the night. It was super fluffy. 

After this kind act, we made some more stops, and walked around an empty church in the darkness. We found a guy who said to come back tomorrow as we walked around! 

On Friday we had MLC, and they talked about a lot of different things. They talked about Joy and Enthusiasm which I approve of, but then they talked more about white fields and thr standard of excellence which I do NOT approve of as well haha--sometimes I feel like leaders don't really put themselves in the shoes of who they serve and instead they just think that everyone should see it as they see it. Also most missionaries see missionary work as more then baptisms, but you'd think that's all it is based on how many leaders talk about it. Sometimes I wonder if it would be a good idea to eliminate all current leaders and replace them with giant panda bears. We would probably see positive change on many fronts. 

We went out with Sam in the evening, and taught a couple of cool lessons! One of them was to a guy named Mario who only speaks Spanish, so Elder Bjazevich taught him and Sam and I just sat there. But luckily a semi-active member happened to be sitting there as well so we decided to teach him simultaneously to save time :)) (cause he only spoke English)

Saturday we had a YSA BBQ in the morning which was super good! We had a bunch of new people show up including some seniors who graduated. Played some cornhole, and ate some good hot dogs and Tri-tip. We also had our weird friend Beruke show up, which we tried to include and introduce to people in every possible way, but he's antisocial and wont talk so our efforts were in vain sadly. 

In the afternoon we did service at the Thrift store, and then helped a new member family who just moved in build a trampoline! 

In the evening we went out with Eric Arneson and worked the Heath ward. We went to a super fancy neighborhood to visit someone, and after we left, a teen boy came out of one of the neighboring fancy houses (very ugly house), saw us, and hopped in his car and followed us out of the neighborhood. Once we got on the main road he pulled alongside us and mouthed something about "whats up" and "cops." We were very confused and Eric mouthed something back and then we let him pull ahead. When we got to the light, we looked over and he was rummaging around. He pulled out what looked like a real gun at first but then we decided it must be a paintball gun. The light turned green and he started aiming it at our car. We drove off and he tried to drive side by side with us to get a clear shot but we slowed down and got behind him. He swerved over to try and shoot us with it so last second we turned into a neighborhood and then zoomed down street after street. We didn't see paintball boy again luckily, dont know what his deal was. Maybe mad we were stopped by one of our members in the same neighborhood as him? Or maybe bitter about his ugly house? Not sure haha

Also talked to Eric about the goings on behind the scenes in the branch such as the disintegration of Justin and Melissa's relationship...

Sunday we had Robert, Tony, and Troy come to church! Robert quit trucking for good, and his date is in 2 Saturdays! Super exciting. 

-Abe