Handcuffs

Hi everyone, 

How has everybody's week been? Email me if anything of note is going on in your life :)

Monday was good we spent the day in Magnolia, and shopped at all the downtown shops which was fun! Went to a couple antique stores with lots of super cool things including ancient cash registers, vintage dishes and clothes, and lots of Vinyl. Also looked at old Coke Bottles (unopened) from various eras. 

Monday evening nothing too exciting happened, just walked around and talked to some intoxicated people as usual. Got a couple phone numbers but who knows how solid they will be :)

On Tuesday we drove to Minden for district council, and we got to meet the 2 greenies in our district now! They seem pretty cool, Elder Haymond does Falconry! Elder Ward seems like a classic bright-eyed cheery greenie who's ready to work, which is good to see. After district council we ate at Cotton's again which was really good. After lunch we drove up to Taylor, AR and helped Brother Mass continue to fix up one of the mayor's houses. It's in absolutely atrocious condition so he's basically systematically rebuilding it from scratch. We helped fill holes in the ceiling which was pretty fun, though very hot! Brother Mass is very proud of the fact that he can fix and build anything, so working with him is funny because he's always very confident of himself haha

Tuesday evening we did some street contacting at the campus, and then walked around Magnolia stopping by formers and those we are teaching. Along the way we talked to lots of characters, one of which tried to con us into buying his Elvis Presley Vinyl which he claimed was worth "A LOT" of money.

Wednesday we did service at the Thrift store, and we've started working with an old man who comes to volunteer which has been fun. He thinks hes hilarious, and is hard of hearing, so just assumes we are laughing at all his quips haha--he also likes to think he knows a lot about electronics, so when he says something like "this thingie here is worth a lot of money" while gesturing to a curling iron we just smile and nod :) He's fun to work with though.

After lunch we went up to Waldo, and taught Xavier about the Gospel, and put him on date for baptism on August 12th! So that'd pretty exciting. He told us hes been wanting to be a missionary, and to feel needed! So we talked about Callings and how he can get one, and talked about how he can join us for lessons! 

After our lessons I took care of some business at the church, and then we had comp study on the SAU campus. Due to us being on a college campus we ended up talking about BYU and college options and stuff instead though haha

In the evening we taught Tyre and Brother Bahr was able to join virtually which went well. We taught the Word of Wisdom, and Tyre wants to keep his date set for the 29th and thinks he can be following the Word of Wisdom by then so we will see how that goes! 

On Thursday we walked the dogs, and it was a fairly normal day with them. I always get to walk one named Buck who constantly has to stop for bathroom breaks, often at the most inconvenient times. And then he will walk with his front legs at a 30⁰ angle to the right as opposed to his back legs so he's constantly diagonal haha

The Masses took us to dinner at Flying Burger, and I got the Bacon Cheeseburger which was excellent! The fries have a little to be desired, maybe a tad crisper, but such it is with many (if not all) restaurants. 

After dinner we had a lesson with a guy named Bill. He seemed dismissive at first but then the more we talked with him the more he opened up!! Apparently he is fed up with all these churches thinking there arent modern prophets, and that faith is all you need to be saved. He also thinks communion should be every week! So it was a great lesson, we taught the Restoration and he was excited that we agreed with him in many ways. After we said the closing prayer he said some of the things we prayed for are the exact things hes been praying for so he knows the Lord sent us! We met some other awesome people to including a girl named Keasia. She was super nice and is really responsive to texts as well! We also taught Charlien and put her on date for baptism August 19th.

Friday we taught Tyre again, and went to the Marchan's for dinner. They made us Hot Dogs and Burgers which was just what I wanted. Most of the dinner was spent with Brother Marchan making out-of-pocket comments and debating what she said which was funny to watch, but overall we had a good discussion. That night we felt prompted to talk to some porch-dwellers (there are many here) and met a lady named Victoria! She told us that she's looking for a church, she hasn't been baptized and wants to be, and that she'd known some members and always wondered about the Book of Mormon! So meet every one of those needs. 

On Saturday we walked the dogs again and Elder Davis' dog kept jumping on and grabbing my much bigger and older dog. We also walked some half-blind dogs that couldn't see where each track (we walk the dogs on train tracks) was so they kept falling into the spaces between tracks and stumbling around. It was quite entertaining to watch if I do say so myself.

In the evening we had another lesson with Bill, and the Masses and their Grandson came with us in person to that lesson! It was so good to have them, they are such strong and normal members of the church! Bill really got along with Brother Mass and in fact had actually been the mechanic that had worked on his car last week. We talked about what to expect at church, and talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation as well. Again he agreed with everything we believe. And the Masses loved coming too. We also taught Tyre again, and David. 

Sunday church was good, Tyre, Xavier, Charlien, and David came. We had a pioneer day Linger longer with Ice Cream after which went well too. The rest of the afternoon was spent in meetings. Got to set apart a new Primary President too. Now every organization has changed presidencies in the last 2 months :)

Nothing else too much of note happened this week, wish there was more to report on. Overall a fun week though!

-Abe