The Hunt

Good morning! Hope everyone has had some delicious pie today.

Our week was very busy due to conference. On Monday our whole district hung out in Magnolia. We went shopping in the morning and found some cool things including a bandolier belt with a bunch of shotgun shells in it which Elder Haymond bought. We spent the afternoon with the Flowers playing lots of games. We played Telestrations, Cover Your Assets, and much much more. ;) We snacked on many things, the gilk was a great hit (Gatorade + milk). Many of the Telestrations prompts including someone running from the gilk, or accidentally spilling it and it eating holes through things haha

We also played a game of Uno with a mix of the tiny uno cards and big Uno cards. It was the longest game of Uno ever because we were playing with so many ridiculous rules that nobody could win haha--after the game we all took a One Chip (the spiciest chip apparently, it's 10 dollars [$10] for one of them) and we broke it into pieces and tries a bit. It was soooo spicy, and had no flavor. It was horrible. We spent the next 15 minutes all frantically running around and downing whatever was available to try and alleviate the spice! Chocolate milk, gilk, bread, etc. Elder Haymond had the biggest piece and ended up being in pain for a long time after. Thr problem is its spicy in your stomach too tsk tsk.

That evening we went out in trios to triple work Magnolia. I went with Elder Haymond and Elder Ward and we had a blast! We taught Marquil and then Annette and Tyre. We read in the Book of Mormon with them. After that we walked around the campus, and I talked with Elder Ward and Elder Haymond. They are both so great, I love how happy and good Elder Ward is all the time. And Elder Haymond is super funny and seems to always be improving. After we all returned to the apartment we started a 6 man game of Magic. Which I ended by destroying every single creature on the board. :)

We had District council in Magnolia on Tuesday in Magnolia. Then we drove to Springhill and the Millers all got us Sam's Southern Eatery! It was excellent. After that the Minden Elders drove home and we did exchanges and double worked Magnolia. I went with Elder Haymond. We talked to lots of people including like 4 Spanish-speakers which is cool because Elder Haymond is assigned to speak Spanish. It was good practice for him, and I got to do nothing so it was a win-win! We met some cool people who are interested which is very unfortunate because the Spanish unit is 1.5 hours away. :(

We also had a lesson with Becky, and watched a Book of Mormon video with her family. It was really good!

On Wednesday evening we went out with the Millers and found a lady named Rochelle! She's interested in Primary, and YW for her kids. Taught her about our church and the Book of Mormon! And she has a car too thank goodness. If people don't have a car we have to think twice on teaching them because that's one more person we have to find a ride for! But Rochelle is really interested in the Book of Mormon. We also had a lesson with Annette, Andrew, and Robert. And Annette started making pizza rolls mid-lesson, which scent started to fill the room. I don't know why I was so hungry but afterwards I made the decision that I was going to buy a pizza and then eat it all. So I did. :))

On Thursday we walked the dogs, and this time there were some other extremely annoying small yappy dogs trying to antagonize our dogs. One of them just would NOT leave us be! I got so fed up that I picked up a threatening brick and a threatening rock. After this that little dog didn't bother us anymore for fear of its life. In the evening we taught Sonya who quickly whipped her kids into shape so that we could have a quiet lesson. She had several switches that the kids seemed to respect. Taught her the Plan of Salvation, and Tawanna joined us too. It went super well, Sonya and Tawanna bonded very nicely! 

Friday we had a great dinner with the Masses at Antigua's, and then a good lesson with an old lady. She goes to Dialysis 3 times a week (like 50% of the people here it seems), and is super lonely. Hopefully we were able to cheer her up. We also taught a guy named Dennis Rone who is super nice. He let us in and we talked to him for over an hour. He told us so many stories, and loved everything we taught. Showed us his Gospel Music that he now makes and even gave us each CDs haha--it was fun! He invited us to ride his motorcycle too which offer we of course accepted! Just joking :)

We walked around and in the dark and talked to a couple more nice people. 

On Saturday we went over and watched conference with the Millers and Tia (from the Branch, a student at SAU). It was really good, we basically spent the whole day at their house eating food and watching conference. We did have a few lessons in between too, and taught a lady named Tocorra!

Also Charlien has gone missing. She was pacing around on the phone with someone after church on Sunday, and then after the Millers dropped her back off at the Women's shelter, we haven't seen her since. Some important things to note:

▪︎ The shelter only says they wont confirm or deny anything whenever we try and get information about what they know, and if Charlien is back yet. Except for one of the employees, who is super helpful and will tell us everything

▪︎ Charlien left all her stuff

▪︎ Apparently Charlien left with a young man in a green truck with no shirt that they think could be one of David's friends but they aren't sure.

▪︎ We called Charlien into one of our lessons on Tuesday, and she shared her testimony, but we didn't think to ask where she was because at that time we didn't know she had been missing from the shelter

▪︎ Now whenever we call it will ring, and then when we try the second time it goes straight to voicemail like someone has turned it off

▪︎ Charlien's family all does not like her, except she has one good aunt who she seems to like

▪︎ The other aunt is bad

▪︎ The Shelter got a call a couple days ago from an untraceable number claiming to be her aunt and saying they wanted to pick up Charlien's stuff soon. The shelter said no.

▪︎ The shelter also had a suspicious young man come in claiming he was "David Miller" who signed some confidentiality forms or something. David Miller is Elder Miller, and he did no such thing. Also he isn't young

▪︎ Tyre called David on messenger, because David changed his number, and David claims he's in a small town about an hour away. 

▪︎ A different lady said that David was staying in a tent in Magnolia

▪︎ There are two places people often set up tents around Magnolia the shelter told us. One is in the woods behind the Farmers Bank. One is in the back alley of a tobacco shop. We checked them both out...

We are filing a police report...

After making calls and doing some detective work with the Millers we came and there were fire trucks surrounding our apartment complex haha--luckily it was a different apartment than ours that had a fire. 

Sunday was fun, we spent all day watching conference with the flowers!! It was super fun. Also:

Charlien was found! David basically kidnapped her. Email me personally if you want to know more. 

-Abe