To friends and family,
How was everyone's week? Anybody lose an arm or a leg? I will see some of you soon, and this is my second to last email so you better enjoy it while you can. We had a lot of rain here, infact it rained most of the week on and off!
Monday was raining the whole day but we also had to get a car wash before zone conference anyway so we attempted to do that. The one problem is we couldn't find a single open car wash! They were all closed or broken. Finally we just decided to go use the free vacuums at one of the closed car washes, and then went and powerwashed our car off at one of those places that are a poor excuse for a car wash and you pay with coins to turn on one measly sprayer haha
We also got a call from Logan and Sarah, and Logan got out of school early and so we were able to go over and play games with them! We also ate LOTS of pinwheels cause Sarah made a ton of them. Then in evening we drove down to the funeral home for Wade O'Neal's viewing, and it was good to see him and know he's in a better place. We attempted to visit some people but there was so much water everywhere that basically no matter what we did our shoes were filled with water. Everywhere you step was like the reverse of a mirage where you dont think there's water there but then there IS and it's 1 foot deep!
Tuesday we woke up early and got on the road to Longview for Zone Conference. Again it was super rainy, except with a ton of fog this time too! And the map decided to tell us to take "shortcuts" on all these backroads haha--so we were just flying along blind in the dark fog and rain. It was an adventure! We finally got to Zone Conference safe and sound, and had a mediocre to good meeting. There were some good trainings about fear and not being afraid. President Taylor also talked about how to avoid suffering for things that haven't even happened because we often make up false scenarios in our minds. It was good. We also got some trainings on using social media to find more, and talked a lot about referrals and calling them within seconds of recieving them. It was all pretty good, it just felt like a step back in time. It's like the mission is having to re-learn all these things we already knew and were doing under President Seitz. One thing I didn't like at all as usual is their approach to accountability. They brought up the huge leaderboard as usual and then had us all stare at it and take notes based on our comparison with other zones. They also told us that we are probably feeling the pinch looking at it and told us that's good. Except I felt no pinch at all first of all because they are ridiculous and second of all Shreveport Zone had the top numbers of all the zones haha so I dont know what "pinch" they wanted us to feel. I don't know why so many people love the numbers sooo much, it's understandable to like then a little bit but it seems to be all that some people enjoy. They also trained us on how to plan Baptismal services using a reference sheet they made. They basically just read it to us, which we could have done that on our own but I guess they wanted to hammer it into everyone's brains. The Social Media Specialists (if you can call them that--I think a more fitting name would be "The Missionaries that have been chosen to help missionaries use social media to find but they aren't very good at it themselves so its like the blind leading the blind plus they put the people who are the WORST at simple graphic design and editing in charge of the whole mission Facebook page but I guess they think they are good so it's okay"-- but I guess MTHBCTHMUSMTFBTAVGAITSILTBLTBPTPTPWATWASGDAEICOTWMFPBIGTTTAGSIO doesn't roll off the toungue quite as easily as SMS does haha) trained us on how we should basically teach a principle and pray with people on the phone and ask to call another time just so we can call them "found" and have our finding numbers go up (his exact words). Which is basically the epidemy of everything I'm against. We aren't here to farm finds, we are here to teach and help PEOPLE. Who cares if someone is "found" or not? And I'm sorry to say but talking on the phone about how the Book of Mormon is cool for 1 minute and then forcing a forced prayer in there is NOT a lesson! If people are truly interested we will not have to FORCE anything, we can just be normal. This way of finding as SMS trained on can tear areas apart with tons of fake finds and noninterested people in their teaching pool that consume time that should be left for the elect. Tsk tsk
We did have some pretty good soup and salad for lunch though! I loved the Tortilla soul especially. We also won a clean car award again haha
In the evening we drove back and visited a bunch of people. We were able to teach Chris which was cool! He said he feels the spirit when we come over.
On Wednesday we went in the morning to the church, and Brother Lowther and I went in for the Stake Audit with David Elliot. This audit was much quicker than last time, but still tedious to go through so many deposits and reimbursements. We also walked around campus and met a girl from the nursing program who is seeking more truth! We also met a guy named Eric who said he had nothing better to do except listen haha--we had a good lesson with Blake who has watched even more of the Book of Mormon videos, and then met a cool guy named Cree. We also met at the church with Debbie and Brooklyn for a lesson and it was amazing! Royce came with us and we taught them about temples. It was so good! They are excited to go. We also talked about some final commandments in preparation for baptism and they are willing to keep them! Royce shared some powerful experiences of the temple in his life too. After dinner we had 3 appointments scheduled and went with the Millers but one by one they each cancelled haha--so then we decided to go Charlien Chsluething®️! We went to several different of her relatives houses and each one gave us a clue of where to go next. Finally we met her cousin and he pointed us to the house supposedly Charlien was in. So we went up and knocked (at this point it was 8:40 and the street was almost completely dark). A voice that sounded like Charlien's voice came from within asking who it was. Once we said missionaries a different coice came but they sounded like they were trying to be like Charlien. She kept saying she was in the bed. When we kept asking if Charlien was there she would just dodge the question and say she was "in the bed." All of this was just us talking through the walls haha
Finally we asked if we could come another time but then she started saying she's sick. Each time we would say something there would be a slight delay before the reply came. Finally we left. Dont know what is going on but we are going to get to the bottom of it!
Thursday we walked the dogs and Elder Bradshaw's was being so bad and walking so horribly and trying to jump on him so much that he gave it a good whip with the leash. That calmed the dog down pretty quick! Buck who I often walk as usual tried to get all the cats and kept trying to go back out to get them even when we brought him back in. He makes a beeline right for them everytime he even so much as GLIMPSES a tuft of cat! We then went and had a really good lesson with a less active member on the Tree of Life Book of Mormon video! He really liked it and seemed to get all excited about the Book of Mormon again after we watched it with him. And he was in need of food cause his resources were completely depleted due to unanticipated costs and so I approved some fast offering expenses to get him some food. Also met a girl named Tashawn who's interested in the Book of Mormon. We went and taught one-legged Chris again and he's doing well. He still hadn't watched a Book of Mormon video like he promised so we watched one with him and talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We went and taught Becky and Fatima about the sabbath day but we couldn't keep the lesson on topic cause Becky was trying to make soup the whole time saying "I'm still listening dont worry" while not listening of course--don't know why people say that. Fatima was trying to tidy up, and Becky's granddaughter Anila was distracting Elder Bradshaw! So all I could do was try and talk to everyone who I know weren't listening haha--but luckily we did meet another one of Becky's daughters named Cat and she's super interested! She wants to come to church Sunday. Becky kept making fun of her for wearing a cropped hoodie: "Cat what do you think your doing how are you supposed to stay warm when your hoodie only goes to there??"
Also we got a call from a guy named Sam whos talked with missionaries in the past and we basically answered his questions for the next 40 minutes. He had lots of questions about the Book of Mormon and basically told us he hasn't joined our church here because there aren't enough members and he would want to have a girlfriend that was a member. So we told him he could always bring his girlfriend into the church but he didn't seem to consider that idea unfortunately. We also had a good dinner with amazing hamburgers Logan made for us at the Flowers place! We made bacon cheeseburgers with grape jelly on them and it was amazing! Didn't expect it to be so good.
On Friday in the morning we went and visited another less active member in a nursing home. He told us some stories about his days where he was a truck driver and would basically commit fraud by driving more than he was allowed and then messing with his log book to make it look like he was taking the appropriate ammount of time off so he could make double the money haha--he had some other funny stories too. For lunch we went to My Kitchen Table with Royce and I had some good chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. We walked around the campus and everyone we saw walked the opposite direction today so we didn't get to talk to many except for a girl named Rose. Rose is mildly interested so I guess we will see what happens there. We also went up to Waldo and found 2 ladies and taught them the restoration! Both Kelli and Jamila are interested in the Book of Mormon, one wanted the app and the other wanted a physical copy. We also had a lady who's door we knocked on stutter and finally choke out a meager excuse that she was going to go to the store soon so there was no time for a scripture! We had a really good lesson on Fasting and Tithing after that with Debbie and Brooklyn. They are both ready for baptism! Brooklyn was sharing her concerns about her fears of death Hut Elder Bradshaw shared a super powerful experience of how he came to know that it isn't the end and after that she was basically crying and that concern got resolved! We showed them the font and they are excited for next week. We had some good spaghetti with the Masses after that and talked about all sorts of funny things most of them involving broken down cars. We went out to the country for our lesson with Jarriod but he wasn't there. He also usually instantly responds to texts but didn't respond all day! And his house is in the middle of the forest alone in the dark...hopefully he hasn't been eaten by racoons!
Saturday we walked the dogs, and Elder Bradshaw told me he officially no longer likes dogs haha--the shelter has broken him. Now he gets just as annoyed with his as I do. Most of Saturday it was misting though so it was kinda fun walking around in it. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and visited a few friends and members. We got on some really muddy backroads so now we have a brown truck instead of our usual white one! We had a zone call on planning and they basically just taught the usual things they always teach on these calls. They kept talking about how we don't want to have any regrets which people just like to kind of say sometimes without really thinking. It's such a hollow thing to say but it appeals to the emotions for some reason and so people just like to use it to make people do things he or she (the person saying it) wants him or her (the person potentially doing said action) to do. We talked to Reed again who has started selling soap haha--and it was so funny the way he explained it all
He basically gets big pallets full of big buckets full of soap from his buddy in Dallas and then just sell it to people. He sells Tide and Pine Sol both liquid so I don't know how--maybe just gets a baggie and puts some in and hands it over? Haha--Also he said its selling fast right now! We also went down Booth street which I haven't ever walked down and so Ive been thinking each day, "hmm we should try going down Booth st" and then we get too busy and don't have time. We'll the time finally came and we were sorely disappointed. It had probably 10 houses, half of which had stuff growing through them and looked abandoned but we could hear noises from within. The others were mostly dark except for one. We knocked that one and the lady came out and was clearly cooking meth and was very rude telling is she was "busy" haha
I did a lot of preparation for Branch Conference, and then we also talked with Sam on the phone for a while about how the Bible isn't perfect and how we can know that God is really there
Sunday was crazy, I got released and Royce Burdine got called as the new Branch president. I love our Stake Presidency, they gave super good talks and trainings. Brother Mass and Brother Bahr will be Royces counselors and Logan will be his clerk. And the new Elders Quorum President will be Brother Lowther. All as I orchestrated >:) (no reason for evil smile here, it's going to be great!) Brother Lowther called Brother Steven's who just barely closed on a house here and his records arent even in our Branch yet but he called him as a counselor haha--so week 2 of him being at the branch he's already called into the stake Presidents office. Hes been a Stake President himself before and Bishop several times though so I think he's used to it luckily. We had a good linger longer after church and ate a ton of food. I sat at the table with President Smith and the Flowers so naturally it was a good time! Afterwards everyone got set apart and I took care of a bunch of finances and filing. We also had an excellent Come Follow Me lesson with the Flowers. I love the new Come Follow Me book
--Abe
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