oh man that's a big tree yeah!

I forgot to mention this last week but last Thursday was my 4 month mark, and the next transfer after this one will contain my 6 month mark. So that's kinda nuts. Time is on the fast forward, and I think it's because things that were once new and different and out of the ordinary are now becoming ordinary, in the world of a missionary. So now it's becoming more routine and I guess my brain doesn't have to process as much information as it once did. This doesn't mean I'm not gonna change and add things to that routine, but right now the ebb and flow of it all is being established. But I still haven't really been out that long.

The last week has been just swell. I'm kinda starting to understand what it's like to be in an area that doesn't quite have as much "oomph" to it. I've already kinda talked about it, but I guess what happened before I got here is that the missionaries basically baptized everyone they had in their teaching pool, leaving us to kinda scrounge around for some substance here. We'll be alright though.

Okay. Specifics. We're working with someone right now named Nancy who's been taught basically everything you can be taught. She has 3 full teaching records, when most converts will have just 1. The only thing holding her back is coffee and tea which she just can't seem to shake. She wants to be a member, and has even asked if she can be a member and go to church without having to be baptized and stop drinking coffee and tea. When we told her it doesn't quite work that way she asked to put her baptism (which was scheduled at that point) on the back-burner. She's been really stressed out with selling her house so she says she needs that stuff to get her through it. We'll have to just keep trying there.

We've also been working with 2 friends named Tina and Jessica who really enjoy talking to us. They came to church the week before I got there and I guess Jessica went up and bore her testimony about meeting with the missionaries and how great it's been. But they haven't been since. So we've just continued to teach them and they're doing pretty good and could be set for something in the next week or so.

We've also had someone named Dale who's the blacksmith I mentioned. He says he doesn't like going to churches cause they put him to sleep but he sees us coming over as a chance to be spiritual so he does it. He's very intellectual and he enjoys the discussion format we kind of allow.

Yeah. So there's some specifics that are along the lines of things I've been leaving out. There you go.

Anyway, the week was good. We spent a lot of time at the Chevy dealership here getting our car door fixed and getting our annual inspection. Boring. Other than that and District Meeting we did the same stuff we usually do, so I don't know what else to talk about. We did go to Greenville for an afternoon and got to experience even more back country than I thought I already knew. We drove into one spot that looked like it was some camp ground or something but I guess people actually live out there. Lots of bumpy dirt roads with lots of potholes and divets and mud. So that was interesting.

Oh, and we did come up with a game we like to play every night after planning called stairball. It's where we put cups down at the bottom of the stairs and assign them point values, then hit ping-pong balls off the top of the stairs with a golf club (I prefer the 8 iron) and try and get them in the cups. It's pretty fun. We do it in a baseball format with 9 innings and stuff. Yep.

Uh I think that's all. Til next week?

-Elder Parker


Pictures:

1. Elder Bronson sewing his pant-crotch together.

2. A kinda cool picture from the same little trail last week.

3. This is in Greenville, which is the far corner of our area. Very...small town. Yeah.