frankie says hello

Well yesterday was fun. It's always fun to sorta-kinda see your family through a haze of labored pixelation. Although you guys were mostly just sitting there and you don't really look any different so I don't know what I was expecting. Mostly some Casen action actually but I don't blame him for being camera-shy, considering how many videos we have of the poor kid. He has a well-documented childhood. But I guess 8 months will go by pretty fast. The first 15.5 sure did.

I'm glad I didn't talk much about our week cause now I'll have material. One big thing I forgot to mention was our little trip down to Elizabeth City, NC. Elder Gaunt had an investigator that he taught for a long time get baptized finally on Saturday and we somehow managed to get a ride down there (all 2.5 hours of it). The baptism was good even though I didn't know anyone. Elder Gaunt had a grand ol' time so it was good for him. He had been talking about it ever since he heard about it (like 2 weeks ago) so I'm glad it's finally over with. It was my first time going to North Carolina so that was neat. A lot like Virginia though. Actually I probably wouldn't have known it was NC if I didn't see the sign at the border. But whatever it was a nice experience.

Me this morning in front of our cottage.

The rest of the week was comprised of service once again. This time we removed some insulation in a member's crawlspace (dirty and mice-y) and spread some mulch/general yardwork and took more stuff to the dump from that guy trying to move out. This time we hit something of a jackpot at the dump in Kilmarnock. There was like 7 palettes of really nice glass cups with Marvel superheroes on them and even some cups with Ringo on them (but only Ringo cups; I won't make any Ringo jokes there). We took 5 boxes and gave 4 of them away to members and other missionaries at zone meeting. I saved some for myself and I might be sending them home soon, with the other stuff I've collected.

But I won't let my free stuff clutter the e-mail. I promise it wasn't the biggest success of the week. We are *still* managing all the potential that could come from this area. We taught a part-member for the first time on Saturday that we've been trying to teach forever. He said taht if he found out the church to be true he would consider becoming a member, which was a little surprising to hear. His wife is in the hospital with pancreatitis so we went over there and saw her a few times this week. We also taught a less-active who's a cop in the area and he told us a ton of stories about crap going on in the county. Not as bad as like Newport News of course but still not good stuff. Don't freak out though and call the mission office or something. But yeah we also worked our tails off trying to get a transmission into a van with a couple of jacks on someone's lawn. I have never felt more redneck in my entire life.

The rest of the week was good though. Still getting appointments that don't keep, still counting our blessings when they come, and still trying to get someone baptized here. We are close and getting closer. Just need to...break the threshold or something. If that makes sense. We still keep hearing stuff about how this area has just always struggled with baptizing and retaining for years. I don't know why that is either. It doesn't seem different from other areas. Just needs some faith I guess.

Well I'm doing just fine in case you were curious. Transfer calls are this Sunday so that'll be interesting. Prediction: we both stay. But who knows.

Have a good week!

-Elder Ryan Parker