road trips

We did lots of driving this week. It was a good week regardless but still lots of driving.

Thursday was mission conference so we drove to Newport News on Wednesday, spent the night with missionaries there, went to Virginia Beach on Thursday which was my first time ever being there, and then drove back to Kilmarnock on Friday morning. We spent Thursday night seeing some people that our ride to conference needed to see. It was a lot of fun though and we had some good experiences. Mission conference was kinda weird cause it was all about staying strong in the mission field and not giving up and going home and all this stuff and we're just like "man is our mission depressed or something" but I guess it was all meant for someone if not a few someones. We heard lots of musical numbers too, including a song from Elder Gaunt. He did well, but I dunno I just didn't care much for having musical numbers at mission conference. I can listen to music in the car. I drove 2 hours to hear about how I can improve. Whatever. Shouldn't complain.

But yeah that was much of our week, being out of town. We were pretty busy the rest of it though. We had another good week at church with more less actives coming and a couple investigators too. We should be having a baptism next Sunday after church if everything goes according to plan. It's kinda weird cause he wants to do it (it's the part-member we set a few weeks ago) and he knows he needs to, but he's super quiet about it and is just kinda going with the flow. But we know he wants to, and he knows it's all true. He just...doesn't offer much insight into what he thinks. But we're just gonna keep on with it and make sure he understands everything he's doing. It should be good. We also started teaching this 10 year old kid who came to church yesterday. He read the book of mormon in 3 days and wants to learn more at church so we're obliging. He doesnt' retain much that we teach unless we do really good object lessons, so we're hoping primary will help him learn what he needs. His parents don't care what he does with his life so they're fine with it. We'll see waht happens. We're also teaching that one old part-member I've talked about before. He needs some time to really start acting on anything. But we're gonna try and accelerate that.

Things are going pretty well here though. Summer is definitely being a butt heat-wise although the last few days have been mercifully overcast. We make do though. I'm just glad I'm not on a bike. I shouldn't jinx myself though.

I don't know what else to say.

That's all I got I think. Hope you have a good week. Bye bye.

-Elder Ryan Parker