Transfer calls came last night and we were so so close to being in the clear. 10:30 came along and we popped open the ginger ale and celebrated but then 10:45 came along with a phone call. Could be worse. We're both staying but we're getting a third companion named Elder Capson. Elder Jones replaced him in Newport News (where he was with Elder Holbrook) and he just got done being companions with Elder Christensen my former bud. We know he likes computers, like a lot (an IT guy) and he's been out almost a year. It'll be interesting for sure. Also the sisters in Gloucester are being replaced with elders which will add a new dynamic to my responsibilities (exchanges, ugh) but I like one of them (the other is a greenie so I don't like him yet cause we don't know who it is) so it could be fun.
That's it for changes though. Other than that the week was business as usual. Well, except for the Chinese nationalists.
So Monday night we get a phone call from our zone leaders telling us there were 21 Chinese nationalists down in Williamsburg who were touring the US and observing Christianity that wanted to be baptized. They ran out of room at William and Mary so they called some of the members in the ward to house them for two weeks. They went to church and a special fireside in Chinese and 21 of them said they wanted to be baptized and that they needed 7 sets of missionaries to help teach them that week so they could be baptized before they went back to communist China and we were selected. We were pretty jazzed up for it and were talking about it all week and even got some Chinese food the night before (don't laugh) to help us "prepare". We were expecting some kind of baptism assembly line down there.
Well we got there and found out that they only wanted to be taught, not baptized, and that all of them cancelled except 3 cause the members housing them didn't want them to be baptized so soon. So we had 15 missionaries who had to be split up between 3 appointments. We were assigned to the most promising one, a girl who agreed to baptism the next day and I was supposed to do the interview. But I guess she didn't realize that being baptized meant joining our church (language barrier probably didn't help that one) so we ended up just trying to get her to take a leap of faith but she wasn't having it. So only one of the 21 Chinese nationalists ended up being baptized and that's cause the Gloucester sisters stepped in and set him for the next day which was cool. We had a special fast for them and everything. We were pretty bummed cause now they're all back in China and who knows when they'll get a chance to hear from missionaries again. The girl we taught said she'd be back in the US in 2 years so they're gonna keep tabs on her I guess cause she did say she would accept baptism at that point. But we're optimistic about the future despite the big baptism-tease we got.
That was the big excitement of the week. Oh, and we damaged our phone which cause us to go 3 days without a phone which is really really hard. I know missionaries in the past didn't have phones and everything and some missionaries now don't but when you're out in the middle of nowhere and people expect you to call them for appointments and you can't it really throws a wrench into everything. But we got a phone from a member that we activated and are now sorta back to normal. We lost all the contacts so we only have the numbers we wrote in the area book. I won't explain how the phone was damaged. Let's just say it was water damaged and it was my fault. Don't laugh.
But yeah area's doing great. This week was kind of a down week cause of the trip to Williamsburg and the phone thing so it was a little slow teaching wise. We hope this week will pick up a bit. I'm just glad I'm still here. 7.5 months, wow. I would've never thought. I'm steadily growing my area duration (2 transfers in Chesterfield, 3 in Waynesboro, 4 in Wakefield, and now 5 here). Weird.
Alright I think that's all. Talk to you next week!
-Elder Parker
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