Good 'Ol Massena 8/21/2017

Whew, another week has flown by! Many things have happened, and I don't remember most of them... haha missionaries are busy people. To start, last week, as we left the Library where we were emailing from, an older lady named Sylvia stopped us and asked if we were Mormons. We told her that we were indeed Mormons. She asked us if we had a hymnal, she listens to a lot of gospel stuff on the radio and doesn't like how they've modernized everything, because it takes away from what the music is all about. Anyways, she heard a song called "I am a Child of God" and asked if we knew about it. I thought for a second and golly gee I knew that song. We told her we could bring her a hymn book, she said she'd be happy to pay for it, we told her we'd trade her the hymn book for 20 minutes of her time where we could share a message. Anyways, later that week, we knocked on her door, and talked for quite a while. She shared a lot of her beliefs, and I swear she was readin them off a list called "what Mormons believe." It was awesome. We taught the Restoration, and invited her to come to church. She told us she's not really a fan of organized religion, but she'd think about it. When we left we were pretty bummed, because she shared so many beliefs, but didn't seem to be a fan of church... Well at least we gave her a Hymn book. Fast forward to Sunday, we're walking around greeting people, and I looked at the door and guess who was walking in. Sylvia. She was wearing those cool flip up shades that cover regular glasses, classic elderly library employee stuff. Anyways, she told us she figured she had nothing better to do, and we were nice boys, so she came. I sat next to her in sacrament meeting, and she loved all the hymns, but I was unsure about the talks... Both speakers talked a lot about Temples, and the whole time I was praying she'd get something out of it besides the question "what's an endowment ceremony." Well, the meeting ended, and we asked her what she thought. She just started crying and said a lot of what was said really hit home for her, and she loved it. She stayed for the full 3 hours, and apparently the combined meeting 3rd hour, where all the missionaries bore our testimonies of the BoM, also had an impact. Because today we delivered her 2 copies, one for her to read, and one for her to give away. Moral of the story, don't tell the Mormons you don't like organized religion. Or you're gonna end up at all 3 hours of church, passing out BoM's, and telling your other church that you're not gonna be attending anymore, because you found something better. Hopefully one of my emails in the next few weeks includes a baptismal announcement for Sylvia.

     We taught a lot of lessons this week. Most of our teaching is done with less active members, and progressing investigators who can't be baptized until their parole is up (more common than you'd think). We got a call from an investigator named Val, a single mother of 4 girls, all under 6 years old, and she asked for a blessing. She hasn't been to church in a while, she works a lot, and has a lot going on with the kids. I gave her a blessing of comfort and peace. Hopefully we can find a way to make it a little easier for her to get to church.

     This week was Floyd's birthday. We got him a strawberry shortcake, since it's his favorite. He gave us half of the cake his brother's girlfriend made for him. We took it home in a tupperware, and I may or may not have thrown it away. It didn't look like the cake I was used to.... Thanks Sweet Whimsy.... Anyways He's probably the funniest guy in Massena (except Brother Sterling, that story is coming) Floyd prays often that we will not go to war with North Korea. I think it's hilarious, but considering I haven't seen the news since like the end of June, I don't know if I should laugh, or pray with him... Someone keep me updated on that....

     Probably the hardest part of this week has been the fact that DD is gone.. He's in Nova Scotia for 2 weeks visiting family. Which means we've had to feed ourselves since last Wednesday. I'm pretty darn good at cookin up chicken breasts and steaming vegetables. I've also made some killer PBJ's. I wish I remembered how to cook rice, because we have 20 lbs of rice in the apartment. I don't remember if it's 1 cup rice to 2 cups water, or vice versa. But I'm sure it'll come to me.

     This Thursday we had a Zone conference in Potsdam. Our zone is pretty small, but it was an awesome conference. Sister Rogers talked to us for like 15 minutes on having fun on PDay. She said surely emailing all day isn't the funnest thing we can do. There's all sorts of fun stuff. She listed a bunch of possible activities. Stuff like seeing cornfields, Amish communities, farms, dairy farms, farmers markets, vegetable stands, and more farm related things. There seemed to be a theme... And I don't consider that theme to be "fun." However I think Elder Davis and I are going to go hangout at one of the many Amish farms in the area. They seem like very nice people, and I want to ride in one of those wagon things they cruise down the side of the highway in. We also had an incredible presentation on ticks and mosquitoes... "you know it's bad when we're passing out the permethrin again." What a life. I'm just glad I'm not in a rain forest somewhere.

     The biggest thing to happen this week was Carlena, a 15 year old investigator, who's been meeting with the missionaries for almost 2 years, finally committed to baptism. She comes from a very rough family situation, so this is huge. We promised her that if she went forward and was baptized, that she would be able to help improve her family situation, and she'd be happier. We're excited. Elder Davis will baptize her, and I'll confirm her on Sunday. Wish us luck!

      On Saturday we went fishing with a 15 year old kid named Steven. We teach his older sister, but he's rarely around (another rough family situation) But we managed to see him riding back from football practice. He invited us to come fishing, and since he's an investigator, we could go. We walked down to the Power Dam, and fished for a while. Steven is a good kid, acted like he wasn't interested in the church, but asked us a lot of questions. We talked a lot about football too, he invited us to come to the games. Hopefully we can make it to some, I miss football. Maybe we could do a halftime show and teach the Restoration to the whole crowd....

     Wow, another long email. Lots has happened. Mission life is exciting. The days sometimes drag on, but the weeks fly by. I swear time is different out in the field. Anyways, we're keeping busy, teaching lots, and studying lots. This week I've been reading Believing Christ (shoutout to Brittany for giving me this book in the 2 hours we had together) It's awesome. Talks about utilizing the Atonement. If we have access to it, but never use it, what's the point? It would be like having a Jeep with a thousand lightbars, but never turning them on... I've also been reading another book, I found it in our apartment, and I read it during meals. It's called "Bear Attacks and Their Avoidance." It's incredible stuff, truly gripping, not enough pictures though. 

      Anyways, I love you all, keep sending letters, or start sending letters, we love getting mail. Thanks for all your support.

Ok wait one more thing, before y'all get sick of me. The coolest thing that's ever happened in Massena just happened. A Ferrari F430 Spyder in the classic 'rari Red just cruised by. It sounded like a chorus of angels. And it's worth probably twice as much as most of the houses in Massena... I'll count that as a spiritual experience for the day. #blessed