Well there goes another week! Holy cow it's crazy how time flies. This week was another blur, but I remembered to write down all the cool stuff in my journal. However I forgot my journal at the apartment, so I'm just gonna have to see what I remember....
On Tuesday we set record time delivering Meals on Wheels. The usual flirty old lady was waiting at her door when we pulled up, and she did a little dance and said "oh boy am I ready for you", so I quickly handed the meal and fast walked away. If she's interested in hearing the lessons, I think we'll have the Sisters stop by... Later that night we visited Cheryl, she's a "progressing" investigator who's been meeting with missionaries for like 2 years. She's working on giving up smoking, but is going very slowly... However, we had a very good lesson, and at the end we invited her to pray about Baptism, and to set a date. We restarted the discussions, and are going over all of them again. We've had two lessons since then, and they're going very well and she's loving it. She even turns off Game of Thrones now, so that's ground breaking. We also visited a guy named Sonny we found in our area book. He's a very nice guy, in his 60's, and loves to talk. He was very interested in our message, but occasionally went off on tangents. We learned that his brother went from studying to become a Priest, to becoming a photographer for Playgirl magazine, to becoming the 47th American to get AIDS. So that was cool. Idk if that makes him a celebrity or what, but Sonny just had to share. Good guy. Rough family though.
On Wednesday we had District Meeting, and we read out of Joseph Smith History. It was an awesome meeting, and both Elder Davis and I were prompted to share that lesson with DD that night before dinner. We did, and it didn't seem to go that well. He struggles with the idea of Prophets, and didn't seem to get a lot out of the lesson. However, yesterday he talked to us, and started to cry and said how grateful he is for our lessons, and how he feels like he can relate to Joseph Smith in his wanting to know the truth, and having to wait and work for it. It was awesome, and was good to hear because we were really struggling with those lessons because stubborn DD didn't ever show any emotion in our lessons. That evening we went to Alcoa Park, the one in the sketchy neighborhood, to see if anyone was outside. There were a bunch of kids, so we went over and talked and played some basketball. As we were at the court, two 20ish year olds walked up, and I could hear they were talking about watches. I happened to be wearing my Breitling (yes it may be a fake, but occasionally people will see it and think I'm wearing a very good looking $12,000 watch.) One of the kids noticed my watch, and just went off about how "baller" it was, and it's so sick to see a Mormon "iced out". We talked for a while, and actually set up an appointment, and we're going to go over and teach him and his family. He and his parents just moved to Massena, and are actually looking for a church to go to. So it actually worked out very nicely. Shoutout to Marshall Frodsham for the watch, it's picking up investigators for me.
On Thursday, we exchanged with the DL and his trainee. However, this time was different. Because it was me and Elder Hill, the two trainees, who went to Massena. Idk who came up with that idea, but it seemed a little odd to have two greenies runnin the place. It was awesome though, partly because I got to drive, and partly because it prepared me for my first.... difficult companion. Elder Hill is a nice kid from Maryland. He has a speech impediment and is fairly hard to understand, he also likes to do things, all things, even my things, his way. So when I started cooking a hamburger for dinner, he decided to change his meal, and took the pan I was using and took over the whole operation. He also rearranged our bathroom and Elder Davis's desk... I felt kinda like I was babysitting... But it was great. After dinner we went tracting in a very high class trailer park. One of the doors we knocked on was answered by a very high lady. I'd never met, or probably even seen someone on cocaine before, until this lady. It was straight out of an episode of Cops. There was all sorts of drug paraphernalia and who knows what else. Needless to say it was a house I didn't plan on spending a lot of time at. But good old Elder Hill went into a 5 minute talk about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and how Latter Day Saints are here to help and serve and bring people a fullness of joy. The lady was very obviously on drugs, and very obviously wanted to close the door. Sooooo I started walking and luckily he followed. Maybe we'll try back at a better time... Anyways, Thursday was great
Friday was wonderful. After we exchanged back in the morning, we went to Salvation Army and did our "service." You know that feeling when you're digging a hole in the sand and it all keeps falling back in and you never get anywhere? That's what Salvation Army is like. We are endlessly sorting through broken toys and throwing them out, yet every time we're there, there's more broken stuff to sort through. They're doing a great thing there, but it's a longgggg two hours We get to talk to Darlene though, and she's a nice, normal lady, who loves talking about life and religion and all that. So it's a lot of fun. After service we did some tracting. We met an awesome guy named Jim. He actually called us over and told us we were doing a good thing, and to keep up the good work. He was sitting on a porch shirtless, smoking. We walked over and talked to him, taught the Restoration and gave him a BoM. He promised to read, and said he knew he would because we were both a lot bigger than him and he didn't want to be on our bad side. He's a funny guy, but he's actually read and I think he could be pretty solid. After that we had our classic Friday dinner and a lesson with DD. The lesson went well, and dinner was great, and then Elder Davis and I got to do something I've missed so much. President Rogers gave us permission to go to a high school football game. We have a couple investigators and PMF's who wanted us to go, so we asked, and we received. And wow. Upstate New York High School football is unlike anything I've ever seen... It is most definitely not a 5A Davis vs Viewmont rivalry game... Massena has about 24 players on their team, Potsdam had about 30. It was not like the football games I was used to, but it was so good to watch some football. Brought back so many good memories. And the PMF's that invited us were glad we were there and we talked a lot, so it was a really good thing.
On Saturday we got up and did the usual morning stuff, then went to pick up Elder Jarman and Bellon, who got dropped off at our church. We kinda went on splits, and tracted around Massena for a bit. Elder Bellon and I ran into a guy named Michael. Elder Davis and I had tried him earlier in the week, and he slammed the door and said he wasn't interested. However, we he saw me and Bellon, he came up and apologized and said he'd prayed and was answered that he should talk to us. That was kind of a miracle. So we set up and appointment for Sunday (which went decent. We answered a lot of questions but he was very stubborn and said he would only read if God told him personally. He's an alcoholic and is struggling. So we'll keep working with him) After a little while of tracting, we drove to Malone for District Conference. It was a good conference, the best quote I wrote down was "Grateful teenagers are not the norm. They are very rare" he, our area 70, went on to teach that that is completely normal. Teenagers are test driving adulthood, and cannot really be expected to be angels. So, Mom and Dad, I know I wasn't really an angel child.... But that's completely normal. And I'm an angel now, so we're good.
After conference, we drove an hour back into Massena, and while we were waiting for Jarman and Bellon's ride to come, we went and got ice cream at DQ. At the time it was staffed completely by 17-20 year old girls, and they were all talking about us as we sat far away at the end of the building. When we got up to leave, one of them stopped Elder Davis and gave him a note. Told him it was for "the blonde Mormon" That's me, I'm the blond Mormon. If only she knew what she got herself into. The Sisters are probably going to contact her and see if she's interested. Or rather what she's interested in. Probably isn't the church, but hey, ya never know.
Sunday was a longggg day. We were supposed to be watching a broadcast of the District Conference that was being held in Potsdam, however the video connection didn't work, and the audio sounded like the person talking was eating the microphone while being yelled at by a Russian.... There were also a lot of very distracted people in our small crowd. Soooo it was a rough 2 hours. After church we went to go visit Michael, and answered a lot of questions, and taught him a lot of principles he liked. However he is unwilling to commit to anything or follow any commandments until God personally tells him to... So in companionship study we're finding all the scriptures we can about prophets and commandments. Hopefully we can get through to him. He's a good guy, but relies heavily on alcohol, he's had a rough life. Hopefully he'll open up. The fact that he let us in was a miracle in itself. Sunday night we had Dinner with the Marcey's. They're both about 30, have a 2 year old daughter, and between the two of them they make up the whole young men's and primary presidencies. They both went to the U, and are a very normal couple. Which is nice, because that's kinda rare around here. We had a good talk, and they were very nice. They also became the second dinner appointment we've had here. So that was a double win.
Oh also, last story, when I first got to Massena, we had a couple on date for baptism, they asked us to stop coming the second week I was here. They had a lot going on, and I don't think they were ready. So we dropped them. We've stayed in touch, and we visited them on Saturday, since they had recently moved apartments. We stopped in to see how they were doing, and great news, they're on date again!! However, it is not a baptismal date. They're both going to jail. But hey, at least they're on date for something. That night Elder Davis and I added a new section to our whiteboard, right under our Dates for Baptism section. Hopefully our Dates for Prison section stays relatively empty. But this place is unpredictable...
Ok well idk if I even told those stories in the right order. But they all happened. The weeks are all kind of a blur. It's crazy. We're always meeting new people, some drunk, some high, some genuinely interested, some very firm in tellin us to get the heck away from their house, but whew it's a lotta fun. Anyways, keep sending letters, missionaries love letters. It's like Christmas morning when we see something in that mailbox. I hope you all have a better day than the guy sitting two chairs away from me. He's on his 10 scratch off lottery ticket, and hasn't won anything yet, I know that because from what I can hear, he was a sailor, and he mastered the language.
Love you all, thanks for the support!!
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