My final week in Massena... 12/4/2017

 

Here's a pic of the squad (Massena, Ogdensburg, and DD) going out to lunch this Friday. We all have matching sweaters, thanks to the legendary DD.

This week has been pretty crazy busy. I think... Now that I'm at the computer, I've forgotten literally everything I did this week. So I guess I'll just list some things that I know happened at some point in the last couple months or so. 

     Missionary work wise, this week has actually been one of the most productive weeks in a while, in both Malone and Massena. We had 2 exchanges this week, so I was in Malone from Wednesday to Friday. But in Malone we taught a bunch of good lessons, and found a few solid potentials. I also had the wonderful opportunity of trying "Kickaboo." I've been slightly sick all week, and felt pretty crappy, so Elder Foulger texted the Putnam's (the senior couple in Malone), and said I needed some Kickaboo. I had no idea what that was, but it sounded cool, so we stopped by their apartment at 9:00 for a glass of it. Apparently it is from Elder Putnam's childhood, and it's basically cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, orange, and a plethora of other things boiled for a while, and then you drink it. It smells amazing, however it's..... hard to swallow. It was nasty, yet rather soothing and tasty, but also terrible. Idk, but there are only a select few missionaries who have been able to finish a glass of Kickaboo, and it has a 100% success rate in making sick Elders feel better. I joined those ranks. So it was worth the pain. Anyways, here in Massena, we've picked up 5 new investigators, and taught a lot of lessons, and passed out a TON of #lighttheworld passalong cards. So, we may not be "harvesting" just yet, but we are spreading seeds like crazy.

      One cool thing that we've seen this week is Floyd's progression. Floyd has been coming to church "religiously" (pun intended) for almost 3 years. He knows this Church is true, he loves it, loves reading the BoM and D&C, and loves telling everyone about the Church. However, 2 things hold him back from being baptized. He is on parole until 2019, and he smokes... Yes I know those are 2 rather considerable stumbling blocks, but you don't know Floyd, so don't judge. Anyways, we've started really focusing on helping him quit smoking. And we tried a new approach. We don't want him to pray and ask for help to quit. We banned him from doing that. There is no point in asking for help if it's something you don't want to do, and something you don't know if you even should do. So, we told Floyd that we'd let him keep smoking if he promised to say a prayer every time he pulled out a cigarette and asked if he should quit smoking. We figured he should know whether or not he even should quit, before we work with him to quit. And holy cow. Coolest thing. He told us that he's smoked WAY less this week, and for some reason cigarettes don't taste good to him anymore. And lemme tell ya, Floyd has been smoking since he was 14, he's now 62. Floyd has loved the taste of cigarettes for 48 years. And now, all of the sudden, they just don't taste good to him. He started praying to ask if he should quit, and suddenly cigarettes don't taste good? If that ain't the largest coincidence in the world... Hmmmmmmmmmm

     I'm tryin to think of other details you folks might be interested in.... TiWi has given me 4 aggressive driving warnings, and about 187,000 "check your speed" warnings this month. Shocker. I got a package from the Bell family Thanksgiving gathering, and one from Miss Olivia Nielsen, those were awesome. Made my week. DD took us shopping this morning, and to get our haircuts. The lady that cut my hair said she wants to see where I end up in 10 years, because her guess is I'll have 2 kids, an awesome wife, a nice car, lots of money, and I'll still be "spreading His word" in the way I carry myself and act. So she's my new favorite person I've met, and I hope she's right. She apparently is a huge fan of missionaries. Also while we were shopping, literally anything we looked at, DD told us to put in the cart. So I've now got a bunch of random stuff I probably would never buy. (side note- Pine scented candles make studies even better, and chicken feet are a waste of money and they make DD throw up.)

      Anyways, it's been a good week. And I'm now starting my last week here in Massena. That's a little bittersweet for me. I've been here for 4.5 months. It's my "home." Yes it is a fairly small, fairly run down, fairly odd town. It has a fair amount of heroin, it has a house that is boarded up because in "Operation Gravy Train" the Police drove an armored Humvee through a house, it has a guy named "Recycle Michael" because he goes around the whole city with a wagon and picks up trash, it has women who have children from 4+ different guys, it has a Sikorsky Helicopter parked on the lawn of a building, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But it's also full of awesome people who I now will remember for the rest of my life. So, I do indeed love Massena. But I'm also pumped for a new area and a new comp and a new WARD (not a branch) and new everything. 

*This also means my address will be changing on the 13th of December. So if you're mailing anything, be aware of that. However there's like 2 people who this really applies to, so if you're either of them, remember this. ;)*

 Love all of you guys, thanks for the support, I'll talk to you next week!