7 Months ago I said goodbye to what I love most. My bikes and Jeep. 2/19/2018

 Well, you read it. It's been 7 months. I've been part of 3 Baptisms, served in 2 areas, had 6 companions, done upwards of 12 pushups, received upwards of 50 "aggressive driving" warnings from TiWi, and written 1.8 million letters. Pretty crazy how fast time flies. Missions truly are incredible. You learn so much, experience some crazy stuff, and grow (physically and spiritually.) Luckily, after all the ups and downs, my sense of humor has indeed remained in tact. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, or a great thing. Either way, it's been an exciting and fun and awesome 7 months. 

     This week has been rather unexciting compared to last, granted it's only been like 5 days since we emailed. But we've been pressing on in faith. We managed to have nearly all of our appointments cancelled, so we had a lot of time slots to fill. Classic NYUM. We did get to go see Millie, our recent convert, she's such a nice lady, and she's so excited to be baptized. She always says how proud she is to finally be a Mormon, and says she's learned more from the Elders in 18 months, than she did from the Catholic Church in 70 years. I actually feel bad, she thinks we're all prodigy's. She'll ask a question, generally about cars, or lately, snowboarding, thanks to the Olympics. And I'll happen to have an answer. If only she knew that all my knowledge came from spending too much time reading magazines and watching Redbull's Youtube channel... Anyways, she's awesome, and lonely, so she loves having us come over, and loves the lessons. We're trying to get her through the BoM, because some Elder in the past told her not to read ANYTHING until she reads the BoM. So, now that she's got that embedded in her mind, she feels guilty if she studies a lesson out of the Gospel Principles manual, or reads a conference talk. Idk what this Elder said exactly, but wow, she's keeping that commitment better than any investigator ever has.

     We're also working with a recent convert named Deborah. We're trying to get her to come to Church, but she comes from a rather rough situation. Our lessons usually consist of us fighting off crying kids, dodging cats, witnessing drug deals (that has legitimately happened in 3 of our lessons), and trying to not look at the TV, where Burt, her husband, is playing GTA. It's a struggle. But we're trying to get her visiting teachers to join us for a lesson, but their husbands work at the hospital, so they're nigh on impossible to coordinate with. We have dinner with Deborah tonight, so hopefully we'll make some progress.

     On Friday we went to attempt to talk to someone at Binghamton University, so that we can be allowed to table and OYM on campus. This involved 30 minutes searching for a parking spot, before we basically just hid the car behind a tree and hoped we'd be back before campus police stopped by. When we got to the administration building, a mile later, we discovered there were a total of zero helpful people there to guide us. So we just picked a random room, and went there. We managed to choose the HR department, which seemed promising. But between the 8 people in there, they decided they had no idea who we should talk to, so they took a card and said they'd call. In NY, or probably just everywhere, that's code for "we're never going to contact you ever." Sooo we'll be going back tomorrow, to see if someone can be of actual assistance.

     The most exciting thing to happen this week is our little war with Endicott. A certain series of phone calls they made led to a scare for us, so I told them it was on, and we were going to be pranking each other. I said we'd meet at their apartment at 9:00 to discuss rules. That was a lie, we were at their apartment at 9:00 to unlock all their windows. The next day for lunch, using a garmin suction cup to open the window, and my cheerleading knowledge I picked up from Miss Olivia Nielsen, I threw Schindler through the window, and we got to work. We removed all of the hinge pins from all of the doors, including the front door. We filled their showerhead with Kool-Aid and Garlic salt. We took their pillows. Covered their toilet seat in Vaseline. And also stole some toilet paper, because we were out. Anyways, we waited, 7 hours, for a phone call. And my oh my, Elder Hatch was rather surprised. They apparently didn't take us seriously when we said it was on. We did however feel bad that we had their pillows, sooooo we drove over that night, snuck through their window and into their room, without them noticing, and flipped the lights on and surprised them with their pillows. They had no idea how we got in, so we told them we had simply become friends with their landlord. They were glad to have their pillows back, and we were about to call a truce, when I was hit with a snowball. So we left, and the next day (yesterday), we replaced their toothpaste with mayonaisse, saran wrapped a desk, and confiscated their ties. The worst part about this is the fact that Elder Little hasn't said anything about his toothpaste. That means one of two things, and neither are very good.... Anyways, these pranks remind me of the days where I locked Davis Clark's passenger seat in the South End trophy case, and when I filled Spencer Hill's Audi with packing peanuts. Good times. 

     We had an awesome lesson this week in Gospel Principles, about The Holy Ghost. And one of the coolest points that was made was after reading Romans 8:16-17, where it talks about how we are all brothers and sisters, children of God, and the Spirit testifies of that. Bro Magelby, the teacher, said this is proven when we feel excitement when someone we know, or even someone we don't know, accomplishes something awesome. And that was an awesome point. Because I'm sure all of you have felt that. Who would've guessed that when Felix Baumgartner jumped out of space, that was the Spirit I was feeling. Or when recently, Shaun White locked in another Gold Medal (the members keep us updated.) That's the cool thing about the Spirit, it testifies of truth. ALL truth, not just scriptural. If we think something is awesome and something to be proud of, the Spirit can, and will testify of that. So next time you watch something awesome, like my Hudl highlight or something, remember that you can indeed feel the Spirit while doing so ;)

     Well folks, I'm glad I was able to send out my 28th weekly email, and I'm grateful for those of you who actually read them, because they're often long and boring, much like Ward Council meetings. LOVE YOU ALL. TALK TO YA NEXT WEEK. 

PS the subject line is a joke, my family is what I love most. Followed closely by things with 2 wheels and a Jeep