It's been a week. 2/26/2017

     Subject line says it like it is. It's literally been a week. A reasonably uneventful, classic "missionary life" week. Some of the stuff that did happen is actually really sad... A couple weeks back we got a call to go with the Bishop of the Owego Ward to give a blessing to a a member of their ward who was in the hospital. She wasn't doing well, neither was her husband, Heinz, who passed away this past week. I've only met her once, but Sis Mueller is incredible. She and Heinz moved here from Germany years ago, and have been awesome members since they got here. Another member, from up in the North, who called me on my first day in NY to find out my favorite colors so she could knit me some slippers, passed away last week. I learned that when I checked my email this morning... That was sad. Sister Stevens has been knitting slippers for missionaries as long as this mission has been a mission. I always thought it was lame how missionaries in their homecoming talks would say how much they loved the people where they served. Well dangit it's true. You do love the people, the ones you meet once, the ones you see every day, the ones you see once a week. It's weird how you become so connected to these people thousands of miles away from home. People like the VanAusdall's, who had met me once, but pretty much gave Christmas to me and all the missionaries in the Ward. Thank heavens for the Plan of Salvation, so we'll be able to see these incredible people who have passed away, again. And thank heavens for technology, so we can keep in touch with all the cool people we meet.

     This week was rather slow in the "new investigator" department. When I was doing my main job as DL last night and collecting key indicators, I noticed nobody picked up a new gator... However, we did re-activate 2 members. So that's almost better, right? We got a call from Chad, an awesome member, who has kinda disappeared since we had dinner with him Christmas Eve. But on Wednesday night he called and said he needed the Spirit back in his life, and he wants to come back to Church and get back in the swing of things. He told us to come over at 8:00 for a lesson and homemade spaghetti. Who could pass up an offer like that? We went over and had a great lesson, then invited him to play basketball on Thursday night. He used to play every Thursday with a big group of members and non-members who play every Thursday, but hadn't been in a while. He said he'd go if we went, because he wanted to guard me, since we both played DE in high school. Again, we gladly accepted. I expected a group of maybe 8 or 10 people. There were 17. And there were some serious ballers there. I haven't played a real game of basketball since September, but that was against 11 kids under the age of 10, and Elder Davis and I demolished them. But believe it or not, I stuffed our ward clerk twice, had like 7 assists to a Baptist guy who plays, and also found out that my basketball shoes give me huge blisters. They work fine for tracting, but they're a definite nope for ballin. 

     Also, remember last week, when I mentioned a prank war? It crashed and burned this week. On Tuesday, we got home for lunch, to find my Tide Pods spread throughout our apartment. Our huge box of Cheerios had been used to add some cushion to our mattresses. And, to top it all off, they had stolen ALL of my watches. We immediately decided that our lunch would be spend at their apartment. We went in through a window, which nobody seems to find suspicious. I guess wearing a shirt and tie looks official enough that nobody questions stuff like breaking and entering, or leaving through a window whilst carrying a microwave. Anyways, we went in through the window, added some Kool-Aid to the showerhead, mayo to the toothpaste, and took a guitar and a microwave. As we loaded them into our car, we noticed the Endicott Elders were in their car, 20 yards away, and hadn't seen us. We honked and waved as we left, and the looks of shock on their faces were priceless. However, they called us and said we had to meet up. Apparently, they had been geniuses and used their car as a ladder to get into our apartment. They learned a valuable lesson from this. Windshields of Rav-4's simply cannot be used as ladders, or they crack. Sooooo, needless to say, we won that war, and as proof of their loss, they will have a bill for a windshield. Oops...

     Alright folks, it's been another wonderful week. Week 29/104. Transfers are next week, and I will most likely be getting a trainee. I feel like I just barely finished being trained and now Pres. Rogers is putting me in charge of a new missionary. Our first appointment will without a doubt be a fake Law of Chastity lesson with a member family who's pretending to be unmarried. Then we will go to Deborah's where there is a legitimate risk of being stabbed, our car being stolen, and a drug deal happening. This kid's mind is gonna be blown. 

(hopefully you all know that I'm mostly sarcastic and I will do everything I can to help this kid and make sure he's trained properly. However, I am the same 18 year old boy who drove right past his mother while skipping English so that I could run home and get tools to remove someone's passenger seat. But my testimony has increased quite a bit since then, and that will be very useful.)

LOVE YOU ALL. THANKS FOR GETTING MY EMAILS, EXTRA THANKS FOR THE PROBABLY 5 OF YOU STILL READING, AND NO THANKS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MOVE THEM TO YOUR TRASH.  

Here we are mourning the death of our pranks. Well, most of us are mourning. Little didn't really know what was going on.