We're on our third car, third meal appointment, we've lost a companion, baptized Dawn, and drifted a Subie up a mountain road. 2/13/2018

   If you couldn't tell by the subject line, this past week has been rather lit. The week began with a rather considerable snowstorm. We were getting pounded, and it was the night before our blitz in Elmira. We talked to the ZL's the night before and decided we'd make a final call on whether or not to make the drive at noon the next day. By the time noon rolled around, it was still snowing rather heavily, but, as a demonstration of our faith and youthful boldness, we went for it. After a rather sketchy drive to Elmira, we safely arrived, just in time to be pelted by snowballs and bananas. Don't worry though, these were being thrown by Elders Jarman and Hopkins, not an angry mob. And before you ask, yes, this is a fairly normal start to a blitz. Anyways, Elder Hubbell and I worked the day with Elder Jarman. We taught one of their progressing investigators the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This 'gator is the nicest lady ever, she's in her 30's, and is incredible. They picked her up less than 3 weeks ago, and she's 300 pages in the BoM. That is unheard of. Especially in NY, because like half the people that are picked up hardly know how to read, much less are willing to. Anyways, after that lesson, we received a classic "gotta cancel tonight" phone call, but luckily we were able to go see Harley. Harley is an awesome 18 year old girl who's going to college in Elmira, but is applying to USU and wants to go there in the fall. She loves the Church, reading the BoM, talking about Jesus, but most of all she loves Elder Jarman. It's hilarious. While we read she got out her hamsters, one of which I found in my coat pocket about 9 verses in, and I accidentally threw it, luckily Hubbell caught it. In his mouth......... Don't ask..... Anyways, after Harley we went and gave a blessing to a recent convert who was having heart surgery the next day.  After that we went and taught about the Sabbath Day to a recently reactivated member called Chocolate. We don't know his actual name, because he tells everyone his name is Chocolate. After that we finally made it back to the Elmira ZL's apartment, which is by far the nicest apartment in the mission. We hung out for a while, and while we were getting into bed the phone rang. Harley's 6 year old little brother had just fallen out of the 2nd story window of their house. He was being rushed to the hospital, but before we would've even been able to get there for a blessing, he was on a helicopter to Rochester. Harley apparently didn't respond to any calls or texts for many hours, and we were freaking out. But luckily, he's back home and recovering now. So, that was Wednesday.

     On Thursday we woke up, and went to the Food Bank to do some service. We got all kitted out in some awesome hair nets, aprons, gloves, and shoe covers. Then we spent almost 3 hours scooping dry noodles into bags, each weighing exactly 2 lbs. I was pretty sure they had robots for stuff like that, but apparently they held back on the robots because of their easy access to several well dressed, strapping young men. After the noodles, we made our way to Taco Bell. (Side Note: Taco Bell is a staple of missionary work. I don't know if that's a thing across the board, or just in the NYUM. But the quality of the local Taco Bell(s) determines the quality of the entire area.) Anyways, after lunch, we made our way back to Johnson City, where I, as District Leader, conducted the baptismal interview for Dawn, one of the Sister's investigators. That was an awesome experience, I'm quite involved with the conversion process now. Dawn passed her interview, and I signed off, and then the next day I found out she had asked that I be the one to baptize and confirm her. So, Saturday rolled around and we got to the Church at 9:40, for the 10:00 baptism. We had talked to the Sisters the night before, about the logistics of font filling and such, and were fairly sure we'd been fairly clear. However, when we got there, 20 minutes before the Baptismal service was supposed to start, and there was 1 inch of water, it became clear that something was lost in translation... This posed a significant problem, as the font takes just over 3 hours to fill. We cranked the faucets, both hot and cold (cold being the dominant one, which would be rough for me and Dawn), and then started a brigade of pots of water from the kitchen. To add to this excitement, our phone rang, it was President Rogers. Turns out Elder Hubbell was getting ET'd (emergency transferred) to Ogdensburg. I guess one of the Elders up there was struggling, and the work there is VERY slow, like 3 lessons a week. So President put Elder Tucker in a trio with the AP's, and stole Hubbell from our trio and sent him to Ogdensburg. We were asked to be in Utica by 3 on Monday (PDay..) Anyways, by the time we were ready for the actual baptism, I stepped into the font and the water didn't even reach my kneecaps, and it was probably in the 50's. Luckily Dawn is a smaller lady, because in order to lock down the "immersion" part, which is rather important, I had to basically hold her down, and it got my stinkin white tie wet. But hey, we got it, first try. It was an awesome baptism, and it's somethin special when you get to be a part of that. 

     Sunday was Ward Conference, which means we were at the Church at 8:00 for one of the longest meetings I've ever attended. I'm not sure missionary work was really even discussed at all. But hey it's fine, because the actual Church part of Church was great. Sunday night we had dinner with the VanAusdall's. They are without a doubt the coolest members of the Binghamton Ward, and if you're currently in Utah, they're coming soon to a Ward near you. Keep the family in your prayers as Bro VanAusdall is job hunting in the SLC/Davis County areas. 

     Monday morning we woke up, and recieved a call from Elder Haderlie. Apparently the Owego Elders were enroute to our apartment, and we were supposed to swap cars, and bring their Chevy Equinox up to Utica, because it is being sold. We hurried and emptied our car, and then they took off with our car. We loaded Hubbell's crap into the new/old Equinox, and set off for Utica. Because this car was being sold, we had infinite miles for this trip to Utica. Soooo we set off early and stopped in Cortland to say hello (and goodbye, in Hubbell's case) to Elder Berry. We then went to Liverpool, to deliver a gift to Elder Glassey. Glassey was my MTC companion, and just left Endicott to be a ZL in Liverpool. He's an awesome kid, and I promised him that if I got another free watch from my sponsor Apache Pine, he could have it. Well, I got one, and happened to have a day where I'd be well out of my area, so we went. When we got there, I watched him open it, and when it was unboxed we realized that it was broken... When I got the package it looked like it had been through a rough trip, but figured it was alright, but apparently the minute hand had decided to fall off. Soooooo we drove 40 miles out of our way to give Glassey a broken watch. How handy is that. SMH bruh. Anyways, after our stop in Liverpool, which also conveniently helped us miss traffic around Utica. So, we pulled into the Mission Office right as the Ogdensburg Elders were pulling in at the same time. Naturally I swooped their parking spot and we double parked. (the whole Church parking lot had 2 cars in it, don't freak out.) Plus Elder Bradley, who beat me in bowling 6 weeks in a row, and is from Bountiful and we know a ton of the same people was driving the other car, so it was for fun. Anyways, we got out, said hello, talked a little, then went in to swap people and car keys and what not. When we walked into the mission office, Sister Haderlie, one of many stinkin awesome Senior Missionaries offered to order us pizza since we had given up our PDay to spend the day driving. Sadly, we had just barely stopped at Taco Bell, where we zeroed out our MSF funds. Elder Roach, the Mission Vehicle Coordinator, pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, and asked what we were gonna give him in exchange for a new car. I told him we'd have a baptismal record mailed in by the middle of March. He accepted and congratulate us on our new 2017 Subaru Legacy. This beast has a turbo, paddle shifters, a touch screen, heated seats, it basically drives itself, I can launch it aggressively without getting an "aggressive driving" from TiWi, and the sound system is rather high quality. We don't mess around here in the NYUM, the JC Elders are rollin in style, blaring bagpipe music as we race old ladies between lights. So, after we said goodbye to all the missionaries there, we drove back to Johnson City just in time for our dinner appointment with the Reardon family. Sister Reardon is a member, and also loves cutting missionaries' hair for free. Bless her heart. So we got haircuts, ate pizza, gave a blessing, and shared a message. We then went home to go to bed bc we left at 6:30 am for Ithace for Zone Conference. At Zone Conference, I'm pretty sure Sister Rogers (MP's Wife) subtweeted me about my hair. She was either talking to me, the kid who looks like he has a mullet, or the kid who grows facial hair like a weed. She said something about hair, nobody know who it was for, because we all agreed we looked fine before we went into the meeting. And I literally just got it cut. (however I haven't cut the top since I left Massena, on December 12th. Apparently it got to a point where it kinda just chills where it's at, and doesn't get much longer. So Sis Reardon just trims the sides bc she says the top is fine.) Anyways, after a great Zone Conference, and a dinner appointment with Sister DiNardo at Texas Roadhouse, we finally are able to celebrate P-Day. However I still need to do laundry. We'll figure that out later. 

     That's about it for the week. Now that there's just 2 of us, we have enough computers to email at the same time. And because it's Tuesday, we don't have to wait for the Sisters and Endicott to email too. So as far as I know this week's email is way longer than the last few. Idk for sure bc I don't read missionary emails bc they're boringgggggggg ;) THANKS EVERYONE FOR BEING AWESOME. GO TO CHURCH. READ YOUR SCRIPTURES. BE AWESOME. Also, fun fact, if an Asian Elephant lived in Kaysville, and was to get pregnant TODAY, I would be home in time to see the birth. Time flies ladies and gents.