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| Elder Smith and the GIANT Elder Adair |
Monday I got to my new area in Searcy. Fun fact, this is where Dylan Hendricks goes to school at Harding University!
Tuesday we saw a couple people! First, the Maudlin family. They're a family with 3 recent convert kids and when we got there the younger son asked me to flex my muscles and then asked to have my American flag sunglasses haha. We went out front and played football for a bit with them (my team son of course) and taught them all about the priesthood and the great apostasy! It was awesome! I also met a family named the Bowles and they're cool! They got Elder Smith and I a pizza each and we got to know them with "2 truths and 1 lie." We found a lady as we were looking for an old investigator and gave her a BOM and she wants us to come by regularly! I also met an investigator named Travis. This dude has been through some mess. He was Army infantry, has a rough background and really wants to do good. He was 50 days clean of some bad stuff when I met him! He loves the missionaries and he's gonna try to help us teach his sister as well and shoot some squirrels too! Searcy is pretty awesome!!
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| Turtles, another testament of...well, you know. |
Wednesday we went to the boonies! Way far back in the sticks! We saw a less active and found a lady to teach! Let me tell ya, these back wood folk are a hoot and a half! The trailers they live in are pretty dirty and animal infested, but they'll talk to ya! We were able to "accidentally" drift in the truck...yeah we have a Nissan Frontier and so dirt roads are my new best friend! We came back though and while contacting a family, we found and taught this family of 4! Only 3 were kinda listening but we got a return appointment for next week! We talked to this one dude named Clearance (it's pronounced Clarence...#GottaLoveTheSouth) and he's a character...told us how he has 5 and half a million dollar records that he's gonna be selling and become a rich man and how he imprisoned a family for stealing his water...great guy! Haha. We went to Book of Mormon class (finally, an area who has it) and we ended up teaching! The Beebe Elders baptized this guy named Jimmy last Saturday and he is a stud! He knows so much - they got themselves a convert!
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| First you take the mallow... |
Thursday was rough. No one answered the door and no one was home of course cause it's missionary work! I see it as the lord chastens those whose he loves ;) haha we went out and looked around this rich area and there's some BIG houses here! After that, a big storm started to come in and so we took shelter in a members home! They're named the Mix's and they're so cool! They even made us pulled pork sandwiches. Well...the storm got pretty bad and we had a few tornado warnings but they went by after about an hour and the storm stopped. For a while though the streets were flooded, we got home safe and sound though.
Friday was a LONG weekly Planning session cause we had to plan out all exchanges and all the miles it'll take and other Zone business. It took a good bit of our day. We then started walking to the church to write and send the zone email, and then as we were walking this dude accelerates towards us and tries to hit us! Then he waved and sped off. Elder Smith and I were confused, and this dude who saw told us to press charges on him. Well as we start walking again we see the car on the main road, honking and waving at us...so we're like what the deuce is going on?? We took a short cut through a little field by our apartments (yeah this all happened within 30 seconds of us leaving the apartment) and then THIS DUDE TURNED OFF THE ROAD AND INTO THE FIELD!! Drove at us and then turned and stopped. Well it was a former investigator who just wanted to say hi! Like what the actual freak! Hahaha. It was HILARIOUS! When he was driving down the field I was ready to let this dude know I wasn't gonna let him hurt us haha. Anyways, as we were walking, another rain storm hit us (I guess it had a name - Tropical Storm Cindy). Luckily, we were by the Mauldin's and they gave us plastic bags for our iPads and told us to come by tomorrow for burgers, score! We got to the church soaking wet and were able to send the emails...but before that happened we stood outside in the rain cause we forgot the key, but tender mercy alert - a member was inside. God still made us work for what we needed as we knocked and knocked and knocked! Brother Mix was inside and he's almost deaf so it took about 20 minutes before we got in haha. We walked back trying to contact people and escaped some shady stuff, but we made it home, safe and sound!
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| Watermelon relieves all the worries. |
Saturday we helped move a new Family into the ward. I got to meet a few new people from the ward and I think I'm building some great relationships. We also got in contact with a less active family and talked to them for actually quite a while, but it was good because we found out the son has been thinking about serving a mission and the parents are working on getting sealed! So that was a score! We walked back and we got a text from president "inviting" us to come to the Cabot ward (of course "invite" from a mission president means get your butt there or you're going home) and we were super confused at first, but I'll get to that later! We walked to send notes from a talk Elder Smith was supposed to give to the sisters and then visited a family. They weren't home, but the nonmember dad was. He's cool, very not talkative but it wasn't a bad Visit! We got gatorades! We walked back and ended up finding ourselves back at the church! Tender mercy alert, again - the high priests were having their social and invited us to eat! Smoked Pulled pork sandwiches and chicken and woof! (Dad's editorial comment - WHAT IS WOOF???) It was so good and one of the members gave us a ride home too.
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| Because who doesn't love Ella?! |
Sunday was probably a once and a life time opportunity! We went to the Cabot ward, and met President Wakolo and the other guys that accompanied him. We went to sacrament and then President promptly asked us to meet in the high council room. We went and you're not gonna believe this - Elder Beheshti was there! He told us, President Wakolo, the stake president and his clerk and secretary, that we were on an assignment from M. Russell Ballard in the front lines of a new reactivation technique! I can't go much further into detail, but it was AWESOME! After we went out for a bit, we came back for debriefing and had lunch with everyone. Keep in mind, we were casually eating lunch with an area 70, a general 70 (we called him Elder Wakolo and it made me giggle like a school girl) our stake president and some other higher ups. Elder Smith was about to poop himself but I was sooo pumped! I wanted to go out with Elder Wakolo so bad! But I went with the stake president, who went to and ran track for SUU! Haha he even long and triple jumped!! How crazy?! We came back and visited a few companionships and got a sense of how they're working. Some are...less than adequate but we'll help em! We visited a family named the Duncan's who had us over for s'mores and no joke this family is soooo cool!! They even gave us 2 referrals! It's looking up here in Searcy!!
So far, Searcy is awesome! I haven't had any stressful moments and I'm finding it easier and easier to lead while still being myself! Honestly, Zone Leader stuff isn't hard unless you make it hard and it's kinda normal missionary work. I don't know why people stress over it so much? But I'm happy to be able to serve my fellow missionaries and I'm looking forward to a great transfer!
Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild
I don't think Jordan used a table...
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Searcy Elders.
Just the good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm...
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