Letting loose and loving...lights...apparently Elder Adair likes to be a model, with lights...oh brother.

What's over that way?

Howdy again!

This week was rather slow. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Santiago and it was really good.  Taught a really good lesson but I felt really sick.  I prayed to help me not throw up and to make it through the night feeling better.  We went to dinner after that and it was french toast, which is like one of my favorite things, but I was so sick I couldn't eat but half of one.  After dinner with that dope family In Jonesboro, I asked the elders with us to give me a blessing.  Elder Brinkerhoff is from Cedar City!!  He's super awesome I love the kid.  He came out with Elder Cundick.  Anyways, after the blessing I still felt uneasy, but I trusted in the blessing that I would feel better.  Well God is kinda funny when it comes to answering prayers and blessings.  I thought I would just feel better and not think twice of the night, but no.  We get to this lesson with a less active and investigator, and as soon as I sit down, I felt it.  I asked to go to the bathroom (they're living in a motel for the time being, so it was a very small bathroom) and I broke my streak of about 4 years without actually like, letting loose of my insides.  But I felt better...I had a little thank you/why the freak did you do that to me prayer.  We had an amazing lesson on following the 10 commandments after that. 

Hello, lights, my old friends.

Wednesday was just full of walking.  We talked to Ty about the fruits of the spirit and how to recognize and understand it.  It went really well and we shared some scriptures so hopefully he will be able to find his answer for truth!  President Vaughn, our Branch President, fed us that night.  The guy is a stud and gives the best hugs.

Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving!  So that meant no one wanted us to knock on their door.  We got stuff to make cookies and made cookies for members and delivered them.  We are with the Meadors for lunch and the Barrett's for dinner.  The Barrett's are our adopted parents basically haha.  It was great!  They took us to see the Christmas light show...it made me the happiest boy alive!  No joke I felt like a child again.  I friggin love Christmas lights.

I'm bathed in lights and the light of Christ.

Friday we weekly planned and didn't really try to find due to Black Friday and people attempting murder for $5 off a lamp that they didn't want a week ago.  I'm telling you...it's such a useless day!  Totally takes away from the spirit of Thanksgiving.  Throwing out all gratefulness for greed.  We saw people camping out in JCPenny parking lot around 2 in the afternoon...that place is usually vacant.  Like, go spend time with the family y'all haven't seen in years.  But it's whatever, they can lust after the world things and carry them to the grave where they will stay cause can't take those when you're gone.  Besides that, nothing really happens besides seeing a few members.

How about some more lights?

Still wondering what's over that way...

Saturday was a walk day.  We just walk because we're trying to find people and because of that, we have 800 spare miles for the month...so that's 800 miles for 4 days.  Score #MissionTour.  Just kidding.  But we talked to a few people without any success.  Brother Traylor took us to Colton's for lunch and it was really good.  We got to watch the 88 year old single member hit on our waitress.  you go Glen Coco.  This guy is goals haha.  But we set out to go help an elderly sister (who's getting checked for cancer soon) rake her yard.  It was great!  They gave us cookies and I got a tender mercy and saw some of the Auburn vs Alabama game.  Good game Tigers, #upset.  But she was so thankful it made me feel so good for the service.  We were gonna go do her backyard as well until we saw how big it was.  We told her we would recruit more people for this week.  We went walking again and had correlation and then went finding...again.  But we walked downtown and had a photoshoot with some Christmas lights.  It was friggin awesome again!  No one was interested but they were all nice.

LIGHTS...I power the LIGHTS!

It's a Book of Mormon beat down!

Sunday no one came to church.  Gretchen and Greywolf were out of town.  Tough day.  But we didn't teach Elders Quorum so that was good.  We've been teaching every week.  I could be a way good EQ teacher just saying.  We had 30 seconds to prepare last week haha.  Didn't even have a subject to teach on so we pulled up a random talk.  Anyways, we got our home teaching list finally so we're gonna use that to focus on to find new peeps.  We went out with brother Canady to see some less actives and for the first time in my mission...I fell asleep in a lesson.  Not just once, or twice, or three times.  I zonked out 5 or 6 times hahaha.  I'm so tired and worn out from the week and Brother Canady and Wayne just kept talking.  I felt so bad haha.  But I was able to gain control of myself and keep myself awake and talk more.  Then we gave a blessing to a member's husband.  This is how cool the spirit and God are.  We had just gotten into phone range when we got a call from the sisters who just left a lesson with this family telling us they needed a blessing.  When we got the call, we were 200 feet from the turn we needed to take to get to the house.  Just crazy awesome how it all worked out.  As we drove to Sister Kings, we got a call saying Brother Canady's wife needed a blessing as well.  So we gave Mr. King a blessing and left to go to the Canady's.  Gave her a blessing and came home.  It was a full day.

Be brave...sort of, this was at night...

I'm so beat and tired haha.  It's gonna be a good week this week though.  We have high hopes to finish off this transfer...yeah...it's transfer time again...sad thing is I only have 6 more of these left.  Anyways, trunky aside, I'm tired haha.  We're in Mountain View today with the Mountain View Elders to relax and hang out.  But even though I'm tired, I'm still trucking on.

2 Timothy 2:10
Therefore, I will endure all things for the elects sake, that they might also obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

I know this work is real.  I endure the hard times with a hope that someone will even have a chance to take a glance of the light that comes through Christ.  As stated again in 2 Timothy 2, I'll endure the hardness and be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  It's hard and sometimes it sucks and I don't want any part of it, but nothing is more rewarding.  I love y'all.  Aim high and go for gold. 

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

Planet X and the number conundrum, food lust, and wonderful people...another week in the south!

Rebel.

Howdy!

Tuesday we had district meeting and exchanged with Mountain View Elders.  I went with Elder Pedersen and he's a stud!  He's was trained by Elder Hill so I like him even more.  We walked to Gretchen and Greywolf and had a great first lesson with them!  Granted he brought up Planet X and how it was supposed to crash into earth like 3 months ago?  I don't know why I wasn't made aware of this...I'm telling you the governments hiding something!  Anyways, with that being said, supposedly 43 billion people (which is a whopping 1/3 of the worlds population) were supposed to just disappear when it got near us...now I may not be the smartest guy nor know the most about the census reports...but I think his numbers were a bit off...there's only about close to 6.5-7 billion people on earth.  So 43 billion is a little over 7x more than who's actually here, but since that's a third, that means there should be 129 billion people on earth.  Which is about 18.5x the world population...seems like this could be a real ordeal...watch out y'all...the end is near and Planet X is on its loop back around to get us...anyways.  After them, we went and say the Kistners and ate with them and shared a message and walked to Brother Trayler's house to stop as it started to rain.  Well we walked home in the rain and talked along the way.  It was a good day.

Good thing we use the KJV!

Wednesday we exchanged back.  Dezeree drove us up to Mountain View with her husband, Daniel, who's dope.  We're gonna start teaching him sometime soon.  They took us out to eat and Elder Pedersen and I got to have a tender mercy and see some highlights of the football games last week.  Friggin Cardinals can't win a game to save their lives (Dad's note: Yes, this is true, but injuries are playing a large part in this terrible season and we still love our Arizona Cardinals!).  But anyways, we got back and walked to potential investigators house and after talking with him, we went finding and found out from a guy with a gorgeous home, that we are in trouble eternally!!  Dagum why wasn't I aware of this?  The Mormon religion will "surely send us to hell" because he's "done his research and read the Bible and has concluded that the Mormon religion is terribly incorrect."  Dang...poor fella doesn't know he's being deceived by the adversary.  But we complimented his home and bid our farewell to him.  We walked to the church and did some studies and training and Facebook stuff and then after not being able to find a ride home, we walked home.  Not a bad day!  It was Elder Cundick's first 8 mile day.  Not horrible, but it was cold.

Red, white, and American!

Thursday we walked and walked and didn't talk to like anyone.  We went to dinner with a couple and we had some bomb steaks and potatoes.  I'm starting to love green beans as well!  They know how to make some good food out here in the south (Another dad note: What is he trying to say here? Do we not also have great food out west?  Particularly his mother? We will have words over this claim)!    They dropped us off at the church for basketball and lo and behold Ty came!  We taught him a lesson in our basketball clothes and it was really good!  We're working with getting him a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  We played basketball and had a good rest of the night.

More awkward family photos.

Friday we weekly planned at the church cause I had to drive to get wifi to set up a doctors appointment.  We went to the Kistners and raked their leaves!  It took quite a few hours, but it was awesome!  They fed us afterwards with black eyed peas and ham with cornbread and woof I loved it.  We came home and changed and tried to see a few people but no one was awake...it was like 8...but we ended the night with that.

Saturday we studied and then drove to Jonesboro for the devotional.  It was good!  Not many people came but we had a good performance.  We drove back and had Cici's, courtesy of Dezeree haha.

Happy faces in happy places.

Sunday was the same.  Greywolf and Gretchen came to church and brought a friend!  They loved it!  We also had potluck after church and we talked to them and I asked if Gretchen was thinking of becoming a member.  I asked her cause she's the more solid of the 2 and been to church for like a year.  But when I asked they both looked at each other and Greywolf said "yes we are."  I about fell out of my chair.  Reverend Wolf, his church name, wants to be a member.  That was the start of a good day.   We drove to Jacksonville where I was greeted by the Lagomarsino's and Candace and Brody!!!  I about died cause they told me they were coming!  They gave me a little treat, Oreos that looked like turkeys with candy corn (thanks Nadia).  You're welcome Sister Lagomarsino's for the shoutout haha.  They even sat front row right in front of me!  I saw so many members from Searcy I about died!  I felt bad for Elder Cundick cause I was trying to talk to as many as possible haha.  But we went home and enjoyed a good night's rest.

Crazy week!  Had a wonderful time and I can't wait to hear back from y'all!!

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

Good times!

The love is real!

Service brings blessings for all involved. This was a GREAT week, one of the best yet!

I call this, "Man under street lamp."

Howdy!

Tuesday was pretty good.  We went to habitat for humanity and did some service and we got to witness a crazy redneck cuss out Walmart for giving him a bad propane tank.  We drove out to the boonies and no one was home so that sucked.

Wednesday was dope.  We went to Zone Conference in SEARCY!!!  It was awesome.  We learned some awesome facts about Joseph Smith and the translation/writing of the Book of Mormon by the prophet and how to use it better.  I got to see Sister Duncan and the Brown family as well as a few other members, like the Ryans (Sister Ryan and Sister Howard and Wilman fed us lunch!).  Sister Ryan pulled through and got me the first caramel apple pie before they really brought out desert.  It was awesome to be back in that building and hang with my favorite people!!  Steven moved to Beebe so I'm gonna get on those kids to teach him.  They're both super green and so Steven is gonna tear them up if they don't know how to talk to him.  I started my exchange with Elder Parks.

The bed...reminds me of my time in Korea.

Thursday was friggin full of miracles.  So we studied and then went out and got cookie dough and to bring them to a few members.  Well we get home and see our neighbor, Martha, and she's struggling to get stuff out of her car (she's 80 something years old).  So we go and help her and she goes off on how she loves the Mormons.  She won't study with us, but tells people she has the greatest neighbors and brags about us!  She is so sweet!!  Well we went in and made cookies and delivered them. The Kistners loved it and then gave us a few referrals!  We went and saw them and had an interesting experience.  Their names are Gretchen and Greywolf.  Yes, Greywolf.  No, he's not Native American.  But, he's a shaman mystic minister.  So he does like freaky deaky magic stuff but in the name of Jesus.  New experience?  Yes.  Does it surprise me?  Not even a little bit.  He's a street preacher and told us his story and I think he tripped once or twice on some illegal substances.  Hard.  Anyways, we taught about the Book of Mormon and we were then taught that we had the Book of Mormon before Jospeh Smith!!  It came over on the Mayflower in the 1700's!  Why didn't we know about this?  Why isn't this historically correct?  Also, why does he think the Book of Mormon is the Bible?  Haha it's whatever though.  He agreed to come to church and read so that's good.  So we went to get them a ride for church from Brother Trayler and he agreed and also took Elder Parks and I on a tour of his house.  This dude has a bathroom so big that it has a tub, a separate shower, a computer desk and 2 closets...full of suits.  So we tried them on and took pics as we drank out of 60 year old wine glasses that have never been drunken out of...oh and did I tell you they were rimmed with solid 24 karat gold?  We were in the presence of angels that day.  We had sports night and I had a random outburst of being good at basketball for a half hour.  That was cool.  Miracles.

The after pic makes the bed look just fine!

Friday we had ANOTHER miracle!  We were leaving to go service finding by raking people's lawns, when a guy was walking down the street.  We stopped him and talked to him and he's had a rough go.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and Bible and he almost broke into tears thanking us cause he hasn't had a Bible, let alone a free one, since he was in prison.  He wants to give his life to God and wants to learn more!  We talked for about an hour when the other Elders showed up to exchange back.  We went to Popeye's and weekly planned for what felt like the rest of the night.  The Lagomarsinos came and visited as well!!  It made me so freakin happy!  They took us to DQ and invited us to Christmas dinner with their nonmember family!  It's in our area too so that's lit.

Gentrified.

Saturday we had a couple really awesome things happen.  Brother Trayler called us and took us out to eat lunch at this cute little restaurant down town.  Then when we left we drove by a little old lady raking her yard.  So what do we do?  Well the super Elders sped home (within an obedient speed) and grabbed their super rakes and raced on over to help!  We raked her yard and her neighbors yard (it was a senior home) and we talked with Mrs. McGuffey for a while.  She said when she saw us run over with rakes she thought "oh please stop here". Hahaha it was adorable!  She tried to pay us but I assured her that friends don't pay friends.  She gave us a huge hug with tears in her eyes and I just felt so good.  Service really does heal the soul.  It made me almost choke up thinking of how much it meant to her.  It made me think of a poem I read somewhere called "someone's mother".

Happy Elders.

The woman was old and ragged and gray
And bent with the chill of the Winter’s day.
The street was wet with a recent snow,
And the woman’s feet were aged and slow.
She stood at the crossing and waited long,
Alone, uncared for, amid the throng
Of human beings who passed her by
Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.

Down the street, with laughter and shout,
Glad in the freedom of ‘school let out,’
Came the boys like a flock of sheep,
Hailing the snow piled white and deep. …
One paused beside her and whispered low,
'I’ll help you cross, if you wish to go? …
'She’s somebody’s mother, boys, you know,
For all she’s aged and poor and slow.

“‘And I hope some fellow will lend a hand
To help my mother, you understand,
If ever she’s poor and old and gray,
When her own dear boy is far away.’
And ‘somebody’s mother’ bowed low her head
In her home that night, and the prayer she said
Was, ‘God be kind to the noble boy,
Who is somebody’s son, and pride and joy.’"

Mary Dow Brine

Arizona boy getting some throwback!

Just as the boy in his poem, I hope that my good deeds help others, especially my family, sometime in the future.  Let me tell ya, this can't be anyone else's but the Lords work.  It's moments as tender as this that make me stay on my mission.  Even though she didn't want to meet with us, my heart was touched and my spirits were lifted.  If you're ever down or sad or just aren't at your best, only service for others can bring you back to your feet and then a little higher.  Our prayers were answered later on when the office Elders brought us our beds.  We finally got beds.  I'll send a picture of what I've been sleeping on for this past week.  The first few nights was on the ground, then the Simmons family gave us camping mattresses, then the Wahlquist's gave us a futon mattress and I grabbed couch cushions.  So it was like a Temperpedic bed.  I only did it for a couple weeks, sleep on the ground, so it kinda makes me empathetic towards the people all around us who do it year round.  In Utah and Arizona, you may see homeless people every now and again.  But those guys get money all the time.  But the homeless here, they have literally nothing besides what they can carry with them, which isn't a lot at all.  Most people will never understand how truly heartbreaking it is to see the needy.  We are blessed beyond all measures and have way more than we even could dream of needing.  Please I beg of all of y'all, don't take your blessings for granted.  You may never understand how bad some people have it.  I don't think I can ever say I have a hard life ever again.  Never.

Monday funday.

Sunday Greywolf and Gretchen came to church.  It was awesome to listen to the primary (6 little girls) sing.  There's a reason God tells us to become as little children.  Only they can bring the spirit like they do.  Only they can be humble and meek to the point to where God will accept them into his arms no matter what.  Oh how I wish I could have even the slightest amount of love for life and others as these little children do.  I was able to give a talk on understanding and recognizing the spirit for about 10 minutes.  It was good I think.  I had a pretty tough act to follow haha.  We took Greywolf and Gretchen back home with Brother Trayler and had lunch at the Simmons house.  We came back and did studies and training for Elder Cundick.  We saw Deedee and gave her a Book of Mormon and explained why it's so important.  She loves us so much haha.

We got a hold of a guy named Drew and he wants to take us out hiking today!  We'll send details about that after!  But it's been a great week!  Many miracles happening in Batesville!  I've been humbled and more happy than ever.  I cant wait for this week!  It's weeks like this that come to show God answers prayers.  He's there guys, he's there and listening.

Look at my french toast, mom!

1 Peter 4:8-12
8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are there unto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

What is that tree???

The woodsen...where are the moosen?

A lonely Rambo, a return to Memphis, and spiritual lessons...a good week, way down south in Dixie!

The gang's all here!

Howdy!

Tuesday we had district meeting.  It was Halloween, so knocking doors wasn't too great of an idea haha.  We tried to see some investigators but it didn't work out.  We met with one named ty.  He's been meeting with missionaries for a while now and so we're going to try to strengthen his testimony in the Book of Mormon before we really teach anything else.  We went and got candy for trick or treaters and we were asked if we were dressed up or "actually professionals" haha.  We explained that we were missionaries and the lady like turned off and walked away haha.  We didn't have tape, so we rubber banded pass along cards to the candy.  In 2 hours...literally not one trick or treater...so that sucked.  I was Rambo in a mixer suit.  But no one but Elder Cundick saw.  Sad day.

Lonely Rambo

Wednesday we did service at habitat for humanity again and just sorted books and talked to people.  We did some stuff on Facebook and messaged a few gators and got nothing in reply.  We then hopped on over and saw brother Baize!  He got us pizza on Monday and on Wednesday he showed us his gun collection.  Let me tell ya, when I grow up I wanna be just like this man hahaha.  He has guns stored in random places.  Like, he got on top of his counter, reached to the top of his cupboards, and pulled out a keltech folding 9 mm rifle and a KSG shotgun haha.  Then just chillin by his bathroom was 2 AR-15's (one was a tactical short barrel) and am AK-47.  3 of the most beautiful guns I've seen in my life.  I wish I got a pic with them...but then he pulled out his 2 glock's and I was in heaven.  What a guy.  We then had dinner with the Wahlquist's!  I love that family!  Ian, their son, just returned home from the Scottsdale Arizona mission!  He's awesome and is going to start fellowshipping Ty!

The candy that no kids wanted

Thursday I had a leadership meeting in Memphis.  The elder driving was an absolute terrible driver and almost killed us like 4 times...but he also took us to the wrong place..which just so happened to be MEMPHIS 2nd area!!!  It was awesome!  I got pics of it and I was so taken back!  Elder Parks and I talked and reminisced about Memphis until we got back to the church.  It was a great meeting, lots of insight.  We left and Elder Parks made dinner and then we went back home.

Well, there is that one!

Friday we planned, but I got bored and so we went finding and found a dude named Chris while working on a car!  Got his Facebook and then went finding some more.  We ran into an old white guy who didn't believe in Christ...so that took me for a turn.  What old white guy in the south isn't a Christian??  Haha.  We planned and then saw a less active who has an old triple combination with all the Elders who have been in the area singed in it.  Holy cow there was a lot haha.  It was pretty cool!  We got to know him and invited him to church.  We went finding again and didn't see any success so we walked to the church and watched the technology training videos that we gotta watch.  A member bought us some gorilla glue for my shoes and so we tried to fix those....tried.

Love seeing worn out missionary shoes.

Saturday we did some service at the Methodist church.  They do free community breakfasts so we helped make and hand it out.  We talked so some people, but we're not allowed to proselyte so we couldn't do much.  They also told us to not dress up in our white shirts hahaha.  Oops.  We studied and did training with Elder Cundick and got in contact with Deedee.  Got her Facebook and sent her a message with a video.  We had correlation with our Branch Mission Leader and then we gave a blessing to an older member who has had 2 strokes in a few years.  Crazy.  He was super nice and Elder Cundick gave his first blessing!!  It was awesome!  We went to dinner at Brother Trayler's house to finish the night.

Back where it all started...

Sunday was a good meeting!  I think more people bore their testimonies today in my branch than in any ward I've gone to.  There was no awkward pause, no long silences, just pure awesome testimonies!!  Holy cow it was awesome!!  We got called to give the priesthood lesson on home teaching with a 5 minute notice. So we used "Emissaries of the Chruch" by Jeffery R. Holland from last years priesthood session.  It's great!!  It was tough, but we made it work!  I gotta give it to you dad, those lessons, although not too stressful, can be hard to give!  Especially when you have to speak loudly cause the youngest guy in there was Brother Wahlquist.  Everyone else was over 70 hahaha.  We came home and studied and tried to see Deedee, but there was nobody home, so we might just start to teach her on Facebook.  We made plans to go hiking with an investigator next Monday!  He said he would be more comfortable talking in that setting.  We then saw the Kistners!  They're so awesome!  Biggest sweethearts ever!  They fed us and we talked about how the Book of Mormon is true and read over that talk by Tad Callister from last general conference and it was so awesome!!  They gave us a referral and cookies and we left with full bellies and satisfied souls!  After that we did training and I think it was the most spirit led training I've given!  I actually studied to help Elder Cundick and I felt more strong with the spirit in that study and training than ever before!  It's crazy how studying for others helps you!

Kings Do King Things
Goin' Buck Wild

Why?  Just, why???

Hmmm...different statue than I remember

Now that is a healthy kitty!

More proof of work.

Trying to repair...

...don't think it worked.