Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Bad Luck Does Come In Threes

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Lose it!

Thursday, June 2, 2016

My New Area

Unfortunately, not a lot happened this week. Plus I can't remember
anyone of who we saw, so I'll try my best.

Monday: We went and saw Dick and he took us to he Colonial Inn. It had
terrible food. Then we had dinner at the Hoots. Nothing special. We
also went to the Covingtons house to have them sign my book before I
left. Then lots of packing.

Tuesday: Brother and Sister Abney were very kind enough to take us to
transfers. And so I got to meet my new companion, Elder Powell. I
didn't really know how to feel about him at first because the whole
car ride was pretty silent. Brother Hirsche and his son, CJ, were kind
enough to bring us back to good old Marion, Illinois. They took us to
a place called Backyard Burger and it was pretty good. So I got to our
new house and kind of started unpacking. And yes we live in a house.
It's a lot better than my last apartment. The only thing was it had a
mildew smell to it, but you guys know me. I don't have a great sense
of smell, so it didn't last long. But it's a nice small house with
lots of room. It has about five rooms, the bedroom, the study room,
the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom and a small space for the
laundry room. It's very nice. I don't feel cramped anymore. Anyway, we
went tracting for a small part of the day. Then a member, Brother
Meservy, took us out on splits to see a couple of people. No one
worked out unfortunately, but he was pretty positive about it. Then we
went to the ward mission leader's house. He was sick so we gave him a
blessing. And then we went home. Elder Powell like movies and comics
and we get along pretty well so far.

Wednesday: We went to district meeting. We went with the Eldorado
branch. We went to their apartment and then they took us, so basically
we switch off who gets to do that every week. The district so far is
so so but I enjoy listening to their conversations. All the Elders
went to Taco Bell to eat. We went to Paducah for the district meeting
is what I should have said at the beginning. Anyway, after district
meeting, we went tracting and got yelled at for "soliciting." It was
great. Then we ate at the Meservy's for dinner. It was good ribeye.
Afterwards, CJ came out with us to see an investigator named Mike. He
really loves the gospel and wants to learn more. We taught him the
Plan of Salvation. It was a good lesson. Then we talked to a less
active named Sarah who works at a gas station for awhile then went
home.

Thursday: It was pouring all day. We tried this one investigator, but
we couldn't even get inside the complex, so we went to Herrin and
tried a few potentials and went to Hardee's for lunch. We met a guy
named Ed who we were going to move their house, but they decided
against it. Ed is very proud of his Native American heritage and has
his own bead shop(?). We talked about how he would like the Book of
Mormon because that's exactly who it talks about and he told us we
could come back. We tracted and as we were tracting this sweet lady
answers the door and talks about her ministry and then she says "I'm
sure we believe in the same thing, but-" then her husband busts
through the door saying "oh no they don't! We don't have any
similarities at all! They aren't even Christian! Joseph Smith and the
magic hat?!" Then slams the door. It was hilarious. Then we saw a less
active and talked to him for a little bit. We talked about Final
Fantasy and Fist of the North Star. It was interesting. Then we went
to the Crawford's for dinner and they were such a cute family! They
made this really good chicken salad where they put brown sugar on the
chicken and stuff. It was so good! The Brother Crawford came with us
to see people. Then we went home.

Friday: We wasted a lot of miles because I forgot the church key. We
went to do weekly planning. Not much happened except the Melvin's took
us to Mike's drive in to eat. And I felt prompted to give this guy on
the street a pamphlet and turned out he was Buddhist. It threw me off.
Then we talked to Sarah at the gas station and went to meet the
Kennedy's after. The Kennedy's are basically our ward mom. Their
daughter reminds me of the main girl in Freaks and Geeks. They are a
great family

Saturday: We went on splits with a guy named Doug Philips. We walked
to a guy's house and taught him the restoration. He said he would keep
an open mind, but I'm not sure if he will actually read the Book of
Mormon. We went to the Kennedy's for dinner and Elder Powell and David
kept showing us magic tricks. The we took David to see a less active
and she was a talker. She kept us there for maybe two hours. I don't
think I said one thing except introducing myself.

Sunday: I met the ward and don't remember anyone. I also had to do a
presentation that Elder Powell forgot to mention to me about, during
third hour about member missionary work. It went okay. We went and
taught Mike again and shared a conference talk with him. Then we ate
with Doug Philips.

That's was our week. It was kind of weird. Anyway, I hope y'all have a
good week! Here is a picture of a snapping turtle.















Elder Powell eating a crawdad!

Elder Powell
 

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Goodbye Kentucky, Hello........Illinois?!


Yup that's right I'm leaving. Where to? You'll have to read the rest
of the email to find out! Let's go!

Monday: P day. Helped Sister Summers mow her lawn and tracted and got
two potentials.

Tuesday: In the morning, we went to Morgantown to do exchanges. The
district leader came with me back to Russellville. So Elder McCoy went
to Leitchfield with Elder Neyman and I got Elder Haley. He is pretty
cool. So we got back home and waited there so that we could get a ride
from Brother Bailey to go see Tonya Steele, but he was an hour late,
so we told stories to each other in the mean time. We got to Tonya's
and set a baptismal date with her for June 4th! It was great! Then we
went to Brother Stockton's to clean his gutters with a leaf blower. It
was fun. Then we saw Miss Lynda and then went store contacting for the
rest of the night.

Wednesday: We went to district meeting and took photos of the
district. We got to see Humpy as well and we were about to start a
debate with him, but I stopped it and said, "look the only way you can
know for yourself is if you pray about it." And he agreed so he said
he would. Then we had Book of Mormon class and I got a package from
the Dolloff's! Thank you so much! It was delicious! And I have two
more Pokemon from you! Three more and I'll have a full team!

Thursday: Everything got cancelled. The only thing that happened was
tracting, helping Sister Wiebe shop, and having dinner at her house.

Friday: We had weekly planning and then basically rode bikes for the
rest of the day trying potentials and whatnot. The only thing that
happened was, President Andersen had Elder McCoy call him and Elder
McCoy is having a baby! Which means he is just training. Which meant I
knew I was leaving, but to where? I don't know. So we went to the
Coots house and I dropped off my testimony book for them to sign.

Saturday: We saw a potential that morning and he said he would read
the Book of Mormon. Then we went to Sister Wiebe's and mowed her lawn.
While we were there, transfer calls came in. And I am leaving The
Russellville branch to go to the Foxcroft Ward. Which is in Marion,
Illinois of all places. I thought I was gonna go to Tennessee but I
guess not. So Sister Wiebe gave me a derby glass. Very nice of her.
Then I said goodbye to Humpy. He was sad I was leaving too. The rest
of the day was packing.

Sunday: I went to church and bore my testimony and told how much i
loved everyone of them. I got the youth to sign my book. A lot of
people said they were going to miss me so I was kind of glad about
that. I also said goodbye to Miss Lynda, Sister Summers, and Mary and
Marilyn. We also had a lesson with someone who let us in during
tracting. The rest of the day was just packing.

Well, this is the end of my story in Russellville, until I come back.
I'm truly going to miss it. My lesson and very nice analogy is that
everyday is a blank canvas. Remember you don't have to go by the books
to tell you how to paint. "You can pick your favorite colors. There's
no paint by number for you to go by. With every single shade, you
create a beautiful life." Remember to make it your day. I hope y'all
have a good week! And I'll let you know my new address as soon as
possible.





Elder McCoy and Me
Left to right in front of the chalkboard:
Elder Haley, Elder Casey, Sister Mortensen, Sister Wellisch, myself,
Elder Anders. Behind the chalkboard from left to right is: Elder
Neyman and Elder McCoy.













Sunday, May 22, 2016

Great Sunday!

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Not Much

Hello once again! Let's get started shall we?

Monday: We bought a dozen donuts and ate them all for pday. It was
pretty filling. Afterwards we tracted and ran into a less active and
shared the Easter video with her. The video talks about how we can
live with our families again and we just so happened to come on her
dads birthday who died in a car accident years ago. It was very
surreal. We talked about her dad for a long time and left. We went
home and I didn't eat dinner because I had a huge migraine and I felt
sick so I just went to bed.

Tuesday: Brother Abney came with us to see Mary and Marilyn. Marilyn
was asleep the entire time and Mary was just depressed about a lot of
things so it was kind of an awkward visit. Then we had dinner with the
Abneys. We helped Brother Stockton get something and then he kept
telling us about his colonoscopy and how he had to prep for it. I
couldn't stop laughing.

Wednesday: We had district meeting and had lots of fun there. Right
after we went to Bowling Green to get our oil changed and tired
changed as well. So we spent the rest of the day kind of touring it
because we had nothing else to do while we were waiting. We went into
some shops and stuff and took pictures. Right afterwards we went back
and did our Book of Mormon class.

Thursday: We helped shop with Sister Wiebe and did some chores as
well. We helped Mary and Marilyn move for three hours and just put it
in their storage. Then we had a lesson with them and Brother Bailey.
It went well.

Friday: We had weekly planning and tracted a really long time. We got
four new investigators. It was awesome. The Coots fed us and it was a
great dinner. I always really enjoy talking to them.

Saturday: Every single little plan that we had fell through. So we
tracted and tried seeing some formers. We did see a less active family
and showed them a video but it was a short lesson because they were
watching the hunger games mocking jay part 2.

Sunday: Had fun at church and got to talk to my family on skype. It
was a great reunion.

Sorry there wasn't much to talk about this week, but I hoped you
enjoyed it. Remember that sometimes things don't go our way. And that
there may be an opposition in the world, but remember that if we don't
have opposition, we wouldn't know happiness. 2 Nephi 2:11. I hope
y'all have a good week! Thanks! Bye!

Elder Craig


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Beaver Banging His Own Drum

Four months out and twenty more to go! But man, it has been going by
fast, and I can only imagine how much faster it will get. I hope all
of you enjoy my emails. So we ended up biking/walking a lot this week
because we ran out of miles and it felt really slow, but at least we
got some exercise in.

Monday: Pday. Elder McCoy cut his own hair and when he tried to do it
the first time, I was quite worried about him to be honest. It looked
awful when he came out of the bathroom. He finally used the
instructions that he had got with the clippers he had bought and it
looked way better. We got to see Tim. He was drunk. We talked about
pressing forward in Christ and he told us the reason he didn't come to
church was because he felt guilty about drinking all the time. We told
him he still could, but he felt too embarrassed I guess. We also
cleaned a lot.

Tuesday: We got up early because we had to go to Hop Town
(Hopkinsville) for zone conference. This time I paid attention to
every single training. I loved all of them. I learned a lot. That was
also the last zone conference that President and Sister Andersen were
going to be at because they're going to leave in June. We will have a
new Mission President named President Stone. I'm sad that they're
leaving, but oh well, life goes on. The only other thing to mention is
that we went to Mary and Marilyn's house and Mary is improving on the
commandments much more than I thought she would. It was awesome!

Wednesday: We biked to Brother Stockton's house and helped him paint
some of his walls and mow his lawn. Elder McCoy ended up mowing the
lawn while it was raining. Haha it was funny. We walked to Frans house
and as we were walking, we spotted a member who was having a hard time
putting furniture in her car, so we helped her with that and continued
to Frans. She was busy. We walked to the church and tracted some
houses along the way. It was really exhausting. We "taught" seminary
and read some of the Book of Mormon with Brother Bailey. Brother
Bailey gave us a ride home, which was really nice of him.

Thursday: So before I get started, we had not a lot of miles left. So
we were going to conserve them today, but it ended up not happening.
So at zone conference, someone gave us a phone because they found it
in their area and it ended up belonging to someone halfway to
Adairville and Russellville. So we drove to their house and dropped it
off. Another thing, I forgot to mention last week that one of our
formers named Tonya Steele contacted us wanting to take the lessons
again, it was very surprising because she would never respond to our
texts when Elder Ross and I taught her, so we dropped her because she
wouldn't setup an appointment. So Brother Bailey was going to take us,
but cancelled. So we drove 20 miles to get there and 20 back. It was
awful. But the lesson was good. So we got home and rode our bikes. We
had Sister Sweet come to teach temples to Mary and Marilyn. They loved
her. We had dinner with Sister Wiebe. We also saw Miss Lynda and tried
teaching her the restoration, but we cut it short because it was past
our curfew and she just kept talking about how she believes in the
gift of tongues.

Friday: We biked to the church for weekly planning. It was pretty
exhausting. We tried Fran on the way back, but she was busy. So we
walked to Miss Lynda's neighborhood and tracted for awhile. We met
this guy who has met with the missionaries before. We asked him about
what he thought of the message that they shared and he responded with
"everyone loves hearing the beaver bang his own drum." And we were
just confused. He said after that, "I switched our conversation to
politics." And with that we were way more confused! So after seeing a
bunch of people, we were walking home in the dark in pretty much a
wooded area and a car stopped and picked us up to take us home. It was
very nice of them to do that. I also attempted to sew my belt loop
back onto my pants, but I kept messing up so I just used hem tape to
keep it on there.

Saturday: We started walking to this one house to help this guy move.
The Shoemakes picked us up to help them. Elder McCoy had to sit on
everyone's lap in the back because of how cramped it was. So we helped
this guy move and it was really fun. Elder McCoy really struggled
lifting and turning everything, even though he lifts weights every
morning :P haha. Jake and Gage knew what my Attack on Titan shirt was
and I was surprised to find out that the older couple we were moving
knew what it was too. After that, we ended up talking to this one lady
for a really long time. She told us she never sees a stranger and to
call her Granny. She told us we can come back and park our bikes in
her yard if we ever need to. We got to see Humpy and read Moroni 10
with him and got him to commit to read the Book of Mormon. Then we ate
dinner at the Sweet's. No moose this time haha.

Sunday: We had fast and testimony meeting which means I was exhausted
all day from fasting, but at least we got our miles back! We went to
see a potential and she said she read the pamphlet and went on
Mormon.org! That is the first time someone has done that! She was very
interested in learning about it, but she told us she isn't interested
in joining because she has been a baptist all of her life and doesn't
like change. She said there were very good points about our church
though. I didn't even mind dropping her because she did a lot more
than what other people would do. I was still a little sad though. So
we tried several former investigators and they either all moved or
weren't there. We went to the Pentecostal church again because I
wanted Elder McCoy to experience people getting the Holy Ghost, but
then all the preaching and stuff was pointing towards us. Saying we
don't understand and whatnot and basically just trying to convert us.
We won't be going back for awhile.

That's it for this week. It was kind of slow, but eh that's what
happens when you run out of miles. One thing that I have learned over
my life is that there will be many trials in our lives. Whether it
being the difficulty of riding a bike up a hill, or the loss of loved
ones. Sometimes we blame others or God when those things happen,
especially the emotional problems, but God sees what is best for us in
order for us to grow. Therefore, if you endure these trials well, the
blessings will come. D&C 58:3-4; D&C 121:7-8. I hope y'all have a good
week! I love you!

Elder Craig



Just some pics of me with Sister Wiebe's new kittens.