Elder Colton Craig: Church Hopping

Guys I've been out for a month already! Can you believe it? It's gone by so fast! I love the work out here, so before I start, let me tell you one thing that happened last Monday. I was at Walmart and Elder Ross was getting his haircut and a guy sat next to me waiting and I talked a little bit about what you do on a mission and whatnot and he asks me "are you gay?" And I couldn't help but laugh at the question.
Note to self, never say "companion" to strangers.

Anyway, on Tuesday, there was zone conference and we went to Hopkinsville to go there. The president had a lot to say and there was a bunch of talks and stuff that was given. I really liked listening to what the mission president had to say as well as the Sister Training Leaders. They were very good. I got to see Monica there too! It was a nice reunion and I loved talking to her. After the zone conference, a
bunch of the zone went to Elkton because the Elkton Elders signed up for a Christian unity choir thing at the Methodist church there, so we went and sang a couple of hymns there. Methodists are super different because all they basically do is state their own opinion on the scriptures and it's super weird. But anyway going to the Methodist church was fun, one of the church's that was singing (I think it was
the Baptists) had a drum kit and bass and it was very interesting.

HUGE bags of $5 Amish Pretzels

On Wednesday, we went to go see some new members who moved into the ward a couple of months ago. Their name is the Steele's and they are originally from Greenville and they had no idea there was a church in Russellville. So we taught them a small lesson and set an appointment for Saturday. Next we went to an Amish store and I didn't realize that is how you spell Amish. It was very interesting. We just went to browse. We went to Humpy's and taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and he said "now don't be surprised if I come to y'all church. I'll come in a suit and tie and a hat, now you didn't expect that did ya? You ain't never met an old man like me" If I were to say Humpy had a catch phrase, it would be "you never ain't an old man like me."

We also taught seminary for the youth at night. They teach Wednesday's at night because they will just go to youth activities right after. So we taught them and I absolutely love the youth, they are really funny and great to talk to. We were drinking apple juice and someone talked about how it looked like pee and then one of the kids asked me "have you every peed in your mouth?" And obviously I said no and then he tells me a story of how he tried to pee in a bottle and I guess he laughed so hard and lost control that.......yeah.......

Thursday! So only two things happened that is really worth mentioning. We went to Walmart for a member and I saw this cute old man on a bench reading his Bible, so I try and go tell him about the Book of Mormon, he wasn't interested but he told me that what I was doing was great. That if I can save people and bring them to Jesus, then I was doing something amazing. And it made me feel good for the rest of the day. We also tried seeing a less active, who wasn't interested in seeing us but she talked to us for a long time about how the church wasn't good enough to to her because they never came to her son's funeral and other things. She told us she was almost over it and that she thinks she will be back to church soon, so we gave her our number just in case she needed anything.

So on Friday I met a member and the first thing I hear is a Journey song that is at full volume that I forget the name of. It goes "some day love will find you, take those chains that bind you." Anyway that's not important, what is important was when he opened the door, he was super drunk. We talked about when we would be able to see him and he told us probably not tomorrow because he might have work because it's up in the air. So we leave and an hour later he texts us saying "oh sorry I sleep" and we were like "he doesn't remember opening the door." So we ask him if he has work tomorrow and he says
yes and tell him we will try him next week. Immediately after we send that text I'm talking like 10 seconds later, he calls us and says sorry he couldn't come to the door he was asleep and we talk to him for a little bit and ask once again if he has work and he says "no I don't but I'll be with a girl tomorrow. She wants to turn me on but you know me I'm not like that." And then he proceeds to tell us that he went on Facebook telling everyone that he cut his finger off at work and showed a picture. And then he pauses and says "I didn't cut my finger off." Immediately I start laughing super hard but quietly so he doesn't hear me. I love him so much he cracked me up. Also Sonic was having a special, $0.50 grilled cheeses! So we bought a bunch of them and ate it for lunch, boy was that the worst mistake ever. No wonder they were $0.50, they were the worst grilled cheeses I've ever eaten! They couldn't get rid of them fast enough! Anyway it made me feel sick for the rest of the day and I ended up throwing most of them away because they are not edible. This is a warning to all, never ever ever ever ever! Get grilled cheese and sonic! You'll be extremely disappointed. Also we saw Damian and we were about to tell him we were
going to drop him as an investigator because he wasn't progressing, but he told us he would be able to come to church next Sunday, so let's hope.

Saturday, we finally got a member to come out and teach with us! President Coots apparently went to middle school with Tonya Steele, so he came out with us so that they knew some people before they came to church. Tonya isn't a member and she said she was interested in being baptized! So I might have a baptism here pretty soon. We saw Damian again and answered some questions that he had. We saw Humpy again and we were gonna teach him about prophets and stuff, but then he had questions about after death, so we just ended up answering those instead. We stayed there for two hours as he basically told his life story to us. I loved it! He has such an interesting life!

Me with the stuff the youth stuffed in my suit

Lastly on Sunday ......oh Sunday....so first off, I went to church for the first time here in Russellville. There were about fifty people in there. It's better than what I've heard but still really small. The Steele's didn't come because they slept in, but it's okay there is always next Sunday right? I talked to a lot of the youth there. They are really cool and I love talking to them. They are like the only people that I actually am comfortable talking to. They stuffed a lot of stuff in my suit so my suit looked all big as you'll see in a picture. We saw a less active who smokes and taught the word of wisdom to him. He was pretty resistant to it, like steering toward the direction of how we couldn't eat corn and stuff, he takes things way too literally sometimes. Anyway I kinda doubt he will try it.

Now the fun part of the day, we went to a Pentecostal church at night. So the first half hour is I think called prayer hour or something. And when I walked in, it had dim lights and all I could hear was(and this is the best way I can describe it) what sounded like a zombie apocalypse in a psychiatric asylum all in a cult ceremony. All I heard was long zombie moans that sounded like they were from the Resident Evil series while occasionally hearing a wall being banged by someone and hearing oooooooooohhhhh praise the lord, oooooooooooooh thank you Jesus. A lot of the people there were near the wall facing towards it, occasionally banging on a wall and rocking back and forth. After that the preacher went up and started the prayer which was everyone yelling different things. Afterwards, they started singing

with a piano and a drum set, but only one person was singing and everyone just clapped to the rocked out beat of their hymns. Everyone started jumping up and down and even a few people were running laps around the pews. This singing and jumping up and down lasted about a half hour. Then 3 different preachers or minister or whatever started preaching one by one. The last one started to sing and his was

the longest preach I have ever heard. The entire of those preachers lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes with the last preacher taking up an hour. Then there was more singing and that was it. Let me tell you guys....it was exhausting seeing all those people worship God like that. I feel like they just hype themselves up and call that The Spirit. Anyway it was weird and hilarious. It was great. The entire thing lasted about 2 and a half hours. Also I should mention this was all white people doing this.

So I'm gonna talk about what they have here in Kentucky that they don't have in California. They have drive thru Tobacco stores, a Tobacco festival in the summer and truck gangs that hang out in front
of the Dollar General with their lights on who think they're all that and a bag of chips, but the kind of bag of chips that are only half full so they are kind of sad and pathetic. One of my favorite moments this week also was at the Pentecostal church, I talked to a lady about how I was from California and she responded "I had an uncle that moved there until he died" then she just walked away from me. It was super awkward and hilarious. Also they have these good sodas called Big Blue and Big Red. I haven't tried Big Red yet but they are so delicious! I wish they had them in California, oh well.

Kentucky is great guys! Sure it was a tad hard to get used to, but I absolutely love it now. I mean I wouldn't want to live here, but I wouldn't mind coming back to visit, even though this isn't really a
vacationing spot haha. I love this church and I love the people here. The people here are super great about being active even though there is only 50ish people. Even though not everyone is friends with each other, they still come to church. That is a big testimony builder in my opinion. The church is true! And I love you all! Until next week!

Elder Craig