So this last week has just been all over the place... Sadly, we had almost every single appointment during the week cancel. This was pretty hard and forced us to spend a lot of time tracting and store contacting. The store contacting was great and we met some awesome new investigators! But the tracting was almost completely unsuccessful, the whole week... We knocked on so many doors but the number of people that actually opened their doors were in the teens...for the whole week! It was crazy! And it was pretty hard. But even though we had a hard week, we still had some pretty amazing experiences with the spirit and with our investigators. Which you'll hear about later when I go through my week!:)
Little side note; So right next to our apartment there are train tracks. And these train tracks are basically the worst thing ever... Every single night, all throughout the night, trains are going by. And it wouldn't be bad if it were just trains but we're also right next to the railroad crossing. So ever time a train goes by they have to sound their obnoxiously loud horn. So that's been something that I've struggled with. Because i'm a pretty light sleeper most of the time, ill wake up ever time a train goes by:/ Plus they'll sound their horns for a good two minutes straight, at least, all throughout the night. Lets just say it's really helped me develop my patience...:) But this last week has been easier, because we've been working so hard i'm a lot more tired at night and ill just pass out as soon as I hit the pillow:)
And now for this weeks news!;)
Monday: We last talked on Monday and I told you everything that had happened up until that point in the day. So after our emailing we went and taught Tony again. We talked to him for a while about some really great stuff. All of it was kinda focused around making sacrifices for the Lord to show our devotion and love. Tony is a super strong investigator and will probably end up getting baptized her soon but he wants a stronger confirmation that what he's learned is true. So we all decided to fast together this last Sunday. He was even going on a hike but still committed because he desired that confirmation so bad! He's such an awesome guy and I can't wait to teach him more.
After Tony we taught Russ again. We taught him most of the first lesson and the spirit was so strong the whole time. Our discussion led into talking about baptism and we ended up asking if he'd be baptized. And he said yes! He told us that he had been looking for enlightenment for a long time and that he had studied many other religions but never the LDS church. He told us that he's always seen a glow/light in people that were Mormon and expressed the desire to have that light for himself. He said that he knew what we were saying was true and that what he was doing was right. So he committed to be baptized:) The whole thing was so spiritual and such an amazing experience! The perfect way to end a day:)
Tuesday: Today we started the day by going to a bunch of different places with this old man named Brother Harrington. Brother Harrington is 87 and is basically our chauffeur whenever we need him. He's obviously retired and doesn't do anything so he'll just help the missionaries whenever we need him! He also takes us to and from church every Sunday. He drives us around in this prehistoric mini van that has 250,000 miles on it haha! I'll include a picture I took later that night in his car. I'm not gonna lie, it can be scary at times just by the way he drives and because he is rather old but we haven't died yet so no harm no foul! haha Anyways after we visited some less actives we went grocery shopping for the week. He ended up paying for us, no matter how much we argued! He's such a trooper. After Brother Harrington dropped us off we went and had our weekly frozen yogurt and then went tracting. After we tracted (knocking on people's doors to teach them) for quite a while, we went and got haircuts... My first haircut on the mission and lets just say it wasn't the best. But I've learned that it will grow back so I wasn't too worried.
Side story; An elder name Elder Smith used to cut a lot of the missionaries hair and was able to make it pretty fashionable most of the time. He was actually in the group that was leaving when I was coming in... So after this mediocre haircut that me and my companion received, and after seeing some of the haircuts that the other missionaries in my area had done by themselves, I decided I was going to start cutting hair! I decided someone needed to replace Elder Smith and be able to provide some cool haircuts and I decided that someone was going to be me! So today I bought a cheap hair cutting kit from Ross! I feel like it can't be too hard to learn how plus with some missionaries it can't really get worse...lol so yeah, that's happening:)
Wednesday: Not a whole lot happened today. We weekly planned int he morning and that takes a while then we went out and did some finding for a little. Then circumstances arose and we had to go back to the apartment for a little. We then taught Russ again! Russ is just the best kid ever. He's so mature and aware of whats going on spiritually. The lesson was just fantastic. We taught the second lesson and again things went into talking about his baptism near the end of the lesson. Earlier that day we had been praying and discussing which day would be best for us to suggest he be baptized. The whole time I felt like October 3rd would be perfect for him and we prayed about it and it felt right. So at the end of the lesson we asked him if he would be baptized October 3rd and told him we had really thought and prayed about it. He got really happy and said that October 3rd was his birthday! We all freaked out a little and got really excited. After we calmed down he suddenly realized that he was going to be at his dads house, two hours away, that weekend because his parents are divorced. We were all a little disappointed but I bore testimony to him that even though it didn't work out we were still strongly prompted to suggest that date and that even though it didn't work out it just shows how much Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us personally, enough to know something so small as you're birthday. I think that was exactly why we were prompted to suggest October 3rd. Just so that Russ could feel for himself and experience that relationship that he has with our father in heaven. Because that was something that he was struggling with before we started teaching him.
We regrouped and decided that October tenth would work perfectly and was still going to be just as special. He committed to be baptized on that date and things have just been great since then. He's reading the book of mormon and everyday we send him our favorite scripture of the day and he sends us his from his studies. He so solid its amazing. Sometimes he'll even share a mini spiritual thought along with the scripture! So amazing.
Thursday: Today we had zone training. It was a lot of fun and we discussed and learned a whole bunch of good things! We did this one crazy activity that's hard to explain but basically we were led around the church blindfolded and had to be guided by nothing but a string. We had people trying to tempt us and make us let go of the string and the end goal at the end of the maze was "the tree of life" outside. It was a really awesome training and it was great to hangout with all the missionaries in our zone some more. After that we got chick fila then headed home. We spent the rest of the day tracting and finding.
Friday: Today was Brother Harrington's 87th birthday so we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant with him. It was pretty entertaining because everybody there doesn't like him very much because he can be kind of rude at times and basically has no filter whatsoever as to what he says. So despite the food being pretty bad, it was a fun lunch. After lunch we went and did yard work at a members house for a pretty long time. The member threw his back out so he couldn't take care of his lawn so I spent about three hours pulling some huge weeds all around his house while Anderson mowed his huge lawn. After service we went and got showered and changed and headed to our dinner appointment. On our way we saw a lady mowing her lawn in the extreme heat so we pulled over and i finished mowing her lawn while Elder Anderson talked to her and contacted her. Holy cow, I haven't been that sweaty in a long time, even after basketball. It wasn't even hard work, it was a push mower! But because of the humidity and the fact that I was in full missionary clothes, I was dripping sweat... It was lovely haha So we talked to her and she said she wanted to learn more so we're going back to teach her this week! We went to our dinner appointment a little dirty but we're very close to this family so it didn't really matter:)
Saturday: Today was hard. We had all our appointments fall through so we spent the whole day tracting and a little bit store contacting. It was over 100 degrees and it was a struggle. We walked so much and knocked on so many doors. Definitely the most physically hard day so far. We were both dying in the heat and hardly anyone was letting us in because Alabama and Auburn were both playing on that day...Im actually surprised we didn't have any guns pulled on us lol So yeah, Saturday was long and tough!
Sunday: Today was good, church was great! Fast and testimony meeting was interesting and someone actually bore their testimony about Tanner Mangum and the last play in the game lol so that was interesting but it was still great! We taught gospel principles second hour then had an awesome Elders quorum meeting in third hour. After that we went home and broke our fast and went out tracting. We then had a dinner appointment with an awesome family then store contacted to end the night.
Even though this week wasn't the best, it was still a huge learning experience and my first experience of working very hard on my mission. Tracting is not very fun, but it shows obedience and a willingness to serve. And i've learned that it's something ill probably do my whole mission so I might as well figure out a way to enjoy it! And we were definitely blessed for our hard work with Russ committing to baptism! Please keep him in your prayers because even though he has a date, Satan will still be trying to knock him off this path and make things hard in some way. he's a great kid though and i'd be very surprised if something changed his mind.
Thank you to all of you for the support and love that i'm constantly being shown. I really appreciate it.
Much love!
Sincerely,
Elder Honn
*Last little side note* I do not have an iPad and apparently this mission has been receiving promises of iPads for the last two years... so cross our fingers that during my time, the prophecies will be fulfilled! lol
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