New Transfer

well this week was a long one, but boy was it a good one!! elder Johnson and I drove down to Tallahassee to pick up my new companion, his name is elder sabin from lehi Utah, and is a flippin giant!! he is like a foot taller than me, its so crazy!! but he is such a funny guy, we are getting along really well. he is brand new, straight from the mtc, but he is teaching me so much!! he has such a love for the work and is always wanting to go out and help people, and is wanting to become better, so he is trying to do everything, its amazing! this week we did a lot of tracting, which normally isn't really effective, but we saw so many miracles!!! we went tracting in the hood and the government housing (predominantly black) and people were pulling off the road and telling us to be careful, but the people were actually really humble and wanted to learn more, so we have a bunch of lessons set up this week with a ton of potentials!

on Wednesday, we had something that I thought only happened to missionaries in Utah! so this family gave us some money for dinner, and then we went over to a less active members home, and they were going out to buy groceries, and told us to come with and they would buy us some food at the store, then as we were pulling away, a member came up to us and gave us money for "dessert" it was honestly the craziest thing ever!!! but I learned something very valuable out of this. when the less active wanted to buy us food we said it was alright, because we had money and we also knew they are in a really tough situation financially right now, but she looked me in the eyes and said "no, we insist, we have a son on a mission and want to help yall, plus we need the blessings" it killed me!! its so amazing the faith that people have and how much they want to help us out, and how we need to allow people to serve us, so that they can receive the blessings. I am growing to love this place more and more, and I will never forget that experience!

later in the week we went to see this active member named mark, and elder sabin was so confused on why we were going over there, so he wanted to get in and get out. we talked with him for a little and then asked if we could share a message and he said "are y'all going to leave right after you share your message, you haven't been here that long..." it was super sad, cause we are the only people that visit him and he just wants someone to talk to. it made me realize that there is more to missionary work than just non members and less actives, we should be helping everyone and making everyone feel and know that we love them.

on Saturday we went and volunteered at the watermelon festival and officiated the 5k "hot trot" and boy was it hot!! we were just standing there, not moving at all, and were still sweating buckets, it was so crazy!! the heat and humidity is getting so crazy, I don't know how people live down here hahahaha! but we are having so much fun and know that there are going to be some amazing things happening!!

I love y'all so much! hope y'all have a great week!

elder skippy!