Transfers

so good news, transfers are this week, and elder burch and I are staying together for another 6 weeks, which will make it a total of 6 moths here in lynn heaven! i am really excited, it is going to be a great transfer; the members are getting more involved, and the people we are teaching are starting to move forward, its great! i have learned a lot from elder burch already, so i am excited to see what comes next!

on Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with wewahitchka, and Apalachicola, so we didnt have much time to be in our area for coordination on Thursday, and we reported 0s to our ward mission leader, it felt awful! i dont know how missionaries report 0s all the time, it would kill me, i honestly felt like the biggest chump of a missionary... but the very next day we went out and taught 5 lessons, it was sweet! working hard and teaching lots of people truly make the mission so much more fun, you feel accomplished, and it makes the time go by faster. while we were out and about, we knocked on a less actives door at like 5:30, and he comes to the door in a robe carrying a flippin gun, and what does elder burch do? "thats a nice gun, what kind is it?" hahahaha it was so funny! i wasnt really scared, cause he was just trying to intimidate us, but it was super funny!

while in wewah, i conducted a baptismal interview for one of their investigators, and i had to decline him.... i honestly felt so bad!!! he had the greatest of intentions and was one of the nicest and most genuine people i have ever met, but he hadnt quit smoking, he smoked that day.... so we talked with him about how baptism is to completely cleanse us, but we must first repent and change our lives. he understood, and he even let us take his cigars, it was awesome. i have no doubt that he will get baptized, he knows its all true, and loves every bit of it, its just a matter of time of when he quits smoking. i wish people could see that smoking, drinking and doing drugs isnt cool, all it really does is destroy your body and makes you feel awful, plus it restricts you from feeling the spirit and receiving blessings that the lord wants to give.

so over the past 2 days we have had some gnarly rain storms, and a few places in the zone had tornadoes! the first day we didnt get any word from president about anything, so we just went out to work in this down poor of rain, it was so awesome! we would park the car, pray, then sprint to the front door, only to have people not answer or open with a surprised look on their face and say "youre getting wet, get out of the rain" and then close the door, and then we would sprint back to the car, it was honestly a blast! the 2nd day, president told us not to go to work, so we just hunkered down at the Cornelius' house for like 6 hours after church, it was so sweet! while there, we convinced brother Cornelius to let us cut his mop of hair, he looks like a new man! 

i am loving it out here and cant wait to get back to work and help people accept the wonderful and eternal blessings of living the gospel.

elder schipaanboord

ps good news, transfers are this week, so i'll get my camera back from the assistants!