Craziness

This week was a pretty weird one to say the least. We helped this lady, who lives above us, move out of her place because she is getting shipped off to South Korea for the military. After we helped, we realized that she still had a couple days left before she leaves but her bed was packed away in Uhaul, so we realized that we have 3 mattresses, we could offer her one of them to use in her apartment while she waits to leave. We saw her later that night and asked her if she had a place to sleep and she said she had a motel, so we said "Oh, okay, because we have an extra bed that you can use if you need it." Then Elder Carlson and I went inside not thinking anything of it but then the both of us, at the same time, realized that she totally thought that we were inviting her to spend the night at our place...... WOW... we are such good representatives of the Savior and His church.....

 

We were at a members house, eating dinner with them, and the oldest daughter (15) had some friends pick her up to go to a movie, so the member thought "What a perfect opportunity to introduce them to the missionaries!" She invited the girls in to "meet the family" and then we were just awkwardly sitting there and were not part of the conversation.... but right when the girls left, they told the daughter "They were soooooo cute, we HAVE to come back!" The member came back and said "SEEEEE?! We just got you THREE new investigators!!!"  I love the members here so much! The ward is honestly so awesome and they are really becoming like family!

We were out knocking on doors in the hood and found these thugs out on their porch, so we went over to talk with them. We found out that one of their names is "Church" and he was all tatted up, just got out of prison, and was definitely packin a 9 mil on his side. He had a Book of Mormon and told us he was in 1 Nephi 17 and is really liking it. We got super pumped!! Then the kids inside were going crazy so he went inside, and Elder Carlson said that he heard "smack smack smack" followed by screams..... this homie went inside and beat his kids..... I wish so badly that I would've heard it, so we could've called him out and done something about it, but I was too focused on teaching the other guy that was there that I didn't even hear it.... it makes me so sad that people treat their kids like that. Being out here has definitely taught be what I do and don't want to do when raising kids and beating them is definitely a NO GO!! When Church came back out, he pulled out a little green nugget, tore it apart, and then started rolling a joint right in front of us! Then proceeded to smoke it right there!!  It was so crazy!! 

On Saturday and Sunday, Elder Carlson and I were super sick, and didn't do anything, it sucked so bad!!! We were going stir crazy from being inside with nothing to do because our mission doctor told us not to go out, we didn't even go to church... it was weird! The young men brought over the sacrament and I definitely felt like an 80 year old grandpa in a nursing home that can't care for himself. It was so strange but also really cool! It made me a lot more thankful for the priesthood and how many ways there are to serve in this church! The young men didn't realize it but them coming over was such a light to us, they literally brought the Savior and His sacrifice with them, it was truly amazing!!

On the bright side, we got 4 new investigators this week and the work is starting to progress! Elder Carlson is dope, and we are getting along really well!

I love y'all so much and appreciate all that you do for me and those around you!

Elder Schipaanboord