Monday, February 6, 2017

February? Rats!!!!! (February 6th 2017)

Okay, I got some interesting stories this week. One about a rat and another about our lovely new vehicle coordinator Elder Mower. Overall it was a great week and a great first week with my new companion Elder Atterton. Lots of laughs and fun.

So Monday of last week we got Elder Hermann ready to leave to Champaign, Illinois. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings again, that was fun. We went to the river again and looked out over the Mississippi, which is always fun. We had dinner at the Baird's home. It was awesome. Had a lot of fun there, they are a great family. The rest of the evening Elder Hermann packed. Not much else happened on Monday.

Tuesday was an interesting day, this is where one of the stories comes into play. So we drove up to St. Louis because Elder Hermann couldn't find a ride. So we drove the two hours up there with two other Elders with us. We show up to Transfers and all is well. We hadn't washed the car yet. Our new Vehicle Coordinator sees me and comes up to me and looks at our car. He says "Are you kidding me right now? This is the Lords car" Then he pinched me by the neck just as a basketball coach would and pulled me aside and said, "Do you want to lose your driving privileges?" I said no of course then he proceeded to inspect the car. He got me good, but he is right. I need to clean my car. So that bugged me all day. Elder Atterton unpacked and got groceries. We saw Jimmy and had dinner with Sister Bradley. It was a good night.

Wednesday we had District Meeting. Then we had Stake info we needed to get. That was fun, we had the meeting that night and we had to get it all typed up and collected before 5 pm that night. We were down to the wire, it was crazy. Good news is we got the information done in time and we got to the meeting a few minutes early. It went great, President Dickson is a great Stake President. We learned what we need to do as missionaries for the Stake, it was a great meeting. So there used to be a YSA branch here and it got closed. So my goal recently is to restart the YSA branch. So we had dinner with an older couple and they are in charge of the YSA group activities. We were able to pick their brains a little bit and talk with them. We had a great visit and an enjoyable time. She made this good fruit salad. Wednesday was a good day. Just go, go, and go.

Thursday was packed! We had a lesson with our investigator Kerri Brown. We meet with her at 9 am. So we go by and she isn't feeling good. More than half way through the Restoration video she gets up and dry heaves a couple times and does that a couple more times. We stopped what we wanted to teach and taught her according to her needs. We gave her a Priesthood Blessing and taught about the Priesthood. We began to talk again and she was still feeling sick so we had her pray. She has never prayed in front of us. She said a simple, sweet, short prayer and then got up and threw up. Before she did that we sat and I asked, "how do you feel?" she said "comforted". I asked her "how did it fell to pray?". She described to me her experience. She said she was nervous in the beginning, then she was comforted. We read from Moroni 8:26. It was so wonderful to show her through the Book of Mormon and through asking questions that she had been comforted. We saw Cletus, he is my dude! He is about 75-80 years old and he is your typical red neck. A super good guy, a little stubborn but a great guy. We had lunch at Burritoville and we were full. Then we went to Jimmy’s and he fed us 1/4 a pizza each. Then we saw a less active brother and he took us to KFC, I got a pot pie. Hahaha, we ate three meals in less than three hours! We were ready to burst. Every time someone offered us food I would immediately say "Yes!" and Elder Atterton would just get this face that said, "I am going to die!". After stuffing our faces full we washed the car. We detailed it and made her look beautiful. We named the car Fiona. Then we saw James McNew, he is a recent convert. His house is infested with bed bugs. He says he has a rat there. It has been there for like 2 years. So towards the end of our visit, I go to the bathroom and I am sitting down. I hear a pitter patter on the floor. Underneath the door comes this rat. He looks at me and I look at him. He sits there for a second, we have like a staring contest. Then he ran across the floor and went underneath the cabinets of the sink. He had chewed a hole under the sink previously. This sucker was big. His body was the length of one of my shoes and his tail was about the size of two of my pinky finger. It was gross, I got really nervous and got up and left. But I was really cautious because I didn't want him to come and attack me. After James we saw Matt, he is a good guy. He has been meeting with missionaries for a long time. We read from the Book of Mormon and talked for a little bit. Thursday was nuts.

Friday we drove back to St. Louis for MLC. The two-hour car drive was wonderful. Elder Mower was there and he saw our car and how detailed it was. He shook our hands and said "you too are my new cover boys." and took our picture in front of our car. The car looked showroom quality. Then he gave us a subway gift card. Yay, we are on his good side. MLC was great. We met with Libin that night and he was a little stubborn. We had a good lesson none the less. He was a little aggressive and feisty. We brought Sister Bradley she is great. 

Saturday we had weekly planning and we went and saw Alecia Gardner. We also gave a member a blessing. We went back to James's house and ate pizza with him. We read the Bible every time we go over, we love him. Then we saw Anthony. We sat outside in the 30-degree weather, it was cold but not too cold for Jesus. We discussed the lesson that we would go over tomorrow in Gospel Principles. So Anthony always falls asleep in church, he just gets knocked out. So I was wondering why? I asked him "why are you always so tired?" After a few more questions and very little answers, we figured out that he doesn't have a bed. He is sleeping on the ground. Poor guy.

Sunday was great it was Elder Atterton’s first Sunday and he met a bunch of people. We didn't have anyone come to church, which was tough but we taught the 2nd-hour class. It went well then we had dinner with the Dickson family, our Stake Presidents family. It went great. We had lots of fun with them. We did some prep for Zone Conference. It was a great Sabbath day. 

I love you all, time is just flying by! We are excited and working hard. I love the new missionary schedule change. It's great and so stress-free. Cape Girardeau is awesome and I am loving the people. I hope you all have a great day and week this week. 

Love, 

Elder Washburn


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