Thanks A Lot Bob (Feb 28th 2017)

What a week. As we walked into the Library today I said to Elder Atterton "Every time we come to the Library I always have a story to tell". This week I have more stories but not any that I hurt myself or someone getting hurt more funny and interesting stories. I can’t wait to share them. Especially Wednesday it was crazy. Wednesday kind of defined southeast Missouri a little bit. Well, it described one-half of it. 

Monday of last week we played basketball forever long. We started playing at noon and played until 5:30 pm and it wasn't any easy basketball either. We played with some of the priests. We got a really good sweat in. Thank goodness I had my basketball shoes and Hydro Flask because I would have been toast. After playing basketball we took Joel our investigator to Young Single Adult Family Home Evening. We had a lot of fun with him and he got to meet some people that are close to his age. Joel is a great guy and he is loving the Book of Mormon right now. He has been recognizing the Spirit as he reads, it’s awesome. 

Tuesday we emailed of course. After emailing we saw Joel and had a lesson with him and also went out to Ullin, IL and saw Olivia our investigator. We had a good lesson with them. We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it was restored to the earth and what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. After coming back from Ullin we saw our good friend James and read from the Book of Mormon with him. It was a good visit. We talked about Lehi’s dream. Side note James is a painter so we thought it would be cool if he started painting Gospel art pictures life the tree of life or the Temple. We thought it would be sweet. 

Wednesday, My favorite day of the week. So we started the day with the day with District Meeting. It went well and we had lunch right after District Meeting with Brother Neal. We had a KFC pot pie. So after eating with Brother Neal, we had an exchange with the Farmington Elders. So I was with Elder Marlor from Idaho. He is hilarious. I love him. So the first thing we do on the exchange is help transport a futon for Anthony because he doesn't have a bed. So we had to grab it from this senior living home. We grab the big heavy mattress and we carry it to the Fusion, we shove it in the trunk. We have about 10 plus elderly people watching us from inside the senior center. We had no clue until we came back. So we drove and dropped off the bed at Anthony’s, then we came back for the frame. We got it out of the room and took it to the car. So this 88-year-old gentleman comes out and says here take my truck. I quickly said we can’t drive your truck but if you could take us that would be awesome. So he agreed to take us. He had an old ford ranger. So we put this big futon frame on the back of his truck bed and Elder Marlor sat in the bed of the truck with the frame so it would fly off. Bob walked by Elder Marlor and said I will try to keep it under 50. Bob got in the truck and we were off we went about a mile from the place to Anthony's I remember telling Bob we would be right back. I get out and we take the Futon frame into Anthony's house and we come back out to leave and Bob is gone. His truck is not in sight. Anthony lives in the ghetto too. So we walked the mile back to the car and the whole time we are role playing about when we walk back and we see Bob. We kept saying Thanks, Bob. We got back to the senior center and there is Bob and he sees us, He made his way toward us and says sorry boys I forgot. With a smile on our face, we replied it's okay Bob. After that fiasco, it only gets better. We went and saw Barry our investigator. We had a good lesson with him and praying and reading. We had him say the closing prayer. He said the prayer then he sat there and started to speak in tongues. Needless to say, Barry is Pentecostal. We were hungry so we went to Burritoville and had a Chicken Ceaser Salad Burrito with Bacon. it is sooooo good. After Burritoville we had Companionship study at the bridge. it was amazing. We saw Jimmy after. Jimmy just straight up looked Elder Marlor in the eyes and said he was a Prophet. It was an overall interesting day. The best thing that happened was we gave a blessing to a recent Convert named Ben who has been able to come because of back issues. It went super well. 

Thursday Elder Marlor and I went to a lady named Regina. She is also an investigator. We stopped by to set up an appointment. She invited us in and she proceeded to tell us about her dream of Donald Trump and Barack Obama and just some really out there stuff. It was another weird visit. Elder Marlor got the works. We had a very interesting exchange, I told him the next time he comes he can get all of our normal people. We finished our exchange with some Burritoville. We exchanged back and drove down to Poplar Bluff for a baptismal interview. It was a nice hour and 45-minute drive. Then after the interview, we drove back and had dinner with our Ward Mission Leader and his family it was a fun night with them. 

Friday we weekly planned and made phone calls for stake information almost all day, it was long. We wanted to be exact so the Stake President could be informed as possible. We had dinner with a member it went really well the dinner was good. We also saw Libin that night with a member. The lesson went well. We did a visual on the Tree of Life. With a blindfold, rope and a picture of Christ. It didn't go exactly as planned but we did it. 

Saturday We continued to call people for information. We saw Matt our investigator with him. We are seeing that his conversion won’t come from us stopping by. It will come from the members of the church that he knows. We also saw a woman who was excommunicated her name is Cynthia. We had a decent lesson with her and got her a ride to church. We tried by Joel but he wasn’t home and hasn’t been home for a while. He went MIA on us. He will be back, he must be at his parents or something. Then that night went and saw Anthony. We go over every Saturday night and talk about the Gospel Principles lessons to help him with his Sabbath day observance. He hasn’t fallen asleep at church since we have started seeing him on Saturday nights. 

Sunday Joel wasn't able to come to church. We had Kathy an investigator there and Cynthia. We had Dinner with the Baird family it was awesome!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much. I get really excited to go over to their house and be with them. They are my favorite family. It was a great Sabbath day. We topped it off with seeing Jimmy. We sang "How great thou art" to him. He loved it! He was a little depressed. 

It was a great week! I had an interesting exchange. I have been reading from the April conference Ensign. I love the talk by Dale G. Renlund "That I might draw all men unto me" Super good talk. If you have the time go and read it or listen to it if you can. 

The work is progressing here in Cape Girardeau. Thank You for your love and support. 

The church is true 

Love, 

Elder Washburn

Famous Lambert's. This place was cool.