Monday, June 2, 2014

A New Companion and Tracting a Rapper

Elder Ellis with Sage the Gemini, a rapper from Fairfield.
Elder Ellis and his new companion Elder Gasu.
Bonjour famille et les amis!

So this week has been simply awesome! Do you all know why…? Because Elder Gasu is the best! We have been having so much fun together! I was really nervous when I emailed last week because Elder Kimball, who used to be companions with him, told me a lot about him, and made it sound like it was going to be a rough transfer... He said that Elder Gasu would get here and take my stuff, sleep all the time, and snore like a grizzly bear, (just to name a few things,) and so far none of these things have been a problem. Well he does sleep a lot, but that's not really a big deal. Elder Gasu and I just have a lot of fun together, we always make sure we are having a good time while we work. He's so outgoing and he doesn't care what people think of him, which makes for good contacting. He's also a stellar teacher and he really knows how to teach simply so people can understand. He's been out for 14 months - he actually came out at the same time as my second companion Elder Haynie. I'm really liking this transfer.

So this week has mainly been me showing Elder Gasu around the area. Since I'm not driving I have to be able to direct this guy around all the time. So that's really helping me learn the area too, since I still don't know it very well. We've also been going around and introducing him to people in the area, like our members and investigators. So that's what this week has primarily been used for. BUT we did have quite an interesting experience on Saturday... So my first transfer here, one of the missionaries in my zone told me that a well-known rapper lives here in Fairfield, whose name is Sage the Gemini. Well Elder Kimball and I went and checked out his house, at least the house we were told he lived at, but we only looked at it, we didn't go see if he actually lived there. Well remember how I said Elder Gasu is outgoing? Yeah as soon as I told him Sage the Gemini MIGHT live there it was set in stone that we were going to go visit him. Elder Gasu loves Sage and was determined to meet him, so I agreed to go knock on his door. I mean what's the worst that can happen? If we're wrong then we just tract a random door, we do it all the time. So on Saturday we drove to his house and were sitting out front devising a plan. We agreed we would treat it like a normal tract and just introduce ourselves and talk to him like we would anyone other house in case he didn't actually live there. So we go up and knock. No answer. We knock again. No answer. Normally when knocking on doors we only knock twice and leave, but Elder Gasu was determined, so we did what missionaries only do in certain circumstances... We knocked a third time. And then somebody answered the door... *Brief silence* Elder Gasu then blurted out,"Oh my gosh, do you know who you are? You're Sage the Gemini!!" Sage answered the door himself and started talking to us. He is such a great guy, he wasn't at all what I expected. We talked to him for a little while and then he invited us into his house! So we met his family and talked to his friends a little while. He showed us his recording studio and his massive 5 ft by 10 ft TV, which was ridiculous. Then we went back outside and talked some more. He told us about his friend who is a Latter-day Saint, whose name is Zoram (which is a Mormon name if I've ever heard one,) so that was probably the reason he answered the door and talked to us instead of one of his guards with a gun to our faces. We got a picture with him and he said we could try to come back again assuming we can catch him. We actually came by at the perfect time, we made it at the very small window of free time he had. Definitely the coolest tract of my mission so far. Check that off the bucket list.

And to top the week off I got to go to primary during church! One of the primary teachers had to leave the last hour of church and he asked us to watch his class. An opportunity to go to primary class instead of Elders Quorum? Heck yeah, I'll do it! I had a great time! Elder Gasu and I watched the 8-9 year olds and pretty much all we did was make sure they didn't kill themselves and get them to sing along to the songs they were practicing, and what better way to lead than by example. So I sang my little heart out in primary class, and I regret nothing, (as a missionary I lost all pride and dignity a long time ago which is beneficial because you can't hurt what you don't have.) I was delighted to find that I still remembered a good amount of primary songs, like the Hello song, and the birthday song, both of which we were able to sing that day. It was one of the more entertaining days of church I've been to in a while.

Well that was more or less my week, again most of it was Elder Kimball and Elder Makoni saying goodbye to the people here, and Elder Gasu and Elder Call meeting the people. But there were definitely some highlights. Well to finish wrapping up my email I could sing the Goodbye song, but an email simply would not do my primary skills justice, so we'll have to settle with a mundane one.

Love, Elder Hayden Ellis







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