Hello everyone!
So a lot happened this week... And it's only uphill from here! We have so much going on next week it's ridiculous, I think we have like two normal work days. We have a zone meeting, a temple trip and Mother's Day - all sorts of stuff going on.
Well, this last week has been super interesting for contacting. Let me tell you all a little story of my worst contact ever. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was immensely unfortunate. Well on Monday night of last week I was contacting with Elder Kimball around 8 pm. We didn't have any appointments that night so we were trying to get our 20 contacts. We ran into this crazy women we see every now and then. It was like the third time we've seen her and whenever we run into her she starts yelling at us, "WHERE'S YOUR LITERATURE TODAY!? WHAT DO YOU GOT FOR ME!? WHERE'S YOUR D&C? WHERE'S YOUR PEARL!?" And every time we contact her, (well more like she contacts us,) she takes our Book of Mormons. She does this whenever she sees missionaries so she's probably snagged quite a few by now. So it was the first time I've ever hidden a BoM from a contact. We started playing dumb, asking her if she still had the last ones she took and then she started making all these weird hand gestures. Then she walked away. When we noticed there was no body where we were walking we decided to turn around and try a different way. So we were walking in the same direction as the aforementioned crazy women. Well she stopped at a cross walk and waited for us to catch up to her then she walked over to me and got right in my face. She told me the devil was calling me, and started speaking in tongues (my definition of speaking in tongues is if it's not English and it's not Spanish, then it must be in tongues). So she started speaking in a language I didn't recognize and said I haven't figured it out yet, then we had a staring competition for five seconds and she proceeded to spit in my face! She then promptly fled into the night... I just stood there for a little while.... Trying to figure out what had just happened. The worst part is she may be a smoker. Regardless, she does not brush her teeth, cause it smelled awful. So I went home and scrubbed my face repeatedly.
Well now that you're all thoughly grossed out, let me share a highlight from my contacting this week.
Friday night I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Hurd, and we also decided to contact in the same area the "unfortunate incident", as it now shall be called, occurred. But the only crazy women we ran into was someone who is mad at the church, so she just ranted for a while and went on her merry way. After that we contacted this man named Devon, who told us that he's a member of the church, but he's having a rough time right now and is currently homeless. So we brought him to the nearest church building which happened to be just a few blocks away. When we got there he asked for a blessing, because he's been pretty sick lately and he was just in a really bad place at the time. So we gave him a blessing right there behind the church. The spirit was really strong afterward. And it was such a tender mercy that we found him because I had other plans that night that fell through and I couldn't think of what else to do other than contact. So I know we were led there. After that we walked around till 9:30 looking for the mission home for people who don't have a place to sleep at night. We managed to find it after much needed directions from an ambulance driver and got him a place to stay. It was a great feeling to help him out in his time of need. Elder Hurd is going to contact the Fairfield 3rd Elders, whose bishop is in charge of handling these situations. I hope everything works out alright for him.
Something else that happened was that we got to go on splits with the priests. It was cool we each got a priest and also a member to drive us to our appointments. We pretty much just had home teaching appointments to go to. I went with a teacher actually, whose name was D****** and he's a little on the quite side. It was a really fun visit and I tried my best to keep it lively and have fun with it. D****** was quiet and didn't say much (not that I needed him to, I just really was hoping he was enjoying himself,) but after we met back at the church he told Elder Kimball that he had a lot of fun - much more than he thought he would. Success! That was what I had hoped to accomplish with that visit. If I managed to help him decide to go on a mission, even a little, then I'm happy with that!
Well while I was on exchanges with Elder Hurd we went to a funeral service for a member in Cordelia 1st ward, whose name was Barbra Gillespie. It was one of the happiest funerals one could go to. People laughed more than they cried. I never got to meet her but from what her family said about her she is an incredibly kind and loving person. Much was said on how Christ-like and wonderful she was. People also talked a lot about what kind of grandmother and mother she was to her family, and it got me thinking (even more than I already have been lately) about my mom. So I couldn't help but get up and bare my testimony yesterday on the very topic of mothers. On an unrelated topic, our dinner appointments have skyrocketed in the last 24 hours! Just kidding, but a lot of women in my ward came up and thanked me for my testimony, so I managed to touch somebody with my testimony!
Well unfortunately our investigator, E**** is feeling a little bit pressured and wants to slow down with lessons, which kinda bums me out. But she stills wants to learn about and understand the Book of Mormon, so that's good. Our plan is to just read the Book of Mormon with her and explain as we go, taking it slowly so she doesn't feel pressured. We haven't been able to see our other investigator D*** lately which really stinks, but we'll catch her sooner or later. I really hope she'll be able to make it Friday.
Well, sorry it took me so long to get this emailed! I spent the whole day walking around the mall, watching Elder Kimball browse stores. But c'est la vie. Well I'm so excited for this week! I hope everyone's as excited as I am! I love you all!
Love, Elder Hayden Ellis
So a lot happened this week... And it's only uphill from here! We have so much going on next week it's ridiculous, I think we have like two normal work days. We have a zone meeting, a temple trip and Mother's Day - all sorts of stuff going on.
Well, this last week has been super interesting for contacting. Let me tell you all a little story of my worst contact ever. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was immensely unfortunate. Well on Monday night of last week I was contacting with Elder Kimball around 8 pm. We didn't have any appointments that night so we were trying to get our 20 contacts. We ran into this crazy women we see every now and then. It was like the third time we've seen her and whenever we run into her she starts yelling at us, "WHERE'S YOUR LITERATURE TODAY!? WHAT DO YOU GOT FOR ME!? WHERE'S YOUR D&C? WHERE'S YOUR PEARL!?" And every time we contact her, (well more like she contacts us,) she takes our Book of Mormons. She does this whenever she sees missionaries so she's probably snagged quite a few by now. So it was the first time I've ever hidden a BoM from a contact. We started playing dumb, asking her if she still had the last ones she took and then she started making all these weird hand gestures. Then she walked away. When we noticed there was no body where we were walking we decided to turn around and try a different way. So we were walking in the same direction as the aforementioned crazy women. Well she stopped at a cross walk and waited for us to catch up to her then she walked over to me and got right in my face. She told me the devil was calling me, and started speaking in tongues (my definition of speaking in tongues is if it's not English and it's not Spanish, then it must be in tongues). So she started speaking in a language I didn't recognize and said I haven't figured it out yet, then we had a staring competition for five seconds and she proceeded to spit in my face! She then promptly fled into the night... I just stood there for a little while.... Trying to figure out what had just happened. The worst part is she may be a smoker. Regardless, she does not brush her teeth, cause it smelled awful. So I went home and scrubbed my face repeatedly.
Well now that you're all thoughly grossed out, let me share a highlight from my contacting this week.
Friday night I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Hurd, and we also decided to contact in the same area the "unfortunate incident", as it now shall be called, occurred. But the only crazy women we ran into was someone who is mad at the church, so she just ranted for a while and went on her merry way. After that we contacted this man named Devon, who told us that he's a member of the church, but he's having a rough time right now and is currently homeless. So we brought him to the nearest church building which happened to be just a few blocks away. When we got there he asked for a blessing, because he's been pretty sick lately and he was just in a really bad place at the time. So we gave him a blessing right there behind the church. The spirit was really strong afterward. And it was such a tender mercy that we found him because I had other plans that night that fell through and I couldn't think of what else to do other than contact. So I know we were led there. After that we walked around till 9:30 looking for the mission home for people who don't have a place to sleep at night. We managed to find it after much needed directions from an ambulance driver and got him a place to stay. It was a great feeling to help him out in his time of need. Elder Hurd is going to contact the Fairfield 3rd Elders, whose bishop is in charge of handling these situations. I hope everything works out alright for him.
Something else that happened was that we got to go on splits with the priests. It was cool we each got a priest and also a member to drive us to our appointments. We pretty much just had home teaching appointments to go to. I went with a teacher actually, whose name was D****** and he's a little on the quite side. It was a really fun visit and I tried my best to keep it lively and have fun with it. D****** was quiet and didn't say much (not that I needed him to, I just really was hoping he was enjoying himself,) but after we met back at the church he told Elder Kimball that he had a lot of fun - much more than he thought he would. Success! That was what I had hoped to accomplish with that visit. If I managed to help him decide to go on a mission, even a little, then I'm happy with that!
Well while I was on exchanges with Elder Hurd we went to a funeral service for a member in Cordelia 1st ward, whose name was Barbra Gillespie. It was one of the happiest funerals one could go to. People laughed more than they cried. I never got to meet her but from what her family said about her she is an incredibly kind and loving person. Much was said on how Christ-like and wonderful she was. People also talked a lot about what kind of grandmother and mother she was to her family, and it got me thinking (even more than I already have been lately) about my mom. So I couldn't help but get up and bare my testimony yesterday on the very topic of mothers. On an unrelated topic, our dinner appointments have skyrocketed in the last 24 hours! Just kidding, but a lot of women in my ward came up and thanked me for my testimony, so I managed to touch somebody with my testimony!
Well unfortunately our investigator, E**** is feeling a little bit pressured and wants to slow down with lessons, which kinda bums me out. But she stills wants to learn about and understand the Book of Mormon, so that's good. Our plan is to just read the Book of Mormon with her and explain as we go, taking it slowly so she doesn't feel pressured. We haven't been able to see our other investigator D*** lately which really stinks, but we'll catch her sooner or later. I really hope she'll be able to make it Friday.
Well, sorry it took me so long to get this emailed! I spent the whole day walking around the mall, watching Elder Kimball browse stores. But c'est la vie. Well I'm so excited for this week! I hope everyone's as excited as I am! I love you all!
Love, Elder Hayden Ellis
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