July is Over...

Transfers happen on Thursdays every six weeks.. The new missionaries come from the MTC on Wednesday. Transfers are on Thursday. We drive to Tulsa. A van picks us up, and drives to one of five transfer points. Bentonville, Branson, Springfield, Joplin, Tulsa, and Springdale are all the transfer points. We're closest to Tulsa, so we drive to Tulsa. Transfer week is going to be a little different from here on out. Here's how it works:

Monday: We have District meeting. No P-Day (Preparation Day) on transfer week anymore.
Tuesday: We get transfer calls.
Wednesday: It's our P-Day (Preparation Day). Our day to pack.
Thursday: Transfers.
Friday-Sunday is the same as usual.

This week was awesome.

We had District Meeting in another City than usual because our Mission President was doing interviews. We had a personal interview with both President and his wife. They were both amazing spiritual experiences. I was able to see two of my previous companions. It was good to see them.

After interviews. my companion and I talked with a member. While we were talking to him, a guy we had never seen before came in. He talked with us and wanted to be taught. We went into another classroom with him and we taught him the Restoration. He is awesome. He plays the piano really well, he likes classical music, and he wants to be a chemical engineer after he graduates high school. He knew a lot already about our church because he was taught a long time ago. He actually remembered the first part to "Praise to the Man" on the piano, although he hadn't heard it in 4 years. He played it in a different key, but he knew the first part. He really liked what we had to say, and he promised us he'd read and pray about it. It was cool. :D.

Another day we had a wonderful day with our Branch Mission Leader.

My companion and I gave talks on Families and Temples in Sacrament Meeting. It took us a long time to write them because we didn't have that many experiences with temples, and it is a broad subject. I finally talked about the history of temples to the Israelites. My companion talked about the sealing power. The branch members congratulated us afterwards for the talks.

It was a wonderful week!

General Conference and Other Happenings!

My favorite thing that happened last month was General Conference. 

I especially liked Dallin H. Oaks's talk on the Atonement. I loved Elder David A. Bednar's talk also, and President Russell M. Nelson's talk, too.  We had an investigator come to General Conference. It was cool

Other neat things that happened:

• While at WalMart, we ran into a lady who had seen us at the library about thirty minutes before.  We talked to her, and she tearfully told us to put her father into her prayers. We told her we would, and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She was excited to receive one, and she offered to pay for items. We declined the offer, so she made the cashier put all the items on her card. It was very surprising.
• One Preiparation Day Evening, we had no other plans for the rest of the day, and we still had 30 minutes to proselyte before we could return to our apt. My companion suggested that we pray, so we did. We were thinking about what to do...then we decided to check the mail, even though we already did earlier that day. We walked over and checked the mail. Obviously, there was nothing in there the second time. As we were walking back, however, we saw someone to talk to. We talked to him, and as we were talking to him, a woman came out. We talked with them both for a bit, then a car pulled up to the apartment building. The driver was a woman who was friends with those two we were already talking to. We were able to share a little lesson with all three of them, and the women seemed the most interested. My companion cuts hair, and one of the women him to cut her boy's hair. He told her he would do it, but we had to share a lesson after the haircut. She accepted gladly. It was awesome.

In other news, our trio dissolved on October 13.  One of our companions was transferred to the next ward over. He didn't go far, but we were sad to see him go.  It was totally weird to go back to an original companionship. For the next five days, My other companion and I kept on having awkward rides in the car, awkward lessons, awkward time in the apartment, etc. because we were so used to having an additional companion there. It was totally weird/funny.


Then later on in the month, during transfer call, we found out that my companion and I are both staying in our current area.  I was a little shocked that I was staying...I didn't know what to do when I heard that I was staying. I was so used to packing after transfer calls that I had to walk around and do something for the rest of the night.

My companion and I are so excited for this next transfer. We're helping a couple people quit smoking, with quite a bit of success with one...in fact, she's quit. The other is a little harder, so we've been preparing some DVDs with a TON of Mormon Messages on them because I love Mormon Messages, and it is a great way to help people quit smoking.

We went to our town's Fall Festival (and we were the taste testers for the dessert contest), and we received a ton of new prank ideas from a member who pulled pranks on her mission...It was so funny....My companion and I love pranks. It's an interesting way to have comp unity, but it works!

Flour Ball!

This photo was taken on the Preparation Day we played Flour Ball at an abandoned water park. It was the best day. The Monett Zone is in red/black. and the Joplin Zone is in Blue. (I'm walking away from the camera.)

 

Déjà Vu!

 Guess where we went on Preparation Day!? Weird to think that this was not my first visit.  We came here during a family vacation in January 2001.

Precious Moments Chapel...July 2015  (I am second from the left)

Precious Moments Chapel Grounds...January 2001 (I am second from the left)

Precious Moments Chapel Grounds...January 2001 (I am second from the right)

Almost Heaven On Earth!

I love this place.  It is beautiful. It has a ton of lakes everywhere, and beautiful hills. My former area had a ton of caves everywhere. There are a couple of bike trails just outside of town that I really want to go to some p-day, if I'm not transferred. There is a train track that runs through the middle of the town. It is amazing.

There are raccoons, opossums, armadillos, deer, etc. It is the closest you can get to Heaven without being in a temple on earth. All this town needs to be translated is a temple here.  It's that beautiful.

Our town has an extremely amazing investigator.   The guy that stopped us while we were riding our bikes? Well, his family is amazing! They felt the Holy Ghost, they believe that our church is the best way to help their family, they want to change, etc. They are INCREDIBLE. It's exactly what our area needs right now. I'm so excited for them. They are going to go far.

The Oklahoma Tulsa Mission held mini zone-conferences. We went to a nearby city for ours, where I saw many of my friends in the mission. President and Sister Shumway also held a Stake/Zone Conference a couple of days later. That was awesome.

The youth in this area are amazing! They do a ton of missionary work. They're almost out of school, so we're planning on going on a ton of exchanges with them, since 75% of them have a mission call. They also find a lot of freaky stuff. They found a small, very dark cave.  They also found a house that looks like it has been set up for an apocalyptic world recently.

One of the missionaries serving from our branch is coming back from his mission on Transfer day! I may not be able to meet him, if I am transferred.

Our District is Splitting...

Our district had a district meeting a few weeks ago because nobody was getting transferred. It was awesome.

I love today. We're "going fishin' in the Mississippi River" * (Jk....we're fishing in Poteau ;j) with the rest of our district as a last HURRAH! Our district is getting split because of another district that needs another group of elders to have a district meeting. We'll miss them, but they'll do well in that district.

*The "We're going fishin' in the Mississippi River" is in reference to the lyrics of the finale in "Tom Sawyer, the Musical" that I participated in during my senior year of high school.