Garden of the Gods in Illinois
Hello!
First
off, I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Ours was a little hectic but a
little chill at the same time. A lot of big changes happened this week so I
guess we should start off with Monday then.
Monday,
Elder Stange and I went off to Garden of the Gods (Attempt #2), and this time
we actually made it. Garden of the Gods is essentially a unique series of rock
formations that was created millions of years ago apparently due to water.
Garden of the Gods
You
are permitted (at your own risk) to climb the cliffs and to walk out on the
rocks. Most of the amazing pictures I was able to take came from rather risky
climbing but totally
worth it in the end.
It was a blast. Afterwards we went over to Elder Stange's
recent convert family and had dinner with them to say goodbye as well as for
them to give me a delicious post-birthday cake.
Tuesday
we owe a lot of what we were able to do, to the Branch Mission Leader's wife.
She was able to drive us down to Franklin, TN where transfers were being held.
We didn't have too much time to stay, but we were able to see a few
missionaries give their final parting advice before they would go home the next
day.
Elder Daniel Perry's parting advice.
Among the missionaries who went home were some of my friends from my first
district, Elder Perry and Sister Ellis (the last two remaining from the first
district), also Sister Johnson went home (from my second district) as well as Elder
Ackroyd, the missionary I replaced in Smith Springs.
It was
also there where I picked up my new companion, Elder Steed. He's from Ogden,
Utah and has been out for 19 months or so. I was grateful for another more
seasoned missionary. He's really hilarious and yes, he's a ginger.
Welcome, Elder Steed!
We had to
leave transfers early and I was only able to quickly scan the mail pile so I
probably missed a lot of stuff that I will be getting soon for my birthday. The
drive back seemed to take forever, but we at least had some fun stories. We
were able to make it back to Harrisburg by the evening and got to see a couple of
people.
Wednesday
we went down to Paducah for district meeting. The district has changed
dramatically. There are no longer Foxcroft sisters, but Foxcroft elders. Only
three missionaries including myself stayed the same. The new district leader is
Elder Spiker who is a pretty cool dude for sure. After that we went to
Metropolis, so Elder Steed could see the giant Superman. We were able to
contact a referral from an investigator which was great.
Old train in Paducah,KY.
Not much else happened
that day. Same thing happened on Thursday when we struck out with multiple
people--even shut ins. It was very depressing for sure. But we had a fun meeting
in the evening with our branch mission leader.
The Brookport Bridge. It is terrifyingly unsafe. The grates are large enough to fit a soda can through.
Friday we
spent most of the day helping the Waters move to a new house kind of near
Equality, IL. It was fun getting to hang out with their family. We tried to fix
the wifi at the church building which has been down for the past two months or
so which is frustrating. Not being able to fix it, we decided to figure out
other locations to skype home on Sunday.
Saturday
was much better. Literally everyone we tried to see on Thursday we were able to
see on Saturday. It was awesome getting to see so many people and have great
lessons all around. One of the cooler things was we got to talk to one of our
less active members who is suffering from several health
issues. Apparently her maid/caretaker is relatively interested in the gospel which is
good to hear.
Sunday
was interesting. I taught gospel principles on scriptures which was a lot of
fun. And then we were able to set up a lot of appointments for the upcoming
week. In the middle of the day we were able to
Skype our parents at the branch mission leader's home which was fun. I was happy
to talk to as many as I could, including Bro and Sis Price, my grandpa—who is
92 years old, and of course parents.
Today it
has been pouring down rain, so Elder Steed and I will be looking for stuff to
do around here. We will be looking forward to this week since we have a fun
trip to Hopkinsville planned for a Zone Conference, where I have been asked by
the assistants to the President to be the pianist. I wasn't too thrilled about
it—it’s nerve-wracking, but it will be an interesting experience playing for at
least 100 missionaries or so.
Not much
else has been going on here. I am grateful again for the letters I am slowly
getting from my birthday. Thank you all so much again for all that you do for
us. Please pray for the work here in Eldorado.
Another beautiful view from Garden of the Gods.
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