I have got a crazy story for you guys. So we asked our members to find us service opportunities and one of our members has a neighborhood app and put our post on there. We've had tons of opportunities to help out. It's all been yard work though up until we helped out this one lady who had a small house fire. No one had lived in the house for two months other than dogs. And mice had taken over the garage which was filled with random trash. We had face masks and gloves and we could still smell all the mice poo. We also found some mice living amongst the trash. Probably the grossest service project ever, but someone had to do it and it was awesome to get to meet the lady, she's super cool and is enduring her trials well. She needs some time before we talk Jesus to her though.
We also had an awesome temple opportunity as well. Our mission does this thing where on the last Saturday of the month we can take a recent convert to the temple for their first time doing baptisms for the dead. We took Kyle and the Sokals. It was an awesome day. I got to see a lot of other missionaries there too. The spirit is also super strong in the temple, even right outside of the temple. If I could give out an invitation, either read or pass out the Temples and Families pamphlet. It talks about everything you'd need to know about the temples and how they can connect families together. If you don't know where to get one, talk to someone at the Mormon churches, they will know.
Now the last p-day was transfer week so it was Tuesday for a day. But the Monday before transfers was an awesome day! So the week before we got a referral and they said to "tract into her." So we knocked on all the doors in her street but she wasn't home. We knocked a few days later and she still wasn't home. We got the referral again and we had her in our plans for Monday before transfers and when we stopped by she was home. Her name is Krista, we are teaching her and her son who she wants to get into church. I have had an awesome time getting to teach their family. And then we also stopped by our other referral Jake, we taught him a lesson and he was also super excited to come to church. It was a super awesome day!
I can say none of us were expecting transfer news other than Phipps, we were sure he was going to get transferred because of how long he's been here. But we didn't guess that I'd also kick out Elder Hulett. So now I'm the king of Surprise. My new companion is Elder Towle, he just came from the other side of the zone in Peoria, so just a hop skip and a jump away from here. He's cool, I've been on a ton of exchanges with him before and we've already taught a ton of lessons together before this transfer.
On Wednesday, so the day of transfers, Krista wanted to feed us and it was some of the best pork roast ever. Her son Mason is nine and he's also taking lessons. He's super into Pokémon, so we get along ok. He thinks I'm cool. We set up service with Krista too. We weeded her yard on Saturday.
Friday was also super cool, we had a lesson with Jake and his son Mark. Jake has gone through a hard time just barely and he's super open to what we had to say. We taught him The Restoration and it was super cool because as we taught he would clarify what we were saying to his son Mark, which was good for us because we could see that he not only comprehended what we taught but that he also was okay with his son learning that as well. When we taught the restoration of the priesthood he told Mark, "see, so their church is the church that had the same authority Jesus had." It was probably one of the coolest lessons I had the opportunity to be a part of.
Sunday was also super cool! Krista and Mason came to church. They super loved it. Mason said he wants to keep coming back forever. When the primary teacher asked him if he was a visitor he told them, "I'm here to stay." And Krista really loved Relief Society. If anyone reading this is in Relief Society can I say thank you so much! I never realized how awesome y'all are! Krista made some awesome friends and also wants to go to the activity this Thursday.
All in all, it was an awesome two weeks. Thank you everyone for being just awesome. I hope all of you have an awesome day!
Elder Gray
Pictures
the temple trip! It was awesome.
we visited the surprise north district
my super small district. We were so small that they've no sent a senior couple to make it 6 again.
we went mountain biking today
