Monday, 4/28/14 - Sunday, 5/4/14

Monday – P-day! We ball’d it up again at Twin Hills and tore it up! We only played a few games today. Had dinner with the Bissen’s and taught Andy after. The lesson went pretty well. Not sure if Andy is really seeking too hard right now. He is going to get there though. Brother Climer came to Josh’s right after that lesson. We had a good lesson with him about the Sabbath Day. He is really coming along! That was about all that happened.

Tuesday – First thing today was prepping to go to MLC. Then MLC was cancelled due to tornado watches throughout the entire mission. Went to District Meeting with the Defuniak District to have a conference call about the weather with President Smith. He told us all to just go home and stay in. So we didn’t do too much today. Read some scrips and a ton out of Jesus the Christ and also read a conference talk. Didn’t storm too bad until about 5 and then it rained and got worse from then on. Got some good videos of lightning which was cool. We also heard about tornadoes hitting Pensacola and Dothan areas. Rumor has it they are coming to Crestview.

Wednesday – Today was a day of much rain and a continued lockdown. It was really quite boring being stuck inside for that long. The south got destroyed by the weather! Saw Jamie briefly and ran around with the Barbecho children. It was good! Ate with the Burton’s. Brother Burton’s parents were there and they know Don & Dorothy Bradford from my home ward.  Small world! Then had coordination. That finished the night.

Thursday – Today was a long day of weekly planning. It is tough to have a quick weekly planning session when you constantly get phone calls and distractions. Then we went out to see a bunch of people and unfortunately we didn’t have a ton of luck. Talked to a sweet lady name Keiko York. She is a really nice Asian lady that was media referred to us. She wasn’t interested unfortunately. Then we had dinner and then had basketball. Darren and Andrew came so it was small but we still had a good time and Darren said he would be baptized when I asked him about it. Then got home to plan our exchange with the assistants.

Friday – Today ended up being a lot different than planned. Had our exchange with the assistants. Elder Musgrave came with me and Elder McPherson went with Elder Rasmussen. Elder Musgrave and I spent our whole day helping Joyce Mathis with her flood problem. The 2^nd Ward Elders were there too and Elder Rasmussen and Elder McPherson came later. Her house flooded probably 3 feet deep in water and she had to be taken out with a canoe. Luckily the water was no longer in the house when we got there. We spent the day cleaning out her house and she had a ton of stuff. Not to be rude but she is hoarder status. Tore shelves out of her house. Pulled up carpet. You name it and it had to be done. It was fun and hopefully we can get some teaching from it.

Saturday – Today we had a really awesome lesson with Josh Vining about how he can quit dipping by reading and praying when he wants to do so. Had a lesson planned with Theresa that didn’t work out so we headed to Joyce’s place to help some more with that project. They had to do a flood cut and all sorts of demolition to get it ready to be put back together. Emptied an entire closed-in porch full of all sorts of bags of soaked fabric and magazines. Talked with her granddaughter, Lindsey, about her days in Utah. She lived in Syracuse and Layton. She seems like she might / could accept the gospel. Then we headed to the Barbecho’s for dinner and to our surprise Ben got home from his deployment last night so it was great to be able to talk to him again and see how he has been. It was a good time. Then went to Sam Hills and tried to do some more family history. Couldn’t find anything. He kind of bashed our religion in a nice way. He told us he is Calvinist and I had never met one before. They believe God has already chosen who will be in heaven. It’s a different twist that I have never heard before.

Sunday – Today was a great day. Talked to Brother Bruno a bit. Good guy. The Sisters are working with him though. Then looked for a house that doesn’t exist. Highlight of the day was going to the broadcast of the Fort Lauderdale Dedication. It was awesome and the Spirit was so strong! It was awesome to get to listen to President Uchtdorf. Then we headed down to teach Eric Eliot with Brother Peterson. It was a really good lesson and Eric asks a lot of really great questions. Then taught Andy and we actually got a little progression I think. Then went to see the Whipple’s. Sean wasn’t there but we got to talk with Sister Whipple and her daughter Kristin. Had a good convo and we set up an appointment. Then met the Burton’s at the Barbecho’s but the Barbecho’s were gone so we talked with them a bit. Also saw Johnny for the first time in a long time. He has been doing good. We will probably start going there again and see if we can get some progression. Also saw Gerald today briefly and he is going through a rough patch. Hope he will embrace the Gospel cause it will help.