This week was different.
Monday we had dinner with a family in the branch! Wooo! It was unusual. It was the family that lives in Hornell's branch. So since they live in the mission boundaries we can actually go over. They are interesting... They are currently building a cabin in the woods to go completely off grid. You're stereotypical ranting in Elder's Quorum about the Government after us. They also were giving us dating advice. "Don't date a girl if they are taking ______ prescription drugs." That blank was filled with the prescription that I take! hahahaha! I was just twiddling my thumbs.
We had a good week with meeting with Less Active Members. We visited a lot of them. Got in with all the ones we were trying to get in with except 1. We are working to get them to church. We had about 6 people we said would come to church. They didn't come... :( BUT I think they are making good steps and can get them to come to church soon.
The snow and cold limited our ability to work. I was super pumped to track all of Wellsville. But every time we went out to go to tracting it was either snowing hard or -20 degrees with windchill haha! So it was super cold and snowy constantly.
We might have to rebaptize Dylan if we can't find his baptismal records. But it'll take a while to confirm that he wasn't baptized. But he is super ready to go and get baptized if needs be!
It was cold week!
We got to go up to temple on Friday. The Millers gave us a ride. It was pretty great!
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Super Cold!!!
Yesterday was -4 degrees as a high. Yes, as a high. Like the highest temperature it got. We woke up and it was like -11 degrees. Super cold! Plus the windchills brought it down to like -30. So they cancelled church. Actually, from what I gathered I don't think anyone had church in all of NYRM. It was super windy so the windchill was really bad and they didn't want anyone to get hurt.
So we had church with the Millers the senior couple. We went over the apartment and basically just listened to a talk called "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. It was super good. We went over the Priesthood lesson and then did some missionary coordination stuff.
Since it was cold we basically were told to stay inside. Go to appointments if you have them but don't be wandering around. Which was nice because we would have been tracting all day otherwise. And it was cold!
I tried the pot of boiling water. It worked for the most part. It's where you throw boiling water in the air and it like immediately evaporates.
We tracted into the local crazy guy in Wellsville. Crazy Joe. He opened up the door and let us right in. Started telling us his whole life story for like 45 minutes. Half way through he stopped to ask if we were Mormon or Jehovah Witnesses. Then he just kept going on about his life story. He was very set on he wasn't going to change religions but said we could come by anytime to talk. I think he is just super lonely haha!
Institute started back up finally! That was awesome! I love institute. It's a free meal and the college kids are fun to be around. The one is a Recent Convert from Geneseo ward so we are trying to make sure she still feels loved and is adjusting well to the Mormon life.
One of the Less Active Members we are working with's cat has 5 toes on one paw and 6 toes on another. Well, it's whatever is normal +1 one paw and +2 extra on the other paw.
It was cold and slowed us down. Only tracted a little bit for a while. Other than that, same old same old!
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| Beginning of the snow and cold... |
Since it was cold we basically were told to stay inside. Go to appointments if you have them but don't be wandering around. Which was nice because we would have been tracting all day otherwise. And it was cold!
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| We made cheesy funeral potatoes. |
I tried the pot of boiling water. It worked for the most part. It's where you throw boiling water in the air and it like immediately evaporates.
We tracted into the local crazy guy in Wellsville. Crazy Joe. He opened up the door and let us right in. Started telling us his whole life story for like 45 minutes. Half way through he stopped to ask if we were Mormon or Jehovah Witnesses. Then he just kept going on about his life story. He was very set on he wasn't going to change religions but said we could come by anytime to talk. I think he is just super lonely haha!
Institute started back up finally! That was awesome! I love institute. It's a free meal and the college kids are fun to be around. The one is a Recent Convert from Geneseo ward so we are trying to make sure she still feels loved and is adjusting well to the Mormon life.
One of the Less Active Members we are working with's cat has 5 toes on one paw and 6 toes on another. Well, it's whatever is normal +1 one paw and +2 extra on the other paw.
It was cold and slowed us down. Only tracted a little bit for a while. Other than that, same old same old!
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Exchanges
This week was full of the usual appointments but a couple extra things.
We had exchanges with the district leader and his companion. His companion came to this area because he is new and being trained. It's only his second week. His name is Elder Gibby. Super chill kid. Extremely good at the piano. Student body president at his town in Idaho. So we had a couple good things to talk about. We actually never stopped talking. The exchange was Tuesday night through Thursday morning. We did the extra night because we had to meet up halfway for district meeting anyway so it was to save miles.
So we go to do service at brother and sister Lyons. We were teaching sister Lyons for a little bit but decided that she wasn't accountable. They had asked us to come help them chop some wood to heat their house. We set up a time for the next day. On our way over to the house, we pass brother Lyons going the opposite direction. Turns out he forgot... So we figured we'd stay and help since we were already out there in our service clothes. Tanya was getting a new horse because she didn't like her pony. The new one was big enough for her to ride. So she asked us to help remove some of the brush/trees next to the fenced area for the horse. Since it was a bigger one, she wanted to extend the space. That was fun. It was a little warmer that day (30 Degrees?) so wasn't bad being in the snow cutting trees! It's always fun to cut things down.
Dylan, our Less Active Member, we might get to start working with more. Turns out he doesn't have a record of his baptism. He remembers it though. So they are trying to find a record of that. Plus he wants to quit chewing tobacco. So we are pretty excited for him. Great guy! Just got to overcome a few minor things.
We were Tracting this week. We looked up some of the Alfred professors to help point us in the direction of good neighborhoods to tract. It kind of worked. It was a good neighborhood! Everyone was super polite. Very set in their religions. The very first door we knocked on invited us in. Of course he was the group leader of a Christian Bible Study group at Alfred haha! So we talked a little bit. He was super polite and asked us some Mormon 101 questions. At first it seemed because he really wanted to get an understanding of our basic doctrine. Then I realized that he didn't consider us Christian and wanted to help "save us." So we left him with a Pamphlet and peace'd. Nice, younger guy. His wife was super nice. He offered us water and fruit. He honestly was worried for our salvation. Which I appreciate. The anti stuff was a little less appreciated. But I give him props because it wasn't like Anti 101. It wasn't the basic questions. Even though he totally misquoted a scripture that I KNEW he was misquoting but I didn't have it right in front of me... He also texted us a website that compares Christian religions (Of course doesn't do us too favorably).
We also ran into a 60 year old skii bum. She was all goofy. Said she just came back from skiing. Was talking about how she's tried lots of religions. Now she figured she'd try Buddhism. It's hard to describe her appearance/how she acted. But it definitely was best described as a 60 year old Skii bum.
Also tracted into a kid who yelled "MOM! Two guys in tuxedos are at the door!"
I got to use a snowblower this week! Honestly I think it's my first time ever using a snow blower. Since our branch is so small and no active members live close, we keep the sidewalks shoveled. Well, it had snowed like 6 inches so we pulled out the snow blower. It was an exciting moment in my life! One for the history books.
We have a new Less Active Member to work with in Alfred. He is a college student. Just getting back into the religion and the missionaries referred him so he could learn while he is out here too.
We had exchanges with the district leader and his companion. His companion came to this area because he is new and being trained. It's only his second week. His name is Elder Gibby. Super chill kid. Extremely good at the piano. Student body president at his town in Idaho. So we had a couple good things to talk about. We actually never stopped talking. The exchange was Tuesday night through Thursday morning. We did the extra night because we had to meet up halfway for district meeting anyway so it was to save miles.
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| NY's idea of "Texas Hot" with E. Gibby. |
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| Cool jukebox at "Texas Hot" food joint. |
Dylan, our Less Active Member, we might get to start working with more. Turns out he doesn't have a record of his baptism. He remembers it though. So they are trying to find a record of that. Plus he wants to quit chewing tobacco. So we are pretty excited for him. Great guy! Just got to overcome a few minor things.
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| Dylan's new restraints. |
We also ran into a 60 year old skii bum. She was all goofy. Said she just came back from skiing. Was talking about how she's tried lots of religions. Now she figured she'd try Buddhism. It's hard to describe her appearance/how she acted. But it definitely was best described as a 60 year old Skii bum.
Also tracted into a kid who yelled "MOM! Two guys in tuxedos are at the door!"
I got to use a snowblower this week! Honestly I think it's my first time ever using a snow blower. Since our branch is so small and no active members live close, we keep the sidewalks shoveled. Well, it had snowed like 6 inches so we pulled out the snow blower. It was an exciting moment in my life! One for the history books.
We have a new Less Active Member to work with in Alfred. He is a college student. Just getting back into the religion and the missionaries referred him so he could learn while he is out here too.
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| My awesome valentines card I sent anonymously to a missionary that just entered the MTC from the Wellsville branch. His sisters and I schemed to make it look like a girl. It'll explode with cut out hearts when he opens it. Put some scrapbooking skills to work there! |
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Snowcaving
Well, here we are. Probably close to a foot of snow about now. Still coming down. Not too bad yet. But a whole lot of snow! And freezing. 10 degrees or something?
This week we met up with a girl named Bridgette. She is a Recent Convert from the Geneseo ward. Her records I technically still over there. But she is attending Alfred State. Very nice girl. Very sharp. She gave us a tour of Alfred State so we would be more familiar with the area. Plus it was a good excuse to see how she was doing and get her more welcomed to the Wellsville Branch. (She had a bad experience last semester with Wellsville). AND She has a car!! It's a miracle. So she can help give rides of the other college students.
We are going to have another tour of Alfred University by another college student. That got postponed because the weather has kind of sucked. Super snowy and icy all over. But hopefully we can reschedule that to sometime soon!
We visited another couple that is Less Active. They are Recent Converts of about 2 or 3 years. So they are still pretty new in the gospel. They are having some Word of Wisdom struggles with... well a little of all of it. Also, the husband has this issue with passing out randomly. It's like an extreme sleep disorder or something? So he is nervous going to church because he doesn't want to pass out on someone. But he is still out and about in everything else.... So hopefully we can get them more comfortable and realize that there is no moral standard for attending church. All is welcome. We'll help them through whatever.
Brittney and Dylan are still doing amazing. Brittney is Elder Glenn's Recent Convert right before I got there. They are still working through their struggles and are just awesome. They texted us the other day saying the two of them were having their own little scripture study. They asked us a question about the chapter they were on. Then I told them another good one on the same topic was Mosiah 4. They texted back like 20 minutes later saying they liked it. Super awesome.
Lisa... is still more or less MIA. She is around Brittney and Dylan but not wanting much to do with us.
Here we are on P-day with the Hornell elders. There is 4 of us. They informed me that if you combined the time that the 3 of them have been on their missions, it's still less than how long I've been on my mission. My whole district is younger than 6 months out. It's crazy. Roberts, Daugs, Houghton (our DL) all came out together a little less than 6 months. Bellon came out a transfer after them. And Houghton is training a new guy.
So the Less Active family that used to feed us once a week but she got offended because we didn't show up to a dinner appointment that she forgot to invite us to? We ran into them outside Dollar General. It was super awkward. Then she texted us and invited us over for dinner on Saturday. Still super awkward. But they seemed to drop the whole "Mad at us" thing. So that's cool. Our branch president told us that we have to make that as occasional as possible and not have a weekly appointment because of their history of manipulating the missionaries (and the missionaries hanging out there).
That is pretty much the week. A lot more finding to do.
This week we met up with a girl named Bridgette. She is a Recent Convert from the Geneseo ward. Her records I technically still over there. But she is attending Alfred State. Very nice girl. Very sharp. She gave us a tour of Alfred State so we would be more familiar with the area. Plus it was a good excuse to see how she was doing and get her more welcomed to the Wellsville Branch. (She had a bad experience last semester with Wellsville). AND She has a car!! It's a miracle. So she can help give rides of the other college students.
We are going to have another tour of Alfred University by another college student. That got postponed because the weather has kind of sucked. Super snowy and icy all over. But hopefully we can reschedule that to sometime soon!
We visited another couple that is Less Active. They are Recent Converts of about 2 or 3 years. So they are still pretty new in the gospel. They are having some Word of Wisdom struggles with... well a little of all of it. Also, the husband has this issue with passing out randomly. It's like an extreme sleep disorder or something? So he is nervous going to church because he doesn't want to pass out on someone. But he is still out and about in everything else.... So hopefully we can get them more comfortable and realize that there is no moral standard for attending church. All is welcome. We'll help them through whatever.
Brittney and Dylan are still doing amazing. Brittney is Elder Glenn's Recent Convert right before I got there. They are still working through their struggles and are just awesome. They texted us the other day saying the two of them were having their own little scripture study. They asked us a question about the chapter they were on. Then I told them another good one on the same topic was Mosiah 4. They texted back like 20 minutes later saying they liked it. Super awesome.
Lisa... is still more or less MIA. She is around Brittney and Dylan but not wanting much to do with us.
Here we are on P-day with the Hornell elders. There is 4 of us. They informed me that if you combined the time that the 3 of them have been on their missions, it's still less than how long I've been on my mission. My whole district is younger than 6 months out. It's crazy. Roberts, Daugs, Houghton (our DL) all came out together a little less than 6 months. Bellon came out a transfer after them. And Houghton is training a new guy.
So the Less Active family that used to feed us once a week but she got offended because we didn't show up to a dinner appointment that she forgot to invite us to? We ran into them outside Dollar General. It was super awkward. Then she texted us and invited us over for dinner on Saturday. Still super awkward. But they seemed to drop the whole "Mad at us" thing. So that's cool. Our branch president told us that we have to make that as occasional as possible and not have a weekly appointment because of their history of manipulating the missionaries (and the missionaries hanging out there).
That is pretty much the week. A lot more finding to do.
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