Crime Solvers!

February 8, 2016

Hello everyone!!! it's been another great week here in Morrisville!
This week was super successful and fast and we are almost done with
another transfer!

Last Monday we got to have dinner with the Smith's so everyone there
was a smith except for Elder Johnson haha their family is from Utah so
it didn't feel too much different from home! We got to teach Emin and
Jennifer that night as well!

Tuesday was interesting because a ton of lessons cancelled, but we did
get to teach Maurice and he told us he's preparing to get the Aaronic
priesthood on February 14th so we are stoked for that! We got to have
dinner with the Pray's again and they are the best!! Brother Pray even
told us he wants to come out teaching with us this Friday so we are
excited for that!


Wednesday we went and helped sister Meloney move a bunch of stuff into
storage. She's a recent convert from the sisters so we all got
together for a big ole moving project! Her storage unit was indoors
and after getting in all of the security clearances it felt like I was
on Storage Wars on tv hahaha! We got to see Bill again and I quote in
our conversation he said "I don't want Henery Quinton to win the
election, I don't think she has the steel" alright Bill! That night we
had an awesome lesson with Geraldo. He's the best! We went over the
baptismal interview questions with him and I feel like he's so ready
other than a few word of wisdom issues! They told us a few weeks ago
they want to get married March 13th, the day after they get married,
but we decided we should "officially" set them with a date in a lesson
and it was the most nonschelaunt baptismal invite but he's getting
baptized on March 13th!!!

Thursday we had zone training and afterwards did exchanges so I stayed
in my area with Elder Payne, who's been out just over a year. We did
some finding, taught Maurice all he needs to know about the Aaronic
priesthood and had a super interesting lesson with a less active. We
contacted a Book of Mormon referral in a senior center so that was
super cool because all these old people were just staring at us!!! The
lady was very nice though and we scheduled an appointment with her for
next Thursday. We did some more finding and there was a guy Elder
Johnson told me about that he met out on the street and the guy got
our number and said he wanted missionaries to teach his kids, but
never called us. We didn't know his name so it would be weird for
Elder Johnson to just knock and say hey is this guy here, so I knocked
and met him and he asked if we could make an appointment! So we are
seeing him Tonight! Anyways we also were walking in the ghetto and
this guy was like "hey are you Mormons?" And this guy, Pat, asked us a
bunch of questions, even said he had the Book of Mormon on his phone.
We essentially taught him the restoration while he was rolling up a
joint!! Pat was Muslim though so he wasn't interested in us coming
over, cool guy though!!

Friday morning there was a random snow and exchanges got pushed off so
me and Elder Payne went and taught this guy named William who we've
been trying to see for a good few weeks and he seems solid. We went
and did some service for Orin, he's such a good guy! He thought we
were only helping him because his parents were Mormon, so we cleared
it up and were like nah man we help everyone! Secretly we help him so
that he becomes a Mormon but we kept that on the down low. We had a
quick lesson with Sister Benfield, who's going to be going to the
temple in April!! We had dinner with the Dyotts, which is always a
blast because they have the best stories and we taught Christine that
night, we have them pass along cards the time before and her kids
shared all of them!!! Christine also gave us some coupons for Taco
Bell, buy a medium drink and get a mystery item, keep that in mind!!

Saturday morning we did our weekly planning since Friday's are crazy.
We were supposed to have a lesson with a less active, but she didn't
answer her door. While we were standing there this whole dispute broke
out like 2 doors down!! I guess this household had an argument over
chicken and there was a fight inside, the guy went out and called the
cops and then some crazy chick went to throw a big ole plastic tub
full of his stuff out the door and he said "don't throw my stuff" and
tried to grab it, and then all these women came out the door and
started trying to hit him and threw a phone at him and the cops came
and we testified the truth because we are missionaries and told the
cops he didn't do anything wrong. The guy said "God must have sent you
here today" why yes good sir he literally did send us here today on
missions. Sadly we couldn't talk to him because he was talking to the
cops. Most of the day was full of no success so we took a break and
used Christine's coupons at Taco Bell. The mystery item was called a
quesalupa, some sort of chalupa. But man was it good! And for those
that appreciate Taco Bell like me, I got 2 of those quesalupas, a
large drink and a dollar menu item for 3 bucks. Can't beat that!
Afterwards we were feeling slightly sick from Taco Bell like usual but
we went out to try to see this guy we haven't taught since I've been
here, Joshua! When we showed up his in laws were picking up his kid
and he let us right in, we taught about the Book of Mormon using the
object lesson my brother in law Derek taught me and he loved it! So
thank you Derek! Joshua told us to come by anytime because he's just
home now without the kids! He's so sick!! That night we visited the
walcotts for another interesting way to end our night. We never know
what they are saying in there hahaha she said "when Fred goes to the
hospital he has to eat chili so they go to a real good chili place,
but she doesn't like Mexican", and when we leave we just smell like
straight cig smoke which is rough!!

Sunday we had stake conference which was great, we got to hear some
awesome conversion stories and we taught a less active that day. Any
other work was hard because of the super bowl.

Well there's my week for ya!! I hope you are all doing great and I
hope you all enjoyed the super bowl because me and Elder Johnson
missed it a ton! I love you all and your in my prayers. Have a great
week!!

201 Woodbourne Rd. Apt. F33
Levittown, PA 19056

Here's a picture of our zone at our training

Freezin' for a Reason!

February 1, 2016

Good afternoon people! It's been another good week out here in the
mission, especially teaching wise so buckle up!

So last Monday the zone leaders wanted to play basketball and I was
way excited because I haven't played any thing close to a sport since
the MTC! Well our zone leaders aren't very good and neither are me or
elder Johnson, so it was sort of a shooting mess, but there was
occasions where I was playing alright so it was pretty fun! Afterwards
we did our laundry and emailed at Bro Massimini's which was super
rough because I'm 90% sure our emails aren't working right because I
didn't hear from my mom all day and I got all my families emails on
Tuesday, and even my trainers email on Tuesday, so something was
definitely up, so I apologize if I didn't reply because I probably
didn't get your email! It was okay though because we went to guitar
center and wow that place is beautiful!!! Elder Johnson bought a
harmonica so we are starting a harmonica band with our district!
Anyways that night we had a lesson with Emin on commandments such as
the word of wisdom and fasting and he ended up asking us questions
about why Valentine's Day is a holiday and telling us about the magic
salt that melts snow. I love teaching kids!

Tuesday morning Elder Johnson got really bad headaches again and our
lessons cancelled so I let him take it easy. A lesson I've learned is
that you can either have a positive attitude about something or just
be a negative nancy. I could have been really bored and mad and
annoyed him to go out, but I know that's not the right thing to do. I
got to relax for a moment, watch some Mormon messages and eventually
he felt good enough to go out! I know what it's like to be sick on the
mission anyways. To have your companion bug you and keep asking if
your feeling better to go out made me really irritated and whatnot.
Anyways it was just a small experience I had! We went out and visited
this guy named Orin, who lives right in the ghetto of Bristol! His mom
recently passed away and she was a member. This guy loves the members
and what not and he's really nice, so I think there's potential! We
are going to do service for him this week and I know service is one of
the best ways to soften someone's heart! We also got to visit Bro
Benkert, I don't know if I've mentioned him so I'll tell a little bit
about him. He's in his late 60's but he's in awesome shape, he told us
he benches 180 haha so he was in some sort of car accident years ago
that wiped part of his memory and he forgot he was a member so he's
had to regain his testimony! He's one of the smartest guys ever too!
He's a famous painter and his paintings are amazing. The only thing is
he has health problems right now that limit how far he can leave his
house so he's not able to attend church:/ anyways he got talking with
his neighbor and let her borrow his Book of Mormon for a few hours!
What a good guy!

Wednesday was a complete blur for some reason, but we had a nice visit
with Bill, a former investigator says he eventually wants to start
coming back to church with us! That night we got to teach Geraldo the
word of wisdom and he already wants to quit smoking, he's cut down a
bunch anyways! He also said coffee isn't too big of a deal. It went
way better than I expected it was awesome! It's amazing what the
spirit can do! Geraldo is the best!!

Thursday we had a good ole district meeting and then stopped by Bro
Benkert to give him a Book of Mormon for his friend! We were going to
see our friend Bruce that lives in our apartment complex. Bruce is an
old hippie, he's awesome! Well he told us that he wants to get out of
this place. The whole "housing" thing isn't for him. We asked where he
would go and he said probably live in his car or a tent, because he
needs more money in his pocket... Alright Bruce? So we may have a
investigator move into a tent hahaha. We taught Maurice about prophets
and he has a few people in mind he wants to bring to lessons so we are
stoked about that! We shared "Dare to stand alone" with Sister
Benfield and I think it was quite good for her because she said she
had a rough week. That night our ward did Sheparding night, where some
leaders in the ward get together to go out and visit people that need
a visit in the ward. We went out with Bro Hart, which didn't yield
success, but he told us these funny stories about this 30 year feud
he's had with his neighbor!

Friday we did our weekly planning and had a lesson with Nyema. We
extended he invitation to be baptized and he pretty much said no, but
we don't know why because he's Liberian and it's hard to understand
him and he didn't give us a straight answer. He knows the Book of
Mormon is true though! We visited with the Macdonald's and her friend
from Florida, Miguel is visiting, who isn't a member but is currently
going to an LDS church in Florida!! We taught them the gospel of Jesus
Christ and it went really well! Jude and Gavin listened the entire
time! That night we visited with Christine and her kids and before we
left she gave us a box full of 50 bags of Doritos!!!

Saturday morning we went with Bro Massimini to volunteer at a Polar
Plunge! "Freezin for a Reason". We helped people with registration and
what not. It was a fundraiser for Special Olympics and they raised a
whole bunch of money and there was some crazy people and funny
costumes and the Neshaminy river was 32 degrees! Glad we couldn't
plunge haha! We went to Golden Corral after and I was reminded that
Golden Corral isn't very good. After some finding we went to this
couple who Sis Dyott met, Fred and Diana. Their son is a member and
they have met with missionaries before I guess. Well their house just
had a thick screen of cig smoke and it looked like it was straight off
of hoarders. Diana told us their entire life story and I think Fred is
looney. She said he broke the toilet upstairs because his likes to
watch things spin in a circle and he was putting cat food down the
toilet????? Anyways we offered help if they need help cleaning up and
whatnot! It was an odd visit and we left smelling like we smoked a
pack:(

Sunday was great! We have stake conference next week so we had fast
Sunday this week. All four missionaries got up and bore their
testimonies along with many members of the ward. It was awesome! Our
3rd hour was on the sacredness of the chapel. It made me think, do I
really value it as a sacred place, or just a room? We discussed ways
on how we can keep it more sacred and how that can help us make our
sabbath more holy. I definitely want to try to remember that the
chapel is a special place, one where we should always be able to feel
the spirit. After church we went to give the Nickel family a blessing.
They were all really sick, it's great to have so many opportunities to
use the priesthood on a mission! We had dinner with the Chatfield's
and Book of Mormon study to end the night. Ether is such an
interesting book!

It's been a fun week here, and it should be another fun one this week.
I think the worst thing that happened all week was I ripped one of my
slacks, so I've had the sponge bob song about him ripping his pants
all week hahaha I apologize if my email doesn't work again today and I
don't reply. Not too sure what we are doing today but we will make it
the best!  I miss you all a lot so have a great week for me!!

1) this ambulance wasn't too prepared...
2) a polar bear!!
3) some members who did the plunge!
4) crazy people plunging!