Thrifty

February 20, 2017

This week was super sick because we got to have a mini missionary with
us for the weekend! His name was Brother Bradley Beamer, he's 16 and
lives in Smyrna, Delaware where all of my buddies have served! (He
really didn't remember any of them though haha) Brother Beamer was
awesome! We had a fun time dragging him to days full of lessons and
church and Firesides! We worked him hard and he fell asleep every time
we were in the car or the train, even if we was just a 5 minute ride!
He told us that it wasn't what he expected at all. He expected us to
be uptight and that we would just be walking around and knocking on
doors. It's crazy how people think that us missionaries are pretty
generic, but I can tell you that we are still our own unique selves. I
think that's one of my favorite things is that there is no perfect
missionary because each of us is super different and we can use our
talents and strengths in missionary work. This week I was told I'm one
of the thriftiest guys around and I'm way laid back, surprise
surprise. That's two decent qualities right? Thanks for the
compliments Bradley!

This week I also got to go on two wonderful exchanges. First was with
my good friend Elder Beebe. I brag about him to all the other
missionaries because he is one of the best elders in the mission. We
had an awesome day and did work. The other exchange was with one of
the assistants, Elder Wilde! Fun fact: Elder Wilde and I were in the
same room in the MTC and were even companions for a little less than a
day. A less fun fact: I replaced him in cherry hill and he was a big
influence here so I have a hard time filling his big shoes hahaha nah
he's just very very outgoing and memorable and the people loved him so
it was super fun to be here with him and go see all the people he
helped out. We even got our eyebrows threaded while we visited with
our recent convert Beena. We both took it like a champ, but it really
is super painful.

Sunday night we had a stake Fireside featuring some pretty big
influences in the Mormon and football culture. Our stake president is
Vai Sikahema, who played in the NFL, but I'm kinda used to him so I'm
not too star struck anymore, but he invited one of his former
teammates EJ Junior to come and told an experience about how Vai was
worried about his teammates forcing him to drink alcohol at rookie
initiation when he started with the Cardinals. After praying he had an
impression to talk to EJ Junior, a big time name on the team, about
his situation. EJ was very understanding and at rookie initiation he
made an announcement that Vai wouldn't drink. The rest of the team
starting throwing a fit about it and EJ said "if any of your have a
problem about it, you can talk to me about it personally" and another
teammate who was even bigger, tougher and quieter stood up and said
"yeah and you can talk to me and EJ about it in the parking lot". One
of the funniest firesides I've ever been to! The headliner was the
Navy head coach, Ken Niumatalolo, who's featured on Meet the Mormons.
He shared many experiences about the influence of the Holy Ghost in
his coaching career. Many might think that God doesn't care about a
sporting event, but he said "God cares if everyone performs best at
their job, whether they are a doctor, lawyer, accountant or coach,
that's how we put food on the table for our families and God wants us
to do our best." He's got some awesome stories over the years he's
coached that are truly inspiring.

We had our interviews with President which are always something I look
forward to so much. I just wish I could talk with him for way longer
than 15 minutes because it goes quick! Sadly we didn't get everyone
who we would have liked at church this week, but a family who recently
moved in to the ward brought their son and daughter in law who have
lived in our ward for a while to church and they are trying to come
back. When I say come back, the son is. The daughter is a non member
and we are going to try to capitalize on that, especially because they
are feeding us pizza and wings tonight. Sick! The weather is
incredible and I'm doing great! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

1) Our eyebrows looks great right?
2) Brother Beamer!!!
3) Ken and Vai!