The beginning of March has already been madness
But somehow my heart is still full of gladness
It does not make sense how that could even be
How can a mission be so hard yet so fun-ny?
The answer is simple I'll share it with you,
it must be this church is so very true!
Yep I feel like that is sufficiently cheesy, now onto more of the madness... including but not limited to: basketball, rose bushes and posion ivy, less active hermit, appartment complex kickout, chinese buffets, second hand smoke, 18 dozen egg deliveries, peppermint oil, baby puppies, and of course a weekly dose of gospel principles.
BBALL: On pday we "balled hard" with the Elders and then our "basketball guy" investigator showed up with a bunch of his college age friends and we played with them some and were able to meet more young adults of Rockwood. Later in the week we found ourselves again at the courts to meet up with our Spanish investigator for our second lesson with him. Time was ticking and he hadn't shown up... but before we decided to call it a night and head for home Hermana Yauney suggested we go shoot some hoops with a lone guy that was out on the courts by himself. So... we did! (in our dresses by the way) and ended up chatting with this guy about religion, sports, and life in general. We were able to swap our card (with our number and church address on it) for his number and info. We are not sure if he is neccessarily interested in learning more, but you just never know! Safe to say a seed is planted though! While talking to him we happened to look over our shoulders and who did we see? Our Spanish man had shown up! Wooo, blessings come to those who wait! And what was that one thing I have been continuously striving to become better at? Oh yeah... patience. BUT we were able to have a mini lesson with him and schedule another with him the next day. Both went well, however the situation of his desire is a little iffy with him, trying to discern whether he wants to find truth or just learn about more churches. Regardless though, he expressed interest at coming when we invited him to church this upcoming week so we will just keep doing what we are doing and keep praying that the spirit will touch and teach him.
ROSE BUSHES AND POISION IVY: Now before my mom freaks out, I didn't get posion ivy. There may have been a point when I had climbed up a tree to untangle a vine that I reached down and picked up a vine with my bare hands and the sister that we were helping looks at it and says "Ooh we are going to wash your hands with bleach because that right there is posion ivy!" Oh how lovely! The bleach did it's job though... I am ivy free! And our three hours of pulling out wild rose bushes amongst a grapevine, along a fenceline, in the rain was honestly thoroughly enjoyable by both of us... and SO very appreciated by the Sister we helped out. She didn't have to but she even "payed" us with cheesecake and cider, THAT'S what I'm talking about, forget those horrid chilidogs that one lady gave us after we cleaned her moldy fridge, cheesecake is my preferred payment... Yum!
LESS ACTIVE HERMIT: One of our less actives we met our first week here has now come to church four or five times which has been super exciting! Whenever we go and meet with him we park at the bottom of a super steep, horribly conditioned, backwoods road, that we hike up to get to his home. Every time we knock on the door he is so surprised that we walk "all that way" to come see him, but it is always worth it because we have awesome discussions while sitting on his front porch. It's funny though because he totally reminds me of my dad's future dream life: hermit in the woods.
APPARTMENT COMPLEX KICKOUT: While tracting what we thought looked to be a goldmine of an appartment complex we came upon a woman taking a smokebreak. We were excited to talk to her but unfortunately she was not excited to talk to us. She asked us if we were aware we were on private property and told us there was no soliciting allowed (we aren't selling anything, but hey, "that don't matter") When asked if there was a main office or management that we could talk to, her response was we were talking to the management... it's her. Long story short: that goldmine caved and we left... Bummer.
SECONDHAND SMOKE: I have mentioned before a less-active we are working with that during a lesson smoked all during our visit but promised next time she would open the door to vent the place out. She did do that, yet we still walked out of there each smelling like we had smoked a pack. However I have decided that smelling like cigarette smoke is basically like smelling like progress. (Have I mentioned that I think the word "basically" is one of the most commonly used words out here? I've heard the phrase "it's basically like ______" probably 400 times) But second hand smoke really is progress, especially when this particular lady says to you at the end of the lesson "I sure hope you two are around for a while so that I can continue getting comfortable enough to return to church." Whoa we had no idea she was striving for that and her desire is growing. All I can say is me too Sista, I hope so too!
CHINESE BUFFET: For our district lunch this week we went to a Chinese buffet. Never in my life did I ever picture myself surrounded by Tennesseans eating Chinese food, it was pretty decent though, and our district made it even better. Our district leader is so dang funny. And it never ceases to amuse me how most of the humor as a missionary is doctrinally based. As our group started standing up to go for second helpings it was only Hermana Yauney, me and our District Leader left sitting around the table. Our DL looks around at the deserted table, down at his half eaten plate, then up at both of us and say in complete seriousness: "Will ye also go away?" (John 6:67) we absolutely lost it, such a funny guy.
18 DOZEN EGG DELIVERY: After our service out on a lady in the ward's farm, she gave us 18 dozen farm fresh eggs with the charge to: "give them to everyone you know" we had thoughts of coming up with a tracting message involving eggs... we didn't really do that but we for sure made visits all over the ward showing up on families' doorsteps with cartons of free farm fresh eggs.
PEPPERMINT OIL: Ohhhh how I love me my doTerra peppermint oil, it saved our noses and insides when we returned to the infamous 16 cat, 4 dog, 5 ferret and 1 chicken trailer... this time there was also included in the mix 2 rabbits! But my conclusion is Peppermint oil has proven effective in masking the smell of all of those critters and the people that live with them. We had a nice visit with the lady that lives there but I have to admit I found myself a little distracted counting roaches climbing up the walls and watching to see if her husband realized the cup he was drinking out of one of the cats also was drinking out of. I decided he did indeed notice but didn't mind at all. Like I'm always saying my eyes are continually opened out here. (Apparently sometimes too wide Yauney thinks my "surprised face" is really funny but I think I should work on my body language not looking so obviously shocked... those dang "Hall eyebrows" gotta control them)
PUPPIES: The Rockwood ward is blessed to have an AMAZING relief society president. Oh my gosh I just love her she has been SUCH a help to Hermana Yauney and I as we go around finding people to teach and visit and serve. We stopped by her house while we were in the area and had a sort of coordination meeting with her that was really helpful. Her cute 11 year old son asked us if we'd walk out to their barn with him to see a surprise. Of course we said yes! We went out and saw that their yellow lab had 9 puppies that were only 2 days old!!!! They were soooo cute!!!! I never thought the rule that missionaries aren't allowed to have pets would be a tough one to follow but after seeing those pups I was extremely tempted to take one home with us!!!
GOSPEL PRINCIPLES: I'm going to keep this one brief even though the class itself was anything but... it was on prophets... which led to a question about how priesthood authority aside how are prophets that much different than preachers? Which then lead to a discussion with a parallel between prophets and pharmacists, and somehow Billy Graham came into the picture??? (who none of us four missionaries had ever heard of which was extremely appalling to all in the room) anyway I still am forever nervous for the day we have an investigator in attendance I will likely not stop praying the entire time.
So as you can see this week has been complete madness, but a good madness. I think that's what a mission is: a good madness. Life itself is a good madness. I would hope that each of us can embrace the chaos and find the entertainment in everyday and enjoy it!
To close, there is an article by Geraldine Bangerter that is titled just that: "Enjoy it!" In talking about her family's tough adjustment to a new life as mission presidents in Brazil her husband's response to her lamentations was this:
"I know that you are experiencing some hardships, but one of the exciting parts of going to a new country is learning the language. You’ll soon learn it! We’ll find a vacuum and get the washer fixe. Someday, when we go back to the United States, you'll want to tell people about your interesting times here. And when you do, you and they will laugh about your challenges. Why wait until then to enjoy it? Enjoy it now!"
Like the Bangerter family I to am: "experiencing some hardships, but one of the exciting parts about being here is learning a new language. I know one day I'll learn it! I use a vacuum regularly (more and more lately to vacuum up bugs as the weather becomes warmer... yippee). Our washer probably should not be fixed due to the way it shakes the entire house. But someday when I go back to Utah I'll want to tell people about my interesting times here and when I do I'll laugh and y'all will laugh about my challenges (I'm sure y'all already do;) but why should I wait until then to enjoy it? I'll enjoy it now!"
So that's what I'm trying to do! Just enjoy the madness!!!! Right this minute! And I would encourage y'all to do the same! Keep on MARCHING through the the MADDNESS!
Love and pray for y'all!
I'd say, may the luck of the Irish be with you this week, but to quote Hermana Yauney, "I'd wish you luck but you don't need it if you work hard and if you don't then it won't help."
There ya have it! Work hard, and you won't need luck, so I wish you hard work and the ability to enjoy it right this very minute!
Love,
Hermana Hall
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| Farm fresh eggs to give away |
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| A guy showed us how he makes pens |
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| Happy St Pattys!!!! LOL |
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