Here are some of my game reel C'MON MAN moments from the past week:
We have been trying to reorganize the area and info since we whitewashed, unfortunately the info the previous elders left us consisted mainly of: restaurants in town were good and a note letting us know if we wanted to get rid of their stuff they left behind we could burn it at a members house... useful tips right? Not really. So last Sunday we sat down with the ward clerk and had him print out many of the ward info forms. Lists of prospective elders, part member families, visiting and home teachers, children of record, etc. Then we took all the info and added it in to our digital roster of ward names and info... we sat outside for over an hour baking in the sun and going through nine pages of visiting teaching and home teaching info. All was going great until my tablet overheated and deleted all the changes we had made... C'MON MAN!!!!
We didn't end up taking the elders clothing to the burn pile we took it to the local Habitat for Humanity we volunteer at, as we were chatting with the lady that works there she gasps and points behind us and we turn around to see a lady back straight into our car throw her hands in the air and peel out of the parking lot, leaving her husband in the store... C'MON MAN!!! (FYI the South is so great some random guy walked in told us the plate number but as there was no damage- thanks to a nice bumper shield -our vehicle coordinator when we called him said everything was fine and to let it go)
We had a couple of doozies tracting... one lady barely opened the door a crack and said "What do you want?" Sister Allen: "We're missionaries!" Lady: "No!" (Spoken like Roz from Monsters Inc.) And slams the door... C'MON MAN!!! Another door opens and the man seems kind at first, figures out were Mormons and hands us back our card... Me: "You don't want this picture of Jesus?" Him: "No." Slams door... C'MON MAN!!!
Went with a ward member to a less active lady's house. Sweet lady but good grief there was the most putrid smell coating that place due to urine... not from animals... peppermint was not enough to mask it and even my past CNA work did not prepare me enough for that stench. Oh it broke my heart... C'MON MAN!!!!
Went to go roof a house for service, the guys there gave us a once over and were hesitant at first to let us do anything... C'MON MAN!!!
Now this one is easily the best one of all... Get ready... Saturday night, we fall into bed EXHAUSTED I swear that day would NOT end for the life! I konked out hard and fast, then in the fog of my mind I hear music. I laid there battling in my mind not to wake up, that I would regret it, but the music was growing louder and my consciousness was increasing. My eyes crack open and my ears perk up to hear "Imagine all the people living for todayyyy, youuuu-whoooo-oooo" The Beatles?!?!?! What in the world?! So back up I need to explain... our house is a duplex... we share a house-divided in half two separate entrances- with a less active elderly man and his grandson. This less active meets with the missionaries weekly and reads the Book of Mormon with them, but he has some bad habits... habits that result in our house smelling like skunk because the smoke permeates through the walls, and speaking of walls we can actually hear him snore THROUGH THE WALLS! So anyway John Lennon is belting away and I roll over and groan and check the clock and it is 3:30... 3:30 A.M. Y'ALL!!!! My goodness all I could think of was: "This guy is higher than a kite and I am losing precious precious sleep!" Sister Allen was about to plow through the wall when she finally came to and realized what was happening, I started laughing so hard when the image came to mind of how my dad would react to this scenario, ah man. I didn't do what he might of, I just groggily said "Let's pull our stuff into the living room" and we zombied into the main room dropped our mattresses there and tried to sleep as the music changed to electric guitar something or other. We woke up so stinking tired the next morning... y'all know what I'm about to say... say it with me now... C'MON MAN!!!!
Pretty great huh??? You just never know what you'll get thrown at you out here, but that's what life is like right? President Griffin always would say: "a mission is a mini life" so I'm learning to take what comes, laughs things off, accept what I can't change and change what I can, and focus on the good. And there was a LOT of good throughout the week. We pulled over and talked to a man who waved to us from his front porch and his most repeated phrase was "Yeahhh buddy!" Just picture this sweet toothless old man repeating that: "yeahhh buddy" over and over, ah he's one of my favs!
I want to wrap up by sharing some YEAHHH BUDDY moments from the week:
Monday we went to Wal-Mart to get groceries and as we were buying some makeup and toiletries we started talking to a lady who was buying hair dye. It never ceases to amaze me how simple and amazing, how simply amazing it is to begin a conversation with casual small talk to a person in a random setting and then transition into religion, faith in Christ, and the gospel... and then watch and listen to the way they will connect and open up to you. There is something about being a missionary, there is something about that moment when you begin to share about what your purpose is or something about Christ, I'm still trying to figure it out... but something happens within the person you are talking to. Some sort of trust is built and they unload their burdens and begin to share their needs and their struggles. It is absolutely incredible! Sister Allen and I stood in an aisle of Wal-Mart and listened to a woman we just barely met talk about her struggles, the death that plagues her family, her broken and dysfunctional home, her kids, her past, her future. And then we gave her our card, gave her a hug, and gave her our promise that she would be in our prayers. I don't know what will come of it, I just know that she was grateful, we were grateful and humbled.... YEAHHH BUDDY!!!!
I mentioned above that there were some men that doubted our roofing abilities... well we proved them wrong!!! The previous elders set up a service project and then bailed out at transfers leaving us to deal with it. We show up at this house ready to work, the crotchety men were doubtful at first but later said they were impressed by our work ethic and willingness to climb up on a roof tear up tar paper, pull nails, lay new tar paper, and hammer more nails. YEAHHH BUDDY!!!!
The day after we had the hit-and-run accident we attended a dedication of a recently completed Habitat for Humanity home, it was at the local Baptist church on our road and we stopped in. We got an over-the-pulpit-shout-out due to our work the previous day and they took our picture for the Facebook page! The pastor even chatted with us, he didn't bash, and was actually really complementary and talked about his own "mission trip" YEAHHH BUDDY!!!!
We visited with a man who is moving out of our ward but quite possibly might be the most solid, strong, and powerful convert I have ever been in the presence of, even if he is sickly and was coughing up a lung during our visit. But really his conversion is so cool he wrote in to Salt Lake wanting to share and to his surpise it was published in the October 1992 Ensign! It's titled "Journey to Truth" and really is sooo good! His words gave me such hope that there truly are those out there that are prepared to receive this message, that are missing something, that have ancestors begging them to listen and ask if it is not true (Moroni 10:3-5). As we left he said to us "I love you both and I love what you're doing" my heart swelled to bursting, what a sweet man, what a humble servant of the Lord. YEAHHH BUDDY!!!
I am humbled by daily reminders of God's love and for the opportunity to write these letters home about my experiences seeing our Heavenly Father's hand in the details. His plan is perfect, it is entertaining at times, frustrating at others, but it is His and it is perfect. The sweet 10 year old in our fast and testimony said it best, "God and life is like an Imax movie theater, without the glasses the picture is blurry. But with God life is clear because He sees the big picture."
I am loving being out here peaches, pits, c'mon man, and yeah buddy moments good and bad. "Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something in the future" (Marjorie Pay Hinkley) I may not see it yet but it will all be worth it, someday, sometime, somewhere, because of Him who went before me.
Have a blessed week y'all!
Love,
Hermana Hall
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