Hey squad,
This week was weird. We had some awesome teaching days on one hand and some pretty tough finding on the other. You have to know the bad to know the good right? Let me give you a little background of our area. We're in the Pleasant Hills Ward which was created at the beginning of the year by combining two smaller wards together. We have two companionships that work the ward and we have the smaller area of the two. It works out pretty well because we have a lot of responsibilities with the mission so less time in area = smaller area. This week we had nothing to do with the mission side of things which was crazy! The Johnsons were on the road with interviews and we just had no need to be in the office which I was pumped for!
Tuesday was exchanges with Elder Gallini who is waiting for his visa to go to India! We had a pretty solid day and contacted a referral we were looking for right off the street. It was pretty crazy! We went to her apartment complex and tried calling her when some lady comes up to us and says "Who y'all looking for?" We tell her that we're looking for Derone and she proceeds to tell us that she just saw her back at the pharmacy. So with that lead we went looking. We both had no idea what she looked like so we were shooting in the dark... we ask the first person we see if she knows a Derone Burrows and she stops and goes: "I AM DERONE BURROWS." She was great and we'll see what happens.
Wednesday was zone training and the zone leaders did an awesome job with everything! I always love a good training. That night we met up with the Pitt North zone leaders for exchanges and I went with Elder Ramos from Carlsbad, CA. This is where the finding comes into play. Like I said, our area is generally under worked due to a lot of other mission responsibilities. We have a few investigators and less actives that we're working with but that's maybe 7 or 8 people we try and see on a weekly basis. So after you've set appointments with all of them what do you do? That's right, find. Our ward mission leader and bishop want us to find some of these lost sheep so that's exactly what we did. Elder Ramos and I spent 5 hours on Thursday trying to find less active members and potential investigators and we didn't get in a single door. It was a grind haha. We both felt like it was the right thing to do so we did it!
Justin met with us on Thursday night and we gave him a tour of the chapel! He thought it was cool and I think he really enjoyed the artwork. The gap between us and Justin is getting a little wider the more we get to know him. He's super catholic and really firm in his beliefs. He committed to read the Book of Mormon so I'm praying he comes to find the truthfulness of it! This quote kind of sums up our meetings with him: "The issue is between Catholicism and Mormonism. If we are right, you are wrong; if you are right, we are wrong; and that’s all there is to it." That's LeGrand Richards quoting a Catholic. He's spot on.
We sat down with the Haner family on Friday night and really addressed some things with their daughter Lillie! She's 9 and hasn't been baptized yet so we've come in to help out a little. That girl is insane. Haha I mean I have two adorable little sisters and have dealt with little girls but this one is just off the charts. She's pretty sassy, goofy, and just can't take anything seriously which tests my patience. I'm gonna struggle as a parent. We smacked down the law with her and so we'll see if she shapes up a little bit.
We got home at 9:30 on Friday night and started planning. We quickly realized that everything we planned had fallen through and we were staring at a lot of blank space baby and nobody was writing their name. No problem for a couple of veterans right? I wish. We decided to take up the finding initiative again and planned what we thought would be an awesome day. The missionary handbook encourages us to find people to teach on the weekends when families are together and at home. I don't think I believe that anymore. Haha we went out for 6 hours straight and yet again didn't get into any homes or really talk to anyone. We knocked, talked to people on the street, and tried to street ball. NOTHING was working. No one was home and the people on the street yelled at us or told us to keep on walking. It was brutal.
Sunday was my favorite day of church here in Pleasant Hills. There was just a lot of mic dropping and what you might call throwing down. It was solid and I definitely participated. Our bishop is ready for some action which is all we could hope for.
Random goodness
- Elder Gallini is from Texas and there is no difference in the way he says: "fir, for, and fur." It's hilarious.
- We are trying to plan outside as much as possible to soak up the last rays of sun. I'm so white.
- Turns out Elder Parke actually is capable of being upset. We just had to be rejected for 6 hours to find that out. We're all human after all.
Searchin for the golden,
Elder Halls
Pictures: Pitt West zone; Our zone plus two homies we found at the park; Always doin' business
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