Hello All!
This week was very, very cold. It was in the single digits some days while tracting. I thought this weather was never going to end, but today it is shockingly nice outside. I am writing this email outside right now and it is 60 degrees! That's like 6 times the temperature it has been. It is so nice. I hope it is like this forever.
I probably had the most fun day this week on my mission so far. But to explain this, I need to explain what Nanjamoy is. Nanjamoy is in the deepest, darkest part of Maryland, I'm not talking like Baltimore dark, I'm talking like eerie forest dark. It has had a reputation in the past of abandoned trailer parks and drug lords, and arena's in barns for dog fights. So that's Nanjamoy.
I also need to explain our monthly mileage allotment for the mission owned vehicles we drive. We only get to drive a certain amount of miles each month, so each day we have to plan according to miles, and use them wisely. Well, this month we did really well on our miles and had a bunch left over for the last day of the month.
Because we did really well on miles last month, we decided to go to the furthest part of our area and work there for the day because missionaries probably don't go down there very much. The furthest place of our area just happened to be Nanjamoy. To get the full Nanjamoy experience, and to save a bunch of time, we packed a lunch and a dinner to eat on the road. We actually brought cans of Spaghetti and heated them up using a small camp stove I purchased months ago because there were hurricane warning were I was living, and I wanted not cold stuff if we lost power.
We headed out to Nanjamoy in the morning, and made it there, and tracted a little bit, then ate lunch. We ate lunch right next to the Potomac Bay. It would have been beautiful if it was not 15 degrees. I found a huge slate of wood and stood it up for a windbreaker for warmth, and so the fire on my stove would not go out. After lunch, we headed out to the next closest neighborhood in Nanjamoy. After that, we looked for a place to have dinner. It was way too cold to eat outside, but we could not use the stove in the car, so we found a public park with a barn on the property, and sought shelter in the barn. We ate our dinner in the barn, which was pretty rustic if you ask me. The park had a wonderful view of the sunset. It even had one of those telescope things. After that, we did some more finding and then drove home. It was a day I will never forget!
We actually found a family in Nanjamoy to teach. We were checking on a member that lived down there, but he had moved away, and this family moved in. The dad said him and his two girls were looking for a church to join. It was a great miracle. I knew we weren't going down to Nanjamoy for nothing! We will have to find members to come with us to the lessons and also to dive us there.
Remember how I told you that my companion is way into Italy and everything Italian? Well, his obsession paid off this week. We were tracting and we talked to a lady getting out of her car, and she was from Italy! We gave her an Italian copy of the Book of Mormon because my companion always has one on hand, and we are going back and going to teach her more. She has pretty good English so we will teach her in English so I can know what the heck is going on. My companion will pray, recite scriptures and say the first vision in Italian. Pretty cool!
We were tracting some night, and some guy answered the door and let us in before we could even get a word out. I learned not to question those things. Usually, when a random person invites you into their house, you don't go in, but it is like the total opposite as a missionary. He sat us down and gave us a plate of chicken and other amazingly delicious stuff. The family is from Samoa. We learned quickly that the man is an inactive member of the church, but that the rest of his family are not members. Missionary goldmine! He told us he would not have a desire to come back to church but if his kids would like to learn more, he would let us teach them. So we asked if the kids wanted to learn more, and they do, so we are teaching them now. We hope that as the dad sits in on the lessons it will rekindle his desire to come back to church.
Samoans eat well. We ate so much food there. He asked us, do you guys eat raw fish? And before my companion could explain to him his huge hatred for seafood, I said to the man, yes we do, and looked at my companion and smiled. He put a bowl of raw tuna in front of both of us. I ate mine right up. It was splendid. My companion could only get two bites down before surrendering to the tuna, so I ate his bowl as well!
Apparently, the Super Bowl was this week. It was like tracting on a holiday because no one wanted to talk. What's more important, Football, or The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ? With the people that did come to the door, probably because they thought we were the Papa John's guy, we would ask what the score was.
Transfer call outs are tonight, it will be exciting to see if I stay or if I go, or if I get a new companion. I will keep you tuned!
Love you all!
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