Hey everyone! Life has been crazy here in
Duncan, Oklahoma, but I've absolutely loved it here!
This last week was pretty eventful! On Monday we had a lesson with a couple
of our investigators R and M. We thought that they weren't too interested
in changing their lives, they just wanted a feel good message. Well they called
us Sunday and said they had been out of town, but wanted us to come over the
next day, so Monday we went over and had a lesson on the Law of Chastity. They
aren't married, and R is married to someone else right now who refuses to
divorce him. So rather than just deal with all that drama he's just living with
M. They have 2 kids together. Anyways we had a really good lesson, and they
agreed that they need to work toward marriage so they're on the right track! Then we
invited them to come to a church tour on Friday night. They came and we had
another really good lesson about the sacrament. They really enjoyed that. They
came to the chili cook off on Saturday night, and joined us at church on Sunday!
They really loved that as well! It was cool to see how quickly they responded
when we invited them, lovingly, to make changes in their life and how much
they've enjoyed trying to change!
Wednesday we drove an hour down to the bottom of the ward boundaries to
help a lady out with a painting project in Ryan, Oklahoma. Ryan is the birthplace
of Chuck Norris, so that was pretty cool! They have an autographed picture and
everything mounted there. It's a tiny, tiny town about an hour away from our
church building, but yup! Chuck Norris was born in the Duncan Ward Boundaries!
Haha
Thursday was a crazy day for us as well, but we just drove all day. We
drove for about 3 or 4 hours of the day, had a couple of meetings to go to here
in the zone, and then had a dinner way out in the middle of nowhere. We also had
weekly planning all morning, so not much got done that day as far as getting out
to work.
Friday we had an exchange with Elder W and Elder M, the zone
leaders here. Elder W is a football player at the University of Utah,
and Elder M played basketball at Salem Hills. They're great guys! Anyways
we worked them pretty hard and met some interesting people... Haha it gets
pretty fun sometimes when your area is a giant meth lab, but we do what we can!
We had a lady stop and talk with us in the middle of the road for about 15
minutes. She wouldn't pull over and park she just waved the cars around. haha It
was pretty weird but funny. She got a phone call and handed it to us and said,
"Answer it! It's God and he wants to talk with you!" I wasn't going to answer
that phone so Elder M answered it and it was a guy she was supposed to pick
up, but was too busy talking to us to go get. We
had a good day though and a fun time!
Saturday was the Chili Cook-off. All four of us missionaries chipped in and
bought a HUGE can of chili, sprinkled some red pepper in it and entered it. Haha
we made the finals.... The lady who won got up to the mic and said, "I made
canned chili and just added some ingredients so I didn't think I was going to
win!" Haha she did the exact same thing we did! She just added a couple more
ingredients... Haha that's why the judges had such a hard time of picking
between the two of ours! Haha there were tons of better chilis though! We had a lot of
members bring friends though, and one of them called us over and asked us tons
of questions, then we ended up showing her around the church and teaching her
and it was super good! She had a lot of questions and will be looking to learn
more!
Sunday was busy. We had a few people come to church, which is awesome!
Especially when it's ward conference and the super powerful stake president
speaks. It was super good! They all loved it! We spent most of the evening over
at J's house. He and his daughter are still planning on getting baptized this Saturday, and hopefully the rest of his family will be following
close behind! He's awesome! He's made HUGE changes in his life, and is so much
happier now! He told us one night, "Fellas don't be mad at me, but all those
times the kids came out and told you I wasn't home, I was home. I just wanted to
see if I was just another guy on your route that you'd stop seeing or if I
actually meant something to you. When you kept going I was touched that you
actually kept coming back. You had every reason to give up on me, but thank you
for not giving up on me!" So for all you home and visiting teachers out there
who have tough families to visit, keep going! They feel your love when you stop
by!
That's been about it for us lately! The Lord keeps blessing us, I keep
learning, and life gets better and better! Hope all is well for all of you
guys!