So many to catch up with . . .

31 July – Last week in Harrisburg

So yeah, I'm leaving Harrisburg. It's been a great 4 1/2 months. This is a great area and great ward. I'm going to miss a bunch of people here and I'm gonna miss all the great missionary work. So to Waxhaw I go! I am really having a hard time focusing right now, I'm a little creeped out with how much time I have left and this will probably be my last move in the mission. I'll make sure to have a better email next week! Love ya!

24 July – So, I’m a little old

So..... I just realized that I don't have much time left. Today we went to a trampoline park for district activity, the same trampoline park I went to at the beginning of my mission...about 21 months ago... I also got something in the mail this week. In this mission when you have about three months left you get the Sprint letter, it basically is a piece of paper you sign saying you give it your all your last three months. I haven't opened my letter yet. Anyways, this week had its good parts and its stinky parts. Let's just get the bad parts out of the way. So we finally got in contact with Galliano's dad to get permission for him to get baptized...and his dad said no😭😭😭😭 We are all pretty sad about it. But we found a big family this week so we are excited to start working with them. We had zone conference this week all the way up in High Point. We couldn't find a ride so we stayed the night at the Reedy Creek Elders' apartment and then in the morning got up and drove to High Point. It was a really good meeting. There are a lot of missionaries going home this transfer so a lot of missionaries gave departing testimonies. Then we had to drive back, we got stuck in traffic, we dropped the elders off then went home. By the time we got home it was about time to call it for the day. It took way too long. I don't know who made the decision to do the conference all the way up in High Point. So transfers are coming up again, so crazy. So by next week I'll know what's going to be happening! So crazy. Well. Hopefully y'all have a great week and stay classy!

17 July – Yo yo yo

So this week was good. We had district meeting again this week and it went pretty well. Afterwards we went on exchanges. I stayed in Harrisburg with Elder Brown. It was good. Man, I am drawing a blank on what even happened this week. We taught a couple good lessons. We saw Karrington again, Elder Brown and I did. It was a pretty good discussion. We didn't get to teach very much but we talked for a while about what she expects out of us and what we expect out of her, it was good. I think she will progress but it will be a very slow progress. We saw Niva again this week, and had a good talk with her. We also met with Joshua again this week. We brought the same member we brought last week, and we had a ridiculously long discussion with him. It got pretty heated and our member just got up and left the house after a certain point. It was pretty bad. We were able to get things calmed  down and finished on a good note, and the member took us to Taco Bell afterwards. Well, we had a pretty good week, sorry this email is pretty bogus, but I am drawing a blank, so sorry. I'll have a good email next week. Love ya!

10 July – Elder Tumblerina

So Saturday night I took a little tumble, it didn't feel very good. I was riding my bike and I was about to pull into our apartment complex but some dude pulled out right in front of me, so I had to take some evasive action. I missed the car, but I didn't miss the pavement, I crashed pretty hard. Luckily I didn't hit my head, but I destroyed my pants and my elbows. I was bleeding pretty bad, but things are okay now. I am still missing a chunk out of my right elbow, but hopefully that heals up pretty quick-like. Other than that, the week was still...eh...okay. It started out pretty good. We found a few new people to try to teach and then Tuesday night it was the Fourth of July. Elder Brown had MLC the next day so we stayed the night at their apartment so we could take Elder Haycock for the day. The next day we were in a tri companionship so that was pretty fun. We had fun. Thursday we had interviews with President and district meeting. Everything went well. We were the last to get interviewed so we were there forever. Well, yesterday was pretty good. We had a few people at church, but things didn't go well with James this week. He kind of told us off this week. He still wants to meet with us, but not progress, kind of a bummer. Oh well, anything can happen. We get the car back this week, so I'm excited. Well, hopefully y'all have a great week!

3 July – Hello there

This week was pretty good. We are now in a tri share now, which means we get the car for two weeks and bikes for only one week. I have been in a car share the last six months so I'm glad we get the car a little more as we head into summer. We get one week with a Chevy Cruze then one with a 2017 Chevy Malibu. It's definitely not a car I would want to own, but it is pretty nice. I feel like I'm driving a robot. I never have to get the key out of my pocket, I can lock and unlock it just by pushing buttons on the car handles and it has a really nice display and backup camera. It also has a feature that you could use that keeps you in between the traffic lines without you even touching the wheel. Pretty crazy, and anyway, enough about the car. The first half of the week wasn't super great just kind of a regular week. I went on exchange with Elder Haycock in Harrisburg, that was pretty fun. He messed up his ankle playing basketball a little over a week ago so he was walking around on crutches so I had to help gimpy out all day, it was fun. So a couple weeks ago we had dinner with a family in the ward, and the husband and boy were talking about how they have to eat healthy all the time. I mentioned that I had Lucky Charms for breakfast and the dad looked at me with big eyes and said, "I haven't had those in forever!" So this week he came out with us on teams and we prepared an extra large bag of Lucky Charms for him. We had a pretty good laugh over that one. Saturday we had a super long talk with this dude. He was a pretty nice guy, but he was bashing us hard core. We were there for an hour and a half trying to answer some of the weirdest questions he would ask. We are going to see him this next Saturday so pray for us😅. We met an awesome new investigator last night. Her name is Karrington, and she is great. We had kind of run out of people to see and we still had an hour left before we had to get in. So we called her, she said she was sick, but if we didn't mind risking getting sick. So we went right over and taught an awesome lesson. It went really well. She's an MMA fighter and a criminal investigator! Pretty awesome. We get to meet the coolest people out here on our missions, it's great. Well, we had a pretty good week, hopefully we'll have a great next week! Love y'all!

26 June – The week of complications

So yeah, this week, things got a little complicated this week with all of our investigators. So James moved out of our area, two streets out of our area...pretty stinky. We talked to bishop about it and he wants us to move him over to Reedy Creek and hand him over to the other elders. Then we went to tell James and he got mad and he said he doesn't want to move wards and if he was coming to church, he was going to come with us, so now we have a power struggle going on and we don't know what to do. We also have a boy that moved in with returning member family and wants to get baptized but we first have to get permission from his dad in Haiti, so that might take a while, just stuff like that all week long. We are still busy, just things are complicated. The highlight of the week was we were invited by a less active member to a family party with her. It was pretty crazy. We were the only white people there. It was great. Other than that, I can't really remember what happened this week. Things are going well, we just keep working hard and hope for good things to come. Love y'all!

SWEATY Week

So this week, it started to get warm, seeing that this next Wednesday is the first day of summer I guess it's kind of fitting. I don't think I'll ever get used to how humid it can get here. Almost every evening this last week huge storm clouds would roll in and it would start raining. Tuesday was the worst. It poured! 

So, I got my new tablet this week, I picked it up, had to get a new case and now it is mine. Kind of crazy. I have to admit, I do not like this one nearly as much as my IPad, but at least I still have one, and for that I am grateful. Bike week was this week, and we biked a bunch. I felt like biking a bunch this week so we did. Elder Ashton didn't like it, but we did it anyways, we biked across a lot of our area. That's why we were so sweaty this week. This week was transfer calls week. We got the news Saturday night...we are both staying! Our whole district is pretty much staying, which is great cuz we have a great district. But uhh, I gotta go sorry. Love y'all!

The Week of Service

This week we did a lot of service, probably a little too much. On Tuesday we went on exchange with the zone leaders. Elder Bingham joined me in Harrisburg. It was good to go on exchange with him one more time. We had great exchanges in Mtn Island and Huntersville, so it was cool to have one last exchange before he goes home this transfer. We helped a brother in the ward build a shed in his backyard. This time we helped put up the roof frames, I got to sit on the beams and hammer the nails in place, it was pretty fun. 

Wednesday we did service at Habitat for Humanity and Thursday we helped a lady in the ward plant some more flowers in her garden and dig some holes. 

Saturday morning we went with one of the senior couples to help do some garden work at a homeless shelter place. There were people from a different ward in the south stake there...and guess what!?! Edward was there!! I was really bummed because when I lost my IPad his number was on it so I lost it, but tender mercies! He was there and I was able to talk to him for a while. Anyway, that was fun. Other than service we had zone conference on Friday and that one was really good. I was in a musical number that turned out pretty good. We saw James a couple times this week. He's still working on his housing situation and he sent his kids off to Wilmington with their mom for a little bit while he gets everything in order. He came to church again this Sunday and it was great to see him there. 

We weren't able to find that many new people this week, but things were pretty good. Hopefully this week will be even better! Love y'all!

The week of bleh 😫

So yeah, this past week was pretty dreadful. Things just went wrong all week long. Last Monday I wasn't able to write emails because I was busy filing a police report on my stolen IPad at Wal-Mart. It stinks a lot. Even though I filed the report nothing has come up, and I don't think I'm gonna get my IPad back...ever. The person who stole it is going to be really disappointed when he finds out the only websites he can get on are mormon.org, lds.org, and Facebook, and that's if he/she can even get past my lock screen. A senior couple filed a stolen IPad report and the church will completely wipe the IPad remotely so the thief won't be able to see any confidential information. I'm just bummed out because of all of the stuff I lost from it. What's good though is that I still have most of the important things from it. When I was with Elder Bollschweiler I was prompted to buy a wireless storage USB, and I put all my pictures, music, and study material on it, and thank goodness I did. And because I logged in on gospel library I still have all of my markings, tags, and notes in the app. I am so grateful for the technology that the Lord has blessed us with. You might be wondering what I am emailing on, I currently am in possession of a loaner Samsung tablet. I'll have this one until I purchase my new one💲💲💲💲. 

So yeah, that was my last P-day, a fitting start for a pretty stinky week. We just got shut down in everything this week. I got sick on Wednesday or Thursday (I can't remember which one, I'm trying to forget this week😂), so that basically ruined the day. On Tuesday we had to go renew our bus passes so we went to Uptown and on the way the bus had delay after delay after delay. We got our passes, then headed back, got caught in a torrential downpour, hid at a gas station until it lightened up, then went to dinner. I must have eaten too much cuz when I took off my belt that night, it broke. A piece in the buckle snapped off, and it made me sad because I love that belt. I also lost my keys this week too, I guess I left them in the mailbox on accident so the USB that had all my stuff on it was gone too. I also lost my clip nametag that I have had since the beginning of my mission. Man, this week was hard. But I made it through, and I guess Heavenly Father decided to bless me...a lot by the end of the week. 

I found my nametag in the washing machine miraculously, I super glued the broken piece of the belt and it actually worked a lot better than I thought it would, my belt is back in commission, some guy left a note and told us he had found my keys and had kept them just to keep them safe, I was able to retrieve them later in the day. And I guess some members heard about my tablet situation and how I would have to pay $351 to get a new tablet and I was pretty bummed about it, because last night we got a knock on the door. We answered it and there was just a note in the door for Elder Huff. I thought it was a little strange but I opened it and almost fell to the floor. Someone in the ward anonymously and graciously gave me $300 to help replace my tablet. I was extremely touched. I was up all last night trying to think of who it could be but I reached no definite conclusion. Sometimes as a missionary you feel a little disconnected from other non-missionary people around you and you kind of feel like lone wolves, but God will never leave us alone, he will place all around us people that really care for us and will aid you so much in your journey in life. I can't even express how grateful I am to that amazing member who has known me for just over 2 months, and yet decided to help me in such a huge way. People; THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! And such big acts of charity and the innumerable blessings the Lord rains down on me just strengthens my faith. 

Yesterday was also great because we were able to to see James, April, and the kids (Javon, Steffon, Jaison, Samajay, and Aubrielle) come to church! Such a huge miracle! The kids had a blast in Primary and James and April loved it too. They say they would be back for sure so we are pretty excited for them. They are great. 

I slept walked for the first time in a long time this week. Kind of freaked Elder Ashton out a little. It took him a little while to realize that I was sleep walking. When he realized, he took a video and it's pretty funny. 

Anyway, that's about the week. It pretty much was rotten until Sunday, then it went amazing! God is good! Love y'all! Talk to ya next week!

So yeah, I have to write this quick email from my companion's tablet...because mine was stolen. It's what happens when you take your eye off of it for a few minutes at Walmart. I filled out a police report and hopefully we'll get it back, but today's been one heck of a day, sorry, I won't be able to write my typical email to everybody, but just tell everyone I love them, and hopefully I'll email next week...hopefully. Love ya

Getting Hot, Hot, Hot (plus the last two weeks' letters)

So this week it started getting pretty warm, nature has pleasantly reminded me of what sweat really is again. We've been on bikes this week so things were pretty sweaty.

This week was pretty good. We did a lot of bussing, biking, walking, and sitting waiting for busses, or trying to run after busses that came a little too early, and so on and so forth. I don't know what was up with this week but, we just didn't seem to have any time. It seemed to just slip out of our fingers. We were able to see James a few times this week and he is doing great. We had two lessons with him this week and set his girlfriend and daughter on BD for July 29th, we're pretty excited for them. James and his daughter, Samajay, came to church yesterday too! They really liked it, especially Samajay (James was falling asleep throughout the whole thing, he had a rough night). He told me that when I get transferred he's going move to where I get transferred to. I really like the guy and hope he is able to sort out his life and be baptized, I'll be so excited for him. 

We had exchanges this week and I went on exchange with Elder Haycock. He came to Harrisburg with me, we had a pretty good time. 

Elder Ashton found his favorite member group. We went to dinner this week with a family and he and the father of the family talked the whole time about RPG games and how the ward has a group of guys that get together and play them on certain nights. I'll have to make sure to really keep track of him on those nights, make sure he doesn't just disappear😂. 

So yeah, things are going well here in Harrisburg, I'm still alive, nice and sweaty, but alive. 

So...we have to find someone to help us today by taking us out shopping, the missionaries that share the car with us managed to get the car towed, so.....today's going to be an adventure. We might just have to take the bus to go shopping, we'll see. 

Love y'all, hope you have a great week!

15 May – Transfer week

So I sent off Elder Bollschweiler this week. I got Elder Ashton. He's an interesting dude, he's really smart, and has gained almost as much weight as I did in his mission, I'm not alone! He comes from Utah and has basically taken over the area. He kind of reminds me of the guy in the Best Two Years, the new Elder. He is a really good guy. It seems like this week was really long. 

Well, the Skype call was great, the week upcoming will be great love y'all!

8 May – So not much time

So sorry, but this email will be short. We are having one last zone activity and saying goodbye to people. So we got transfer news. Elder Bollschweiler is leaving to go to Mt. Airy. I'll miss the kid. I am getting Elder Ashton. Elder Christensen is leaving too, I'll miss him too, I probably won't see him before he goes home. This week was good, we biked a lot and I wiped Elder Bollschweiler out. We biked hard. I also went on exchanges with Elder Christensen for the last time. It was pretty fun. We didn't take any pictures though. We did go to lunch with John Yang from Newton-Conover. I used to work with him. He's a cool guy. We went and got PHO. 

Anyways, I'll let you know more next week. Love Y'all!

Yo Yo Yo

Hey y'all, how are all y'all? I'm doing just fine here in the great state of NC, this week it started to get warmer and a lot more humid. Elder Bollschweiler is having a fun time with it😀. 

Things this week were alright. We did service at Habitat for Humanity Restore. We usually do it weekly. 

We had zone conference on Friday, and that was fun. It was a good meeting. After the meeting we went on exchanges. 

Elder Haycock came with me to Harrisburg and we went to the ward chili cook off. It was really good. Elder Bollschweiler was not happy that he missed it, and verbalized it very strongly to all of the members we have seen since. It was a silent auction too, which was cool because the members at our table got some cool desserts that they shared with us. We had a fun, but short exchange, the next day at about noon we exchanged back and ate at Taco Bell. 

We had a pretty fun day today, we had a zone activity where we split into two different teams and went on a scavenger hunt in Uptown. It was fun. I'll send some pictures.

Scavenger Hunt Group

It it pouring right now, Elder Bollschweiler and I got soaked just from taking the groceries inside from the car. We'll see what we are able to do tonight in the rain, we just started bike week! Yay! Woah, lightning just struck pretty close, my ears are now ringing from the thunder. I'm gonna send this before the power goes out, I don't have much more to talk about anyways.

Love Y'all! Have a great week!