July 5 - Letter

Monday - Monday was a P-day, but we did some missionary work during it which is always good. We went to our Branch Presidents and spent some time with him, he showed us around his Woodshop, he has a canon and he makes a lot of neat stuff. We were with the Kokomo Elders most of the day, but we went with our Branch President and gave a blessing to an Excommunicated member that he hadn't talked to for 20 years. She wanted a blessing because she was going to get surgery and she was very happy we gave her a blessing and she said she wants to start coming back to church. After that we had dinner at the Heavilons (Our Branch Presidents) After dinner we went to the Williamsons who our members and helped them plant flowers and put together an entertainment center. After that they fed them cake, and me sugar free chocolate pudding :)

Tuesday - In the morning we went to Sister Stearmans and mowed her lawn for her, and then she took us to her neighbor who is not a member and we met her and shared a message from the Book of Mormon with her. Later that day we visted DeAnna Hazelton, she is a shut in that has Health issues and can't make it to church so we read scriptures with her and she gives us food :) She is from Louisiana so she makes that style of food and it's pretty good!

Wednesday - Wednesday we went to the Temple! We rode with our Branch President and we did Temple work for Elder Reeces family who are not members. That evening we went with Brother Cross and met a Chinese lady who is not a member but her husband is, and we invited her to church and introduced ourselves which was good.

Thursday - Thursday was a fun day... So in the morning we volunteered at the Library and Elder Woolsey helped shift books and I helped put together an exhibit with a bunch of pictures of a Law Firm group from 1954. After that we went to the YMCA and did service for them. So they ask us, are you guys pretty good at painting? I said "I can be for today" and Elder Woolsey said "Ya I've done it a couple times" So we painted this room for them, and it looked alright, but they wanted it to look a little neater. They shouldn't have trusted 19 year olds to know how to paint, hahaha. But we helped them for 3 or more hours and we we're going to go over it for a second time and clean it up and make it look nice but we had to leave to do other stuff, but here's the sweet thing. The guy says to us "I'll get you a guest pass so you can come in and shootaround and play basketball" So I was pretty excited and then he said "You can use the weight room and anywhere around here" So now we have a free gym. We aren't supposed to go to commercial gyms, but I asked the Ward mission leader and he said "If it's free it's not commercial!" That night we had dinner at the WIlliamsons, it was very good and we went and visited Joe Calloway, I printed off a picture of me and him and took it to him and that made him happy. His granddaughter said he really looks forward to us coming over, so I'm glad we can, now we just have to get him to church.

Friday - Friday we had District meeting, and then the rest of the day me and Elder Reece went out working in Kokomo! They wanted to go on another exchange so we did. So for the 4th of July there was a lot going on in Kokomo. We went and PC the Car Show and talked to people and gave them cards and read some verses from the Book of Mormon with them, and we went Trolley Tracting and it was a lot of fun. We beat to teach and played basketball but the biggest miracle happened that night. So Smashmouth, the guy that sings the Shrek theme songs was in Kokomo and was at this Festival at our park so we went to that and saw him which was fun, but as we're walking around this huge park with a bunch of people there, this girl who looked like she was 12 tapped Elder Reece on the shoulder. Now I know why we were supposed to be at the concert/fair. So she said "Are you guys missionaries? and Elder Reece said Ya and she asked us if we could pray with her. So we're walking and talking to her and she tells us she is 20 and just got out of jail and is about to cry and she tells us she is homeless and she went to jail for drugs. So we talked to her for a while and she was starving so Elder Reece bought her food. It was a huge miracle, we invited her to church, and she wants to come.

Saturday - Saturday we went to a Authentic mexican restaraunt and got food, and we might of had our last coordination meeting with Brother Brackett, I like him a lot. We tracted and talked to a lot of people, I walked up to go talk to these 4 hispanic guys sitting on their porch, haha I tried speaking spanish to them and they offered me beer, and I said No and they said Why it's good and so we walked off haha. We helped Sister Stearman clean up her lawn and she sprayed the stuff to kill slugs, I've never seen slugs until then. We also helped Dennis Bergendorf a non member, put up a huge ladder and take it down.

Sunday - Sunday we had the big news announced at church. After church we went out working all day. We went to give Clyde Allen a blessing, we visited a lot of people, told Allyse Barker and Gloria Laverty who are 2 investigators about the church change and we stopped by Less actives. Another successful week and this next week is going to be even better. I love and miss you guys so much!