I've also been asked to be the new District Leader here, so that'll be an interesting experience of its own!
K, now I'm just going to write about Saturday actually, because pretty much the day sums up the coolest parts of my mission.
The morning started off pretty great, with a baptism for Freddy and Liz Alexander! It's been a long time coming for both of them, and they were both very ready. What the coolest part was, though, is we had them bear their testimonies after they were each baptized. It was incredible to see just how far they had come since we first met with them my very first week in the mission field. Haha Freddy was the most ridiculous kid to teach! It literally took us three times of teaching the first discussion over and over until he realized that the Restoration wasn't "when Joseph Smith was baptized into the Mormon Church." Meanwhile, Liz wouldn't stay listening to us, and would just start walking around the house. Really both of them were only listening because Freddy's dad, Terry, had been baptized a few months before and wanted them both to follow. For them to go from that to the testimonies they each bore on Saturday was incredible!
Then, we went to Pumpkinville with Matt and Krissa for the afternoon. It's this little carnival-pumpkin patch thing that they have been going to ever since they were kids. Haha it was a kind of goofy place, but was still quite a bit of fun. They bought us dinner and pumpkin donuts and even a pumpkin! When we got home and were about to go, I thanked Matt for everything, and he (having been in the Coast Guard for many years) said, "Don't even worry about it. I know what it's like to be away from home over a holiday, and I figured we could just let you in on some of our family traditions so you could feel like you had a home out here." Haha... I don't think I need to really explain why I liked that.
After we'd come home from Pumpkinville and before thanking Matt, we actually spent about an hour reading the Book of Mormon with Krissa. We were in 1 Nephi 15, and it is unbelievable the way that people can become so touched as they understand what the Book of Mormon says. Krissa sometimes struggles understanding the language of the scriptures (who doesn't?), but she loves reading with us because we can discuss everything with her. We are trying to figure out the best way of going about teaching that family, since Matt doesn't really want to learn about the gospel like Krissa does, but we don't want to scare him away as a friend. Regardless, it is awesome to have probably our fastest progressing investigator (Krissa) and one of our best friends (Matt) all in the same house!
Well, when we got home that night, we realized we'd missed a call from Freddy. He and Liz are still living with Kathy, who was just baptized a few weeks ago. They just requested we come over. When we got there, Kathy was in the living room just sobbing. Apparently Liz's dad had said something very harsh to her, and she had just been overwhelmed the rest of the day. She has a horrible back and it always does pain her. But since she's always been able to stay so happy, she doesn't let the pain show. Sadly, when she becomes unhappy, she essentially loses her ability to fight off the pain. When we went into the room, she just looked at us and yelled, "I can't take the pain anymore! I can't do it!" We kept talking to her and she finally calmed down enough for us and two members of the branch to give her a Priesthood blessing. When we finished, she just looked at Elder Inkley and me and said, "You guys are the best!" and jumped up and gave us each a hug. Haha I know generally missionaries aren't supposed to give hugs... but we figured that this would be okay this time haha.
Hmm... this is a remarkably short email home. Sorry about that, but I can't think of much else to say. I'll add on some pictures to spice things up a little bit for you!
Also, feel free to use the Arcade address again, since I am certainly going to be in Freedom for a while longer!
I love you, but I don't miss you!
Elder Allen
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