Elder May: Chapter 78

I loved waking up this morning and having Elder May’s email in my inbox.  He was only going to be online for a little bit today and wanted to make sure he got his weekly email out.  Boy, how we love this young man.  Love seeing his smiling face and love hearing his experiences.  We love him and miss him so, but we are oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 78

1.  This is the new district!

 2.  We were referred to a pastor and met with him in his church building

 3.  So much service, AND I LOVE IT!

 4.  Danny is a champion!

 5.  *read this in an English accent* “Dad, you’re living in a tent. What on earth are you doing?”

 6.  This guy wants a Book of Mormon. Can you two handle that?

Hi everyone! We had a lot of stuff we got done and stayed busy all week long. It was a good time!

First off we have a new District! There is eight of us now and to be honest it is way nicer than having only four of us. We can expect more opinions, participation and I can talk less haha! This is us!

Secondly, a member of the ward here dishes out Referrals as often as a lunch lady dishes out gross food. One of them he told us about is a pastor at a different church that had talked with missionaries and really likes us! We got to go down and meet him on Wednesday and he is super cool. He was telling about some of his experiences having missionary trips in the Congo, about his family, about how he came to be the pastor at the church and we got to introduce ourselves and talk about why we are on our missions. He was one the kindest people I’ve met and it was awesome to have him not try to argue or become confrontational.

We got to dress down a bit and do some service a couple times this week. One was for a member of the church who had us come by and rip out his front yard. It was super fun because we had these little trees that we were trying rope around and attaching to his truck so he could rip them out of the ground. We also got to go to a place called feeding Tampa Bay, that most likely partners with feeding people everywhere, like we do every Friday but this time was cool because all the missionaries north of us, in what is known as the Brandon north zone, were there too. Which means I got to see a couple of former companions. We all took a picture before we left but I didn't get it. I can try to though. The picture of me in service clothes is from after helping the member with his yard he had a unicycle that worked like the hover boards and he let us ride it.

One of the people we will be baptizing in a couple weeks is named Danny and he is a champion. He's now read to 2nd Nephi and came to church for his third week in a row. During church he participates all the time and usually quotes the Bible or the Book of Mormon to do so. He was telling the Sunday school class that the Bible is missing "plain and precious Truths" and talked about how the Church is the "Church of the Lamb of God." We went through a lot of commandments in our last lessons and he is loving it. One of our lessons we had we finished with a prayer and he had a tear in his eye. We asked what he was feeling and he just said "is the water going to be deep for my baptism?" So far that has been his only concern. He has kept every commitment and is getting ready for baptism on the fourth.

We got to visit a recent convert family here in the ward and they are doing fantastic. It is awesome too because the father is from London so he has a thick English accent. We were reading the Book of Mormon with them and we read 1st Nephi 1-2 and talk about any thoughts or impressions we had. I told them how 1st Nephi 2:15 is one of my favorite scriptures because it shows how much Lehi gave up to follow the Lord. After that we started laughing at how funny that would be if one of our parents did that now and that led to the father saying "Dad, you're living in a tent. Do you even have a torch? Or toilet paper? What are you doing?! Go inside the house!" It was hilarious. Just figured I'd share that with you all!

Lastly, while we were at church we walked into Elders Quorum and saw the second counselor to the Bishopric talking to a man that seemed like he was an investigator. We walk over and talk with them and he had apparently met with missionaries in 1998 and wanted to come back to church and read the Book of Mormon! So we walked him to our car and grabbed a couple materials for him and set up to meet him at the church this Tuesday. He was a pretty cool guy and told us his brother is Robert Mathis in the NFL but I'm not sure I believe him yet. Pictures or didn't happen right?

That was my week. We also saw this sweet BMW while we were eating lunch so we parked next to it and took pictures for the little bit that we were there.

It's a pretty nice car huh? When your car looks like that apparently you can start parking in two parking spots and no one will care. I love you all and will talk to you later. We are having a zone activity day from 1-4:30 so I'm not sure I will be on email too much today but you all are more than welcome to email me whenever. It doesn't need to be on a Monday lol! I'll talk to you all soon!