I’m gonna make this quick, because my P-day is valuable time. But I still want to let everyone know that I’m thriving! Found out last night that Elder Ingersoll is going to be leaving Midwest City, and I’ll be staying, and getting a new comp. No idea what his name is. It’s gonna be a good time though.
And yeah, nothing too crazy, but I’m having a good time.
Everybody that reads this should send me a question they want me to answer, and that can be the next weekly.
Anyway, I’ll catch you guys next week, keep it up, let’s see what questions I get. Just make sure they’re interesting.
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Sister Richardson
Sister Jones
Sister Field
Sister Hansen
Sister Garlick
These are the Sister missionaries that were in the MTC with me, and now their missions are over. They’re champs, and now they’re going home. Godspeed.
Pics:
The picture of PURE GOLD
Found a street that is literally named “Easy Street”
It’s Best to Flex With 1 Arm
Time just progressively gets shorter and shorter out here. I used to send out lanky emails every week. Now I’ve missed 2 weeks. But hey, that’s ok, not too much happened during those weeks. I think.
Ok psych, we saw a spider that was NO JOKE the size of a tennis ball. Like, take a tennis ball and the size of it’s shadow at noon day was how big the legs of that thing stretched out were.
Also some of the other missionaries here in Midwest City have a whip. Like a full blown whip. And I’m getting scary good at it. I can turn off the lights and whip popcorn bags out of the air.
Oh, then there was this time we were having dinner with this family, and their little 6 year old girl was doing cartwheels, and she asked if we could do cartwheels, and of course, I gotta flex when I can, so I was like, “Yeah.” And I did one, flawless form of course, and she knew she had been outclassed. But I don’t just destroy the competition, I obliterate it.
So then I did a one-handed cartwheel.
And I’m not trying to be pathetic and show off in comparison to a 6 year old, it was just fun to do some tricks again, and we had a good time.
But yeah, we’ve been working hard out here in MWC. We contact all the people we can, teach about the Savior, and just try to serve people. I’ve learned that it’s human nature to decline service. Like, if you ask someone if they need help, they’re gonna say no. So these days we just go and serve people before they can try to tell us they don’t need any help. It works every time.
Then we had a pretty spunky photo shoot, so I’ll attach a few of them onto this email, but I’m going to save my personal favorite for next week, so stay tuned.
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Oliver: My brother’s new kid. He’s done nothing to deserve this shoutout besides simply being alive. But that’s the lifelong game we all play, keep it up lil’ homie.
I’m Still Alive
So yeah, I know that I didn’t send an email last week, but that’s ok, because I was busy having fun with other missionaries.
But we’ve been having a great time working hard out here, we’ve seen some SICK miracles, and God’s really helping us out.
As far as last week’s fun times:
Elder Ingersoll whipped himself in the eye, so that was scary for a second, but when we found out he was ok, it became really funny.
And honestly, we didn’t have anything else really crazy happen. Actually, we got kicked out of this lady’s house, so that was fun. But we’ve honestly just been working as hard as we can, and it’s been great. Really getting help from the Lord, it’s good stuff. He’s blessing us a bunch, and I’m learning some really cool things.
Sorry nothing crazy has happened, but it’s still been a really good time.
Thanks for tuning in for the little bit that we have, but since the 18th is this week….
THE RAFFLE:
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Elder Miles – He helped me with the raffle this time around, and he’s just a really cool guy. Glad I get to serve around him.
Really Really Quick
So I’m in the city in the middle of the West. Midwest City as they call it. And it’s SWEET!! There’s a lot of stuff going on here, and a bunch of people that we’re going to be teaching. We invited a guy to read the entire Book of Mormon, and he’s full blown going to do it now. It was sick.
We don’t have a lot of time today, but we’re going to be busy this transfer, so I’m excited.
Catch you guys later!
Over and Out
He Literally Faked His Own Death
So, not much time today, we’ll keep it brief. BUT, it was a pretty wild week. I won’t get into the whole story with our friend F (Not gonna disclose his whole name), but we’ll go real quick with stuff that happened.
Called 911 to find him after he got dropped on the side of the road in -20 degree weather at 9pm
Learned he was gonna walk to Texas
Gave him a lil bag with food for his trek there
He faked his own death
Blocked me on Facebook
I’ll expound a bit on the faking his own death though, because it’s sadly not as cool as I wish it was. He shot us a message on Facebook Messenger, claiming to be F’s mother, telling us that he died. We tried to figure out if it was him, and then offered to say a prayer with “his mom”, but then he blocked us.
Pretty good time, and I think faking your own death and claiming to be your own mother messaging people about your death is definitely the furthest I’ve ever seen anyone go to drop us. But that’s the life we live, I guess.
Then our apartment flooded because our upstairs neighbor’s pipes burst, and a bunch of water got everywhere, so now we live in a hotel. Until Tuesday, because I’m moving to a place called Midwest City, which is in the Midwest. And I’m getting a new comp named Elder Ingersol. (I’m 72% sure I spelled that wrong, but that’s ok)
And to wrap everything up, I’ll just share a real quick statement of truth:
I know that this work I’m doing is changing the lives of the people around me. And I know that this message I’m sharing is the single greatest message of all time. It tells you why we’re here, where we’re going, and how to return to live with God again. I usually don’t talk about all the cool spiritual things, because honestly, I’m sure half of you don’t care, and they’re usually more personal, but just so everyone is clear: I know the church that I represent is the restored church of Jesus Christ Himself.
Thanks for reading gang, have a good one!
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Keaton – This is former Elder Anderson, he’s no longer a boy, but a MAN. He’s off vibing somewhere in Utah, just trying to keep all the ladies at bay. He’s a good guy.
Sunday Evening Fight Night
Well, we didn’t really have an out of the water week, but it was still good! Lots of being locked inside because the P O L A R V O R T E X is ripping through OK, and they’re telling all of us to stay inside. All I’m saying is that a “real feel” of -25 isn’t enough to stop the greatest work on planet earth. And it doesn’t, because we just work from inside now. The only problem is, we haven’t been able to get a hold of about half the people we usually talk to this week, so that’s unfortunate. But the work never stops.
As far as things that have happened, the most exciting was this Sunday. Last week I talked a little about the Free Book of Mormon post we threw up, and we decided to give it another shot on Sunday! It had been a full week, the weather was so delightful, and we optimistically posted it on Facebook.
Not even three minutes later we had the first comment:
“Still trying to give away this trash?”
And instantly we knew: It was gonna be a good night. Well, after this challenger entered the ring, he rallied his other bashing friends on their “Bash the Mormons” group chat, and the comments started raging. As missionaries, and just as decent human beings, we respond to all the comments as kindly and patiently as possible. Now, we might have been standing up and laughing about the comments people made, but they didn’t know that. Anyway, we were in the ring, elbow-blocking these chumps, as they threw around some of the most oddly specific threats and insults I have ever heard.
“Joseph Smith was a snake oil salesman” What does that even mean???? Who’s going around selling snake oil???? Because Joseph Smith wasn’t…
“I hope the law crushes you” Oh yes, THE LAW is coming to piledrive me into the sidewalk.
I hope you read those with my confused and sarcastic tone of voice in your head, because that’s precisely how we talked about those questions to each other. After a little bit of this, the main bashing guy (we’ll call him Steve) just got DROP KICKED (metaphorically) by this random lady in the comments, who responded to something he said with, “You’re being SO RUDE. They’re just offering a book.” I would’ve thought that such a comment would silence this man, but he didn’t even flinch. He backed up his actions, claiming that it was his “duty as a good Christian” to set us straight.
And then another random lady just gave him a finishing uppercut after that one, saying, “You really aren’t being a good Christian.”
OH MAN, I thought Steve had been knocked out of the ring for good. But the tenacity of that man’s ego was a sight to behold. I genuinely believe that his mind was INCAPABLE of even grasping the idea that he MIGHT be wrong.
But no.
He tried to prove his self righteousness with some of the most unrighteous language I’ve ever seen. And pretty soon, the battle was no longer against us. We were literally just watching comment after comment come in, as we read them out loud and freaked out when Steve got kneecapped for the fourth time in a row. It was the bashers against the “First Amendment advocates” (as I call them). They weren’t saying our religion was right or anything, but they were just telling the bash boys that they were being really disrespectful. And as the fire raged ever brighter, I saw some of the most petty things being said. Like, one of the basher ladies called somebody out for a SPELLING ERROR. Wow. It was a
C U T T H R O A T C O M M E N T S E C T I O N
And at one point, Elder Grace (whose first name is Summit) got called “Summer”, so that was a good time.
Oh sweet biscuits and gravy. It only lasted about an hour and a half, but it was so fun. The post got ripped down and we got blocked from the group, but once a new missionary comes in here (to replace me), that comment section might just light up again.
Wow, those comments were stellar, I can’t do them justice in this email, but know that they were amazing.
Other than that though, nothing really noteworthy happened.
Hope everyone is staying warm, and enjoy this great month!
The 18th is coming up sooo….
THE RAFFLE:
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
My Parents – Wow, I’m lucky to have such wonderful parents. They do so much for me. No wonder commandment number 5 exists (It’s “Honor thy father and thy mother”)
Pics:
It’s never too cold to do the work of the good Lord
The Goosinator
Shoutout to the four people that have stuck with these weeklies the whole time I’ve been out on my mission, you’re the real ones.
Now, before I talk about the rest of the week, I’ll have all four of you know that we’re getting some cold weather, and it’s sick. The ground is totally covered in ice and even though they told us we can’t drive anywhere, we’ve been running around and sliding across it for a bit this morning. It’s a blast.
This week honestly consisted of some great lessons and a bunch of lessons that didn’t happen because people disappeared. Sometimes it’s unfortunate that people can choose what they do. But it’s all good, we’re doing everything we can, and that’s the best we can do.
Now to completely change gears, I hate geese. Those little snitches are so lucky it is against the law to clobber them, because if it wasn’t, my goose kill count would be in the hundreds. They’d call me the Goosinator. Geese everywhere would fear me. The reason I’m saying this is because we were out in this park, taking aesthetic pictures of the Book of Mormon so that when we put it up for free on Facebook people can see how nice it looks. But as we’re taking these pictures, these geese just start steppin’ up like they OWN THE PLACE!! Hissing and honking like they were all that. And I told Elder Grace that if any of those geese were looking for trouble, they found it. And then he was like, “It’s illegal to kill geese.” So we just walked to another part of the park. Man I tell you, some of the strongest warriors are those who don’t fight. But oh my goodness, they were SO cocky, they didn’t realize the only thing keeping them alive were the laws of this land.
Then later this week, we actually posted a free Book of Mormon ad on this Facebook buy/sell group, and WOW, the people were up in arms. You could hear the torches getting lit and the pitchforks being sharpened. We were basically bashed the entire day, for things that aren’t even true. Here are the things we got called out for:
Worshipping a “different Jesus”
Preaching “damnable heresy”
Being “deceived by Satan”
Adding to the book of Revelation
Being in “the devil’s church”
Oppressing women in our church
Worshipping Joseph Smith
And much, much more!
Now, none of these claims are true, and we responded as patiently and kindly as possible, but they would just crawl on back, trying to get a few more licks in. By the end of the day, our post had over a hundred comments, half of them being people yelling at us, and the other half being us defending the church against literal blasphemy. Some guys said they could get in contact with their preachers in Woodward and they could “help us leave our devil church and come to the real gospel.” It was a wild day. And then they deleted the post and all the comments.
But yeah! Life keeps going, and we’re having a pretty grand time. The couple lessons that we did have were really good, and we’ve got some cool new people that we’re teaching now. We’re blessed out here.
I’ll catch you guys next time! Have a spectacular week!
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Guy that made kites – Today is NATIONAL KITE FLYING DAY, so I figure I’ll pay a tribute to the guy who decided strings and paper had so much more potential than what others saw in them. I don’t have a kite, but if you do, you gotta break it out. It’s the one day of the year dedicated to kites!
Chef Boy Are These
Like a relentless mosquito, I’m back at it with the weeklies. We’ve been having a good time doing work, and it’s cool to get to talk to a bunch of people around here. Even if some of them don’t want to talk to me.
And I’ll have everyone know that I did put a giant spoonful of peanut butter in my mouth last Monday night. At 10:27 pm, because I forgot to do it earlier. Which meant I had to brush my teeth again, but that’s ok, because it was worth it.
And then on Wednesday of this week, I had some mac and cheese from the store, and I had bought a can of Chef Boyardee mac and cheese last Monday. It only cost me 89 cents. So I go to make it, and it’s got 3 steps.
Open the can
Dump can in bowl
Microwave
Wow, that’s some top tier chef moves right there. Not really. I should’ve known from the 89-cent price tag that this was not going to be a high class meal, but I still bought it. And after heating them up and taking a single bite, I said, “Chef…. BOY ARE THESE THE WORST NOODLES I HAVE EVER HAD. And ended up throwing them out and making a PB&J. It was a good lunch.
I also ended up making some different kinds of cookies and bon bons throughout the week, so that was a good time.
Not too many noteworthy things happened this week. We were going to have a baptism this Saturday, but we’re gonna wait a bit longer so we can make sure this person isn’t going to join the church and then drop off the face of the earth.
That’s all we got, thanks for reading this, and I’ll catch you guys next week!
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Sister Jones – For whining about not getting a shoutout. That’s it. Nah I’m kidding; she actually met some gentlemen I know in my mission, Elder Dengin and Elder Trejo, because they were passing off a person they were teaching to Sister Jones over the phone, and then my snitch radar went off, and here we are. She’s cool though, she’s serving in Arkansas.
I’m Cute!
So, it’s been a full week, and it’s been pretty righteous. This lady that was on some wild drugs came and talked to me for 15 minutes while Elder Grace got his haircut, and asked me for money and such. Luckily I was able to make it out without giving her all four dollars on my card. Phew.
We’ve been able to find A BUNCH of people who are willing to listen to our message these days, and it’s great! I’m glad they’re being humbled by the disasters of society. Silver linings! Am I right?
So the work is going well! We’re getting this place rolling, and we’re gonna just keep working as hard as we can.
A good highlight of the week was when some random girls walked by us in Walmart and said, “You’re cute.” So of course Elder Grace and I looked around for who else was in the aisle, but it was just us. So I was like, “THANK YOU!” And then I went on my way rejoicing. I’m certain it was a dare from one of them to the other, but in a world where the compliments are few and far between, you gotta take what you can get.
And that’s about it, folks. Nothing too crazy going on. I mean, we’ve got two of the people we’re teaching who are going to be baptized coming up, so that’s really awesome! One of them is this Saturday! So we’re stoked for that. She’s about to make the best decision of her life so far.
Thanks for tuning in gang, catch ya next week!
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Peanut Butter Guy – Wherever the man is the invented peanut butter, we collectively thank you. Considering that today is National Peanut Butter Day, I thought we’d pay a special tribute to him. Or her. But I’m going to shovel a massive spoonful of peanut butter into my mouth later today, just for kicks and giggles. If any of you are looking for some fun, time-killing activities, you are more than welcome to join me.
I’m Going to be a Millionaire
Real quick, I wanna clear something up for anyone out there with a skewed misconception of what missionary work is like now. It’s not horrible. It’s no harder than it was before Covid. And honestly, it’s a straight BLAST to be a missionary during a global pandemic and political unrest! Like yeah, times are hard for other people, but as a missionary….
We’re living the dream out here. We’re having the best day every day.
The amount of people who are having hard times has skyrocketed, which means we have more people who are willing to listen to us!! It’s so sick. Not really for them, because their lives are falling apart, but that was gonna happen sooner or later anyway. (They don’t have the gospel)
So to sum everything I just said up: Being a missionary is literally super awesome, don’t be thinking I’m not having a ball out here. No need to trip.
But anyway, as for the things of this week, let’s start with my man Jeff. Now, let me take you back to Tuesday, when Elder Grace and I were raking some leaves for people. We’re doing what rake boys do, and raking up a storm. And then this guy comes walking up, wearing clothes that haven’t been washed since 2018 and a backpack that’s just filled to the brim. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I knew it was going to be good. And then he did what I never expected… He pulled a gun on us. No not really, he actually offered to help us with the leaves! I think I would’ve been less surprised with the gun, not gonna lie. But he took some of the bags of leaves and tossed ’em in the dumpster for us, and I was like, “Yo this guy’s pretty nice!”
And then he told us how to start a pyramid scheme.
I wasn’t ready for that part. He never called it a “pyramid scheme,” right? Because that’s how it fails. You can’t let people know it’s a scheme. But anyway, he described the exact process of starting one, and how both Elder Grace and I could become millionaires. And as solid as his advice was, one has to wonder why he doesn’t just do that himself… So his credibility was a bit lacking for my taste.
And then when he went to leave, we asked him where he was going, and he told us that he was going to “Pray to mom in spirit, and the clouds would tell him.” Because apparently he had done that earlier and the clouds spelled out the word “South”, and that’s how he knew to come help us with the leaves… Like the whole word South. We asked him and he confirmed that’s what he saw. So wild.
But that was kinda it, as far as exciting things go. We’re having a great time, living the dream, and serving people. But it’s the 18th today… The exact day… So we have our usual…..
MONTHLY RAFFLE:
Maybe you won. Maybe you didn’t. Only one way to find out….
But that’s all I got for you guys, have a killer week!
Over and Out
SHOUTOUTS:
Jantzen – She was just out here serving in Oklahoma, but she finished her mission and rolled out. She’s a legend, and now she’s gonna be going to college in Utah, which is where 96% of the people I talk to out here are going, so it’s pretty cool. Just an all-around good person.
Martin Luther King Jr – This guy was like, “Yo, let’s all just get along, regardless of what skin color we have.” And now here we are. What a legend, it’s too bad there are still racist people out there. Don’t be racist. It’s that easy.
