Week 5: Lebanon, TN

January 2, 2023

We had our first p-day today. The p-day in our mission is a little different than most I'm pretty sure. We do planning and proselyting until 11:30am and then we have the rest of the day to call family and stuff. We went and got groceries which was clutch because we've been fresh out of grub. We were surviving on eggs and weird Vietnamese noodles. After that we went to the town square place and walked around. It was super cool but all of the stores were closed because of New Year's. Later we played basketball and talked to family, which was pretty sick. Pretty chill day though.

January 3, 2023

It was a great day today. We had another district council which was fun. After that we had to go drop off some Books of Mormon to the Lebanon 2nd Ward elders. Elder Beckstead and Elder Brown are the District Leaders. They're both super lit. Anyways we went to this nice neighborhood where they were proselyting so we could drop off the books. It would've been a waste of time for us until we got a call from the Spanish speaking elders about a woman right next to us. We whipped over to her house quick because we were in that neighborhood. Her name is Melissa. She told us that her dad had gotten in a really bad motorcycle accident yesterday and had died. She was with her mom and they were both super sad. We prayed with them and just comforted them pretty much. We talked to them about how much they are loved and about the Plan of Salvation. It was a really cool experience. 

After that we went to the Miller's house for a dinner. They made some fire pizza and they also have a pet hedgehog. I took some pics of him because he's a lil' gangster. Pretty good day out here as disciples of Christ.

January 4, 2023

Today was pretty insane, not gonna lie. The morning was actually crazy slow and we didn't get much done. We did some SLK which didn't do much, but it really picked up around 4:45. All the events that led up to this situation was crazy. So pretty much what happened was we had five lessons planned out for today. The first three didn't work out. We had tried to contact them but they never responded so we planned them and went over to try anyways. Three didn't answer or were sick or whatever. So our 4th lesson was with a guy named Tony. We pulled up to Tony's house and he said he was busy and we could come back later in the week, so we were like "ighttt". 

So by now, four lessons didn't work out. We were headed to another neighborhood when I was like "Yo Elder McConkie, I gotta go to the bathroom, you trying to stop at a gas station real quick." So we stopped and went in. After that we were like, "Ay we should cop some hot Cheetos." So we did, and our cashier named Jonnesha was like "How are y'all so tall, where are you from?" And started talking to us for a while. She is pretty much the first person who thought it was cool we were from Utah. But she said she'd been looking for a church to join and wanted to be baptized. She gave us her number super excitedly so we could contact her again. It was awesome to find her and hopefully it works out. 

We also had dinner with the Lynch's. John Lynch was a member but when he was 17 he joined the Marines and has not been active for 20 years. His wife Erin is not a member and they have a 3 year old son named Arthur. They cooked this huge salmon and stuffed it with peppers and mangos and stuff. It sounds weird but it was soooo good. We taught them the Plan of Salvation with this little disk puzzle thing Grandma and Grandpa Huff gave me for Christmas. It was so helpful for them to kind of visualize it. So thank you so much for that present, it's super helpful. The Lynch's are an amazing family and they said they wanted to come to church soon. 

January 5, 2023

Today we did an exchange with the Lebanon 1st elders, Elder Brown and Elder Beckstead. So it was Elder McConkie and Beckstead and then me and Brown. Elder Brown is the district leader too. I already knew Elder Brown was a gangster so I was fine with the exchange from the start, but we had a great day. It might be one of the weirdest days of my life but it was good. So Brown and I went back to my apartment and chilled for a bit and studied. After that we ran some SLK for a while but we didn't have much success. 

Ok, this next part might be the weirdest thing I can think of that happened in my life. So we went to this guy named Timothy's house. Right as we got there we saw a woman standing in the yard. She told us Timothy was getting screened for cancer which was sad, but then she just came over to the car and started talked to us. She was standing right up against the door so close she might as well be in the car. The second she came over we could tell she was messed up from drugs. But the weird thing was what she was talking about. She was saying stuff like she though her sons were gonna kill her, and she couldn't trust anyone because everyone is evil but her. She said she could sense we were evil or some dumb crap. She was just tucked in the door giving this speech on the dumbest stuff. I don't even know how to describe it on paper. She thought her name was a curse and how she wanted to be alone but couldn't because she was hearing voices of like omnipotent spirits or something. But anytime a car would drive by she would duck behind our car to hide. I was in the passenger seat and she was getting real comfy. She kept like touching my leg and ish. Me and Elder Brown were trying to help her as much as we could. We gave her a Book of Mormon, some pamphlets, our number and names, and prayed for her. We legitimately thought we could help her at first, but after we sat there for another hour and a half we were like "Nahhh bruh." It was so, so, so sad, and weird, and just strange. I don't know how to explain it honestly, it was just so weird. Elder Brown has been out 17 months and he said that's the weirdest thing he's seen. Drugs are just so bad for you, it's pretty sad. Alright well I just spent 30 minutes writing about some crazy lady. 

Later in the night we had a lesson with Toni. It went really well, we talked about priesthood and baptism. It was nice having Elder Brown there. It's cool to see someone who had tons of experience with teaching. After that we balled up, ate some fire Mexican casserole stuff and Elder Beckstead messed up his ankle. Pretty sick day.

January 6, 2023

We had waffles for breakfast which, was hype. This member had some service he needed help with, so we dropped by. We dug this hole for his plumbing which was pretty quick. It took us about two hours and then he had this concrete pad / driveway to get rid of. Pretty much I just went crazy with a pickaxe and sledgehammer. It was kind of fun, it was like I was back in the trenches of Prominence Natural Stone. I might be bad at scriptures and teaching but at least I can absolutely clap a concrete pad in like 20 minutes. The guy said he would take us out to get steak on Monday, so that's awesome. 

The rest of our day was pretty slow. We had a meal with the Murdoch's which was super good.  

January 7, 2023

We usually have basketball on Saturday mornings but today no one showed up. When we got to the church though, there was a homeless lady sitting there under the overhang. We called our Bishop and just hung out with her for a while. Bishop Cottle eventually came with some McDonald's, and he bought her a coat too. It was cool to serve someone like her. She was very humble and had amazing faith in Jesus Christ. There really isn't much you can do for someone like her but share the gospel and care for her. We pretty much told her that through Jesus Christ, all our trials and struggles have been felt and understood. We can find comfort because of our Savior Jesus Christ, we just need to come unto Him. 

After that, we went and helped Brother Andromedas move. It was super quick. We then had a lesson planned with Charles, and we brought Brother Carling with us. Sadly Charles didn't respond. We went and visited this member named Zeta. She is so awesome and is a recent-ish convert who struggles with smoking. It was such a good visit with her. After that we went to Brother Carling's house for lunch. Brother and Sister Carling are the most amazing people of all time. They are both like 22 I think, so super young but sooo sick. 

Later in the day we found a guy named Lorenzo who is pretty chill. When he opened the door, he unleashed like 2 of his 6 little kids that were in his house trying to escape. Anyways he said he would be super interested in talking with us, which is awesome. He's has such a cool little family, and we hope it goes good with him. We also snatched this free mirror out of some random guy's yard. It's always a good day when you cop a free mirror. 

January 8, 2023

It was a really good day at church today. We had fast Sunday this week because we didn't last week because of New Year's. After church we did some other stuff. At like 3:30 we went over to this halfway house to give some blessings to Amy and her friend. They're being taught by the Hermana's here and are super cool. It was a really great experience for everyone. I gave a blessing and Elder McConkie did too. 

Later we had dinner with the Burgess'. They made this amazing curry stuff that was sooo good. But anyways it was a good Sunday and that curry is absolutely burning my stomach.