Week 14: Lebanon, TN

March 6, 2023

We had a Zone P-day today in Cookeville. We actually really didn't want to go to it but somehow we ended up going. It was fun, we went to a park and played Ultimate Frisbee for a while. I had this absolute nasty catch in the end zone but it was like Slurpy Swamps so I slipped in a big mud puddle and died. There is a bunch of very strange elders in our zone. A bunch of them brought their Tech Decks with them and were playing with them and I was like . Aint no way these bros are being for real. Also another funny thing was one of them found a stick and was like, "Hey let's play some Joseph Smith stick!" I don't even know what I'm writing anymore. It was fun to get out for P-day, even if it was for some Joseph Smith stick games. Later I got a nice haircut from Greg. 

March 7, 2023

We had District Council today which was cool. Spencer Sartain had a couple of church books he wanted us to have so we pulled up and took them. We met this high schooler balling up in front of his house named Waylan. He was super cool and we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to come play some ball with us. Later we had a lesson with the Lynch's. It was good, we talked about prophets and apostles and a bunch of other stuff. We were planning on putting Aryn on date for baptism but it didn't feel right today, so we'll see about next time. The Murdoch's made us some burgers for dinner which was way good. At like 7:30 we had a pass off lesson thing with the 1st Elders and their friend Reggie. Reggie is a cool homie and it'll be fun to teach him. 

March 8, 2023

So last night, right as we were going to bed, Elder Putt got out of bed and started shivering a bunch. I was like, "You good, bro?" and then he went into the bathroom and started throwing up. Pretty wack but he had some kind of stomach bug or something, I don't know. So he slept all day because he wasn't doing too hot, so I read a ton of Book of Mormon. I also called Kelly and read some scriptures with her. It was pretty uneventful but later we just left at like 6:00 because we were sick of being inside. We visited a couple people and then we were like, "Why are we even out here, it's late and you're sick." So we went home. That's about it, but I got through Alma finally. 

March 9, 2023

This morning was pretty slow getting out, not gonna lie. I think we were still kind of recovering a bit from Elder Putt's sickness, and me from my weak companion. We were able to talk to Kobe for a bit, which is cool. We met Waylon who was just shooting some hoops in his driveway. He's a Sophomore at Lebanon High and plays football, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him about when we play basketball at the church. 

A lil later we went to Brother Chappel's house who is an inactive member. He's 90% blind, caused from Covid and he's way nice. He's kind of old but a super sweet guy, and we helped him put the Gospel Library app on his phone so he can listen to scriptures and stuff. He said he's planning on moving to his self sustaining off-grid fort in the woods, which is pretty wack. At night we had a good lesson with Toni, who is always getting distracted and mad at her dog that doesn't even do anything. It's way annoying but a good lesson. We played some ball after and that's about it. 

March 10, 2023 (THE DAY THE 4 for 4 DIED)  :(

I did exchanges with Elder Brown today, what a gangster. We were knocking in this nice neighborhood, and there was a house with sidewalk chalk on the driveway and bright decorations so we were like okayyy let's try this house. It turns out it was the Brown's in our ward who lives there. So we kind of played it off and shared a message with them. We took a long drive to Kelly's house and told her she needs to work for baptism and has to read the Book of Mormon to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith. 

We went to Wendy's for lunch! Today is the day they took the 4 for 4 away at Wendy's!  :'( I don't know what Wendy's thinks they are doing but life will never be the same without the 4 for 4. It's honestly pretty sad because all dawgs lived off the 4 for 4 for the past like 50 years or something. Fly high 4 for 4.  

Anyways, we did a bunch of other stuff and then went to the Carling's for dinner. It's always so fun going to their house, I literally love the Carling's so much. 

Also one of the sickest scriptures I've read on my mission so far is, 3 Nephi 12:14: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be a light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." I think that scripture is so sick but I don't really want to describe why, because I don't want to write more. Anyways I love Elder Brown and it was a great exchange.  

March 11, 2023

Today we helped  these people move out of their house. They are Brother Browning's neighbors who are not members but really awesome. They didn't have a ton of stuff but they gave us a bunch of free stuff cuz they didn't need it anymore. On the way home after the move we watched this car crash happen right in front of us. This lady randomly blew through this stop sign and t-boned this old grandpa in his brand new Cadillac. He spun out, somehow his car jumped this ditch right next to the road, and landed in a lady's yard. We hurried and jumped out along with this super nice lady and ran over to see if everyone was ok and they were. It was crazy but people do be driving crazy in Tennessee. 

Later in the day we got dropped by my boy Charles. He said he doesn't want to leave his church because of all the people he's known his whole life. He said he'd made up his mind and so we told him that's fine but God has so much more in store for him, but it starts with reading the Book of Mormon. Later at night we had a two hour lesson with this bro Abdel. This is the first lesson I've had where we talked about random stuff for like 5 minutes and then doctrine and gospel stuff for two straight hours. I unleashed the beast of my insane Book of Mormon knowledge on Abdel. It was a cool lesson with a cool dude. 

March 12, 2023

We had good church. The Lynch's weren't able to come to church due to John being sick and daylight savings, even though everyone uses that. I learned a pretty valuable lesson today though. We were on our way to visit the sweetest lady Rose and I was just saying like, why are we even visiting her, she's like 90 years old and just wants some visitors to talk to. I could not understand the point of spending so much time at Rose's house. But as we went in and talked with her she opened up how she has been feeling super depressed, alone, and desperately needs something in her life. We read some of Mosiah 24 and told her about the Peace of Christ and the power of the Book of Mormon. As we were about to leave, Elder Putt felt that we should give her a blessing. After the blessing she was in tears and told us that she felt better and felt peace. The Spirit was strong and taught me that even though she is old, God doesn't care and wants her to come back to Him.