Week 18: Lebanon, TN

April 3, 2023

P-day babyyyyyy! P-days fly by like nothing else. It was super fun though. We went to Wearhouse of course but they had nothing. :( Then we squad up at the church and played some ball. The Hermana's didn't come because they were with their friends and they think they are better than us, but it's all right. 

At night the elders went to the humble home of the 1st Elders and we played some crazy soccer. We used this rusty, old, rickety barn in their backyard as a goal and played some World Cup. It was super fun and I only twisted the same ankle like three times. Good stuff though, it's always good when I get to see the fam. 

April 4, 2023

Our district council was pretty good today, minus the fact that the Spanish missionaries beat us in the contest thing, so district council was actually bad. 

Afterwards, we went to go help the Salazar's move a big electric piano into their house. It was this massive piano and we had to take the legs off and move it by holding it sideways. It was super warm and humid today, so everyone's hands were slipping and getting all sweaty. It was fun, though. 

After the piano, Elder Putt wasn't feeling very well so we went home and just called a bunch of people for the rest of the day. I honestly wasn't feeling too hot either. I don't think we were fully recovered from the stomach bug. Right before bed I lost my stuff to the toilet again, but I also think it could have been from this greasy old Little Caesar's I ate for lunch. I don't know what is wrong with us, but it's destroying us. If this is my last letter before I die, give my guitars to Pippie. 

April 5, 2023

We did a ton of finding today and found three people to teach. One of them was a guy we met when we were helping that one scammer lady move into her house a ways back. He just lives right across the street from her and we wanted to go back and talk again and we gave him a Book of Mormon. 

Around 5pm, a massive storm rolled up on us, so we kind of got shut down for a bit. We had another lesson with Abdul and Lynn, and I don't want to do that ever again. Every time it's the same thing where they try to examine the Book of Mormon and tear it apart, looking for mistakes. They are super nice about the way they do it, which doesn't really make it better, but yeah it aint it. They are such sick people and they showed us some of their animations that they made, which was dope. Abdul made a Windwalker animation from Zelda, which was way cool. 

April 6, 2023

We finally taught Aryn the Word of Wisdom today in our lesson. She said it all made a lot of sense to her and that she would work towards living it. Tea and Coffee were a question to her but she reasoned with it staining teeth and was pretty on board with it. They also said they were going to come to Easter Sunday, which is great. 

Later we had another lesson with Mitchell. He told us last time he wasn't interested in converting, but we thought we'd give him one more shot. He is such a cool homie and we need him in our church, but now isn't the time I guess. It was a great lesson, but kind of the same as the last. 

At night you already know we balled up. 

April 7, 2023

Today we went to the Bethard's to help them move this huge 500lb chicken coop, but when we got there they had Bishop Lee on his big tractor carrying it. Ay but we got to hang out with Parker so that was pretty sick. The Bethard's house is in the outerlands so we knocked a bunch in some neighborhoods where we've never been before. We found Cassandra and Eric (which might be Abdel & Lynn 2.0), and we found Maria. After that we knocked another huge rich neighborhood with a bunch of rich bozo Tennesseean's. 

After that we visited these inactive members and we talked for a good minute and then they were like yeah "we go to a Baptist church now" and we were like "uh ok." Then we felt like we should go and visit Cremunda tonight, so we did. She is this black woman who had been taught before and went to church, but apparently she had some problems with racism or something. We told her that we were sorry and that we want her in our church. We testified of God's love and need for her and it was crazy spiritual. 

For dinner we ate Pringles and Nitro Pepsi. See what happens when you don't feed us for two weeks, members!?!? We are going to kill ourselves eating Pringles and Nitro Pepsi for dinner, so feed us!!!! :( Do they want us to die?

April 8, 2023

Super sick story that I forgot to tell a few days back. We were teaching Rose and she started talking about her life 60 years ago, like she always does, when she brought up Elvis. She said she was at an Elvis concert in Nashville and she was on the very front row. She said Elvis let her come on stage and talk with him for a minute, but then he gave her his scarf that he was wearing. She then went into one of her back rooms and brought out the scarf and showed it to us. It was just this green scarf but it had Elvis' sweat stains on it, which is insane. Haters gonna say it's fake, but 90 year old Rose doesn't have anything to gain from lying to us. Pretty sweet stuff. 

Anyways today we played some ball with the boys and then our ward had a sick Easter party. They wanted me and Elder Putt to hide the eggs so we obeyed and it was way fun. It was a big breakfast so President Nanto cooked a bunch of pancakes and waffles and all that good stuff. Also Kyle was there, who is this homeboy that we talked to about random stuff. Today he was telling us about the new Mario movie and Power Rangers and things like that. 

Later in the day we had another lesson with Christina and then even later we committed a very bad sin: We ate at Cook Out again. We've been avoiding it at all costs because it makes us feel rancid and gross, but we fell. We ate it again. :'-(  That's about it. 

April 9, 2023

We had shorter church today, like everyone else. I started writing "we had shorter church" and then I realized so did everyone else. It was really great though, we had a couple of wild musical numbers like all of the youth, even Parker and Peter and the Prost's, sung a song, and then Brother Andromidas played the piano so good. None of our friends came to church or the Easter party even though we invited like 12 people. 

After church the Clarks had us over for a huge Easter lunch. It was so sick because Parker's brother Weston, who got home from his mission in October was there, and he's such a g. He's super funny and he's also way into skating, he said there are some bros at the skatepark he'll set us up with. 

After that we called a new referral, Steven Holliday. He was such a cool dude and super interested in the Book of Mormon specifically. Basically he was searching for something different than all of the churches here. After that we talked to a bunch of people including COACH, baby. Coach is one of the football coaches at Lebanon High and he is this massive black dude who is a member, and he's the funniest homie of all time. Always a good day when Coach is involved. Easter + Coach = perfect day. Also the highlight of my mission: We were walking around Coach's neighborhood when this little black kid rode by on his scooter and said "Hello, how are you doing?" and he had the biggest smile on his face. :)