Week 20: Lebanon, TN

April 17, 2023

It's pretty INSANE writing about P-days in Lebanon because they are literally all the same. At WearHouse they had a super nice Carhartt shirt and a sick Braves hat, so that's dope. We had dinner with the Nanto's and had this Ramen salad stuff, which was crazy good. After dinner Sister Nanto asked if we would give her a blessing because she's been feeling kind of sick. It's so fun to hang out with the Nanto's. They are so smart and have some crazy cool stories. Oh yea I also buzzed my head today. I look kind of like a GTA thug or Sid from Toy Story. I actually dig having no hair. It makes me feel free and a lot more aerodynamic. I can run at least 8mph faster than before. 

April 18, 2023

Today was pretty chill. We had district council and the Zone Leaders came to it, and then after we went on an exchange. Actually before that, me, Elder Putt, Smith, and Criddle went to Whataburger like we always do, and then we went on an exchange. Elder Criddle and I went to Cookeville which is super lucky because I went to Cookeville last time too. So pretty much this was the shortest exchange of all time. We pulled up to their apartment and prepped some stuff, had to go get gas and the card wasn't working, had a member meal, knocked on a couple doors and contacts and stuff, made some calls, and by then it was 8, and we had to drive back to exchange. It was a short exchange but Elder Criddle and I became good friends. We talked about lots of wild stuff and didn't have the most success or time, but I'm glad I got to do the exchange with him. Zone Leaders have it rough sometimes, but he and Elder Smith are doing great. Elder Criddle's story about coming out here was mad inspiring. Anyways it was a short day, but a great day. 

April 19, 2023

We had TKMtc, which was pretty cool, not. At 11:20 and 11:30 we had Zoom interviews with President Graham, which went pretty well. Actually jk, TKmtc was crazy cool. President Graham told us that Elder Neil L. Andersen from the Twelve is coming to our mission next Saturday and the entire mission gets to go to a devotional by him. He told us that he wants to meet all of the companionships, which is supa neat. Later in the day we knocked around and after a bit we decided that we wanted to go to this ghetto neighborhood and really have some fun. It wasn't that fun but we met these two guys, Mike and Joe. Just your classic Tennesseean's with zero teeff and a stanky mouf. We went back to Subway for lunch and got the trusty Sweet Onion Teriyaki footlong on white bread with some pepper jack cheese, green peppers, onions, and some Teriyaki sauce and Baja Chipotle sauce. Absolute s-tier sandwich. 

We also had a great visit with this inactive member Sister Rascon. She's one of the most chill people I know, but she works like four non profit jobs and never comes to church. 

After that, another good phone call lesson with Toni. We literally have no clue what to do with her because she promised she would finish the Book of Mormon, but she isn't making much progress and all we do is read the Book of Mormon with her over the phone, because that's all she has time for. 

Once it started getting a little darker we went and knocked on this apartment complex the Hermana's told us about. Literally the first door we met this g named Ramsey. 

We knocked some more with withering success, but right as we were about to leave, I was like, "Ay we should knock one more on this building." So we climbed up to the top floor and knocked this one door in the corner. They didn't answer so I was like aighttt, but then Elder Putt knocked on the door right across from it. This guy named Daniel answered and we testified of the Book of Mormon and God's love for him. He was looking mad distressed when he answered and when we were leaving, he just told us how grateful he was that we came. He was almost tearing up and filled with light. 

As we were heading back to the car Elder Putt told me how he had seen that guy sitting on his dark balcony alone like 30 minutes earlier and felt super strongly that we should go and knock on his door. He pushed it off and didn't want to, but when I decided to take us to that wrong door right across from him, he knew we needed to knock on his too. We were straight up carried by the Spirit to that brother's door. It was a wild day for sure. 

April 20, 2023

This morning we met up with Coach at 7-Eleven to do some missionary work. Coach is the new Ward Missionary and a BIG man. He's this super sick member in our ward who is black and such a funny dude. He's probably 6'5" with a BOOMING voice and a super good perspective on the church because he's a convert. Anyways we drove around with him for a bit and had some fun talking to people. He also took us out to lunch at Chik-Fil-A, which was way sweet. 

Later in the day we had a really good lesson with Aryn. Once again John was off doing something crazy and it didn't feel right to bring up marriage. We weren't scared to, we just genuinely haven't felt great about it. But we did something else that was great. We watched a video about Joseph Smith's first vision, and she was locked in on it. After the video she was in tears as she talked about how she's never belonged to any church but how she feels like she relates to Joseph. It was a super spiritual experience and Elder Putt did a great job at training Arthur like a zombie. 

We had another good lesson with Khelea, a spider almost jumped on me, and then this sick lizard with a blue tail was crawling around. At night we had a good visit with the Foster's and after that we pulled up to the church. We were supposed to have a Come Follow Me class, but no one showed up so we helped the Spanish Elders with their English class, which was sick. No habla espanol, but it was fun. After that some ball, of course. We had a bunch of people show up. 

April 21, 2023

Today was pretty garbage. We had to do spring cleaning, which is nice because everything gets clean but it is not fun at the same time. Whomsoever was in our apartment before us absolutely hoarded like filthy rats. We threw away like four bags of gross Tupperware and Walmart bags.

In the morning we had a lesson planned with Skye, who lives a mad cushy life and has zero desire to change because he thinks he's already in heaven. Pretty fat waste of time. Ay our apartment is minty fresh now. 

April 22, 2023

We played some ball this morning, and after we helped a brother in our ward with some yard work. He is an inactive member from Utah but he's cool and we pretty much just tore up sod for two hours with him. We were supposed to do a team up with Brother Carling but we had this service thing, so he came too, which was sick. A little later we had another lesson with Lawrence that went pretty well. We had dinner with the Burgess' and they let us go look at their yard for a bit while dinner was cooking. They have the massive forest of a yard that literally had like 30 deer running around in it. People in Tennessee go crazy on their yards. 

April 23, 2023

Today was pretty tough because we didn't have church due to a water pipe bursting. We had to tell all of the friends we invited to church not to come, which was pretty trash. The Salazar's invited us over for lunch, which was way good, and they have also been building this massive koi pond in their backyard. Brother Wiederman is one of the new ward missionaries, so we swung by his place today and shared a video and talked for a while. He's from Layton, UT, which is cool but he's just a really nice dude. It was a busy day, but pretty boring.