All eight hungry missionaries are ready for Thanksgiving! And Ada is ready for Christmas! Driving down Main Street in Ada and seeing all the street lamps decorated with lit-up Christmas bells reminds of driving down 104th in South Jordan and seeing all the Christmas decorations the city lined up going up and down the street. It's the holidays!
So on Monday we went around and did some pre-Christmas window shopping for P-day, and later that day we had FHE put on by the sisters with some church members over at the church building and played the Holy Ghost game! We blindfolded one of the recent convert families and had them walk through an obstacle course. They had to listen to the 'Holy Ghost' while trying to block out the 'noises of the adversary.' Sometimes they'd listen to another voice that wasn't the 'Holy Ghost,' and when they did, they ran into a wall. It was a good lesson for everyone.
On Tuesday we had to help jump the sister's car. Our Chevy Cruze against their Chevy Malibu...their engine in bigger than ours. It didn't work. Then we saw a Dodge Ram 2500 pull up and asked them for help. Seeing their truck trying to jump their car kinda put our car to shame...haha. But their truck couldn't start it either. So we had Elder Williams, the car coordinator, take care of it, and lo and behold they needed a new battery. In spite of all that, I'm so grateful we even get cars in our mission. It really is such a blessing to this work.
And speaking of cars, the Lemmerts took us out to Roff, Oklahoma, a town that's tucked right in between Ada and Sulphur. We asked a random guy if he knew one of the members in town--the member's address only had a P.O. Box. And miracle! The guy knew who he was and where he lived! So in the most Okie fashion you can imagine, he gave us directions to his house: "Right at the corner where the post office is, past the second block, then take a left..." THOSE kind of directions! And we found him! And he was really nice to us! And we have plans to go back! Man, I love small towns and the fact that everyone knows everyone.
On Wednesday we had another FHE with the Buckmaster family, a recent convert family. They can't do Mondays, so we got President's permission to do Wednesdays. We had a good discussion on Alma 32 about faith and humility. We're trying to help him gain a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon, because that's what he needs in his life. They've been going through a lot, and their living circumstances aren't easy for them.
Friday... We literally drove and drove and drove. We went to District Meeting and then afterwards made our way to ALTUS! Jack, a guy Elder Garcia and I found the Saturday before I got transferred, got baptized! So we made the three-hour trip to Altus and witnessed his coming unto Christ. Elder Chavez is training a new missionary...super cool. Elder Garcia and my replacement are doing some fine work there. After the baptism we drove and got turned around while we were in Lawton and drove 15 miles the other way... That's really embarrassing for a Geography major. Anyway, we got back at 11 that night. Total, it was seven hours of driving. Ouch!
Saturday it rained all day. We had a Thanksgiving lunch at a member's house! But when we pulled up to her driveway we had to park on her grass and when we did our tires started spinning and we got stuck in the mud! So since I was driving the car the other three elders helped push the car out of the mud. Later on that day I went on my first legitimate split ever! I went with the High Priests Group Leader to make some visits to some people on his home teaching list.
And yesterday we had a miracle happen! We took one of the ward recent converts out with us, Brother Bunner. We took him to see our investigator, Rusty. We caught him on his 51st birthday...drunk. Luckily he had two other friends there that were sober and really nice to us. So while we were trying to teach, Rusty kept interrupting and being rowdy, so eventually we all sort of just implicitly started teaching each person separately! Elder Fuller taught Jamie, one of the friends there, Brother Bunner taught and bore his testimony to Tony, the other friend. I basically gave a pep-talk to Rusty about reaching his goals in life by quitting his smoking and drinking, and in the process setting a baptismal date. Hopefully he doesn't forget that. Aside from all that, we got his two friends interested in meeting with us!
That's a lot of stuff to be grateful for! We had a pretty fantastic week, I'd have to say. So as you're stuffing yourself with turkey, remember to stuff yourself with the word of God! Happy Thanksgiving!
Elder Garner
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