No Luck

This last week was a struggle. Nothing really happened. We had no luck with anything. We ran outta miles so today we can't even go to Fort Smith and hang with everybody. It's gonna be a very long P-day. We did get to hold a 6 foot long boa constrictor though. I'll have to send the pictures next week though because the library here doesn't allow you to plug anything into the computer and plus, I didn't even bring my camera.

Elder Naegle

Quote, unquote "missionaries"

So we were tracting one day, and we knocked on this door. This old lady comes out, and this is what happened:

OL: oh no, you guys are wrong! You need to get yourselves a King James version of the Bible

Us: let's just have a faith discussion

You guys the seventh day Adventists?

no

Oh you're the ones that believe in only 144,000 being saved.

Not quite

oh you're the Mormons!

Bingo

Well you're still wrong

How are we wrong?

Jimmy Swaggert wrote a book all about the Mormons and how they're wrong.

Who's Jimmy Swaggert?

You don't know who Jimmy Swaggert is?!?!

Is he like a televangelist guy?

Yes

Oh ok, well what does he say we're wrong about?

You can't be baptized for someone else!

Like baptisms for the dead?

Yes, once you're dead you're dead! That's it!

What about all the people who died and never knew Christ?

Well everybody will have a chance, but once you're dead that's it!

*raises eyebrow and thinks to self: how can everybody have a chance if once you're dead that's it, and some people die without knowing Christ*

(conversation progresses without much progress)

Well ma'am would it be alright if we said a prayer with you before we left?

No, we pray differently

Ok then you say the prayer

Dear Lord, please help these, quote, unquote missionaries, from being deceived by the Mormon Church, amen.

That's not exactly how it happened but ya'll get the gist. Other than that, not much happened besides zone training meeting/interviews with President Loveland which both went really well. We had a really spiritual lesson with one of our investigators but she wouldn't even pray and didn't come to church. We haven't seen the Whiteheads for like two weeks now because things keep happening and they keep cancelling appointments. We're just gonna wait for them so set something up. Make them chase the church not the other way around because we think she's still sorta interested. The weird dude, who's our neighbor who came to church last week thinks that our church is all about the last days/apocalypse. The only reason he thinks that is because two of the three talks on sunday were about emergency preparedness and food storage. Then he was wondering what a temple was so we gave him some pass along cards with temples on them. He wants us to go to a revival with him, that's gonna be going on here in the not-so-distant future and I really don't want to go.

Elder Naegle

yay

Nothing interesting happened this week. We just worked hard and actually hit the standard of excellence in terms of lessons. That crazy guy who lives next door to us came to church. He wouldn't tell us how he felt about it, he kept saying he'd tell us later. We stopped by a less active old lady last Sunday and had a good little discussion about church and stuff. Then she came yesterday, so that was pretty good. She has a solid testimony, she's just old and tired and she doesn't pay her tithing and she's afraid she's going to get a calling if she comes to church, but I think she'll start coming more often and we're hoping to get some referrals out of her. We have a potential older, retired couple that was a referral from one of our members. They were talking about how the Bible was translated a whole bunch of times and they were basically saying that there have been many plain and precious truths taken out of the Bible, so we gave them a Book of Mormon, and then talked about it and bore testimony and then the husband wanted a copy for himself after he said they'd only need one. We are probably going to try to see them again this week. The Whiteheads haven't really made any progress. It's really just the mom, the kids don't really sit in anymore. I also don't think she's reading the Book of Mormon as diligently as she should be. The lady across the street from us wants to come to church and to get baptized but I'm fairly certain she doesn't understand the gravity and importance of making the baptismal covenant quite yet, and all the work that goes into it. Actually I don't think she understands much of anything. But she does feel the Spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon and when she talks to us. She never keeps appointments though. We had a really good lesson with the son of a less active member, the best part in the lesson was when we were teaching about the apostasy and he asked a really good question about like what are we supposed to do if the true church isn't here and whatnot, and it was better in real life but anyways we talked about some of the cool things in the Book of Mormon and I think it caught his interest a little more than before. Sadly he's probably the first smart investigator I've had on my whole mission. This is actually the first time in my whole mission that I actually feel like I'm doing missionary work which is very refreshing.

Elder Naegle

Steve Collins

This week was alright. We were able to meet the rest of the Whitehead family, which is the family that we gave a blessing to their father and then taught the Restoration to the father and the two oldest boys. We got to meet the rest of the kids and the mom. The parents both had really good questions. They are real sincere and they are looking for a church with good family values. They're practically dry mormons other than the fact that the parents both smoke. Their children are very well behaved and they have their own form of family home evening! The mother seems more open to the gospel than the father is and she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was cool because the father was saying that they probably weren't gonna join our church but then the mom was like: 'well I haven't read the Book of Mormon yet so I have to read it first before I decide' and they we got into a big discussion on everything from Joseph Smith to priesthood, to temple sealings, to the keys of the priesthood. It was good though. We're really excited to see them tomorrow and we're hoping to start seeing them twice a week o get them on the fast track. They said that their kids were the really excited to see us again and they really really like us. Other than that we've been super tired this week and we think it's because we've been hitting the gym too hard so we decided to cut back on our gym time so that we're not exhausted by Thursday like we were last week.

One day, we came home from something and one of our neighbors started talking to us. He was nuts, but funny and we ended up talking to him for like two hours, it was a waste of time but a very interesting experience. He invited us in his house and talked about all sorts of stuff that he believed in and at times he got very emotional, even to the point of tears. It was weird. We tried to teach him some of the restoration and we gave him a Book of Mormon but I don't think he listened to anything we said. We then found him in the teaching records and it turns out that the Elders tracted into him about a year ago and the lesson they tried to have with him was the exact same thing that happened to us. Saturday we did service all day and scraped popcorn off ceilings and painted some of those ceilings and moved heavy boxes and a double-decker oven and scraped grout off of tile. We were very tired after all of that. We have a solid district. The spanish Elders in our district are so funny and we always have a good time when we spend time with them. Unfortunately President has said no exchanges this transfer so I won't be able to go on exchanges with them. We've also got cool zone leaders too.

Love,

Elder Naegle

Redwood, Are Kansas

So we had transfers and I got to ride on the Bull (the big van that they use for transfers) from like 8:30 in the morning to 1:30 in the afternoon. I got to see all the transfer points and a bunch of missionaries including Elder Chapman and Elder Ham so it was a good day. My new comp is Elder Nau. He is Tongan and he's a stud. When we were driving to the area from transfer point, we were talking about our goals and stuff. We both want to be super obedient and hard working and to go to the gym in the morning. I am really happy that we're companions. This transfer is gonna rock. We've got a bunch of people that we're working with and I can't remember any of their names so you'll have to wait til next time to hear about the work. It sufficeth me to say that since Thursday we have been working hard. Actually this member from Fort Smith gave us a referral and now we've gotten a whole family of investigators and we've got an appointment with them on Wednesday. One of the boys seemed really interested. This member also took us out to eat at an all you can eat Chinese buffet and then he gave us another referral who we haven't been able to contact yet but he's talked to her and she's actually excited to meet with us. I have never had an investigator who has been excited to meet with us before. Darien just liked hanging with us not necessarily learning. Our apartment is sweet. In fact the TV show missionary cribs did an episode here once. We've got a big ol' front room with two couches (one of the couches is really nice), we've got a bedroom, a study room, two bathrooms (only one shower though) and a washer and dryer. In all honesty, the thing I was most excited for was the washer and dryer. My whole mission washing my clothes has been a struggle. There's a neat little gym literally right around the corner from our place, where the missionaries know somebody who works there (she would join the church except for her hardcore Baptist husband) and she gives the missionaries a discount: $15 for all six weeks! The gym's got everything we need and plus it includes tanning! We're gonna be the tannest missionaries out there! One last thing, Elder Nau and I decided to go on a month long fast where we refrain from talking about and thinking about a bunch of stuff that would distract us from the work. We wrote them all down on a piece of paper and then burned them, and got it on video. My paper wouldn't burn for some reason, I guess my habits are really hard to break or something. Well that's it for now, other than the fact that I got my first tick. By the time we're done with Greenwood, it's gonna be called Redwood because Elder Nau and I are gonna set it on fire! I will send pictures later today when we get to a place where they'll let us plug stuff into the computers. We're going to Fort Smith to hang with the Spanish Elders, to get free food from a place that gives free food to missionaries, to go to a museum and possibly to go bowling.

Love, Elder Naegle