Well this week was pretty good. For starters we got a baptismal date! Whoo. We are teaching Kristena who is the daughter of Venice Constuble. We got her to commit to be baptized on the 10th of January, which just happens to be my birthday. That will be a good birthday present. There's gonna be a lot of stuff to overcome for her mostly just because we think that she isn't married legally and she is living with her "husband" so we will have to work that out whatever that situation is. But Venice is the coolest recent convert ever and her testimony is super strong, and the church is true so I have no worries.
So there was this family that moved into a previous member's home. We helped them move in. A couple of times we tried to knock on their door and contact them. Finally Saturday, they answered. They are a really nice Latino family (they're the promised people) and she actually told us that she wanted to come check out our church (she had investigated a little bit before, before she moved here). She asked us where our church is and what time we started! Then she didn't come... But it was snowing so we think that's why. Actually every, single person we committed to come to church this week didn't come. Sigh. We are still working with them though.
There's a family that joined the church in like 2008. Their 9 year old daughter was just baptized like in August. She is awesome. She comes to church by herself because her mom works on Sunday and her dad just doesn't come (it probably has to do with the fact that there are lots of cans of chewing tobacco just lyin around their house). Anyways we had a lesson with them last night and we talked about their conversion experiences and why they got baptized. It was really good. Their daughter talked about getting sealed in the temple and the dad said that it was a goal, albeit a long-term one in his words but at least it was still a goal they had. I got the feeling that eventually they will make it happen. Especially if their daughter stays as strong as she is now.
Tom Mitchell has been doing good actually. We met with him a while ago and he actually brought up the Book of Mormon. We were real surprised by that. Normally he just likes to talk about politics, trains and his days in Vietnam. So when he said that he was gonna read the Book of Mormon without any prompting from us it was a pleasant surprise. Then we met with him and had a discussion about the chapter he read (3 Nephi 11) and I promptly fell asleep while Elder Cluff talked to him the whole time. But we've got another lesson set up so hopefully that one will be good.
On a more somber note: our branch president has cancer. Really bad cancer. He went to the hospital last Sunday and has been there ever since. He asked to be released from branch president which is serious because the stake president asked him multiple times if he wanted to be released and he said no. We got a text on Friday from the Neosho missionaries that said that a member in their ward said he passed away. Then we got a call from Sis. Mcallister (she's a crazy cat lady that the branch presidency banned missionaries from talking to like a year ago, who constantly calls us and we don't answer but Elder Cluff felt bad and he answered this time) and she told us that she heard he passed away. So we were really sad. Then we got a call from the branch president's son and he asked us to call them in the morning to help move a bunch of stuff around in the president's apartment. So we were pretty sure he had passed, until we called his wife the next morning and he was still alive... ?? Well they took him off of all life support except for painkillers and they are hoping that it goes downhill fast because they don't want him to be in pain. It's really sad but happy because we know that he will be with his family again. We got a new branch presidency yesterday which means that there is gonna be a big shuffling around of callings because there is a shortage of priesthood holders and our ward mission leader just moved away. Crazy stuff
We went on exchanges on Wednesday with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Reed to Joplin and it was a blast. They have weights in their apartment so I got to lift a little bit Thursday morning which was nice. They also have a washer and dryer which is really convenient and I'm jealous. Elder Reed is an awesome guy. He is super fun and he is really good at just going up to people and talking to them. We had a grand old time. We went and raked leaves for a member who is helps the missionaries a ton. She made us delicious hot chocolate and cookies that I left at the zone leaders' apartment. Then we went to an old ladies house for dinner because she was saying thank you to the missionaries for raking her leaves. Her best friend is a member named Sis. White though and we brought another member with named Jonathon who is getting ready for his mission, I think. Unfortunately we couldn't teach her because she had had a bad experience with missionaries in the past. But that didn't stop us from having a good time. Hopefully she'll open up to missionaries in the future. After that we went to Sis. White's house for a couple minutes and Elder Reed told us how the week before he and Elder Cross, his companion, cast out an evil spirit from near her property line. 0_0 Then we jumped in our suits and hit the mall to go plant seeds of the gospel by talking to people. Elder Reed did all the talking and me and Jonathon stood there awkwardly. But it was really good because Jonathon loved it and wanted to go out with the missionaries again in the not too distant future. Which is good because apparently he is kinda inactive and wasn't too sure about serving a mission.
So I bought poptarts last Monday. Then on Wednesday I found out that the pocket on the inside of my suit jacket is the perfect size for poptarts. I was very happy. Then last night while Elder Cluff was being a good district leader and calling a bunch of people I found some Kool-Aid packets. So I made a gallon of Kool-Aid. Then the Kool-Aid guy burst through the wall and startled Elder Cluff so much that he fell out of his chair. It actually turned out real nice, we gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment. And on the way to Joplin we saw a legitimate replica of the Mystery Machine so yeah, it pretty much made my week.
There was a bunch of other stuff that happened but I can't remember any of it because it was either unimportant or not very exciting.
Love,
Elder Naegle
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