Playing for a Tough Crowd

Elders Barney, Nunnally, Wolfgramm, Palmer, Rogers, and Green (Me)!

Well, it's been a crazy week... Really. Crazy. Monday was fun -- we just played volleyball with the Office Elders, and Sister Stewart and Sister Catogni. Tuesday, we were helping one of our potential investigators out with a service project, and had a great DA with the Stamp family again. We had Shepherd's Pie. It's so funny, I started saying, "Man, this reminds me so much of home." and Elder Barney was like, "Are you kidding me? This is all I've ever had for DA's here!" Apparently members make it all the time except when they have me over.

Wednesday was where things went mad... See, we've currently got Elder Palmer with us. He's an American citizen, but his mother's Hungarian, and has lived in Hungary for most of his life. He's supposed to be in the Baltic States Mission, serving in Latvia, but with some difficulties in his having lived in Hungary, and travelling around Europe, Latvia kicked him out over visa requirements. So, he came here on Wednesday. He flew in to Gatwick while we had District Meeting, and the Office Elders tried to pick him up, but customs detained him for five hours, so we had no clue when he was going to be getting out... So, we had planned out this day for two companionships, where we were going to be alternating helping our potential investigator move, but with him not there, we had to spend the entire day doing it... We then had plans to take Mantas to the temple that night, so we finished up the service around 7:00, ran up there, I picked up Elder Palmer from the office while Elder Barney and Elder Nunnally taught Mantas, and we finally headed home.

Thus continued our crazy week... Driving lessons for both me and Elder Barney, almost killing myself on my first roundabout (don't worry, the rest of them were fine), Elder Palmer going with the Office Elders up to London to the Embassy up there, meeting with President Millar to figure out the details about Elder Palmer, and other issues in the district... Goodness. It's been a blast.

But, in addition to that, the miracles have just been rolling in. First, Elder Barney and Elder Nunnally had met this guy Mark a while ago in town, and we set up two appointments with him, and he flogged both. Then the Zone Leaders met him in town, set up another appointment with him. He flogged. Then, Elder Palmer and I met him on the way to town, and having known all of that, I thought, "Hey, Mark, do you have a few minutes? Let's go to the chapel." So, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was an okay lesson, nothing spectacular...but I hope he is interested.

Next miracle, Elder Palmer and I were trekking through Broadfield to try by a potential investigator named Guy. I had my guitar slung over my back, like usual, and down this pathway between some houses there was a few neighbour families hanging out outside. As I passed, one of them yelled, "Hey! Play us a song!" So, I did. I just played them a verse of Come Thou Fount, and after one line, one of their kids looked up at me and said, "Man, you're crap!" The mother quickly told him off, and after I finished she said, "Wow, you've got some guts to do that, and you're really good." "Can we come back around sometime and talk with you a bit?" "You can come back and sing to me anytime." So, we're headed back tonight.

Because the Elderly are so dangerous.

Ifield Mill Pond

Elder Palmer and I.

Last one, after church yesterday, Brother Mann had asked us to go and stop by a less-active member who lived not far from there. We had actually planned on seeing him anyway, and so we used the time between accounting sessions to go up that way. We knocked on the door, but got no answer. As we were headed out, we turned the corner, and I realized that we weren't far from an investigator's house that never really panned out. I considered it for a second, and then decided to go for it, but saw a guy coming up the street. So, I went to stop him, and he said, "Oh, sorry, I'm in a rush." But, I persisted, and told him a bit about the Book of Mormon, and asked if he went to church. He said that he did up in London, but had just moved to Crawley, and so didn't have a church to attend yet. So, I tried to set up an appointment with him, and he said, "Sorry, I'm doing training to be a flight attendant this week. I'm busy until next Monday." Usually, they use that as an excuse and leave, but he said, "Here's my number, call me next week and we'll set something up." Turns out he lives right down the street from the chapel, also.

Also, last week, I got a bit of a tip-off from President that I might be going. He also hinted at where I'm going, but I'm not going to say anything just yet. You'll find out next week. :)

Last but not least, we did some great service for the Vowels' this morning. We do service there quite a bit, as he's doubling the size of his house to sell it. So today we were putting in the main beam on the second story for the roof. It took a bit of finagling, but we got it right into place in about an hour.

Today we helped lift an enormous beam for the Vowels' addition on their home!

Anyway, that's it. Love you guys!

- Elder Green