Six months!

Abe has been on his mission for six months now! One-fourth of the way. It has gone slow and fast at the same time. He got to serve in one area the whole time, with two different companions, both of whom he really liked, and a District that all got along well. I've been so grateful for all those tender mercies!

The area he's been in is right at the edge of Texas, and he got to spend some time in both Arkansas (Texarkana) and Louisiana (Shreveport) at conferences and things. It's a part of the country I've never visited, so it was cool to hear about it and see his pictures. He often mentions various good meals he has. I love everyone who feeds him! 

Abe also loves the frequent thunderstorms and big rainstorms…he has a great desire to see a tornado sometime! Teddy is a little concerned about that, and frequently uses his phone time with Abe to say "Have there been any tornado warnings lately?"

Here are a few excerpts from Abe's long and glorious letters over these past months. 

Food:

In the evening we drove back to New Boston and were immediately picked up by some members to head over to the Watsons for a member dinner. It was a feast of corn, chicken pot pie, nachos, salsa, salad, fruit, enchiladas, artichoke dip, cookies, cake, and ice cream! It was really good, I naturally ate 4 plates. I'm still trying to bump my companion's habit of only getting one plate to at least 2! After eating we realized that it was time to BE back home and we were in Avery which was 40 minutes away! Actually now that I think about it, we would never be back late, so ignore what I just said. ;) Our drive back was very fun, it was dark and raining which is my favorite combination! They drove us a weird way through the Boonies. It was fun seeing how big our area really is! It's like an hour drive to cross it horizontally, and even longer vertically.

***

On Sunday right after church we cleared out the chapel, set up tables, and had a potluck! They are going to do this the second Sunday every month. It was super fun, probably the best Potluck I've ever been to. There was so much variety. I especially loved the Spaghetti, the tortilla soup (some of the best I've ever had), the pork sandwiches (some of the best I've ever had), the Alfredo noodles, the banana pudding, the cheesecake, the German chocolate cake, and the salami platter. As you can imagine we did not just lightly munch on the occasional item.

Funny and weird stuff:

Sunday we had church and Brother Williamson was there (he's been coming to church in New Boston for the last couple weeks bit he usually dips after the Sacrament so thats why we had never talked with him). He invited our Elders Quorum President to our dinner that night to, which was a relief cause we had a bad feeling about going alone.

So evening comes and we start driving over there with President Pierce, and as we are driving we all just kind of nervously talked. None of us were really sure what or why he wanted to talk with us. So we drove up to the address and it's literally a metal warehouse that is a church of some sort. On the lawn sitting in chairs are Brother Williamson and a Reverend of some sort. We were perplexed, we parked and went over to talk with them. They brought out a couple chairs for us and then they just started to talk. President Pierce asked Brother Williamson about how he became a member of our church, and he shared a ton of his life's stories with us. He's lived a very interesting life, and his conversion story started with him being prompted not to shoot someone. He's one of those people that just talks and talks and never gets to the point. As we were talking slowly more and more people started to arrive. The whole time I was just on the alert, I can get very paranoid haha--like for example he gave us water and so I waited until he had drank some before I had any haha

*** 

In the evening we decided to walk the streets and neighborhoods of Texarbanana and it was fun! We just basically ran around trying to catch people before they went inside. Not a single person was interested, but sometimes that's 1 of their 8 needed contacts before they ARE interested. It was so much fun to walk around with Elder Nelson, he is hilarious. We also stopped by a lady, who didn't have time for a message, but she said we could say a prayer for her. Elder Nelson started the prayer, and it began like any prayer. He was just praying, as you do, and one thing he said was "we are thankful for all the sunshine." This must have been the wrong move though cause the lady just started LAUGHING! We were unsure what to do but he kept praying and then the lady TOOK THE REIGNS. I wasn't aware that you can just take over someone's prayer bit apparently you can--cause she did it. She took over and finished the prayer. We just kind of said goodbye and walked away still confused what had happened. When we got our bearings we complained about the state this world is in these days. You can't even be in charge of your own prayer! Also we ARE grateful for the sunshine, I don't know what she was laughing at--the heat makes things much more interesting!

***

We then drove to a green dot, and taught her the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching about the Plan of Salvation, cause nobody else has such an ingenious plan--and you can see those you teach thinking it too when you teach it. After this we were walking to our car until we saw this dude by his apartment. We walked us to him, and soon realized he was a bit drunk, and was wearing a slightly long t-shirt. Under his t-shirt, we think he had nothing else on, but we didn't have the heart to confirm this haha-- It looked like fun so we naturally offered to share a message. He invited us in and we talked about the Book of Mormon. He apparently teaches at a church that has 6 members :) Judging by most churches in Texarkana it's probably called something like "First Baptist Church of GOD on the Rock of the Rock In the Rock of the LAMB Holy Ghost Holy Temple Tabernacle of Texarkana." A church named something like this is the true church fun fact! Christ definitely set up a church named something you can't even remember. After we talked with Willie, we did some calls and then watched our usual Stake President devotional.

***

On Thursday we had a gigantic storm come through. As we were doing personal study at our apartment it started pouring exceedingly hard. It got super dark outside too and there was almost constant thunder and lightning. The power kept going in and out, lots of flickering, but never long enough in my opinion.

In the afternoon we did our usual weekly planning. I was the whiteboard scribe, as usual, and my designs are getting more and more elaborate. I may even clarify our latest whiteboard as "rococo" and "a modern day Mona Lisa." DaVinci would be proud. Not Leonardo DaVinci, but the much lesser-known Harold DaVinci--Leo's younger brother who was also a painter, of houses. I will not attach a picture of it, because it's best to imagine the greatness of it.

***

Later in the day we helped some members move a whopping 300 feet. Now let me explain the situation, before you make fun of this. So we were carrying a dryer, as one does when moving--and, it was hot. Super super hot. And super humid! And when it gets humid, things get slippery. And when things get slippery, things slip. So as we were walking, this dryer started to slip. To combat this, we picked up the pace. The more it slipped, the faster we walked. Everyone knows you don't just set something down when you have committed your time and heart to it! So we pressed on under these difficult circumstances. We had scarcely got inside when things got out of hand, literally. There was a huge crash haha--we looked around hoping nobody had seen. We quickly picked it up again and ran it the rest of the way. Luckily it didn't look to be damaged at all! It's their fault anyway for not thinking to use a dolly sooner.

New friends:

Later when we arrived at this house, it looked ever run down and empty as usual. So we left without knocking.

Ha! I got you hehe--just joking of course we knocked it anyway. A dude named Dailyn answered. He came out and sat down, and had us sit down too. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and read the entire intro with him. He was intrigued. He asked us a bunch of questions like where we were from and why we were in Texas, which we happily answered. He then asked if we had a church and we said yes! He said, "You probably don't believe me, but I WILL be coming to church on Sunday." We were really glad to hear that. We said we'd arrange a ride for him, and then he told us this. He said, "I had a dream about Utah, and missionaries last night. So that's why I'm talking to you now!" It was super awesome to hear! Dailyn already seems very golden, we gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon, and set up another lesson in a few days. 

***

Sunday morning was great. As we were getting ready for church I got a message from this guy I had randomly messaged on Facebook a little while ago to look for him at church today! And sure enough he showed up to church after parking his longboard. So I have now found at least one person on Facebook every transfer so far!! Facebook really does work super well, I just wish I could get our Zone to believe me that it works. We've been trying to get them more hyped about Facebook work,, but they are all so pessimistic about it. >:( Anyway back to the guy, he's so cool, he came in with us and and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and he said, "I always thought there was more writings, not just the Bible." We spoke in church and afterwards he told us he loved it. He us also intrigued by the thought of modern prophets and said, "it does make sense that they would exist." He stayed for Sunday school even. Then another member of our ward came up to him with a surprised look on his face, and apparently the two work at the same place! So they talked for a while, this means we already have a fellowshipper! He even posted on his Facebook after church thanking us for being so welcoming.

The best thing of all is that he just sounds happy. He's working hard, he's having fun, he seems to see everything as a grand adventure. He is learning and growing. What a blessing missions are for young men…and their families!