Dear Family and Friends,
Well, a short-ish week this time around but a few changes from the Missionary Department came through on the Broadcast on Wednesday. We're also starting to make some progress with one of our investigator!
Monday after emailing we went shopping at Walmart and on our way out some guy named Clarence asked us if we were Mormons and if he could have a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. We run out to the car and grab our bags and go back in a talk to him a little bit and exchanged information. We then did P-Day stuff at the church and then the four of us had supper with Sis. Brewer and had delicious homemade mac n' cheese and kielbasa sausage. YUM!
The next day was on the rough side but we were able to contact at Idle Hour park. Elder Taylor also got a REAL expensive 'meh' haircut at a place called Bladez near our apartment. He wasn't too psyched about his hair cut as the guy shaved his widow's peak. Oh well, each haircut can't be perfect. The Worthingtons also dropped of some chicken and rice for supper, which was awesome and very appreciated.
Wednesday morning we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that we watched from the church. We received training from the Missionary Executive Council about a few things as well as two Missionary Policy changes that were made. I will explain briefly and attach two pictures to illustrate. The first changes were to our schedules. P-Day now starts at 8 am, previously at 10am. Our regular morning schedule is now flexible and not in any particular order, except for the usual 6:30 wake up time. We also no longer plan in the evening and that is now done in the morning, with Companionship study moved to later in the day. The other change is that our key indicators have shrunk from 9 to 4. These allowed us to track our work but now these four, (Baptized/Confirmed, On Date, @ Sacrament, New Investigators), helps us focus our efforts. Big changes so late in my mission!
Thursday was pretty good. We had RMT, had supper with the Longerbeams, and had to reschedule our appointment with Rebecca. While we talked to her, we invited her to church, but she said we could talk about her going next week at our rescheduled time on Sunday evening. She seems quite solid!
Friday we weekly planned for a while and took care of some things. Later on, Bro. Creech picked us up and we drove to Bro. Triplett's for an Elder Quorum Bonfire Activity. We get there and it ends up being the three of us, Bro. Triplett, and his next door neighbor, who is a member. It was a lot of fun and you know we poured two cycle gasoline (half oil, half gasoline) on that bad boy! We also enjoyed some very delicious deer burgers that had a combination of deer burger and deer sausage. It was so good!! Bro. Triplett shot the deer himself and made the burgers. He made twenty but his silver lab got into it and ate 7. YIKES! It was definitely a fun night!
Saturday, we went tracting and we found a guy named Tommy who seems pretty interested. His wife had been talking about going to church especially since they have a brand new baby. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and got his info to set up a time to come back and teach him and his family. It was really neat and refreshing! We then visited with a less-active nearby and when we were biking home, some guy in the passenger seat of a low rider yelled us to get off the road. Not phased at all, we caught up to him at the light and he was just staring us down. We then saluted him in a pretty sarcastic manner and we didn't even realize we both saluted until after we got back. It was pretty funny! We then met with the Owens to finish off the night.
Church was good on Sunday. Bro. Triplett, in his very funny way, told everyone how fun the bonfire was and how they all missed out. After church we ate over at the Bush's. Sis. Brewer couldn't meet and all 6 of us read Isaiah with Nicole, Ft. Mitchell's investigator. They then dropped us off and we went with Bro. Creech to our lesson with Rebecca. It went great! She is totally prepared! She read through the Plan of Salvation pamphlet again and knows it to be true. We also shared the message of the Restoration with her and she was very receptive. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to be Baptized and she accepted! PHEW! What a great lesson! Bro. Creech was critical in that lesson and it also helps that he got off his mission just under two years ago. I was on cloud nine and the Spirit was very strong in that setting with Rebecca. She is certainly a woman of faith!
A very odd kind of a week but it's not the first and certainly not the last either! Hard to believe next Monday will be my 22nd birthday! Where does the time go??
Have a good week y'all!
Elder Alexander Kestner
