02/11/2019 Rabbits for sale

I want to start off with some super cool news. So the transfer before I came to Midtown, Elders Paopao and Perkins found a really awesome man named Richard. Richard has been out of town for medical reasons, but still occasionally texts us (he is way excited about coming back and getting baptized, whenever that is). However, I had been having the prevailing feeling to visit his house. The problem was, we could never find it. Richard's dot on the Area Book App corresponded with nothing, and houses further down the street didn't seem to approach his house number. But thanks to emailing former Elder Perkins, we were able to locate his house, and we did, and we met Richard's identical twin brother. And his twin brother is also super excited about the gospel. The everlasting and infinite atonement is something that really resonates with them. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ anything and everything that may be weighing you down can be overcome. Sadly Richard's brother has left town for a bit to tend to some family matters, we (including Richard who texted us) are super excited to have been led to him. 

The other highlight of the week was working some service for Jacob's Ladder, a organization that has been running for about 12 years now, helping a Memphis community called "Belt Line," right next to the Liberty Bowl Stadium. They tear down vacant houses, clean vacant lots, restore vacant houses that are in repairable condition and sell them, and also are providing the community with a learning center and a playground (the neighborhood had no playground prior). Through the efforts of this organization, they have decreased crime in the community by 80%. That's incredible! We are looking forward to working with them more in their efforts to serve a community that has otherwise seemed to be neglected. We found this opportunity through JustServe. There may be opportunities like this for you all too if you go to JustServe's website. It's a great tool to locate opportunities for you to reach out to those in service. 

On exchanges this week I was with Elder Steele in Midtown. We had a number of cool experiences. Firstly, we met a man whose son was just baptized in December and had transferred colleges to go to UVU, and is wanting to serve a mission in a year or so. The son also went to Apple Valley High School. Small world! Anyways, the dad was looking to move out to Utah too and maybe be baptized. It was weird because our plans were being dashed repeatedly until then. We were just kind of wandering around after plans were dropping. If those plans, while good, had happened, we wouldn't have met this guy, which I know we needed to do that day. 

Also last time I was with Elder Steele on splits in January, we gave a blessing to a young man at St. Jude's. While we were again together, we got notification that the young man's cancer had been completely removed. That was a very good phone call to receive, especially on the day us two were working together again.

We also knocked on some of the richest houses in the area on Sunday. Surprisingly everyone was really nice that we talked to. Nobody was really interested, but none of them shoo-ed us off rudely. 

To add to last week's interesting experiences with people at out apartment door, the police knocked on our door this week. Looking through the peephole, I was trying to remember if we had trespassed anywhere or done something grossly illegal. Didn't matter because they were looking for who we think is one of our neighbors. 

Good. They haven't caught us yet (just kidding we uphold and sustain the law here). 

Weather report: the AC in the apartment was kinda bad at the beginning of the week. So we were living in an 80 degree muggy apartment. As someone who enjoys sleeping in 60 degrees room temperature, 80 and muggy was torture. We got the apartment maintenance guy to look into it and fix it, at least we think. The afternoon he fixed it it got cold and hasn't warmed up that much since. So we haven't had much room to test its effectiveness

Random story: we were walking down the street and on the other side of the road there's a man walking with some suitcases and a bag with a large sign that says "Rabbits for Sale." I'm familiar with "homeless and hungry" signs, but I'm a little less familiar with "Rabbits for Sale." I guess that's one way to make money. Although I'm concerned if the suitcase is the transportation for these rabbits. 

Funny quote: we were talking to one man we met in a neighborhood. He said he read the Bible every day. When we introduced the Book of Mormon as another scripture testifying of Christ, he said "I read the Book of Norman, the Book of Mormon, and the Holy Bible every day." I really should be following this guy's example and read the Book of Norman every day. I've been slacking on that one. 

Real talk though I didn't realize just how many people confuse Mormon and Norman until the mission.

Pics (not very many of them this week):

1) picture of us at the Jacob's Ladder project. The guy we are with is the founder, a retired Methodist minister, Bill Marler.

2) I thought this was funny. Ritz crackers lodged in between this sign. Idk why