10/21/2019 Halfway there, Oooh oh

365 days from now, exactly one year from now, I will be flying back home. That is a weird thing to think about. I have really enjoyed this past year and I am excited for what is in store this next year. The mission has really been a big testimony builder, and I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to be on it. 

On that note, this past week has been a little rough. We started off the week super excited for two people in particular, the man who was on date who moved to Benton named Ellis, and another man we are teaching named Mike. And we have tried contacting them (calling, knocking, etc.) every day this week, and have not been able to contact them. It's always a little disappointing when people disappear and you don't know why, but oh well. Maybe later! 

The Benton ward has a lot of young men and women leaving for missions in the next couple days or weeks. So this whole month's worth of talks has been and will be mission farewell talks. It's been really cool to hear from all of them so far. 

One of the towns in our area is Bauxite. It's a pretty small town. Within the city limits is just a school, a post office, and one neighborhood. And in that neighborhood there is a sign saying that all dogs must be on leashes. No one leashes their dogs. We walked around the neighborhood and got charged by at least 4 dogs. Luckily none of them were particularly feral. And their owners were usually outside to reprimand them. 

One cool little miracle from the week though was that we had about 15 minutes of free time time before we had to go to a dinner appointment, and Elder Critchfield had the thought to knock doors. And it was pouring. We picked a nearby street and knocked one door. Nothing. But across the street someone was in their car listening to 99 Red Balloons pretty loudly. He spoke to her briefly in the pouring rain and we got a return appointment to come back!

Pics

1) another Evans St

2) happy birthday to me.