Down in the Arkansas

On Tuesday after District Council in Hope, we had exchanges. I was with Elder Hamblin in Arkadelphia. Elder Hamblin is a transplant from Tupelo, so it was fun to talk about the differences between missions. Also turns out he trained the missionary in the Alabama Birmingham mission who is from the Lakeville Stake, and also trained a missionary I met in the MTC. Small world.  We had some good lessons and met some cool people this week. We were all the way across town and we met a guy whole lives in the same apartment building as we do, so now we are teaching our neighbor. We also had a new member lesson with Karl. It was sweet hearing him talk about wanting to have the priesthood to bless his future family. That's an awesome reason to want it: to serve love ones.  We have also been able to meet quite a few less actives and strike a good relationship with them. Some of them live so far out there that it's hard for us to get to them. Going out there and meeting them has re...

It is the first week of transfer #7. Elder Andreasen is from Kayesville, Utah and has 3 transfers left, so there's a possibility I will end his missionary service. I keep on getting placed with old folks. Also along with this transfer brought a large reorganization of the mission. With Tupelo and a lot of missionaries leaving, zones got changed up. The Hot Springs zone got dissolved into the Little Rock Zone, and the previous Little Rock zone gave away some missionaries to the North Little Rock Zone. A bunch of change on the Memphis side, but I am not there right now.  Anyways, for our last P Day Elder Green and I took a trip with some members up to the Blanchard Springs Caverns in Mountain View. The caverns were by far the best caves I had ever seen. We also went to a few other spots around Mointain View, like a waterfall and where the water in the caves runs out to.  We had a deluge from the hurricane in Louisiana. Definitely not as bad, but bad enough that a lightni...

Tomorrow starts a new transfer. Being Elder Green's last transfer, he will be going home. It has been a good two transfers with him. And I am staying in Arkadelphia. My new companion is Elder Andreason, who was actually one of Elder Green's companions in the MTC (he went home for medical reasons for a time and came back out). This past week started with a temple trip for departing missionaries and their companions. So we all got shipped to Memphis. It was great to be in Memphis again. I've missed it. Elder Green's departing group was massive so it was a big group of us, so much so that we had to do it in two groups.  For an interesting finding activity this week we did a free car wash in the Church parking lot. It was pretty fun.  We had two meals with people that we have been sort of teaching. One was with the family that we met on that day we biked 15 miles to Bismark. It was a really awesome 2 or so hours. Questions, discussion, testimony. Then the husban...

It's a new week y'all. Things are pretty good down here. This past week we have been all around towns. We went up to Hot Springs for a District P Day last Monday and hung around downtown Hot Springs. We took Josh, the youth in the branch. Josh is going back to Louisiana a few days after next transfer. I'm glad we've been able to spend time with him and for him to get some missionary experiences.  For July 4th we went up to Hot Springs again for District Council, and then we went down to Gurdon, which is south of Arkadelphia. I had never been down there, so that was a first. It's a pretty small town. It's the only town other than Arkadelphia itself in our area that has a sizable downtown area, and there were some less actives some of the Branch leadership wanted us to go so we did. One of the families hasn't been seen by their neighbor in a month and their yard was full of cats and dogs (some kittens), no car home, and there was a hole chewed in the door ...

Surprise! Karl was scheduled for next Saturday, but after his interview, we felt prompted to ask if he wanted to change it to this Saturday, which he felt good about. He said that while walking to the church to be interviewed he felt like it was going to be on the 29th and not the 6th. The mission's monthly baptizing goal was 27, and at the beginning of the week they were expecting to make it to 26, but our baptism became the 27th (and another companionship in the mission had a miracle baptism, actually putting the total at 28). And it turned out some of the stake patriarch's childrens' families were in town for the patriarch's birthday and they had known Karl growing up, so they got to come and support him at his baptism as well. It was a really cool experience to say the least. And I confirmed him the next day in sacrament meeting.  Karl's baptism and the preparation for it was most of our week, but there were a few other things to report about We helped m...

Of moving.  Last week was moving, this week was as well. This week it was mostly a couple moving out of the Arkadelphia Branch. Lots of furniture. It was good though. They are really good people. We also have two more moves this upcoming week. Someone moving back to Arkadelphia, and another moving a block away from where they currently live. Fun fun We have finished teaching Karl all the principles before baptism, which is exciting. We are really happy for him. We watched "Only a Stonecutter" with him on Sunday because he worked for a time as a stone cutter. He really liked that. We have had some really awesome lessons with him. His testimony of change through repentence and the atonement of Jesus Christ is amazing. And his mom is a really strong member whose participation in the lessons has been invaluable. Also it was really great on Sunday. Remember that day many weeks ago where we biked to that one member's house that lives 15 miles away uphill? And how we...

Every single day from Tuesday to Saturday we spent time doing move related activities.  On the first three days (Tu, Wed, Thurs), we were helping a sister from Hot Springs move down here. The house she got was in pretty bad condition, so we deep cleaned and did some repair work, and organize furniture. This was very trying on my allergies.  On Friday, we contacted Mike, one of the guys we have been teaching. Turns out that day he said he was moving somebody, so we helped him out. It went pretty well. Mike said he was going to come to church on Sunday, but he did not. Oh well.  On Saturday, we got a text from a member about a less active family needing assistance getting some new furniture. The furniture was in Hot Springs, and we don't have the mile allotment to just drive around Hot Springs all day, so we enlisted the help of a man in the branch. With his truck we loaded as much of the furniture we could and delivered it. We didnt have enough time to get the ...