Down in the Arkansas

This transfer has been a little rough on my health. I passed out trying to donate blood, then I got sick this week. Started with a headache and became a 101 degree fever, to which I still went to Zone Conference with. I'm not missing zone conference. I do apologize beforehand to any who may get sick because of me, but we all got the flu shot, so maybe they got protected just in time.  I have mostly overcome my fever, but now a muscle around my shoulder blade hurts. Just started this morning. Hm..  Anyways the sickness put a damper on our work, but when I felt okay we did go out and met a whole lot of very nice people. Some of them we had great conversations with, one of them might come to church this week. We forgot it was General Conference. Well have to tell him that. The temple trip was great. I got to see some missionaries I had not seen in a while, and met some I had never seen before.  Zone Conference was also enjoyable, despite being 101% sick. We talk...

Today we are going to the temple so my letter is going to be short. But you could say I am now a master of southern cuisine. I made fried chicken, thanks to the recipe from someone in Arkadelphia. I only almost burned the apartment down. It was all worth it cause it tasted great.  We taught a great lesson with Evelyn this week. She found a lot of comfort in the message of the Plan of Salvation. It's great to teach people with so much faith.  We also did service for a man from Thailand. We were biking around Benton and came upon two guys looking at some structure outside of a building. Turns out they are opening a Hibachi Shop and we helped set some cinder block bricks. We laid mortar and the blocks and all that.  Pics:  1) me and the chicken 2) we saw a tract from another church, we decided to add our own. Hopefully other people do the same. See how many we can get

Throughout my life, I have had opportunities to donate blood, and I always passed it up for some reason. I have a relative fear of needles, and when I have had blood tests at Doctor appointments, it hasn't been my favorite experiences, and donating blood is just a longer version of that. Well, we were helping out at an event that the Stake Relief Society Presidency put on, and a blood drive, and they were giving out t shirts. I wanted a t shirt. And I have never known my blood type either. That's good info I have wanted to have. Well I signed up and go in with all the courage I could muster. First They prick my finger (I hate having my finger pricked, definitely more than getting shots. The squeezing of my finger is the worst part). I felt mostly fine, but as I started answering the questions on the laptop they had, I start losing the ability to focus, and I turn to the lady next to me and say "I feel kinda light headed." That was the last thing I remembered. Immediat...

Everybody you meet in the mission who knows an inkling of what the mission is and have met missionaries knows most are from Utah, or Idaho, occasionally the other western states. So I have enjoyed being with Elder Critchfield in that when people ask us where we are from, nonmembers and members alike, we can throw them in for a loop when we say Minnesota and Nebraska. There is maybe one other missionary in the mission who I know is from the midwest. We are still getting warmed up to the area and the members. We are teaching one guy who the previous missionaries had a little bit of contact with. We taught the Plan of Salavation last week and talked with him again and talked about prophets and how God speaks to the world using prophets (part of the Restoration lesson). It really clicked with him, which was really cool. A lot of people, especially in the south, have a problem with the concept of the pattern of prophets because they have all grown up learning just about going to a c...

Benton/Bryant has a lot in it. People, traffic, and especially businesses. We live right along the freeway, so getting out of our apartment, we see just about every food chain. And it's all packed in in just about a 5 mile stretch. They do have a Target. It's been a while since I have stepped foot into one of those. And I forgot what rush hour was like. They have it here!  The ward is also big. Almost double the size of my other two units combined. I forgot what wards are like. It was a good meeting though. A member visiting from elsewhere brought his friend who lives here. He really enjoyed the service, so hopefully we can get in further contact with him. Most of the work this week has been trying to get to know members in the area, especially ministering families, part member families, and so on, as well as trying to find the people who were on our teaching list. Elder Critchfield and I have not before whitewashed (missionary term meaning both missionaries being new t...