Down in the Arkansas

  Greetings from Arkansas!  This past week the weather has been beautiful! I even needed to pull out a jacket one day. Arkansas has flipped the switch to autumn. Tell tale signs of fall: the leaves slowly changing colors and the Hogs starting their season.  To celebrate the Razorback's season opener, our Elders' Quorum President invited us and some of the people we are teaching to a barbeque. He smokes a good rib!  Trust me, we didn't watch any of the game. We didn't stay too long anyways. But apparently the Hogs got decimated.  No surprise.  The bishop also invited us to a youth fireside on Friday! Literally, it was a fireside. We all sat in his yard around a fire and did a missionary Q&A panel. There is a Sister in the ward who just submitted her papers, and a brother from Cabot who just returned from his mission, and us four, all with varying degrees of time in the mission. It was great. We had someone we are teaching come to it as well since her fri...

  Hello! Good day to all.  This weekly hasn't been outrageously eventful. I did go on two exchanges. I went to Quitman/Heber Springs with Elder Eccles. His first name is also Matthew, and his last name also starts with an E, so we bonded over that. Having the initials of M.E. is an honor. Thanks, parents.  I also went to Searcy with Elder Christensen. He was one of the district leaders in the zone when I was a zone leader in Hot Springs, and now the tables have turned. I am one of the district leaders in his zone. He's awesome, so I am glad to be working with him again.  While I was off in Searcy, one thing  Elder Danielson and Elder Hoopes did was create a poll in a community Facebook group page. They asked the question: "Do you believe God would answer the prayer of a 14 year old boy, even through a vision?"  Around 90 percent of the people who voted responded in the affirmative. Hopefully to all those people who answered positively, we can meet with and ...

Remember how last week I said the Sisters in Heber Springs/Quitman were being switched with Elders? Well, we were expecting Elder Neff and his greenie to be the new missionaries in Heber, but not get there until last Thursday because of the new missionary orientation. Well, on Tuesday, we get a call from an unknown number saying "Hey this is Elder Eccles and Elder Bitter in Quitman."  You can imagine my confusion. Apparently, a second set of Elders got assigned to Heber Springs/Quitman. So now there are eight Elders in my district. Zero sisters. That's a lot of testosterone in one district.  That aside, the week has been very good! We had great lessons with those we are teaching. The woman who was supposed to be baptized last week was not able to, but she should be in the future. She is still eagerly anticipating it!  Another person we are teaching and had a date for baptism a month or so ago also gave us a great surprise. She invited us to dinner with her family! Family ...

Tomorrow brings a new transfer! The big number 17. All four of us in Beebe are staying. I figured as much since we all just got here. We're excited for what this next transfer brings. I have really enjoyed Beebe. While Elder Danielson and I have been going to a lesson each week on Saturday morning, Elder Kitterman and Elder Schuerch have been attending the weekly Flea Market in Beebe. For less than $10, you can rent a booth at the flea market and sell basically anything you want. Some of the regulars sell their usual stuff: clothes, flags, leatherworkings, knives, pottery. Then some people just rent a booth to sell the old junk they found during spring cleaning, so basically as close to selling belly-button lint as you can get. On an exchange with Elder Schuerch, I went to the weekly flea market and had some pretty great experiences. We met two relatives of members in the ward just walking around. In a COVID world going out and meeting people is harder, so being allowed to go to ...