Down in the Arkansas

In a rather poetic form, I am again in a trio where I will be ending the missionary service of both companions. That makes 5 total "kills" at the end of this, half of the total amount of companions I have had in the field thus far.  Elder Ashworth and Elder Hakes are my companions, and they were my zone leaders when I was in Benton. Little did I know I would be joining them. I enjoyed having them as zone leaders, and am now enjoying having them as companions.  Elder Hakes is leaving for home any day now, due to health risks surrounding the corona virus, and Elder Ashworth leaves in 2 weeks, due to older missionaries being sent home early to make room for reassigned, previously foreign serving missionaries that will come after their quarantine. So in just a couple weeks I will be in a completely new companionship. Hopefully I'm not the senior companion zone leader, because I have no idea what I'm doing haha.  It has been very weird being transferred to ...

I rescind almost everything from my last week's letter. Since wednesday, we became limited to only seeing people in person if you had a set lesson with them, and that no group you are in exceed 10 people, and no contact with anyone over 60.  Since Sunday, Elder Davidson and I (and a dozen other missionaries we have made contact with) have been in strict quarantine. No leaving the apartment whatsoever. Someone we saw a couple days ago may have the corona virus so we have been confined entirely to our apartment, and any missionaries we have seen since. I'll spare you the details. Long story short: I'm never helping anyone with laundry ever again. Service is bad.  The good thing is is that he only MIGHT have corona. We got a call yesterday morning saying he did, but an email last night saying that the tests are not complete. The call interrupted a sacrament meeting we were having at a member's home with someone we were teaching. We had to leave and never came back. Su...

This last week has been an interested unfolding of events and announcements. It's wonderful that just a year and half or so ago, we were introduced to a church curriculum that focuses studying the gospel in the home, and two years ago were introduced to a higher and holier way to minister to others. We are truly a living church lead by a prophet who receives revelation from God. Also, remember to take your vitamins haha.  But the question remains, how is missionary work conducted amid this trying period of time. The answer for the ALRM: not much different than before. It has thrown in interesting twist into church attendance, that is it. Since church has been cancelled, members are now authorized to administer the sacrament in their homes under authorization at the bishop. So our goal to getting people to church has now shifted to trying to get people to a member's home for a short lesson and the sacrament, which counts for us in sacrament attendance. That switch ha...

We had a zone P Day last week, we were too busy having fun to email, and we had to give some other Elders a ride before and after and had things come up that kept me from writing an email last week, so this will be both weeks' email: Dollar Pants (Feb 24-Mar 1):  Last P Day we went to the store Dirt Cheap and I got some pants for   $1 . Nice. They're Banana Republic too. Not bad at all. The only problem is the side pockets are horizontally oriented in the front rather than angled on the sides of the pants, and the pockets are really shallow. It makes me think they are maybe women's slacks, but they fit me perfectly. Maybe I've just got broad hips??? Maybe it's why they were worth a dollar?? Maybe I'm just not boujee enough?  Other than that the work is going well. We didn't have very many miles for the month left, so we biked a lot, but the weather has been beautiful, so I have nothing to complain about. One day it was so nice that when a m...

Good day!  This week has been very eventful. It started off on Tuesday when we exchanged with the Germantown elders. I was in Germantown with Elder Olson. Someone in the YSA branch they are teaching was getting baptized so I had to go do his interview. We biked to his house, which is in Bartlett, about 9 miles away. So we biked from Germantown to Bartlett. Heavy wind. Pouring rain. We got thoroughly soaked. But it was worth it. He got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!  We brought the bishop to a lesson this week. We were there for an hour and half, and it was mostly a Bible bash (arguing about doctrine using the bible). We had to leave at 9:30 because bedtime. But bishop stayed there until 11pm. The title of this email is a no-context quote of the bash.  We had a lot of other, better lessons though haha. We are teaching a lot of people here. People are so willing to meet here!  On Saturday we biked to a neighborhood (we have been roasting ...

It has been a great week back here in Memphis. I already have had a good head start on knowing the area. All the major roads and community names are familiar to me, so I haven't really been all that lost this week as I start to get comfortable with the area.  Elder Davidson is from Pocatello, Idaho. My first Idaho companion. This is his 4th transfer in the mission. He's also 6'4". Not my first giant companion.  We are teaching quite a few awesome people here in Memphis. One of them, Eronica, came to stake Conference this past Sunday and met President Hansen. She is super awesome. She will be out of town this next Sunday, but she might even attend church down where she's going!  Speaking of Stake Conference, we had a visiting general authority! Elder Rasband Of the seventy.  We were notified about halfway through the week that "Elder Rasband" was coming. No specification of which Elder Rasband, so everyone is going to assume it'...

It has been a great 6 months here in Benton, but I will be leaving tomorrow to go back to Memphis. This time in the Memphis 2nd Ward, which is the southern part of the city, in a different stake even from my first area, Midtown. Graceland is also in the boundaries. And a previous member of the mission Presidency is the bishop, Bishop Faulkner. My companion is Elder Davidson, whom I have never met. I will also be the district leader there.  I have really enjoyed serving in Benton. They are a strong ward. Large, organized, friendly, and willing to help out. I will miss all the great people I have met, and am sad I will not be here to continue teaching some of the people we are working with. Elder Smith and his new companion have a lot of great things going on in Benton this next transfer! One of my personal goals on the mission is to leave every area better than I found it, and I have been blessed to be able to do that so far.  This week was Stake Conference for the Litt...