Georgia Sunshine

A terrible terrible thing has happened. Someone stole my heart out of the inner city ghetto and put it in the redneck backwoods of Georgia. Seriously. I was sitting on a porch swing talking to this old super southern lady when it struck me like a little bolt of lightening that I love these people. And I love trailer parks. And I love their dogs too. I don't know what has happened... I guess that's good.

The work has awfully slow and it is getting kind of frustrating. Yesterday was exactly one month since my last baptism. I feel like we are doing everything we can and should be doing but nothing is coming of it. We aren't finding many new people and the people we do find aren't really all that solid, but luckily my sweet companion and I have been having more fun than the average missionary does, or probably should. We laugh mostly all day, people think we are nuts. But giggling on door steps does help us get into peoples houses. Here is a funny story for you. We were talking in British accents and I told Sister P I would give her a dollar if she did a whole door approach like that. She just looked at me like I was crazy. We were in a nicer neighborhood when we knocked on a door. I said something about the door that could be taken as not very appropriate and we both burst out laughing and said to each other at the same time "Get your mind out of the gutter" we were still laughing when the guy answered the door. We asked how he was and he said sore so we asked why. Basically the low down is that he jumped out of an airplane and although his parachute opened up he missed the grass and crash landed on the concrete the day before. That made me laugh more. seriously, who does that? When we regained our composer we told him who we were and what we were about and he just laughed (probably because we were still laughing about the whole situation) but then he invited us in. We went in and had a nice little sit down lesson. I think the only reason we got in is cause we were acting like goobers, but the spirit was there and it was all good. In fact, we have a return appointment with him tonight.

We have been kind of having a bummer week so on Saturday morning we decided that we were going to kick trash and rip the place up. We called the zone leaders and told them that we were going to set more dates than they were, but if they wanted to try and beat us the could try. They agreed but like 10 minutes later called back and said that something had to be on the line for such a bet. It was decided upon lunch and I opened my stupid mouth and said that when we won they had to take us to Ruby Tuesdays. The agreed upon rules were that we had to call each other when each date was set. So off we went and not a half hour later they called. And then they kept calling and calling and calling. Seriously. We didn't set our first date until like 2 in the afternoon. But they just kept calling. I got so desperate (because I hate to lose) that I committed the quick-e mart Indian cashier to baptism. I don't think he understood me but he agreed and gave us his phone number and said to come back to teach him. And those dang zone leaders just kept calling. In the end we set a lame 5 dates (one of them with P, the gas station man). and you know what they did? 10. 10 stinking dates. Seriously. So now they think that WE need to take THEM to Ruby Tuesdays. No no no my friends, the deal was that THEY would take US there when we won. And since we didn't win we will just have to find somewhere else to go to lunch. I refuse to take them to Ruby Tuesdays. And that is the final word. because I always have the final word.

D, our recent convert who wants to go on a mission got talked into joining the Nave by a ward member. So lame. Missions are waaaaaaaaaaay more important than protecting the country. He also took up smoking again but when we told him that there is a temple trip coming up and that he had to get worthy to get the priesthood to go he decided to quit for good. We're working on things, it is going to be the sweetest day of my life when D goes to the temple. I will most likely cry like a baby and stuff. But I'll definitely take pictures.

Ok, here is another good story about how wonderfully lame the zone leaders are. They came down for our district meeting and stayed to go on a trade off with the other two sets of missionaries in this area. One of the companionships canceled on them cause they had something cool come up so they though it would be a good idea to come with us. Sister C and I had been teaching this girl A for a while. She had read the whole book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel in like a week (her friend sent it to her before we even got there) She came to church and loved it but conveniently enough her mom decided to go back to the catholic church the same time A decided to come to the dark side cult church. She was getting a lot of resistance from home and the last time we went over about a month ago A yelled at us and told us never to come back. So we didn't. Well when the zone leaders came down one of them wanted to see A (he was our district leader here and had met her before). I told them absolutely not. But they went any way. When we got there she greeted us with a big smile and said something along the lines of "oh, so you called up the troops" then you know what they did? Committed her to baptism. Three months of this lady and it takes them 30 minutes and she's golden. I don't know what they're damage is but some day I'm going to be like that. someday I'm going to get my grove back and baptize someone. Someday. Her I guess, since she is our investigator.

Yeah, they're great. The other day they called about something and asked if they could do anything for us. I said to beam us chips and salsa and they said they would see what they could do. About 9 that night there was a knock on the door so we answered it and sitting there was chips and salsa. But no missionaries. So we went back inside and they rang the door bell again and ran away, but when they ran away they jumped into a canal full of stinky mud so we caught them... So all in all it has been a rough week missionary work wise but we have had fun doing it. I just keep having to remind myself of Alma 26:27. things are going to get better soon, I just know it. You gotta have the storm to enjoy the sunshine.