Einstein really had something when he was talking about that whole time relativity stuff. This week seems like it just went on forever and ever. By Thursday I had already told myself a few times, "Oh yeah, church isn't tomorrow."
Getting used to a new area and a new companion is tough, but good at the same time. It's a bummer getting used to somebody else's habits and how things are done after spending six months getting used to other people, but I guess that's just a part of being a missionary! Keeps you from getting too comfortable.
We had some crazy experiences this week, good and bad. I think I'll start with the bad so I can end on a high note.
On Saturday, we spent a lot of time on the phone. About 4 referrals came through and a few of them we referred off to other missionaries. We had a media referral from some missionary in Washington or something that we had been trying to contact, but couldn't get ahold of, and thought that we would try again. So Elder Reese calls the number, and the conversation went something like this,
"Hi, this is the misisonaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we-"
"Take my !@$%?#^ number off of there right !@$%?#^ now, you piece of $#@& missionaries, *&^% you!"
"Aaall right, sorry about that, you have a good day"
I got a good laugh out of it. It seemed like this week all the good referrals we had were forwarded to other missionaries and we got all the crummy ones!
Earlier that week we got a referral from some other missionaries and went to contact him. He wasn't home, but his father was. We talked to him a bit and at first he wasn't receptive at all. He said something to the effect of, "Joseph Smith's story is something you couldn't even find at Disneyland." but we kept on talking anyway. Well, after a while, this guy just starts dumping his whole life onto us. All of the hard stuff he's been through in the past few years and how he's been praying asking for help and just on and on. This guy started crying, and mind you, he didn't seem like the type to cry very easily. So by the time we left he agreed to talk to missionaries again and to read the Book of Mormon...in Spanish.
We also contacted another referral that Elder Reese and his previous companion have been trying to get in contcat with all last transfer. We finally meet her, and she's super receptive, even excited to get a Book of Mormon and read it. The only problem is she's a young single woman whose family pretty much only speaks Spanish, and we have a set of sisters in the area serving in the Young Single Adult branch aaaand one of them speaks Spanish.
It's been really nice seeing some real potential success here. The people here in Bentonville are great and it seems like every day somebody is honking and waving at us while we're riding our bikes. The selfish part of me wants to keep all of these great teaching opportuinities so I can stay busy and see some success, but I know that it's more important to offer these people all the resources we have available.
Things are slow, but starting to pick up. I'm really excited to be here and am looking forward to all the different opportunities I will have to serve here in this area.
I love you guys! I hope you're all doing well. It's great to hear from you, keep the e-mails and letters coming.
Love,
Elder Christopher Drake
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