December 8th

Howdy howdy howdy. 

MLC was Monday. We got to go to Tulsa and hang out and do cool things. Like caroling! And then we learned what we have to teach our zones! It was great fun. Caroling the night before was awesome. It was super cold. But we were awesome. Some people still don't like missionaries knocking on their door, even if it's just caroling. On the bright side though, there was one lady who didn't come to the door at first who lived in a cul-de-sac. Once we made the rounds, she came out finally so we sang to her. Turns out she had just found out she had cancer that day and hadn't told anybody so we really cheered her up. That was sweet. 

Most of us have given up all hope of iPads. Some still cling to the burning embers of previous promises, but us vets know what "you'll have them by winter" means. 

This is me at MLC. I'm me over there, and Elder Reed is the one on the very top left leaning over the banister. We're pretty cool dudes. You might recognize Smitty, he was trained in Bentonville 2nd while I was in 1st ward. He's the handsome square chinned dude in the bottom right. He's a boss dog. Elder Kindrick is the bald one in the middle on the stairs who's tag is being grabbed, he is one of the APs and he was in my MTC district! He had more hair then. Thankfully President let's him be an exception to our "part in the hair required" rule. 

What else happened this week...

We had zone training meeting the day after MLC and we really had no idea what we were doing because we had so little time to prepare. It turned out pretty good though. Our zone really wants to hammer down on the He is the Gift video. We have all these sweet pass along cards and a video to show people and it's awesome. We set a goal for all the areas in our zone hitting the standard of excellence this week with 100% lessons taught with a member present. Which is very hard to do unless you're the sisters who suggested we do it. 

Oh! When I was in Bentonville, there was a lady names Lusia who worked and Panda Express there and would give us 10 or 20 percent off our food. Lo and behold, Elder Reed and I went to Panda Express this week and there was Lusia! This time she gave me free food. Twice. Once with just Elder Reed and then when the Assistants came to do exchanges. Both times Elder Reed had already eaten, haha. Poor guy. 

Our teaching pool is unfortunately small right now, which is a bummer. We do have two investigators with a date, but we're not sure how solid they are. On Sunday they weren't responding when we were trying to see if they were ready to come to church, because they needed a ride. So we went with a member of our bishopric anyway, and about halfway there we got a text back with perhaps the best excuse I have ever heard for not coming to church:

"I re-injured myself chasing a bug."

It doesn't get much better than that folks. So we'll see how they pan out. They seem sincere, but you never quite know for suresies. 

Things are great with Elder Reed, he's a champion of modern thought. His parents are divorced and every time he introduces himself he says, "I'm from Idaho and Oregon. It's a long story." and it makes me laugh because another Elder I knew in Rolla did the same thing. It's like having an inside joke that only I know about, so it's not as funny. But the Boehme's will think it's funny. Shout out to you guys. 

Okay it's time to go. 

loveyoubyeeee

Elder Christopher Drake

Kids Say the...Rudest Things

Howdy Folks. 

Week two here in Jopling. 

Let's start off with two amusing stories. 

Elder Reed and I went to contact a investigator that sort of disappeared for a while. Her name is Barbara. So we knock on the door, and Barbara is super friendly. She couldn't meet with us right then but we talked for a minute on her porch. Then this little girl, maybe five or six years old or so comes running up to the door, opens it, sticks her head out, and with a big grin on her face says, "You guys are a**holes!" and then runs back inside the house. Barbara was super embarrassed, it wasn't her kid, gratefully. It was actually her renter's kid. Who is a stripper. Missions are funny. It wasn't the first time a kid has been rude to me on my mission though. Once in Harrison, when I was serving with Elder Aubry, we went tracting. We walked up a street and this little girl on a Big Wheel rides up to us and says "Hey you guys are weirdos!" and then followed us around the neighborhood singing, "Weirdos, weirdos!" and then when we would try to talk to her she would scream "YOU GUYS ARE WEIRDOS!" She followed us until Elder Aubry and I decided to walk up a reasonably steep hill. She gave up about halfway. Another time in Bentonville some 11 year old kid on a bike pretended to hit Elder Reese and I and as he rode away made rather rude and quite false comments about our sexual orientation that are perhaps a little too vulgar to repeat. 

Kids are rude, man.

We had an eventful week though. Oh yeah, it was Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Anyway. I went on exchanges Tuesday with Elder Day in Fort Scott, Kansas. I didn't think to ask if I was going to be in a bike area or not and sure enough, Fort Scott is a bike area. And it was cold. The good news is that I wore my good suit too. Elder Day is basically like Elder Allred. Pretty much a carbon copy, so that was awesome and fun and weird. It was like being in Stockton again,  minus polygamists. However, we did visit a really interesting family of hoarders and during the course of conversation this sweet old lady said, "You know, some of those KKK guys are nice people!" I had a hard time not laughing. 

Wednesday we attended Fort Scott's district meeting. We got a text around 9 or so saying, "Hey Elder Drake, we're gonna be a little late, can you start District Meeting?" So my first District Meeting in about a year that I'm not a District Leader, I have to pretend to be one for the first few minutes anyway. I thought doing all the getting to know you stuff and setting some district goals with them before Elder White, the District Leader got there, but I decided that would be rude. 

Cool Story: A kid prepping for his mission/working on his testimony gave us a ride back from exchanges in Ft. Scott and his truck died a block away from our apartment so we went and saw if he needed a ride or anything. Someone was coming to pick him up, so we headed back. A few minutes later we got a text from him, "Hey after you guys left, I said a prayer and my truck started right up, thanks guys!" So that was cool. 

Thanksgiving: Turkey Bowl in the morning. I was my usual all-star self. At the very beginning I intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown! Then I touched the ball at least two more times after that. I'm basically a super star. Dinner/Lunch was at this super old house that had been spruced up and was all cool. It was built in 1905 or something like that, but they had a sweet awesome kitchen and the food was super duper. I even tried Mincemeat pie. It was pretty good. I prefer Bobba's apple pie though. 

Let's see. 

The rest of the week was pretty standard. We trimmed a tree, heard people talk about the new Star Wars trailer, and all that cool stuff. 

Oh yeah, Wes and Marie from Rolla are supposed to be getting baptized this Saturday, so I'm trying to line up a ride out there. That is proving difficult. Also, trying to get information from the new Rolla elders is like pulling teeth, I swear. A lot of one-word responses, like "Ye". I just want to see my homies get baptized! This is the thanks I get for giving you two, possibly four baptisms? The cusses they are. But it's all good because I can listen to Christmas music, and I just found out that Julian Casablancas has a Christmas song, so that makes me happy. Also, The Killers' "Don't Shoot me Santa" is pretty good. The Carpenters Christmas Portrait has gone through one play already, but I think I'm the only missionary our here who enjoys it. That makes me sad. 

Keep it cool peeps. 

Elder Christopher Drake