I knew I was getting transferred since Friday but I didn't know where. It turns out I am headed to Tifton, GA. I didn't see that one coming at all. That means I'm probably going to be part of the new Georgia Macon Mission. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess I'm mostly in shock right now.
Anyway, this week was an interesting one. After emailing on Monday, we went to a Mexican restaurant with Sister P. It was alright but I was kind of disappointed. The food was alright. It was fun to eat with Sister P. We even stopped by at One Scoop or Two which is a really nice ice cream place for ice cream. The ice cream man there is really nice and Sister P even invited him to church. We had dinner at the R's which was fun. We had chicken and rice with tomato gravy. It was pretty good and we had a good lesson about faith afterwards. We really encouraged the four boys to serve missions.
Tuesday was district meeting. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it. It didn't go as good as last week but it turned out good. We did role plays of different finding situation at the end and I was the investigator. We had a rough day after that. Everything kind of fell through and I don't remember a whole lot of what happened that day.
On Wednesday we were going to go over and see C but she called and cancelled as she had a good family friend staying with her and she just had too much to do between taking care of her business and taking care of her friend. So we volunteered at the thrift store instead. We saw some people there and said hello and gathered many hangers. We visited G but she had pulled her shoulder and was hurting pretty bad. It was in a sling and everything. We talked a bit about how every time we try and come over it seems like something comes up. We had lunch and then tried a former investigator. We walked around and talked to a few people including a very nice but very old lady. She was pretty excited for us to come see her. We decided to go to Burger King for a drink (it was very hot and their water is really cold) and we just happened to bump into the former investigator. We talked to him and he seemed open for us to visit- he was just hard to catch. We visited a few other people and talked to them. We had a missionary coordination meeting with the new branch mission leader, Brother L. He's a really nice guy but he's pretty intense. He looked over our progress report and made these comment (I'm paraphrasing here) "we need more people. Y'all didn't come on your missions for this. Y'all are not super home teachers. You need to be able to think about these people and see where they are going, otherwise rethink why you're meeting with them". It was a wake up call for me to refocus my time and efforts and try harder to be better.
Thursday was largely taken up by Weekly Planning and other things. We mowed Sister B's lawn which was nice. I thought a lot about district meeting and I received some good ideas. It should be a good one. After a nice shower and lunch it was time for weekly planning. We talked a good bit about our companionship unity which has been suffering as of late. We talked about some good issues and resolved some things. We visited Brother W as he wasn't feeling good and was sick. We've been trying to work with his grandsons C and B. They're very hyper but they love church and Primary. They're not members but they come with their Grandpa since he started coming back to church. Their dog recently (about 3 or 4 weeks ago) had puppies and they really wanted to show us so out came B with all 4 puppies in a wheelbarrow.
It was pretty funny to watch the puppies bouncing up and down peeking over the sides as B wheeled them over. We tried some people with Brother B but no luck. We had a great dinner appointment with the D's. It was the first time I had been out there as it was 30 miles from our apartment. On the way, the B's stopped and we got pictures of the flowers (they do that frequently).
The dinner was quite good- pork steaks with rice. They also had this amazing dessert that was whipped cream, chocolate pudding, and chocolate cake with little bits of toffee on top. I enjoyed it. We also had a great lesson with their grandson and we talked about serving a mission and the faith that it required. It was good.
Friday we did service at C's. We pulled up the new vines that were growing and we cleaned up. She was really busy so we didn't really get to talk much. Elder F called Sister Jensen asking her if he needed to move his doctor's appointment on Wednesday (transfer day) and that was when we learned I would be transferred. I was rather sad actually- I really like Madison and the people we are working with are making progress and I kind of want to be there for that. Ah well. =( But anyway- after lunch we set out again. We saw J C and we also had a nice chat with the S's- a very nice retired couple. They had talked to missionaries in the past but are very involved in their Methodist church. We went with G and made candy at the Methodist church and talked to some people there. They were quite friendly and I had a pretty good time except when I burned myself. It wasn't bad though. The finished product was quite delicious.
We had a great lesson with R and R. They are really excited about getting baptized and have cut their smoking in half! We went over the baptismal interview questions and they agreed to everything and wanted it written up for them so they can put it on their fridge and think about it everyday. It was a fun night. They really enjoyed the dinner at the R's last week. R said "It was like we were huggin." They really felt something special which we explain was the Spirit and told them how we want that same feeling to be in their home.
Saturday it rained quite a bit in the afternoon. We got soaked pretty good riding home to get the car. We visited a few people who weren't home, busy, or had moved. We did have a good visit with Ms. M. She's been really busy or tired whenever we come over and we finally caught her working in the yard. We were able to talk to her and really emphasize the importance of the message that we share- she agreed to let us come back and share it and we made sure we had a specific time that we could come back that she would be there.
Sunday was mother's day. Church was quite good- I even got to bear my testimony as I had told J that I was leaving and he told President R. Sister B gave a great and quite funny talk about how important moms are. We went to temple prep class as none of our investigators came to church (R and R had to go pick up her sister). After lunch and dropping off some flowers for those who weren't able to make it to church, it was Skyping time! Elder F did FaceTime to home and I talked with the R's. L asked me to draw her a picture so I did. This is what came out:
Someone mentioned friendship turtles and I thought it might look like a good picture so I drew it. Anyway- we went with J and had a great lesson with the K's (Sister B's nephew). I originally tracted into them the day we went to his brother's funeral. They both work a lot so it's hard to catch them but we taught about how God is our Loving Heavenly Father and about the Spirit World. It was a bit all over the place but it was still good. They would go on tangents but Elder F did a good job of knocking it back on track. We asked if we could come back and explain more about where the Book of Mormon came from as they had questions. Then it was time to Skype home which was very funny and I hope all the family enjoyed it. I ate dinner with the R's which was pretty good if rather late and said my goodbyes. I'm really going to miss them.
But anyway- we came home and Elder F met a very nice but very sad dog. It was obviously well trained as it was very nice and would listen when you told it to sit or stay. It also looked very abandoned as it was very skinny. Elder F petted it which it really enjoyed and it started to follow him around. It would whine and cry a lot since I'm guessing it was really hungry. I didn't really want a whole lot to do with it but Elder F has a soft spot for dogs. He gave it water and chicken noodle soup (it was all we had and he wouldn't eat the pork and beans). We finally went inside and planned. The dog chilled on the doorstep and cried some more for a bit but he was gone this morning. He was a pretty nice dog. No collar though.
Well that's our week. Interesting as always. I want to leave with one last observation that Elder F made. We ran into a man who was passing through Madison on his way to Texas. He didn't have any money and needed a place to stay and was wondering if he could stay in the church for one night. So we called President R and he talked to the man. He was from Mexico and President R served his mission in Columbia so they started talking in Spanish so I only understood a little bit of what he was saying. The conversation ended with the man saying "You can't help me?" and he handed the phone back to Elder F. He turned away with a very unhappy expression and stormed off. We talked to President R who had offered him a ride to Tallahassee that night, a spot in the homeless shelter, and a few other things; but the man didn't want anyone to know he was here. We felt pretty bad about not being able to help him when Elder F made the comment: "I think that's how it's going to be at the Judgement. Christ is going to say I can do this and this for you and I can do this if you do this so you can get that. We are going to be the ones who turn him down and walked away because we're unwilling to take the blessings as we are unwilling to take the requirements of those blessings."
This work is real. It is also very hard. But I'm learning to love hard.
I love and miss you all!
Elder Matthew Carlson
