We got THIRTY-ONE new missionaries Tuesday! The average was like 10-12 people! 15 Elders, 16 Sisters. Ridiculous. So the mission home has been really chaotic and stressful. Luckily to relieve that stress, we did more service! From 10-2 we were back at Joe Weitz's house. I dug 8 holes for trees, moved 15 full size railway ties, and shoveled some gravel. After showering and changing, we went to the mission and got a call from someone we didn't know. She said her name was Jayne Bryant and that she had signed up for dinner! We lost our dinner calendar so we just said, Ok, we'll be there! 10 minutes later, the Elders that live with us called us and asked if we had just talked to a Jayne Bryant. We said yes...WE STOLE THEIR DINNER APPOINTMENT! Haha so funny. They had been trying to call her all day and she told them she had already talked to the missionaries she's feeding. We called back and told her there was a number mix-up, so she served 5 missionaries dinner! Funny stuff.
Everyone in the mission home is cranky haha. We had 7 new areas opened which means 7 new housing arrangements, and 7 new phone lines. So there is a lot of work involved! At four o'clock we got kicked out of the mission home for the new missionaries and ate dinner at Denny's with a member named John Biddle. He served in Arizona! So that was fun to talk to him. Later Wednesday night, we went on splits with the ward missionaries. My group didn't have much luck, but Elder Bonaro's group went and visited Kyle Hamburg and we ended up helping them move the rest of their stuff into their new home the next day. It had rained and all their stuff was in the front yard...everything smelled like mildew and every box was soaked. Kind of gross. I had to move a FULL refrigerator by myself, and then it took 5 of us to pick up and move the full commercial sized freezer they had! Still sore from that.
Friday was one of the coolest days ever! Do you remember Elder Suggs? He was the one on a mini mission that we took home clear up close to Canada. It's been a month since then, so we heard word that he was receiving his Endowments! president permitted us to go :) Such a cool experience to see him go through and is still committed to serving his service mission! Elder Nay (my DL in my last area) drove 5 hours to come to Sugg's endowment at 10AM! He had to leave at 4AM haha. Later in the day we went to seek out more less actives. We received a full list of everyone in both stakes who should be in the singles ward...962 names. Not an exaggeration! So we will always have something to do!
Coolest story of the week...of the 962 names we have, we came across a "Jessica Kimball." So, we set off to find her. We knocked on the door and a guy answers, probably in his 20's. We asked for Jessica and he said, "She doesn't live here anymore. That's her stuff in the yard." Sure enough, there was a couch, a treadmill, an elliptical, and lots of other things. She apparently was moving that day and he said she would be back in probably 45 minutes. So we got in the truck and we weren't sure what to do. It was hot out. So I turned to Elder Bonaro and said, "Here's what is going to happen. We are going to go to the gas station, get some drinks, and when we feel like we should come back, she will be outside moving the rest of her things." So guess what. We did exactly that, and sure enough she was outside with her family moving her things into a trailer. We got out and started helping. Apparently we came at a perfect time because she had all the heavy things left! And we had a truck so we were able to assist in taking over some things...We drove to her new apartment, unloaded completely, and by then it was 9:25PM. She asked for a blessing. I had the opportunity to give it. Jessica just went through a divorce and we think she just got kicked out of the house, and the guy we talked to was her ex. You could tell that her whole family had been highly inactive for years. After the blessing, she was bawling. And she invited us over for root beer floats this Sunday and they want us to dedicate their home :) Out of 962 people, we found Jessica, moving, THAT DAY, at THAT time, and found her new address that we would have otherwise lost. So cool.
For the next week we are actually living at Bishop's house! He and his family are in Utah and we got permission to dog sit for them while they're gone. It's so nice to have a house! On Sunday, church was awesome as usual. We taught Gospel Essentials for the first time and we think it went well. Chase Slade received the Priesthood! Wooooooo! That kid is a star. Because it is fourth of July week, the Billings Symphony was putting on a show in the park. Apparently it's a big deal because there was 10,000 people there! We went to get some publicity, and some lady said, "Hey can I take your picture?" We said, "Sure." Afterwards we asked what it was for and she said, "I am a photographer." Elder Bonaro asked if she had ever talked to missionaries before and she said, "Nope and don't plan to. Move along. No thank you." I wanted to rebuke that lady. So we might be in the newspaper lol. Before the show started, Tim, our investigator, was there and we had a discussion about God. It was really powerful because we had 3 members there helping us teach him in the Park. Tim claims to not believe in God. But recently, his Brother had bone cancer that should have killed him. But he was miraculously saved. Tim knows something saved his brother. We also found out, that he wants to stop chewing tobacco! So we are going to do the addiction recovery program with him. Hope it is successful!
Well that's all I got for this week! Sounds like Torie had an incredible week at Legacy Camp, EFY, and now band camp! She's got to be exhausted. That's scary that Jesse walks of f all the time! Does he have a cell phone yet? He basically needs a tracking device under his skin or something. That may be more helpful :) Mom how is your foot doing from the nail? Dad how is work? Family reunion sounds like it was a blast and pretty! I do not miss 119 degrees one bit. Yuck. I'm now acclimated, and 75 is too hot. Thanks for sending my ties mom! And thanks for the meds dad! I am healthy, and feeling great! Any plans for fourth of July? President gave us permission to go to a firework show and we can be out till 11! So pumped! Have a great week! Love you all!