It was a lot better week this week than last week. There wasn't a lot going on with the missionary end of things (as far as lessons go) but a lot less stressful :) Family home evening last Monday was at a Mercedes dealership owned by a member in the Bishopric. We talked about goals and preparation to be successful. It was pretty good, we had 2 investigators and a less-active there! Today for FHE, Elder Bonaro and I are actually giving the lesson, so we are going to do the Restoration (1st discussion) and then at the end, tell everyone to pull out their phones and text the first non-member that comes to mind and ask them to church. Hopefully it will go well!
Tuesday 3 members of the ward took us to Jimmy Johns for lunch because apparently they had met someone the week before river tubing who was lost (and drunk) that they gave a ride home too. He works at Jimmy John's, so they took us to meet him haha. Couldn't talk to him much at work but it was still cool.
I found some answers about Priesthood Keys. Members of the 70 do not hold keys, but act under the Apostles keys. Bishop Williams over the singles ward has Keys over all non-members ages 18-31 in his boundaries (in this case, both stakes), but he does not hold keys over any less-actives unless officially on the ward list for the Rimrock Ward. Otherwise, we have to contact the bishop of every ward that we talk to a less-active in and let them know.
Wednesday we taught a new investigator! His name is Josh Connor who has been introduced to the missionaries before, but recently ASKED for the discussions again now that he is in Billings. We taught him at the church and he is BEYOND golden. More so than Chase. He is extremely open, offered to say the closing prayer, asking to know if what we taught was true. He is doing this all on his own, despite family and friend opposition. In one of the pictures in the Restoration pamphlet, Christ is shown giving Peter the Priesthood. Without explaining at all, we asked him what it looked like Christ was doing and he says," I don't know...maybe bestowing the Priesthood upon Peter?" WHO IN THE WORLD KNOWS THAT?! So pumped to work with this kid.
Mentioned last time, there have been some missionaries that have been teaching young single adults who want to go to the singles ward. So, two of them were handed off to Elder Bonaro and I, both on baptismal dates. Although we can't take credit for them, it is cool to be a part of their baptisms! One of them, is named Meagan, and we taught her "Follow the Prophet." That is the very last thing you can possibly teach so she is set for August 10th! We were on exchanges this week, so I was with Elder Schramm, when we taught. Elder Schramm is awesome, we get along really well.
THURSDAY. Most fun day of my mission so far. Hands down. Ever heard of "The Dirty Dash?" It's a 5k run that started in Utah by a bunch of Mormons and it got really popular and is now across several states. Well, we were asked by a lot of the staff if we could help out at this event, where there would be about 4000 people running! So, from 7AM to about 330PM we got to help out at the dirty dash! SO FUN. It is basically a mud run with lots of obstacles. The Pioneer Park Elders (Issacson and Schramm), the Lake Hills sisters, the Pioneer Park sisters, and Elder Bonaro and I were there helping out.:) Us Elders, were chosen to run the enormous blow-up waterslide! About a mile in, there is a mud hill with pudding-thick mudd you have to climb and then slide down this big 4-lane water slide. So the slide was nice and muddy! At the bottom was a ton of hay that we throw on them while they're all wet...they hated us for that haha. Anyway, so Elder Schramm and i were at the bottom throwing hay while Elder Bonaro and Issacson were at the top of the water slide directing lane traffic. It was good we were there because a few people nearly died. No joke. A girl going down got caught in a tear on the slide which caused her to go nearly halfway IN the slide, choked her, made her pass out and foam at the mouth. The EMT's came, and we thought she was gone. She wakes up, knew exactly where she was, and finished the race. No harm. At all. Super scary though.
Later on, Elder Schramm and I were working at the top of the slide. The water supply came from a fire hose that connected to P.V.C pipe which shot up water into rubber tubes onto the slides. One of the tubes burst, making water go everywhere. So, Elder Schramm and I took turns sitting in the Mud trying to keep that lane open. So we would hold the tube over the shooting water by hand while people jumped over us. By 11AM, the dirt hill we were on, was clearing out from underneath us from the water leak. A few times, someone would get on the slide wrong, and almost fell 20 feet below. Twice, I found myself grabbing someone by the calf to prevent them from dying lol. By the end, we were all CAKED in mud. oh, and I forgot to mention, we were in our shirts, ties, and basketball shorts so those all got ruined. Haha totally worth it though! We got free hoodies and T-shirts for helping out. Surprisingly enough, we got A LOT of attention and recognition! Lots of non-members told us thank you for helping, and keeping everyone safe. It was one of the sister's birthdays, so she got called up on stage and the DJ says, "Sister Bain, did you ever think that on your mission you would be sung Happy Birthday by 400 drunk people?" Haha he was LDS so it was pretty funny.She shouted to the crowd asking if anyone wanted a Book of Mormon and they all said no lol. But the best service project ever.
Sunday 3 new wards were made in the Billings Stake! The sacrament was given to 1409 people at that Stake Center. Crazy stuff. Well that is all for this week! Thank you so much for the package, I got it today! A much needed shirt, a sweet razor (how did they even know it was my birthday forever ago?), notebooks and BOM reading charts! Glad to hear you are feeling better mom :) Jesse sounded like he didn't want to come home from camp (no surprise there), and Torie is yet at another camp! Busy busy family.
Hope you are healthy and happy! Talk to you next week!
Pictures:
at the Dirty Dash, Billings
another of the Dirty Dash in Billings
Jake, Elder Schramm
Elders Issacson, Inman, Bonaro, Schramm
at the Dirty Dash in Billings