October 24, 2016

Pictures Living in the hood, cool cars and people, crazy investigators, ghetto
basketball, "bible bashing", South Carolina:)

Hello:) I feel like saying this week was interesting is actually just
normal in the mission, so this week was pretty normal. I was
transferred to Newberry, which is 45ish minutes West of West Columbia,
so I'm still in the West Columbia Zone:) my companions are Elder
Holmstead (Burley Idaho) and Elder Schultz (Mapleton Utah) ya another
3-pack lol. Elder Holmstead is a 6'6 skier bro that knows Cash and
Depeau through skiing. He's been out for 8 months. We get along really
well:) Elder Schultz is a mountain biker that is originally from
Canada (idk why I always have Canadian companions) and we get along
pretty well too:) He came out the same day I did so we're both in
training still. He is super set on perfect strict obedience, and takes
every rule 100% literally, Great guy.  This companionship seeming to be very
similar to my last one, Elder Holmstead is the new Elder Mitchell and
Elder Schultz is like Elder Scarff. All just a learning experience!
Newberry is definitely different from West Columbia. I thought that WC
was pretty ghetto, but Newberry is the freaking hood. It's pretty dope
not gonna lie. I thought there were a lot of G-Sleds (cars with GIANT
rims, like the cars I sent pics of in
the past) in WC, but they're like every other car here. There's so
many I don't even bother taking pictures lol. It's interesting that
there's so many incredibly poor people, yet some very wealthy people
as well. Like Porsches and Corvettes just drive through the hood lol.
We love right next to Newberry College, and sometimes see some lax
players practicing! Can't wait to get my cast off then go talk to them
haha. There's a lot of college kids in the apartments we live in, so
that creates some temptations ugh but the devil ain't tempting me!!!
The ward is very racially diverse, but is very united and loving which
is awesome! The black dudes are so funny and Elders Quorum gets pretty
wild here. It's a pretty solid ward and everyone has plenty of fun at
church:) it's hard to leave the Congaree ward and all of the people
there, but I'm happy and excited to be in Newberry:):)

This ward has some awesome members that I get along with really well.
Our Elders Quorum president is a retired track bike (bullet bike)
racer that now sells high end hospital beds and is pretty wealthy. He
has a 500 horsepower 1973 Z28 Camarillo that is completely restored
and freaking dope. Another brother in our ward has a supercharged
Dodge Challenger "Hellcat" that supposedly puts down 950 horsepower. I
have yet to see it but have heard all about the legend of the hellcat.
There's a couple other people that have pretty dope muscle cars and
trucks but those ones stood out to me:)

Now with Missionary work we have a couple of interesting
investigators. One of them goes by blue, and is literally like Michael
Oher from the movie the Blind Side. He is this HUGE black dude that
looks scary, but is actually the sweetest most tender hearted guy
you'll ever meet. He's on date for November 12:)
Now for the crazy investigators! We work with these room mates named
J. and C.  They are complete pot heads and are completely open
about it. They have met with us while high, chewed tobacco while
talking to us, and participated in drug deals on their porch while we
are there, but they pay attention, keep commitments, and are
interested so we keep working with them haha. They definitely come up
with some crazy stuff while we talk them lol now we just gotta go over
the Word of Wisdom with them soon and we will be good:)
We also work with these two black brothers who are always high, and
have no teeth so we can't really understand them. They also are
interested and keep commitments, and they have our phone number and
call us like 3 times a day, so we meet with them occasionally.

Down the street from our apartment there is a way nice basketball
court in the hood, that has lights and an announcer where tons of
black people come on Friday and Saturday nights. It's pretty crazy and
is just like the stuff you see on YouTube lol.

Newberry is a pretty interesting place, but I love it here:) we were
able to go to the State fair on Wednesday and do service by pushing
old people from a retirement home around in wheel chairs:) I was able
to have a wonderful conversation for around 30 minutes, with an older
gentlemen who insisted on raising his voice and expressing his
opinions on "Normans" by using choice words and frantically expressing
his emotions. Some may call this "Bible Bashing", but as Bruce R.
Mckonkie said, "it's not bible bashing if you know what you're talking
about."  But I still don't know all that much of what I'm talking
about so it was pretty much bible bashing:) but now I realize why
we're not supposed to do it, it wastes a lot of time, gets you
nowhere, and is really fun so I'm probably going to do it again if the
opportunity is presented. But don't worry I just ask questions that
they can't answer, or that make them answer for themselves, and don't
bring up any scriptures so it's not bad. Just teaching what we
believe:)

South Carolina is an awesome place!! I'm starting to get used to it,
except it's getting pretty dang cold here. We were doing service the
other day and the lady we were helping had a thermometer that was in
the shade and it said 40 degrees, and it's still like 50-60 percent
humidity. So ya it's pretty cold sometimes but I'm getting much better
at understanding southern hick and toothless black man:) The Ward
Mission leader here asked me how long I had been out and where I was
from, then was surprised because he said I'm picking up a southern
accent:) I'm really starting to like it here, and getting into the
swing of things in Newberry is helping me to really enjoy missionary
work. Waking up at 6:30 every morning still sucks but Elder Schultz
lets me know when it's 6:32 and I'm still in bed:)

Don't forget to Read and Pray<3
Alma 26:22
Alma 34:17-27
Mosiah 23:21-22

Pic 1-2: Our recent convert Chanta's ferrite lol
Pic 3: Transfers-saying bye to Elder Mitchell:(
Pic 4: My new companions