Monday, October 16, 2017

16 October 2017 - Elder Milius Week 68

Same work, different people!

I love missionary work, but it’s been pretty much a typical week! I got the pictures of the bike ride we took with the New Albany Elders last week and some pictures from bowling last p-day as well! Things are going good though in the small town of Smithville, MS!
Dorris is doing alright. Her health is hard to work with and work around. They are also struggling a bit financially (unfortunately like almost everyone else down here) and that is an obstacle as well. Her and Johnny were going to come to church yesterday but couldn’t because they didn't have any gas to get all the way to Smithville. This baptism is proving to be more difficult than it seemed at first. The place we were planning to do her baptism isn’t going to work either...so pray that we can figure all that stuff out. Dorris is a great lady and likes to please everyone but she, like I’ve said in the past, has the biggest desire. I just hope we can help her that best we can and don’t have to just say, “Sorry!” 
Last Tuesday we went to the Morris’ to do family home evening with them-awesome family! When we went over Alina, the 13-year-old who was baptized recently, had her boyfriend over to meet us. WE were both thinking “Great lets see how this goes…” To our surprise Lane was actually a pretty solid guy! The Morris’ told us when we came in that they had talked a little bit about the church and filled him in on this that and the other thing and so we just answered some questions for him. We talked a little about the Restoration and a little about the Plan of Salvation. He was on top of it and ended up being really interested. THe next Wednesday he came to mutual and we talked to the YM about missions so he was in there and we low key taught him the Restoration lesson. It was sweet. His parents are split denominationally between Church of Christ-Dad-and Baptist-Mom. Hope all goes well with him and we’ll see what that turns into.
Chong is being flakey. She is making it difficult to meet with and such but we’re still pushing her for the 28th. It’s weird because every time we do meet with her she’s awesome and she is ready to change and to do whatever it takes but then something happens and she has to cancel or something happens and she can’t come to church. Frustrating. 
On Monday night last week though we got to meet the Cope (“e” is with an accent) family and they are hilarious. We had tracted into Bonita, the Mom, before but they invited us in and we asked a plethora of questions about our church and our beliefs. It was really funny! They also told me that I looked like Ryan Reynolds and that Elder Nielsen looked like Edward from Twilight. So this week I’ve been asking people if they think I look like Ryan, lol. Elder Nielsen gets annoyed at my giant ego due to the fact that I look like I could be Deadpool’s little brother. (Funny addition, earlier in my mission when I was in Florence, AL, there was a recent convert named Erica who called me “Deadpool” because she thought I looked like Ryan Reynolds). The Cope’s also had an argument about who makes the better fried chicken the Mom or the Grandma and invited us back to judge their competition! They ended up cancelling but one day I will have fried chicken made by a black woman which according to them is way better than any other fried chicken.
The Food Pantry in Amory is doing good. We met a couple of potential investigators there last Tuesday and we were able to go help a lady who volunteers there as well. District Meeting was great this week, our District is a mess...at least us Elders are. Liz-the Eminem lady-is doing alright. We’re as interested as you are to figure out where that’s going to go. Sister Dupree, as recently widowed lady in the Branch who makes amazing food and deserts (and is trying to make us fat) invited us over a couple times this week. She’s getting some work done on her house and shares the gospel with all three of her contractors. Angela is still chilling waiting for God to tell her to go down to the river. We also met a couple new people this week: Terrell, Brandon, Brittney, Lizzie, and Kathy-a crazy bird lady who used to live across from the Elders when they were in Fulton.
Some random stories and one-liners for this week:
  • We met a lady named April who had talked to missionaries in the past about where babies come from…
  • There is this store in Downtown Fulton called “Square Gifts Co.” and it’s literally where all the college girls from ICC go to hangout and work. We met a lot of them on Thursday and it was weird to make the connection that most of them graduated in 2016. Ahhh..
  • I made Elder Nielsen pet this dog that smelled like poop.
  • We tried to see a less-active but they didn’t answer the door. Then when we were at Dollar General we saw some of his family and he was in the parking lot driving the truck we saw not even 30 minutes ago in his driveway.
  • The Lyda family is hilarious. The Father and Husband didn’t know that he was a member of our church, but Mother and Wife seems interested more than him. He was talking to us about Bigfoot the other week and this week we talked about how racist the South and specifically Amory, MS, is. 
  • We bought a MS State Flag from this racist dude with a stand full of confederate banners and other stuff.
  • We basically ran church on Sunday. We gave the opening and closing prayers in Sacrament, we blessed the sacrament as well, and we both spoke in church. The High Councilman used us each in his talk as well. Oh, and we surprise taught Gospel Principles! :)
  • We called to see if we could stop by a member’s home and we were told that it was too late and they were getting ready for bed. It was 7:15pm. Granted, it felt like 1:00am because of how dark it was but still! 
  • When doing service on Saturday for Michelle (the lady who volunteers at the food pantry) Elder Nielsen got afraid because of a spider. So, our nicknames are now “Ryan” (that’s me :) ) and “Spiderman.” Spiderman and Ryan are way cooler than Batman and Robin though, just sayin! 

It was a good week down South! Things keep moving forward with or without us so we just have to do enough work to keep up! I appreciate all your prayers and they are definitely effective! Love y’all, and have a blessed week!

Much Love,
Elder Milius


-- 
Godspeed,
ELDER MICHAEL S. MILIUS
ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM MISSION

"Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life." ~3 Nephi 5:13













No comments:

Post a Comment