To All Whom May Be Interested:
This week was pretty normal, it flew by as always! Smithville is doing good and we weren’t affected too much by the weather over on this side of the MS-AL line. But it started to pour on us today so we’re kinda getting the aftermath. Other than that it’s been a pretty bomb week!
On Monday last week we went over to Johnny and Dorris’ house and we made jewelry boxes with him. It was nice to spend some time with Johnny and he definitely enjoyed our company. Before we left that night he got emotional and told us how much he appreciated us spending the time with him in his shop. Touching stuff. Also, as far as Dorris goes we found a place for her to get baptized!! It won’t happen this weekend but we are hoping by the end of the month we can get her there!
The next day we Zone Conference and that pretty much took us the entire day. Wa had to get an oil change too and let me tell you, TV is a waste of time. Grey’s Anatomy was playing on the TV and neither Elder Nielsen or I could focus because of this awful show playing behind us. That night we also went store contacting-which could’ve been better. But, as I was beating myself up about how bad I did trying to contact people Chong, a potential investigator, walked out of the Laundromat and waved us down! Couldn’t have been more excited! We scheduled a time to meet with her the next day and that was a huge blessing because the next day we found out that she was super prepared. She had been taught about a year ago up in Tennessee and then moved back home to Amory and the Sisters taught her a little bit but then she fell off for some reason. When we met with her though we were going to teach the Restoration again but we ended up going over the Baptismal Interview Questions and showing her that she was ready. We then put her on date for the 28th of October!! Chong almost didn’t come met with us but we are so glad she did and are hoping to keep tabs on her for the 28th!
Thursday we went on an exchange in New Albany with Elders Braithwaite and Johnson. That was a party. I went with Elder Johnson and we had a blast. Most of the night though we spent together and the afternoon we spent riding down a bike trail stopping and talking to some people! I hadn’t been on my bike in forever so that was fun! When we were walking down that street that night after an appointment we met a lady named Kaitlyn who I waved at to stop as she was pulling out of her driveway. She seemed pretty interested and we sent her information to the Tupelo Elders because that’s where she lives. Then we met a lady Wanda walking down the street. It was a successful night relatively and it was nice spending time with Elder Johnson.
We finally found Kardarius this week! He is a less-active who we’ve been searching for since we got here. When we saw him he was also with a friend, Donna, who is hilarious. We went inside and eventually got to teach Donna the Restoration and KArdarius was helping us, it was sweet. Then that night we re-contacted a lady named Jerri whom the Fulton Elders had found not too long ago. She doesn’t really attend a church and she has a cool personality but we are hoping to meet up with he again soon too! Then, on Friday night Dorris had a breakdown. She just was really sad because of her family and health and stuff that seemed to all be hitting her at once so we got to take some time with her. Elder Nielsen was talking to her and he was really bold-it was awesome. It was the first night that Priesthood seemed to click with her and we assured her that church and baptism would help her get to where she needs to be!
Saturday was full of walking around and meeting the locals. Apparently every year there is a yard sale the first weekend in October that goes down Highway 25 right through Smithville! Lots of interesting things trying to be sold and it was nice to get our faces out a little bit! We also went out to see a guy named Brother Van who loves Jesus but doesn’t like churches much. I don’t know if I mentioned him before or not but he is the guy that stopped us on the road one of the first weeks we were here and said “Y’all must be sweatin’ for Jesus!” From then on he’s prayed for us as “The Brothers who be sweatin’ for Jesus!” Love that title-best one yet. Anyway we met with him and if he is as tune with the Spirit as he’s been he will be a Mormon. He told us he wouldn’t be converted but we will see what the Spirit does to him. We went out to dinner at the Friendship House. This restaurant is THE Mississippi experience. There is one sign kinda down the road a little ways and if you don’t know where it is you won’t find it. The building doesn’t even have the restaurant name on it.
Sunday wasn’t too bad. We went around trying to find people and seeing why people didn’t come to church that morning. Lots of excuses but that’s okay, we’ll get there! We got to participate in an “Hour of Mighty Prayer” throughout the mission which was really cool. Every fast Sunday from now on we are going to be praying for an hour before breaking our fast. Talk about calling down the powers of Heaven. Today has been great too. We went bowling as a Zone in Tupelo and it was bringing me way back to High School because they were playing music from a while ago….and by they I mean us as the missionaries, lol! Big John-the guy at the Laundry place let us put “i’m a mormon” cards on the table at the Laundromat though so that’s cool.
- Brother Lyda, a LA loves talking about conspiracy. He’s kinda a weird dude. We talked about Politics a little-or should I say he did, we just smiled.
- We went to Waffle House on our exchange, enough said.
- Elder Nielsen and I are really good at store contacting in Hibbitt Sports.
- Elder Braithwaite left a surprise for us before they left our house on Friday after dropping us back off from the exchange. Luckily he kept the lid to the toilet closed.
It was another good week in Smithville. Hope y’all had a great one wherever you are and I hope you make it a good one this week! Take care, and if your Southern Elder can do anything for you let me know!
Much Love,
Elder Milius
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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
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