Monday, September 14, 2009

Fernandina Beach, FL Letter #15 September 14, 2009

Hello from the South!

Well, well, well, this week was simply sweeeet! No other words to describe this past week than sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

So to start off…the first part of the week went by extremely slow; not a lot of investigator visits. Therefore, Elder Bowen & I did huge amounts of tracting…and tracting…and more tracting! We didn't find many people who wanted to talk with us. However, as we were out tracting on Tuesday, Elder Bowen turned to me and said, “Elder Blair I want you to pray about a day that we will go and tract, and I want you to pray about which street; and then we will go there”.

That night I prayed and felt like Thursday on a street called Kelp. I continued to pray for quite awhile that night and this was the answer I received each time. However, on Thursday we helped a member move for about 4 hours and after that we had to get Elder Bowens tooth temporary cap on, which took us all the way down to Jacksonville. So by the end of the day we missed the time to go and tract Kelp St. Then on Friday, we had some appointments that were quite a way from Kelp St. so of course we couldn't do it then.

Finally, on Saturday, we got on our bikes and set off for Kelp St.! As soon as we got in the area and turned on Kelp street, we chained up our bikes and got to work! This street is located in the ghetto of Fernandina. There are really humble, humble people in that area, but it is also a challenge- because it is hard to find people willing to keep commitments. Shortly after we started, we found a man named Joseph. He said, “That he believed that God sent us to him”, An answer to his prayers and ours! After talking for just a minute, we set a return appointment to visit Joseph on Sunday right after church. He was very busy at the time, but he said that he would try to make it on Sunday to church. So great way to start off on Kelp St. After that, we found five other people that wanted us to come back, all five were in that same area. Elder Bowen and I were pumped! After several weeks without anything…we felt as if we were at our lowest, lower than we had ever been. Everyone we seemed to meet had a hard heart, and would not even speak to us, or was using trickery on us. Finally, last Saturday things were really starting to look up!

On Sunday (Joseph did not make it to church) two women walked into our little church branch! Yep just like that… they walked in off the street and wanted to know more! They just showed up! Crazy! It’s as if we felt so down and so bad, and then God just threw people at us…, which was sweet!

A little earlier this week we started to feel like we were working for money and free pizza!! Ha-ha!! Because one of our investigators gave us a 20 dollar bill, for being nice to them. He really wanted us to have it and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He told us he wanted us to have the money so that we could write home and tell our family that, “They are not all bad down here.” So Mom, Dad, friends, family… “They are not all bad! Foster and Gale Harris are really super nice, nice people!!” lol Another time last week, we got free pizza one night, and another time when I was driving, Elder Bowen made me pull the car over so we could tract three houses that were just there by themselves. I was like, “Sweet this is inspired. We are going to meet someone that will be a miracle!!” However, we met a guy that gave us 5 bucks. Lol. So that is why I said it seemed like we were tracting for money and pizza all week HA-HA!

Oh and on Saturday, as we were riding our bikes home from tracting (on Kelp St.) a dog got out of the yard and started chasing me. I was just riding along minding my own business and next thing I know, I saw the dog coming right for me. I said to myself, “Oh crap!” So I started hauling and went as fast as I could, but the dog kept the pace and was getting ready to bite me. I decided to veer off the path, so I went down into a ditch and out onto this other road, trying to shake him off. It didn’t work.

Then finally I thought, there is no way I am going to out run this thing. I said to myself, “Time for a show down!” Then I slammed on my breaks and I fish tailed my back tire. I looked right at the dog and yelled at him to “go home!” The dog looked shocked for a second and then started barking again. Then I pointed in the direction of his house, and said again, GO HOME! The dog walked off but kept barking all the way home. By this time, Elder Bowen comes up to where I was stopped. (He was quite a ways off, cause he is a way faster bike rider) as he pulled up he just started laughing. He thought it was pretty funny, however I didn't think so. All I knew was that I was tired, my butt hurt, and we finally had a good day of tracting and that dog was not going to ruin my day, (and it turned out he didn't)!

Anyways back to Joseph… It turns out he got married 3 days before we met him (cause we did drop by to see him on Sunday after church). He was thinking that he and his wife should start going to church. We set up a baptism date with him for the 27th of this month and told him about the Word of Wisdom. Joseph said he doesn’t have a problem with smoking or drinking, and he is willing to give up tea and coffee as well. He is very excited for our missionary class that we have on Wednesday at the branch, and so he is coming to that this Wednesday! Lol

So overall, it turned out to be a pretty sweet week! The two ladies names that just showed up to church Sunday were Dimache and Calleen. We are meeting with Dimache tonight, and we are excited about that. Then today for P-day, we are going out with our district. We are all going to Cumberland Island!! (It is in St. Mary’s!) LOL looks like we have an awesome day ahead of us!

I am pretty excited about our investigators, they are all studs!! Well that is pretty much my awesome, dog-defying week. I am losing a lot of weight. Just since getting the gym membership, I lost another 7 lbs last week! So that’s good! Lol man, I love it out here!! I got discouraged for a minute, but Heavenly Father made my week so awesome…just when I was pretty close to down and out. So yeah, love you guys!! I’m excited for this next week! I will see how it goes and let you know but everyone please try and keep the people I mentioned in your prayers.

Talk to you guys in a week! Yeah lol anyways take care everyone. I pray for all of you each, and every day!

Love from The unbitten Elder in the south,
-Elder Blair

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