March 18, 2013

Missionary Slim celebrates St. Patrick's day in the traditional Irish way, by visiting a bar. (Week 58 in Pennsylvania, Week 22 in Washington, PA)

This week has certainly been a week of weeks. I'll just jump right into things.

We've been working pretty hard on Dan the Man. Dan is a pretty great guy, looking for the true church and he's pretty much decided that he has found it. Which is great. The one problem was that he could not bring himself to come to church. Well, he finally did it last week, and came this past week too, which is pretty solid. So, we decided on Wednesday that we would talk to him about actually being baptized. The conversation was going really well - I wanted to be there for the baptism, and we were pretty sure that he would be totally ready for baptism by the very last Saturday of the transfer. Which just so happens to be this coming Saturday. So, pretty close. Well, it turns out that Dan wasn't feeling it. "Guys, I know I've come so far, but I don't think I'll be ready by then." He's nervous about being baptized and slipping into old habits, even though he's been doing great for so long. He also is a little nervous about taking upon him the name of Christ. But he told us that he'd be ready by next month. I was a little disappointed, but it didn't bother me too much - he is still going to be baptized. Well, we came to church on Sunday. Dan showed up. I was thrilled to see him. One of the first things he told me was he felt like he should get in touch with his friend from Salt Lake City who referred him to the church in the first place. As it turns out, she is flying to the east coast next weekend and happens to be able to make it to a baptism service, if it were to happen this weekend. He thought about it and decided that he could make it happen this coming weekend. I was totally amazed. Seriously, I was so happy. We set up the details for the baptism right then and there, and are planning on having it right after church on Sunday. I'm incredibly excited, if you can't tell. I'll be sure to put up pictures and such next week!

We had a very exciting Saturday. It being the day before St. Patrick's day, we decided we would celebrate in the traditional way. Brother Anderson, who's probably one of my favorite people I've met on my mission, was telling us about great places to eat and he told us "Rudnick's is pretty great too. It's way down there in Marianna and they give you burgers about this big." He held up his hands and everything to show the sheer massiveness of these burgers. So we get the general directions, and tell him that we would check it out next time we were in that area. Well, we happened to be nearby on Saturday after finishing an exchange, so all 6 missionaries in the area went over there. And guess what. Yep. It was a bar. Straight up: Hockey on the TVs, arcade games, rednecks with giant beards, saucy female bar tenders. And the Spirit obviously wasn't there. But the general consensus among us missionaries was "We're here - we're doing it!" So we sit down, order our hamburgers. We got a couple of good stares from the crowd. After a few minutes of waiting, we get our burgers, and sure enough:




It was big. Really big. So big that I ALMOST didn't finish it. But I did. And it was AMAAAZING! So. I went to a bar on the day before St. Patty's day.

And, as usual, the Lord decided he'd let us know about how he felt about that. We drove back up and were on our way to visit a member of the ward when my car started freaking out. On the dashboard, it put up a warning saying "TIRE PRESSURE LOW." We parked, hop out and try to find the offending tire. Elder Swanson detected a gentle hissing coming from one of them. The wheel had completely worn, right down to the steel mesh on the inside. As we were inspecting it, a call came from behind us. "Elders, I thought you were supposed to be finding converts, not inspecting wheel well!" And like an angel, Brother Kelso is there behind us. He comes over, gives our car a quick look-around, gives some pointers on what to do, makes fun on the guy who inspected our car as part of our Zone Conference earlier this week ("Man, whoever looked at this car is a blind son of a gun!") We've been hobbling around on that spare all weekend.

For those of you who know me really well, this is the SECOND time the Lord has decided to mess with my car to send me a message about how well I follow the Word of Wisdom. The last time he did it, I wrecked my car after being super jumpy and anxious after eating a coffee Twix earlier that day. Since I didn't ACTUALLY break the Word of Wisdom, but went to a bar, He was much more merciful and only popped the tire. You would think I would learn my lesson. 

As is always the case, the work continues. As a word of weekly wisdom, "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak... because in your life, you will have been all of these." ~George Washington Carver.

Take care, all!
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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