April 29, 2013

Missionary Slim thinks " Who needs Punxsutawney Phil when I have Somerset Mandy ". (Week 64 in Pennsylvania, Week 5 in Somerset, PA)

Service has been the theme of this week. Pennsylvania did a giant day of service on Saturday where we spent several hours raking and bagging leaves in a state park. Tuesday we helped a disabled member put together a trampoline for his granddaughter. Definitely makes you feel good.

One way we serve out here is by visiting one of the elderly-est members of the Branch - Shirley. She lives in a nice old-person manor on the shore of Somerset Lake. It certainly is a pleasant place. Too bad she has to stay in bed all day long. Her roommate, Ruth, is in a similar predicament due to her legs being broken in an automobile accident. Both of them, though, have a great love for music. That is, hymns sung by the Mormon Missionaries! In the notes the other missionaries left for us, they warned us "Bring a hymn book to see Shirley. Trust us... ;)" Sure enough, we get there, and the first thing she says to us is "Can you sing me a song?" Her favorite song is "Did you think to pray?" and we always have to get that one in there at some point. Sometimes, we use the teaching power of Primary songs to get into an actual lesson, but for the most part, we just sing, and they listen. Ruth closes her eyes and then exclaims as we finish, "You've brought me right to the throne! Oh, thank you Lord, for these wonderful singers who share their talents with us!" We don't take requests though - usually, they end up being something we don't know like "What a friend you have in Jesus," or "The old rugged cross," two very good songs, I'm sure, but songs we sadly don't have in our hymnals. We are temped to go to the local Salvation Army thrift store and pick up some old protestant hymn books we found there a few weeks ago.

We've been teaching Mike for a couple of weeks now. He's got alcohol problems, and I don't know... for some reason, I just seem to have the greatest love and sympathy for alcoholics. I have little patience when they are tipsy, but when they are sober, most of them are the most humble people you would know. That's Mike. Great guy when he's sober, mostly incomprehensible when he's not, just a cacophony of random stories and exclamations.

On one of our earlier visits, he claimed to be a philosopher. "I think about a lot of things, guys." We got into a conversation about how people are followers, and he gave us a way to test it. "As you are driving down the road at night, and you have a car following you, just swerve gently into the other lane, and then back, and then swerve again, and go back. The guy behind you will start doing the same thing, he'll start following you. It's human nature!" I still haven't figured out if the experiment was to see if the guy behind our car would follow us, or if we would follow the insane experiment he told us to try. Needless to say, I think it's a good thing Mike doesn't have his drivers license.

On one of the visits where he was more drunken, he pointed at his chihuahua, Mandy. Even when he's sober, Mandy is a part of every conversation, and is mentioned in every prayer. She is Mike's life-line. This time, though, we found out that he has a super dog! "Mandy can predict the weather three days in advance!" he declared. He told us that she tells him how the weather will be - how she communicates to him we are still trying to figure out. Then, the weather is just the way she said it would be. On this visit, the forecast was sunny and clear. Sure enough, when we took a rather lengthy car drive to Indiana, PA for our district meeting, we drove through bright, shiny... rain. Well, so much for that.

I'll make one more little note though. I got word from Washington that Dan, the investigator I baptized there a few weeks ago, was just ordained to be a Priest. I was more than thrilled to find an email in my inbox about it. Apparently, the missionaries had no idea that it was happening. The bishop just pulled him in, interviewed him, and BOOM! There he was. He told me about his trepidation, but I'm sure that he'll do a great job. It certainly is gratifying to know that not only am I part of a work that is bringing forth fruit, but the fruit is remaining, even thriving. It certainly gives me great hope, strength, and encouragement.

Have a most fantastic week, everyone! Thanks again for reading!
Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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