Pittsburgh Mission Memoirs

Tragedy struck the Pittsburgh Downtown District - Elder Van Der Spek, the fearless leader and stalwart example of missionary work, suffered a tragic injury... playing dodgeball. Yep. Things got a little bit too heated, and he took a bad fall, landed on the side of his leg, and tore his ACL. The reason I start with this is because it has affected my entire week.You see, Elder Van Der...

Primanti Bros. Sounds like a Japanese-based video game, right? Well, it's actually a Pittsburgh-based sandwich shop. They have about 15 different kinds of sandwiches you can buy, but they all have one thing in common: Bread  -  Meat  -  Cheese  -  Coleslaw  -  Fries  -  Bread. And that's all they give you. Nothing on the side, it's...

It almost seems like I've been out of my area more than I've been in it this week. Seriously. Our district leader, Elder Van Der Spek (He's Belgian, and his name, roughly translated means 'of the bacon.' That might give you an idea about his personality too.), needs to exchange, or switch, with each elder in the district once during the transfer. He decided, to save on... something...

The devil has been hard at work this week. We've been contending left and right with all kinds of people. Some of them turned out pretty good, others were just downright nasty.1. A member of the Gideons stopped us and started talking to us. After he introduced himself, I pulled out my own mini Gideon bible which I've been carrying around. He was impressed, but then jumped right into...