Osage Beach

Hello family well this week has been one of the greatest weeks I have had in a long time but it has also been pretty sad. So me and elder Martin have been serving together for this last week and our time together officially ends this Thursday. It has been crazy because we have been covering for the last week both Laurie and Lebanon and we have been doing a mighty fine job if I say so myself. It has been fun to see some of the people back in Lebanon ward. Seeing that they are still in church and doing good so it has been fun. I also took Martin to a few of the crazy people that we teach and I am sure that he had a good time visiting them. Well the darndest thing has happened as of Saturday night we got transfer calls and I was pretty sure I was being taken out of Laurie. Well I was right I will no longer be serving in Laurie and all those crazy places. Where am I going? Funny you should ask because I am only going 22 miles south to serve in Camdenton the nice, classy part of the Osage Beach Ward. I am a little upset because if I am going to stay in the area I would like to be where I have been the entire time, but things happen and I have no say just got to do what the good Lord tells me too. My companion is Elder Green unfortunately it is not Elder Martin the last 9 days have been splendid. All I know about Elder Green is that he was MTC companion's with Elder Bunch. What? That's right with my trainer and from what I have heard they didn't like each other that much. Well so we'll see how it goes I have heard he is a cool guy. Another crazy thing is that the Laurie area is getting sisters which I went bananas over. It is not exactly the most safe place especially for Sisters but like I said the good Lord knows and plus I was serving there before them so they should have plenty to do and visit semi-normal people. We'll see how that one goes as well. So a little more about the weeks and less about external problems it was pretty sweet. In Lebanon visited some old investigators and stuff and converts and whoever else they had. In fact we tried to contact a referral Jim Morrison from the Doors. Jokes! But his name is really Jim Morrison and he lives next to a whole bunch of Morrison's and they own Morrison plumbing so seems like a 3 generation big ol' happy family. Up in Laurie we visited the few, the proud, the crazy. Jokes! It was a good time we visited the guy that had the tumor on his jaw bone because he is back home now. I feel bad for the guy he just kind of has to wait and wait till it heals and one side of his face is swollen and man you couldn't understand a word he said. Except that I could understand every word he said I may have been in Missouri to long. Other than that the Less Active family that we found the week previous we went over and had a lesson with the entire family and it went very well. I say give it a couple months and they will be back in church. Dj and her daughters are doing good still having some struggles but the Sisters will probably get the job done they are better than us. That is usually how it goes. Well Van Woerkem and Bulpitt (Camdenton Elders) Leave this week it will be sad having them go because they are some good guys but we are having a last P-day hurrah and are going to have some wicked fun. That is basically all I got for ya.

Osage Beach

Well this week was pretty good. That is crazy that the temple is open now man I wish I could see it and do the whole open house thing that would be pretty sweet. Well kind of a lot has happened this week and I won't be able to explain everything this week but I'll do my best today. First of all we met a couple of Less Active peoples this week which has got me pretty excited. The First lady we have been trying to contact for a long long time she had no phone number so we went by her house occasionally if we had extra time. I thought it was a summer home and we were just trying for nothing. Well this last week we pulled up and her car was there so I got kind of excited. She answered the door and hooray she is pretty normal. She works at Wal-Mart and her schedule is super crazy so we always just came at the wrong time. Well her name is P and she is a nice lady. She has just quit smoking well she is doing e-cigarettes which is a step in the right direction. Well anyways she told us that something in her life was missing and that was church but she couldn't find our church well because it is on the other side of the lake. So she is getting her work schedule changed around so she can get Sundays off so she can go to church so that was sweet and I am excited. The other person is a family with four children in a trailer (nothing new). they are really nice just kind of fell away after they got offended but they love the missionaries so it will be pretty swell I think. they might not come because of the distance but if we can kind of restore their faith then maybe a miracle will happen. So on to the other crazy news Archibald has 9 days left but yesterday we found out that I have only today left with Archibald I'll explain why next week but some emergency transfers are happening tonight. So Archibald is leaving and going to be with the Zone Leaders in St. Robert and Elder Babb is going to be with the Zone Leaders in Springfield and Me and Elder Martin for the next 9 days are going to be serving together. Hooray! Me and Martin always talked about serving together but I am afraid it will only be for the 9 days but hey better than nothing. So I am not sure on all little details like if we are going to be in Lebanon or up here or both, but this for sure until transfer calls which will happen this Saturday then my permanent fate will be decided like if I stay or go and who will be the next crazy I serve with. Again sorry for telling you this random sketchy thing but I will explain it all next week. Stay classy San Diego

Osage Beach

This week I am swell. The more contact I have with the other missionaries the more normal I remain and we had a zone meeting and so I got some normal contact. The cold is all gone that is Missouri for you. Yesterday Sunday was high 50's and the week before was negative and snowing. You want to know the weather in Missouri walk outside and check the weather every twenty minutes. Investigators are doing okay not bad just a long and drawn out process but hopefully we will have some success within the next couple of months. Wow sounds like you guys had an eventful week. With Conferences and Norwegians and all that jazz. I don't really know what to say to that I didn't have a conference or Norwegians where I am. I guess the most exciting news this week is that the Goat lady is out of the hospital and no longer yellow. She had Hepatitis in her immune system or something like that I couldn't hear her that well dogs were barking, but it was just messing her liver up and that is what caused the yellow and she has gall stone problems but they couldn't operate because of the liver problems so they gave her medicine and sent her home. At least that's how it sounded but I couldn't hear because of the dogs. So I don't even know but she is back home and she does look better than she did I am just bummed that she couldn't just stay at the hospital because her shack is not healthy for her you can't live with 7 dogs inside a 10 x 15 shack and remain healthy especially with no running water. Man that is crazy to here about Jamie man I really hope that he feels better I have a feeling it will be good but then again I am all the way out here so I don't really know. So how is everybody else doing Dana said that she is sick and stressed what's new? How is Chris? Katie? Parker? Jared? Sounds like they are all doing good. Well not much to share this week I guess I am not the greatest at sharing time but what ever it will get better always does. You guys have a good week and I will to.

Osage Beach

Things are going good. I shouldn't count days that makes everything take longer, but yeah it will come unless I die before it comes. Jokes! Weather is weather nothing can change that, but yeah it wasn't terrible but it got pretty cold. We had about 10 inches of snow and it was probably the worst storm we'll have this year we'll have like a couple inches here and there for the rest of the winter but not bad. It got to -9 and I think that was the coldest I went running outside naked just to experience it. Jokes! So Saturday night Sunday morning is when the snow hit and people over here don't handle snow well so we had a fun day Sunday. We woke up saw that it was snowing so I called a couple members on our side of the lake and well they weren't going or couldn't get out because they didn't have 4 wheel drive. So we called the Furnell's who are an old couple that we get a ride from often they are the ones that are kin. Well we met them at a location that easy for the both of us and they take us to church. Well twenty minutes after they left supposedly I got a call from him saying, "elder I am in a ditch" I asked how far he was and he said, "haha elder I didn't even make it out of my driveway." I was like oh snikeys because they live forever away but they needed help out of the ditch. So we drove all the way there and we picked them up for church and drove all the way to church. Church was awesome we were a little late because of the delay, but there was probably only like 15 people there total. So we had sacrament meeting and testimony meeting and that was it. I loved almost every person got up there and bore their testimony and it was funny but spiritual so it was good. Well so we drove back to the Furnell's and pulled him out of the ditch. the funny thing is that I think is perception was off a little because of the snow and he just drove straight into the ditch because he could have made it quite far it wasn't that bad but I was laughing quite a bit because he turned way to wide and just drove straight in. Well they fed us dinner for our troubles and then we went on with the rest of the day. We have a mile limit on the truck of 1100 for the month and Sunday we went 150 miles so that sucks, but I was trying to be a good Samaritan. Our investigators are doing okay running into problems and stuff. Dj couldn't quit smoking and got really frustrated and so she is a little discouraged. Her daughters like everything they are just still not sure. We just are trying to get them on a daily habit of reading so that is our goal for them it will come just takes time. J, that younger guy still lets us come over but after learning about marriage as a necessity well he just is not down for that yet. The Less Actives are Less Actives nice people just not quite willing to change. We are kind of teaching an older couple like 91 and 86 years old. They are strong Baptist and she said that Christ would let us in, so that is why she listens to us. She likes us and we can talk about the bible all day, but as soon as we mention the Book of Mormon or Joe Smith then she kind of turns off. We asked to read and she said if "God leads me to read then I will, but I probably won't." We met a lady while eating Pizza Hut a couple weeks ago and she used to be RLDS and she wanted to come over because she didn't know the difference between the two, but we keep missing her and we can't seem to get a hold of her but hopefully this week. Well that is the whole lot of people that we are teaching or trying to teach when we aren't busy doing that we are going to the local supermarket trying to talk to people because that is the only time we can talk to them and not have them close the door or runaway. So yeah that is what we do for fun. Actually P day this last week we got a with a couple of the young men Bishop's son and we played hunters and hunted we start and few of us have paintball guns and everybody else is a deer and we run through the woods to avoid being hunted. That was fun. Well that is all I have for you folks.