This week has been a real hoot. I'll begin with the marshmallow war.
Elder Calvert and I were at Bishop Romano's house with his family having dinner. We had a great lesson about the teamwork of Alma and Amulek in The Book of Mormon. Afterwards the Romanos were having the young men come over for mutual and to have a marshmallow war using small PVC pipes with mini-marshmallows for shooting. They handed Elder Calvert and me some pipe guns and we decided we could get some wiggles out for 10 minutes. So, it was our last round playing with the Young Men before we had to go to a lesson. Elder Calvert and I were on opposing teams. Elder Calvert was too busy taking out the rag tag team of deacons and wasn't looking when I came up behind him - just as he turned and saw he was about to get pelted by marshmallows. From point blank
I missed and he got overly excited because he knew he had a chance to finish me off. He was trying to get more ammo into his PVC gun, when I instinctively knocked his pipe out of his hands - trying to come in hot. He started back-pedaling and tripped over a log, but I made it look like I had tackled the kid. As soon as I knew Elder Calvert wasn’t hurt, I quickly loaded some mallows and finished him off. The YM and their leaders suggested that Elder Calvert and I needed to do a companionship inventory. Oh well. What can you do.
So moving on. This week was Zone Meeting and we wanted to blow the socks off our Zone. We really needed to help them learn to listen and teach. We called in the top gun in our ward - Brother Stokes. He worked for the CIA for 6 years. Brother Stokes is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to human behavior and working with people. We thought it would be great to get walkie-talkies to fit the theme. We also made the Zone CIA ID cards for the full experience. I tell you what - those walkie-talkies are something. Everyone needs to get a pair of those. When Elder Calvert is in the kitchen getting a bowl of cereal and I'm in the other room studying, I just walkie him to bring me some and problem solved. No need for yelling. It’s great.
Elder Cathcart and Elder Treseder are the Spanish Elders in the Revere ward. They live in an apartment that had a room full of junk that was there before they lived there. The landlord did an apartment check and was not happy with the room full of junk and said they needed to clear it out in a day. So Elder Cathcart and Treseder gave us a ring and asked if we could help them out. Being professionals at moving junk (that is not ours) out of apartments - we happily accepted. We got there after Zone Meeting and changed into some service clothes. I placed my suit at the top of the stairwell. We spent about an hour stuffing trash into bags and throwing them down the stairwell. Elder Treseder and Calvert were a trash taxi service - going back and forth to the dumpster as Elder Cathcart and I kept stuffing trash. When we were done and I went to put my suit back on. I put my shirt on. The tie on. The suit coat on. Then I looked for my pants. I couldn’t find my pants. I asked the other Elders where my suit pants were. Elder Calvert and Treseder looked at each other and realized they might have made a mistake. When we were throwing trash down, my pants fell with the trash and they thought they were trash. I guess Elder Treseder looked at the pants and said:
"Wow these are nice pants, 36x36. Hey, Elder Calvert would these fit you?"
"Probably not, that's probably Tait's size. You think he’d want them?"
"Who knows. We should just chuck them."
Elder Cathcart gave me a pair of his 34x32 slacks. Those things looked like capris on me. We jetted over to the donation dumpster where my pants were. The dumpster was designed so you couldn’t take anything out without a key. So we had to lift up Elder Treseder all together and lower him into the dumpster so he could retrieve my pants. So there were 3 missionaries in the middle of a Home Depot parking lot, throwing another missionary into a dumpster to get some pants. Boy, we sure had an audience. Good news is we were able to retrieve the pants. It took some time and fishing by Treseder - but we did it.
It was a great week all around. Besides the irrelevant stories the week turned out well. We've had some great teaching opportunities. The message we offer as representatives of Jesus Christ can only add to people’s lives. Still, I can understand the hesitancy some may have to speak with us. We met this girl, Charliya, who has a strong love of the Savior, but feels she is missing so much in life. We gave her a message about The Restoration and she was excited about it. She agreed to pray to know if the Church was true. We showed up the next day and she said she’d prayed and felt the path she was already on was right. It is difficult to be in that position - to help someone realize that Heavenly Father has more to offer them - in only 2 minutes - can be challenging. But, the spirit took over as we addressed her concerns and thoughts. She talked about wanting to speak to her pastor about it. We answered that if she wanted to find out about the Baptist church, where should she go? To a Baptist Church. If she wanted to find out about the Jewish faith, who should she talk to? A practicing Jew. So, if she wanted to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it would be best to talk to missionaries for the Church. The light-bulb clicked on with her and she realized that it was up to her to listen and hear our message, and then ask Heavenly Father if it is of God or man. Everyone have a great week. Hope all is well at home!
Love,
Elder Tait!
Elder Calvert and I were at Bishop Romano's house with his family having dinner. We had a great lesson about the teamwork of Alma and Amulek in The Book of Mormon. Afterwards the Romanos were having the young men come over for mutual and to have a marshmallow war using small PVC pipes with mini-marshmallows for shooting. They handed Elder Calvert and me some pipe guns and we decided we could get some wiggles out for 10 minutes. So, it was our last round playing with the Young Men before we had to go to a lesson. Elder Calvert and I were on opposing teams. Elder Calvert was too busy taking out the rag tag team of deacons and wasn't looking when I came up behind him - just as he turned and saw he was about to get pelted by marshmallows. From point blank
I missed and he got overly excited because he knew he had a chance to finish me off. He was trying to get more ammo into his PVC gun, when I instinctively knocked his pipe out of his hands - trying to come in hot. He started back-pedaling and tripped over a log, but I made it look like I had tackled the kid. As soon as I knew Elder Calvert wasn’t hurt, I quickly loaded some mallows and finished him off. The YM and their leaders suggested that Elder Calvert and I needed to do a companionship inventory. Oh well. What can you do.
So moving on. This week was Zone Meeting and we wanted to blow the socks off our Zone. We really needed to help them learn to listen and teach. We called in the top gun in our ward - Brother Stokes. He worked for the CIA for 6 years. Brother Stokes is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to human behavior and working with people. We thought it would be great to get walkie-talkies to fit the theme. We also made the Zone CIA ID cards for the full experience. I tell you what - those walkie-talkies are something. Everyone needs to get a pair of those. When Elder Calvert is in the kitchen getting a bowl of cereal and I'm in the other room studying, I just walkie him to bring me some and problem solved. No need for yelling. It’s great.
Elder Cathcart and Elder Treseder are the Spanish Elders in the Revere ward. They live in an apartment that had a room full of junk that was there before they lived there. The landlord did an apartment check and was not happy with the room full of junk and said they needed to clear it out in a day. So Elder Cathcart and Treseder gave us a ring and asked if we could help them out. Being professionals at moving junk (that is not ours) out of apartments - we happily accepted. We got there after Zone Meeting and changed into some service clothes. I placed my suit at the top of the stairwell. We spent about an hour stuffing trash into bags and throwing them down the stairwell. Elder Treseder and Calvert were a trash taxi service - going back and forth to the dumpster as Elder Cathcart and I kept stuffing trash. When we were done and I went to put my suit back on. I put my shirt on. The tie on. The suit coat on. Then I looked for my pants. I couldn’t find my pants. I asked the other Elders where my suit pants were. Elder Calvert and Treseder looked at each other and realized they might have made a mistake. When we were throwing trash down, my pants fell with the trash and they thought they were trash. I guess Elder Treseder looked at the pants and said:
"Wow these are nice pants, 36x36. Hey, Elder Calvert would these fit you?"
"Probably not, that's probably Tait's size. You think he’d want them?"
"Who knows. We should just chuck them."
Elder Cathcart gave me a pair of his 34x32 slacks. Those things looked like capris on me. We jetted over to the donation dumpster where my pants were. The dumpster was designed so you couldn’t take anything out without a key. So we had to lift up Elder Treseder all together and lower him into the dumpster so he could retrieve my pants. So there were 3 missionaries in the middle of a Home Depot parking lot, throwing another missionary into a dumpster to get some pants. Boy, we sure had an audience. Good news is we were able to retrieve the pants. It took some time and fishing by Treseder - but we did it.
It was a great week all around. Besides the irrelevant stories the week turned out well. We've had some great teaching opportunities. The message we offer as representatives of Jesus Christ can only add to people’s lives. Still, I can understand the hesitancy some may have to speak with us. We met this girl, Charliya, who has a strong love of the Savior, but feels she is missing so much in life. We gave her a message about The Restoration and she was excited about it. She agreed to pray to know if the Church was true. We showed up the next day and she said she’d prayed and felt the path she was already on was right. It is difficult to be in that position - to help someone realize that Heavenly Father has more to offer them - in only 2 minutes - can be challenging. But, the spirit took over as we addressed her concerns and thoughts. She talked about wanting to speak to her pastor about it. We answered that if she wanted to find out about the Baptist church, where should she go? To a Baptist Church. If she wanted to find out about the Jewish faith, who should she talk to? A practicing Jew. So, if she wanted to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it would be best to talk to missionaries for the Church. The light-bulb clicked on with her and she realized that it was up to her to listen and hear our message, and then ask Heavenly Father if it is of God or man. Everyone have a great week. Hope all is well at home!
Love,
Elder Tait!
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| Lynnfield Zone |
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