Yes. You read correctly. In approximately 8 weeks, everything will change. Instead of serving in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission, I will be serving in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission. We will have at the helm of Already the Best Mission none other than Kevin Loveland, a lover of both serving the Lord and farming potatoes. It will be a bittersweet time because we will be losing the beloved President and Sister Shumway, who will be sorely missed. Also, the mission I was originally called to will no longer exist, so that is a tad bit sad… Now, on to the good things.
#1. Nobody else can say that they served in the WALMART mission, except for us
#2. We will set records for everything that we do in the Arkansas Bentonville mission because we are the very first to proselyte in it.
#3 We get to think of millions of different acronyms for ABM :)
UPDATED 10/4/15: Click HERE to get an up-to-date view of the ABM
I am super duper excited to be serving in the Absolutely Beautiful Mission, and being part of the first generation is an honor for me.
Moving on.
This last week was pretty ridiculous, with everything from mistranslations on my part to small car incidents.
Set the scene. We are eating at Bob and Wanda’s 24-hour catfish cafe, when a gentleman backs into our parked car. Only a scratch or two was left, but it proved to be quite a pain for the entire week. The only thing worse than having your car broken is having the Church’s car broken. We got to do plenty of awesome paperwork and we got to drive around and get quotes and yayyyy it is just SOOO fun. However, the last Preparation Day was marvellous. I wholeheartedly blame Elder Brown for joking that he wanted to have car trouble because of how often others complained about it. Thank you very very much.
There were some interesting things that happened this last week.
First, our investigator who bailed on his baptism, Gabriel, is still MIA and we are not quite sure what happened. We met with him one time, but after that he disappeared again. It is a little bit sad. He said that he felt that he was not all the way ready for his baptism, and that he wanted to wait two months. This was a very commendable desire, but it would have been preferable to get a little bit of heads-up. He and 4 others are set to be baptized on June 6.
Next: Mayra and the CREW. Mayra is a single mother with three very nice children. She has been attending church and taking the discussions and really is enjoying it. A strategy that the members have begun with her is the Death By Fellowshipping tactic. It is very effective and she really loves the church. She and two of her children (the other is not of age) are being baptized on the 6 of June with Gabriel.
Funny story. We were talking to a member (originally from El Salvador) and he brought up Marilyn Monroe. He was talking about how she was pretty, and other things, but then abruptly changed and said that she did not believe in god (don’t know if this is true or not). He said that the reason that she died was because God killed her because she didn’t believe in him. Elder Brown and I were cracking up, but then couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. We may never know.
We went knocking doors a couple of days this week, always with success. We had ¾ people who we knocked into that wanted to hear more. This truly is a blessed area. We are going to visit some of them this evening.
Let’s see… What else…
Saturday we constructed a deck out of lumber and some screws. It was pretty sweet. I got really really sunburnt (sorry momma) but the deck looks beautiful. We will be going back sometime this next week to put a roof and railing on it.
Sunday was awesome. We went to member’s houses and asked them to seek out referrals for us to teach. It was really successful, and I really like one of the families that we went to visit. They invited us back tonight for FHE in their home. WOOT.
This morning, we got to go fishing at a private pond. I caught a total of 0 fish, and when compared to my companion’s 3 and the guy that took us’s 5, it was pretty pathetic. yay. After that, we went and saw some real-life church history. Parley P Pratt was buried about 20 minutes from where we live, and I got some photos with the headstone and my companion. It was super cool, and the church maintains it really well.
Anyway, that was my week. I love y’all and hope that you are doing well. Remember that God loves each and every one of us, ALL OF THE TIME. He wants the best for his children, and a way that we can help is by spreading his word.
Invite people. To your home. Have the missionaries over.
Y’all have a blessed week
Elder Matthew Busi
