Dance Party #Demo3

 It is so fun to be serving around other missionaries again. On Preparation day we played basketball and volleyball basically all day. Some members and non members pulled up too. I woke up the next day sore from how hard we went, we will run it back the following week as well. Also, I have a sonic .3 miles from my apartment, so that is a win. During the week we attempted to go to sonic around 8:45 pm. It turns out that it closes at 8 pm… What sonic does that. That is prime time. We were so disappointed. I keep telling Elder Woolsey about the sonic nerds slushie. This next week we set a goal to get one of those slushies so we can experience the joy from tasting it. 

Ever since I have arrived in the Grand Valley area we have had so many lessons planned, but most have fallen through. Most people here struggle with keeping commitments, but are more than happy to plan an appointment just to not show up or not answer the door. Some of our lessons actually happened on Tuesday which was a W. While we were at the church, the STLs brought us Krispy Kreme and I forgot how good those doughnuts were. I pounded 6 right there and instantly regretted it afterward. 

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Fremont elders. Fremont is a town about an hour north of us. I went with Elder Buxton who has been out about 13 months. It was a fun exchange because there was a huge festival in town where EVERYONE was at. It was a Gerber baby festival. We went public contacting and this was one of the first times where we went public contacting to find people to teach. Not many people were about it at all. The first 5 people I asked if I could ask them a question were so rude. Elder Buxton was down on himself, but I just kept going at it. We were able to have about 20+ gospel related conversations with people and I saw a lot of growth in myself. I've grown so much in the past two weeks as I came to Grand Valley. 

Our friend Desiree is awesome. She is in her late 30s to early 40s. She grew up catholic, but absolutely loves the things we have been teaching her. She has some medical problems in her life, but she is excited to prepare to be baptized on August 6th. We gave her a priesthood blessing with the patriarch there with us. Spirit filled meeting which is always special. 

One thing I learned this week is do not have a dance party and attempt a backflip. We have a piano keyboard that we always turn on to mess with the sounds on it. We found this amazing audio that just is fire, it is a prerecorded song and its called demo 3. We always joke around saying that we would have a dance party. I then was confident enough to attempt a backflip and I bailed halfway. The first thing that hit the ground was the top of my head. All I heard was my whole neck and spine crack. I showered up after that and took it easy. I am still extremely sore from it and I believe I threw a rib out, but I'm watching it over the next couple of days to see if it is something I should worry about. I have learned from this experience, but do not regret it because we were on the ground in literal tears laughing after it occurred. 

This week we have met with a handful of members of this ward. They are all amazing. One family that sticks out is the Buckwalter family. Their son is 18 who actually gets set apart to begin the MTC in two weeks. We have been having him attend appointments with us everyday if it works out. The father is actually the Stake President over the Grand Rapids Stake. They are so missionary focused. We set a handful of goals to help their friends and inactive members to come closer to Christ. That family is just so good. Also, there is this other elderly couple in the ward who are the Ison's. They are both converts to the church and they blew us away. They study the scriptures so much everyday. Sister Ison was telling us that some days she studies for at least three hours. Isn't that nuts!

Saturday I took Elder Bailey on an exchange in the Grand Rapids area. He is in charge of the Spanish work in the south west area of Grand Rapids. He has been out a total of a year. He has had a lot of trials in the past, but that man is so dedicated to serve his mission. Throughout the whole day we were talking to people in Spanish. I don't know if we can say we, but he did. I set a goal to hand out four pictures of Jesus in Español. You already know I did that! I got a video of me handing one out. I am glad I got called English speaking. God knew I couldn't learn that language. 

One day this past week a thought came to our minds. Elder Woolsey and I both like basketball and we are talking about it some of the time. We realized that we are in the Grand Valley area and the Suns slogan is Rally The Valley. We printed out a photo that has that slogan on it and we see it everytime we leave the apartment. We RALLY the VALLEY in the area. 

We had a cool lesson with our friend Taz on Sunday. I found him over Facebook and he actually lives in our area which is crazy to me because there are so many areas that cover Grand Rapids. We followed up on the restoration which we taught him yesterday and he was telling us that it never made sense to him that people think all we need is the Bible. He is this young 20-30 year old guy who is in the army and lives in a boujee apartment. Extremely humble guy who wants to read The Book of Mormon. What more can you ask? I asked while we were leaving if he had any MRE's and he gave us TWO. We are going to try them today. I got the cheese pizza so we will see how that goes. 

Preparation day is full of activities and there is no dull moment. I am loving my time here so far in the Grand Valley area. We are constantly busy, finding, and teaching. I love you!