Goodbye Raleigh, Hello Wilson
Things have changed…big time. Let me start out by saying that I am not where I thought I would be about a week ago. Well, last Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Elder Viola, a ZL, and I just had a freakin’ awesome time. That same night, I learned that 2 of our investigators agreed to be baptized in July and our other baptismal date was moved to July 1st. So, 3 baptismal dates and some good investigators is pretty sweet compared to what we started with when Elder Monforte left. We really had 1 or 2 descent investigators and very few potentials. Enter in Elder Banks and we took off running, we had Raleigh rolling, everything was clicking, Elder Morales came and it was even getting better. Well, it was raining really bad (even flooding in some parts), and when we got home from District Meeting, there was a message from President Mabey informing us to call him immediately. Someone tried to call, but he didn’t answer and then he called back about 30 minutes later. Well, the phone was for me and I had no idea what it was going to be about. It turns out that Elder Maxell (one of the spanish missionaries) had somehow contracted Mano, and was going home for a few weeks to rest up. And I (being the senior in the threesome) was assigned to take his place in…WILSON, NC!! So, that is my news…I have been emergency-transfered to Wilson, NC. I am no longer in Raleigh. It was a little discouraging, because I didn’t get the chance to say bye to hardly anyone and we had tons of things going for in Raleigh. But, Wilson is a pretty sweet place…it’s a lot more country-ish. There are about 45,000 in the county…it reminds me a lot of Cheyenne.
Pres. talked to me in the afternoon Wednesday, and I arrived in Wilson about 9 o’clock the next morning. it’s about 45 minutes to the East of Raleigh. There are not very many members here compared to Raleigh (about 30-40 at church, regularly). In fact, we have to speak in Church every 3 weeks and a lot depends on us to keep the branch moving. It has been a really good experience so far, this is the first time I’ve been in a smaller type branch. There are just a few member families and also a few less-actives/part member families. That is going to one of our focuses..working with the members and helping the branch get organized a little better.
I spoke in church yesterday, it went pretty well, I really felt confident delivering my talk in spanish. I was the concluded speaker (that’s the first) and I had to talk for 20-25 minutes to end the meeting. I talked about our 3 different types of families. Our family as children or God, our family as a church, and our own families. Our talk about our responsablities in each of those three different types of families and how we should follow the guidance of each “head” of those families (Heavenly Father, Prophet and Earthly Father). I thought I did pretty well and it was one of the first times that I didn’t read most of it from the paper (because I didn’t have time to do that), so I just made an outline and expounded (I like that way a lot better!). I am improving a whole lot with public speaking, although it still scares me to death. But I feel I am stretching myself alot here in Wilson, because I’m required to do it…It’s fun.
Well, my new companion is Elder Christensen. He has been out about 8 months and was actually trained by Elder Monforte. He is a great guy, very very humble. He’s still working on his Spanish a little bit and I’m glad to help him with that. He is very cool. In fact, he is from Layton, UT and went to Northridge High. Now, I met him a while ago and asked him if he knew my cousins and he had actually graduated with Emily Anderson and knew her quite well!! Well, I gave him her address and he wrote her. So, I start talking with him again about it and it turns out that Emily wrote him back! Haha, he read me a part that said that she thought it would be cool if we ended up being companions. Well, here we are..it’s kind of cool the connection.
Wilson is awesome…this next Thursday, I will have my first “pig-pickin’. They are going to roast a pig and be hushpuppies and have homemade rootbeer….PRAISE THE SOUTH!! Seriously, the south is so cool, everyone needs to come down to check it out. There is something for everyone here. There is even lots of ghetto here in Wilson. Christensen and I were walking down the street and we walked right by a drug deal taking place with the money and everything. We just said “What up” and they replied casually…It was sweeet!! Haha, well, I better get going…we got a busy day today, we are going to go shopping, then afterwards we are going fishing in a pond that a english member has.
Adios
Elder Hardy