.....Like a Jedi Force Push.....

Hello, what's up? I just finished my first transfer in the field. The days are long but when you get to p-day you're like, wow it's already p-day again.......

.....I was walking with my companion and there was an airplane super high in the sky, which is rare to see in Rantoul....he points to the plane and says "do you know how far away that is?" I said no, and he said "2 years." Lol.....

You know how I said the sisters ask for blessings all the time, well this week at district council, 3 asked for a blessing, and one of the sisters had just had a blessing 2 weeks ago, and another had one 3 weeks ago. so we explained to them that blessings don't expire after a couple days or weeks, and that they also work according to your faith, and God's will.....I told them of a saying I really like, "pray like it's all on God but work like it's all on you." After a blessing all your problems might not just disappear, but God will put opportunities in your life for you to capitalize on......ironically enough, as I was typing that out a random church member walked into the church gym and asked me and my companion for a blessing haha!  We are in Rantoul and the elders are like 45 minutes away in Champagne, but they are all close together so we come down to chill with them at their church building but they all left so their ward member just asked us do the blessing..........

.......Jason was baptized! he said he prayed and got the answer that I should baptize him can't remember if I said that last email or not......my first lesson with him on like my 3 day my companion said we were going to probably drop him, but during the lesson the spirit was super strong and we extended the commitment to come to church, and he came to church 4 weeks in a row, and met with us 2 times each week and he was baptized.......before the baptism I kept telling my companion that we need to start filling up the baptism font but he kept saying no no no so we started filling it only like and hour and 20 minutes before the baptism. so low and behold the water was only like 14 inches deep and Jason is my height but he has like 170 pounds  on me haha, so I knew I wasn't going to get him up on his feet in 14 inches of water, but regardless, the baptism was great, and he was super happy........

........my comp and I posted a Facebook service ad on Rantouls community page so last week, so this past week we raked leaves on average probably 3 hours a day, so that means maybe one day we only raked for 1 hour but on another we raked for like 5.   We also dug out 2 bushes surrounded by rocks and frozen earth, so it was actually really hard....

.....my companion's original assignment was in Ghana, Africa and apparently they might send missionaries back (might) so we had to drive out of the mission for him to get a polio buster shot, it was super weird and annoying tho because his original shot hadn't and wouldn't have expired for like another year after his mission ended and the nurse said that if you have the original polio shot it would make the polio buster shot ineffective but the mission nurse was saying its required so we had to drive and hour out of the mission to get it yesterday....

.....one of the Elderly Sisters in the ward calls us at least twice a day giving us weather updates and we occasionally go over do some service, she is one of those elderly people that thinks just cause she is old, that she is automatically all knowing! haha I love to mess with her, and just say stupid crap on purpose so she can have fun correcting me...

...unfortunately we are back to having church via zoom.  This is a bummer because now Jason cant be at church in person.

....we got a new investigator from some sisters who found this guy on Facebook but he lives in Rantoul so he is our guy.....he recently got out of jail and has a sketchy past, he told us how he used to sell drugs in east saint Louis and how he would rent uhaul trucks for 20 bucks for the day so cops wouldn't suspect that he was selling but i guess that didn't workout too well cause he went to jail 3 times, and just recently finished like a 6 year sentence.  But we have had 5 lessons and the spirit is so strong.....you can feel the spirit coming in like a jedi, slowly summoning/gathering the force before he unleashes a super powerful force push. it's crazy because I've only ever felt the spirit that strong when I knew that I had to serve a mission, but with John Barr it happens without fail every time, he is super knowledgeable about Christian beliefs because part of his parole deal was that he has to stay at this christian church in Rantoul and mop the floors or whatever....anyways I know if he chooses to come to church and to listen to our lessons the spirit will continue to testify to him that what he is hearing is true, and he will see God's hand in his life....our next lesson is the law of chastity, and if there is 1 lesson that would scare away a 26 year old that has not hung out with chicks in 6 years cause he was in prison, it would be this one! so please pray for John Barr!!!!!!!!!!!!........can't think of anything else adios!.....

First Baptism on the Books.....

Hello, what's up?  I don't know if I said this but we have a man named Jason on date to be baptized on the 14th, since I got here he has come to church every week and he asked me to baptize him. He kept not telling us who he wanted to baptize him and said he wanted to pray about it.  He said God told him it should be me .....he was taught for 4 years and wasn't on date when I got here so I'm basically an AP......lol anyway the spirit is always super strong in our lessons with Jason and he's definitely ready to be baptized.

....like I've mentioned my companion is district leader, and our district is actually a "sistrict", meaning it's all sisters...... and they ask for blessings every week and since my companion is district leader we have to do call ins every Sunday night and they take so long because the sisters wont stop talking and my companion is always going along with it .....so that definitely takes a good bit of time.

....one random thing that happened last week was that my companion's lip just swelled up like he got lip injections, we woke up in the morning and his top lip was super fat. It went back to normal by night time and we always got to wear masks so nobody could see but it was super weird since he says he's not allergic to anything..

....we haven't talked with Jamal and his parent's in 2 weeks they just stopped answering our texts and calls....some sad news is that the missionary called 500 had to get sent home.....he has super bad back problems, way worse than mine, so idk why he decided to come out before getting surgery, one of his vertebrae discs is like getting squished out to one side and it frequently smashes a nerve, his whole left leg would go numb when he walk and he couldn't bend down at all....also 500 said he got a scholarship for football to play at university of utah but he decided to go on a mission instead, I didn't think he'd be going home or I would have gotten more quotes. It's sad he's gone, hopefully he can come back soon, in memory of 500 I'll add a pic of him. Anyways it's super sad cause he was in my online mtc zone, not my district but I still knew him especially since we got in the field cause we'd come down and hangout with him and his companions on p-day..

.......there was a shooting in my apartment complex, a 14 year old and a 16 year old did a drive by shooting.  Shot 10 to 15 shots at someone, they both were arrested rantoul is actually super hood there are gangsters everywhere.............well, can't think of anything else adios!

Alpaca Farm Service

Hello, what's up...my p-day is on a Tuesday because all the zone leaders had a mandatory all day meeting on Monday, so this week it was moved to Tuesday....

We had multiple lessons through the week and haven't been in contact with Jamal and his mom since the friday before last...I dont know if I said that when I went on exchanges it was with the zone leaders, I went to their apartment while one of them stayed with my companion at our apartment....the one that stayed at my apartment is going home at the end of this transfer he also was the one with the Confederate flag in his room, anyways he's shipping a big box of stuff home today that wont fit in his suitcases. While he was packing it he pulled out a legit samurai sword and just handed it to the elder next to me and said he could have it cause it wouldn't fit in his box lol, he's inspired me to start building a collection......

We went to this one elderly woman's house 3 days in a row to rake up leaves, but not all the leaves have fallen so everyday there's more leaves in spots we've cleaned up....theres this other lady named Rose that has an alpaca farm, it's super cool!, but she said she's not interested in changing her beliefs, but it's awesome to help her out because she actually needs it, plus the animals are great....

We have a guy named Jason on date to be baptized on the 14th.  He's been taught for 4 years tho so idk if he will go through with it.....We shall see.

We played pickle ball at real courts today and my companion and I went undefeated again. The other elders changed up teams to try and beat us but we prevailed...came back from being down 8-3 won 11-9....That is all I can remember for the week.  

Take care!