Week 5 Randy on the Radio

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty legit! We had a meal with the bishop and his family and I got to teach the Elder Smith translation version of the Ammon story to the kids. Ammon is definitely one of the stories I enjoy telling the most now. We had really good chicken and potatoes with the bishop too which was absolutely bomb.

When I was in the MTC I wrote down some attribute of each of the elders and sisters in my district that I wanted to use on my mission to impact someone and I finally got to use one of them! It was musicality, which I honestly thought would be one of the last ones I'd use. We met with Lyndon (the older gentleman who had a stroke and can't really talk) and we decided we were gonna teach him the story of Ammon. He is a super smart guy with a super great member wife and she's been working hard to get him to get baptized. We asked him if he wanted us to sing a hymn before we taught our lesson and he said yes. After a moment of thought, we all agreed we should sing Nearer my God to Thee (his wife called and told us she sang it with him and he really likes it, but I didn't tell him I knew that when I suggested the song). We started singing and the spirit was super strong and midway through the second verse Lyndon started crying. There is no way there weren't angels singing with us cause Elder McArthur and I can barely carry a tune. Afterwards, we told him about Ammon and explained how his wife is a hard worker and she is super selfless like Ammon. He thought that was pretty funny and he may have cried just a little when we explained how much his wife loves him and everyone around her. I think he's in a good place.

We met a kid named Sam at the park one night while we were out. We had brought a football with us to throw with people so that we would seem less threatening. Sam was super down to play with us and wanted to run some routes against us while his female associate played QB. He was pretty good, so I felt bad about mossing him so many times, especially while wearing dress pants and shoes. We got his number and his friend Lauren's number too, and they said they would be down for activities and stuff, so we are working on hooking them up with the YSA.

Ok guys it main event time. This is the moment you've all been waiting for. Pastor Randy is a friendly fellow we met a little while back when we were trying to meet some kids playing basketball and the cops got involved but that's a different story. Randy really likes us missionaries, so he invited us to hear one of his sermons and eat dinner at his church. We went to his sermon and he spent half the time praising us, and he said that if the people listening to him were doing 1% of what us missionaries do the world would be so amazing. It felt so good to be on the positive side of someone cause most of the time people don't like us like Randy. After his sermon he came up to us and told us he was glad we came and that he wants to help us cause we are serving the same boss. We are hoping he can get us referrals and service opportunities cause he's a pretty well connected guy. Oh, btw did I mention his sermon was also on the radio? I have no clue what station or anything like that but apparently it's out there somewhere which was so cool. We will definitely try to work with him and anyone he refers us to. Also, fingers crossed cause he said he might let me talk sometime and y'all know I could be a radio star. In all honesty, I probably won't end up talking on the radio but I'm gonna keep praying for it cause I've got some stuff to say to the world.

Those were the big things that happened this week. I'm loving it out here and I wouldn't trade this time for anything. Probably, I actually haven't had any offers come in, so I'm not 100% sure. Y'all keep on keepin on!

-Elder Smith

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