Flash and Gone!!

Hey Yall!

Wow, this week again has gone by so dang fast, but at the same time I look back at experiences in the past and they seem ancient! This week has been good though! We have been able to stay super busy! We have been blessed and seen miracles! We have had a couple things happen to us that are firsts for our missions. And everywhere in between! My comp, Elder Roseman is doing well, he continues to learn and improve every day. We are getting a long great and because of that, with the help of Jesus, we have been doing work out here in Magnolia. 

So not much has changed in the actual town i guess you can call it, Magnolia is really just a road.... haha But I want to share a few stories with yall this week instead of just recapping the week.  The Oldest church in the state of Alabama, and it belongs to those dang Mormons! 

The first story happened on Tues. Last week I told yall about Bobby. He is the friend that lives with a less active family. Well we went back to see him, we got to talking with him and got to know him a little better. He is 19 and a real nice kid! He dropped outta high school but is working on his GED. Well we taught him the restoration lesson, he remembered some things from the lesson, one of the more important ones was that he related the Joseph Smith story back to us. You could feel the spirit so strongly. At the end of the lesson, the spirit told me to invite him to be baptized! He said yes, then I had him choose a day that he would like to be baptized. He chose Nov 22nd! At the end of the lesson his countenance changed. He was smiling and happy and you could tell that he really wanted to do this. Its amazing what can happen as we open our mouths and use simple invitations, you never know what people will say. 

The inside. The Next day Wed went just as good as Tues. We started the day off early going to teach a former investigator, Jerry, we taught him the restoration and he seemed to understand it, and we invited him to be baptized, cuz I was still pumped about the day before! Well he told us no for now because he had already been baptized, but we are going back to teach him next week!. We tracted and knocked 3 doors, we talked to a couple folks but no one was interested. We met a former investigator that told us to come back and we could have bible studies with him. We are gonna go back and introduce him to the BOM. 

Then we went out with a member, Joe, that introduced us to his friend Josiah, that was in last weeks letter as well. Well we went over there and taught him the restoration lesson as well. This one was just as good. About half way through his daughter, Samantha, walked in and just listened. We ended up giving them both BOM's and we invited Josiah, the father, to baptism. He said "Sure!" Which really did shock me on this one, I was ready to hear him say, "O ive already been baptized." Just like everyone else has told us, and like earlier this morning! I was hesitant even in the first place to ask, but the spirit was so strong in telling me I needed to invite him. Then after the invitation I asked if he would pick a day to be baptized. He told us he would think on it and let us know on our next visit. We went back on Sunday evening, he was just about to go to bed. We followed up on the invite to read a chapter out of the BOM and the baptism date, well he told us he hadnt done it. He was very apologetic which is good that he realizes we are serious about this and promised that when we come back this Wed, he would give us a date, and also have read the Chap in the BOM and have questions for us. We saw out of the corner of our eye his daughter, she was also reading the BOM while we were there. We are gonna go back and follow up on him and get to know the daughter as well:) Elder Hall pulling on the bell rope inside the old church building. Its a pretty cool bell:)

It even has a cemetery right behind it! You wont find very few if any Mormon churches with a cemetery! We also have been doing some admin things. We washed our car, since it hasn't been washed in years. We also learned that it hadnt had an oil change in a year, the anti-freeze was low, the transmission fluid was low, the tires were balding. When we went up to Selma for district meeting we got that fixed. We have to go back to fix the shocks on them so they stop wearing down the tires so fast. We were also able to go to a football game to support 2 semi active young men in our branch! They are in the play offs and it was the first round. They killed the other team, 69-0! haha it was still fun to go and watch, we are gonna go to there last game we can go to and if they win this one they go to Troy for the Semi and Final games! 

Both of the Church buildings. So at the beginning of the email I said that there were firsts, well it was the first time that Elder Roseman has had a baptism date, its the first time in a long time this area has had a baptism date. I got to experience the first primary program with only 5 kids in it! It was so dang cute! All the kids did great, they mixed it up with each kid having individual parts, they all said scriptures together and sang. Our branch has so few people that they called the oldest kid in the primary, Riley, as the primary chorister, and she is only 11 haha:) it was great though. The last first experience was one that I had. Now its kinda weird saying that as I have been out so long and experienced almost all you can on a mission but it is referring to the main title of the email, just to give yall a guess. Well we had biked to Bobby's house on Friday to teach him again and prepare him for his baptism. Well I guess he went out hunting with his friend. We talked to the family he lives with then headed back to the car to go tract. Well as we biked on one of the busier hwy's, maybe 4 people would drive on each day, I hear this car come up behind us. I was biking in front of Elder Roseman. I hear the car come closer and slow down then I heard a scream, which i was used to cuz everyone screams at missionaires, I look over and was expecting maybe a member waving, or someone flipping us off, you know the usual things that missionaries get. Well instead this car is right beside me the girl in the passenger seat was screaming had her shirt pulled up and flashed me.... I could not believe it! They then hit the gas peddle and drove off. I was stunned and didnt know what to do or think! When we got back to the car, I asked Elder Roseman, "Did you see that??" He said, "No I just looked over and the girl had her mouth wide open about ready to scream, then I heard the scream.." "She Flashed me!" I said. He was shocked as well and could not stop laughing. Who would've thought, out of the 10 people in Magnolia, one of them decides to be funny with us haha it was a crazy experience. I take it as Satan trying to distract or temp me, because of all the good we have done and also because of this next experience.

After the girl flashing me, we drove up a little ways and parked. We had tracted 3/4 of a road and drove up to the other end to tract the last of it. Well we parked and hopped on our bikes off we went. We came up on 2 houses right next to a church, so being obedient we passed them and went to the 3rd house a little ways down. Well no one answered. By this time it was later in the evening, well about 5:30 or 6. It was getting darker and darker as we continue to ride our bikes. We knocked on the next house and again nothing. Then as we rode our bikes down the road further, we had covered a good 1.5-2 miles, we almost passed a long dirt road that lead to a house in the distance. I turned around and we stopped to look at it and get the address on the mail box. Well his 2 dogs saw us and started their way out barking at us and trying to scare us. I dont even care about dogs any more, so I lead the way as we rode up this dirt drive way in the dark, with dogs barking and nipping at our feet. As we get closer to the house, the man was standing out on the porch. I hopped off my bike and threw my helmet down and walked up as quick as I could to not make it awkward. I said, "Hello sir, we are representatives of Christ and want to share a message about Him with you. Can we do that?" The man, David, being very nice said sure and let us in. We got to know him while he offered us drinks. At the beginning he told us that he had just moved in about 3 months ago from Florida. He told us that he just had the feeling he needed to be somewhere up here in Alabama, so he did a "Faith Move" He is married and has 3 kids, and for a man to do this is nuts these days. He told us he was very involved in the church he goes to here, and he wants to help and figure out why God has sent him here. On the mail box it had a quote concerning Christ. When they saw that they knew this was the house. He also kept saying that we were way out in the middle of no where and he wondered why and how we had gotten out this far. We explained all that then we went straight into the Restoration lesson. He enjoyed it and we set up another apt to come teach him. He offered to feed us a meal, then he drove us back to our cars. During the ride he showed us pics of Florida where he lived and then said, "You know, its weird cuz at my work I am working the night shift. I was the only one home and was sleeping then all the sudden woke up and went downstairs to do the dishes. I wasnt sure why. Then I heard my dogs barking and I looked outside and saw yall. I had my gun ready cuz i wasnt sure what to expect. Its cool that I had woken up and got to meet yall and hear your message, maybe God sent yall here to teach me how I can better help the people here." What a miracle! God has been helping us, walking along side us and guiding us to know where to go and what to do to find those people that we can teach! We have been so blessed since I have been here! We are gonna go back to teach David this week and invite him to baptism as well. We told the Martins, the members we live with, about David they got excited and want to go with us and even invite him and his family over for dinner! The work is in reality hastening in this part of the Lords vineyard! As I said last time, we have made it a goal to tract at least 3 doors a day. We have accomplished that so far, and have found almost 1 new investigator every day. God is good! 

Well have a great week. Keep looking for all the little miracles in your lives, and when Satan tries to "Flash" You, dust it off and keep going, blessings and miracles are in store in the very near future!:) I love yall so much and remember to be happy, even in the midst of difficulties and tribulation! 

Love Elder Hall