08/08/2016

Well, I've made it a month, I'm pretty much a veteran now. This week
was off to an interesting start, idk if I mentioned it, but my
companion had some stomach problems last Monday, which actually turned
out to be his appendix bursting. I gave my first blessing of healing,
I had to do both parts, but it was still cool. I spent that entire
Tuesday in the hospital reading Jesus the Christ (which is
informative, long, and it uses words like illumines, peccable and
antemortal). I spent the night there.
Wednesday I went on an exchange with the elders right next door
because the president didn't want me just sitting, which makes sense.
I went and walked around public places and talked to random people.
Thursday I came back and helped my comp move around and such and get
back from the hospital. The next day was also just kinda planning and
helping my comp and setting up a little Pioneer Day thing.
We had a Pioneer Day thing on Saturday (it was going to be on the
23rd, but there was a funeral, then Jacobs baptism, so it was pushed
forward twice). It was awesome, I helped set up a scavenger hunt that
was incredibly difficult, and the reward was a watermelon slice. Also
we gave everyone boms and they were given the assignment of passing
them out, so really it was more like we gave them chores rather than
fun, but there were some cool stories and we just hung out with the
ward. Elder Kirk was able to get out and move around and it was pretty
great.
I went on exchanges for the rest of the day (we basically swap every
other day while elder Kirk is recovering so that my education doesn't
stagnate) and it was awesome. We went from appointment to appointment,
and it went from super nice black scientist to nice and incredibly
faithful guy covered in tattoos to girl that acted a lot like an older
Esmé, to whom I gave a priesthood blessing (my first blessing of
comfort in the field btw), and it was all amazing and we got them all
to commit to fast on Sunday.
Sunday was good, I came back to my area and went to church. We got a
lot of people that we can follow up with, and I ate dinner with some
very friendly and kind of crazy members. We plan on resuming tracting
on Monday after Pday. we get a car for four weeks now, you really
learn to appreciate a/c biking in Georgia
I've been doing a lot of studying this week, which has been good. It's
good because I realized how much there is to learn, I honestly think I
could spend every single day of my life studying, but I also know that
I need to apply what I learn as well. It's also good to study for a
while because after a while I get bored and really want to go out and
serve, so that's a plus. I never knew how much I didn't know, and also
how much there is to learn from people who are being taught. It's
pretty cool to be a missionary
Elder Roach signing out