02/20/2017

Hey my family and my friends and whoever else, what's up? How are things at home? All's quiet on the western front? This week was full of fun surprises for me, also it was transfer week. I'm staying here, and so is Elder Larsen. I'll give you all some highlights.

So this week we went on two exchanges, and I went up into Dahlonega. I got to try some real street contacting on the UNG campus, it's pretty fun. You get some weird looks because we were working on being bold and we just kind of stopped people, asked where they were going and then walked with them. I met some wacky dudes, it was nice. One guy was rotc, and he had to do laps around a little block for like 70 hours with this rubber gun because he got in trouble, so we walked and talked with him for like 40 mins.

Oh and it's funny, there's a church in Dahlonega and like every other person at the college is a youth minister there, and they teach them anti Mormon stuff, but not like normal anti. They basically train them how to bash with missionaries they encounter about how we aren't saved by works. The other elders get bashed 3-4 times per day and it's always exactly the same conversation, the same bible verses, same reasoning, everything. I got to experience it, it was weird, I think they were genuinely concerned for our salvation, so it's not like a normal bible bash.

Also this week I had the privilege of "harvesting" some ducks for a member, meaning we cut off some duck heads. Not something I was expecting to do on my mission, but it was definitely an experience! I have some pictures of it but it's not for the faint of heart. Then later that day we got some really nice sushi! It was a good day. Not much else happened this week, I tried to make some chicken in a crock pot but I forgot about it and left it on high and the chicken turned into charcoal. That was fun, our apartment smells like a KFC now.

Because of the bashing going around, I've been reading up on repentance and what it is and why it's required and if we are saved by works or grace. I found a pretty legit talk by Brad Wilcox about grace that explains repentance and grace really well, I would invite you guys to look it up sometime.

Till next time lil buddies 

Elder Barak Samuel Roach III of THE GEORGIA ATLANTA NORTH MISSION