South Carolina Columbia

Jan 29 Hi Everyone, This week a lot of interesting things happened.  The first thing was zone conference. It was my first actual zone conference because the last transfer was a Christmas conference.  We had to drive to Savannah.  The zone conference was cool but it was more sitting than I would like.  I met all the new people in the zone and we had it with another zone so I met a whole new zone.  The next day we needed an oil change so we had to drive to the nearest Firestone which was an hour away.   We got there and they called the senior missionary in charge of cars and he said we need new tires as well.  We ended up being at the Firestone for 6 hours.  We were able to leave for lunch because some other missionaries picked us up but it was a long.  So for two days we didn't do much contacting.   The other days we met a lot of cool people but none that were that notable.  So just enjoy the fun pics!   This week should be more...

Jan 22 This week was the end of my first transfer. I am no longer one of the newest missionaries out. Since the mission is splitting, we are getting a bunch of new missionaries so there are three new missionaries in my zone.  My transfer was boring. I didn't go anywhere and I have the same companion so it wasnt that earth shattering.  The only thing different is that my companion became District Leader - which is a little interesting but didn't really change anything. My whole district changed though. Every companionship changed which is fun because I get to meet more people.   This week I invited someone to be baptized and she said yes.  We met a part member family a couple of weeks ago and they were very interested in coming back to church.   We knocked on their door and the dad answered.  He said, "I'm glad you are here.  We are ready to come back to church.  What time does it start?"  They have now been at church every week....

  Jan 15  This week was a really fun week.  There was a tornado that touched down near us so Tuesday was mostly spent inside because there was too much rain.  The weird thing is whenever it rains down here the whole south shuts down.  No one will talk to you or answer their doors because it is raining.  People don't even really leave their homes.    Later in the week,  we had exchanges with the zone leaders so I got to go down to Savannah and party it up down there for the day.  Savannah was really cool.  There was Spanish moss all over the place and it was right by the ocean.  I was companions with an Elder from the Marshall Islands which was really cool.  He has just started learning English but he has so much faith - it is awesome.  I guess the NBA is really big over there and his favorite player was James Harden which I didn't expect.  It was really fun and cool to see a different area.    This...

Jan 8 Hi everyone, These last couple weeks have been more of the same.  We have been meeting a lot of people and the time has been going by quickly.  On New Year's Eve, we had burgers and they were really good.  But it was weird because we had to be back in our apartment by 6:30.  But we did a fun puzzle to pass the time.  I also had my first fast sunday on the mission.  I shared my testimony in my ward but fasting on the mission is brutal.  I didn't want to do anything but we had to drive around and I was just really tired and hungry.  One thing I didn't know about missionary work is that there would be so many meetings.   At least once a week we have to drive at least 2 hours to get to the meetings. Today we had Chicken and Waffles which was fun.  They were pretty good.   We had a whole bag of deer jerky given to us. We've met so many people the last couple weeks and there are two we are hoping to get baptized soon ...