South Carolina Columbia

June 24 Hi Everyone!   This week was a lot more exciting than last week. We met with a lot of cool people! But one of the biggest things I have learned about being in the south is that I need to throw stuff away. At the beginning of the week we went and gave an older couple a blessing and there was stuff everywhere.  I said we would love to come by and help clean up - it made her freak out.  It was crazy but everyone here has so much stuff in their yards.    We sometimes get what is called a media referral and that's when someone sees an online ad and requests us to come over. Most of the time they claim they didn't put it in but in this area most of our referrals have been less active members trying to be active again. It's really cool! There was a 23 year old guy who referred himself and said he wanted to become active again. We started meeting with him and now he's coming to church again. It's really cool. We also had a guy from Vernal Utah who moved out...

June 17 Hi Everyone, This week was not that exciting.  We had zone conference which was cool and then had interviews with our mission president the next day. Tuesday we blitzed an area. That means that the whole district went to one area and did missionary work there.  So we were only actually in our area for like 2 days.    The two days we actually did work were a lot of fun. We met a nice guy that has been inactive since he was 16 and he is 23 now.   He called us and we went over and talked with him. It was really cool cause he had realized that he was unhappy with the world and wanted to get back into church. We invited him to church but he didn't come.  Too bad because I gave a great talk so he missed out. ha!   I was asked to speak on Sunday and I shouted out my Dad of course and talked about listening to the Lord's path and not the world's. I think it went well.  I didn't actually prepare a lot for it so I was glad the Spirit was with me for...

June 10 Hi Everyone,   This week was pretty fun. I went on exchanges and went over to Florence, South Carolina. I was there for two days with Elder Schlerf. It was a lot of fun.  We looked funny together because Elder Schlerf is maybe 5' 7".  We worked hard and had a fun time but I was excited to get back because we had a baptism! The previous missionaries had been teaching a 9 year old girl the lessons and she was all ready to be baptized. She was scared at first because she is in a wheelchair.  Her Dad was able to calm her down and get her baptized. It was really sweet and really cool.  She was  confirmed yesterday and it was an awesome experience!   That was the highlight of the week!     Love Elder Gurney