Quincy Week 24 (Mission Week 63)

 Hey guys!!

Happy late Fathers Day to all the Father's out there! Especially my dad and grandpa. I love yall! 

This week was the last week of the missionary schedule that I am used to before it changes. A lot of change is happening this upcoming week. A new mission president, a new weekly schedule, transfers, and now we just had an announcement that we aren't allowed to have furniture in our apartments. No couches, no recliners, no nothing. We are only allowed a study chair and a chair for eating. Oh well. Does it make complete sense to me no but we are still gonna get rid of all the furniture. Later on in the email will be a good story on how my zone reacted to this change. Here's how my week went

Monday

It was our last Monday Pday before it gets changed to Thursday. The Portola elders came over for a round of disc golf. Elder Whetten accidentally shanked a shot and he hit someone on a different teepad. That person cussed him out and I felt bad for him haha. The guy immediately apologized for calling him a "Freaking Moron" about 10 seconds after he realized that wasn't necessary. Elder Whetten has barely ever played haha

Tuesday

Because of Zone Conference we didn't have district council. We played a round of disc golf in the morning with Blake and Brother Dolezal and then had a awesome lesson with Taylor afterwards. During the afternoon we had a lot of time proselyting because our lesson with Robn fell through. We had dinner with the Meyers in Greenville so we drove there and back. Taylor said that he had a softball game at 6:30 and told us where it was so we wanted to go watch it. We checked both places he said they play at but no one was there. Oh well. Instead we proselyted and went over to Chad. He was drunk as usual but he loves us haha. He started smoking weed halfway through and oh man did that hit him quickly. He couldn't even keep his eyes open. We read 5 verses and he thanked us profusely for coming and begged us to stay 20 more minutes but off we went haha

Wednesday

I finally got to go to the temple after 10 months!!!!!! It was so great. We did an endowment session with the Zone and President and Sister Dunn. It was the first time I've went since the recent changes so that was cool. Afterwards we had a shortened version of Zone Conference. We had two trainings by the zone leaders and STLs. Then we heard the departing testimonies of Elders Bake and Boyce as well as President and Sister Dunn. It was crazy to realize that President Dunn is really leaving. I remember meeting him fresh off the plane nearly 15 months ago and thinking wow it's a long time until we get a new President. Well here we are. It's bittersweet but I'm thankful for what President Dunn has taught me and how he has helped me along the mission. After Zone Conference ended we rushed back to Quincy to make it in time for the disc golf club night. We hadn't been in 3 weeks because of other arrangements and the people were starting to wonder where the missionaries have been haha. I played well and shot a -6! I got 3rd place that night. I got a beautiful eagle on Hole 13 having a 350ft drive and sinking a 60 ft putt!

Thursday

Not much happened Thursday morning because our service fell through and didn't have a good backup plan. We conducted our weekly planning session but only planned until Monday because it would be weekly planning again because of the schedule change. We had dinner with the Williams and they had a very old rotary payphone on the wall that somehow still worked. I tried it out by calling our phone but it didn't work. I then dialed my mom's number not really thinking it would work but it did!! I was astonished haha. I just said Hi it's Elder Proctor calling from an ancient rotary phone and hung up haha. That evening we had Thursday night basketball.

Friday

We had service at the food pantry in the morning. That is always fun. They are older people that work there so they love having us young missionaries helping every other Friday. We had a lesson with Sidney at a park that went well. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around town and contacting people. After dinner we made some member visits for the rest of the evening. We dropped off some stuff of members that we had in our apartment and talked with each family for a little bit.

Saturday

We had service with Bill in the morning. We chopped wood which is always fun. Afterwards we proselyted a ton around different areas in town and contacted some people we knew. After dinner we had the monthly ward game night. We had the announcement of how we aren't allowed to have couches or any furniture in our apartments which made the zone chat a pretty funny experience. I sent a meme of Will Smith standing in an empty room and then others started sending GIFs of no furniture and we got chastised by an STL for not being obedient. She told us to drop to our knees..... The whole chat then proceeded to clown said STL for being self righteous haha. We all are gonna get rid of our furniture but there's no way anyone is ecstatic and looking forward to our apartments being bare and desolate haha.

Sunday

We left early to go remind Mike to come to church since he said he would after our good lesson last Sunday talking about hasn't come to church. Welp he didn't come to church.... he wasn't even home when we pulled up to remind him. Not much we can do with him if he doesn't come to church. Besides Mike not coming to church the rest of the meetings were good. We attended Quincy Ward today and we had the monthly potluck and it was Father's day. After church we called our dads and then we met up with Bekah at Pioneer Park for a Bible study. We each shared our beliefs about certain things and we pretty agree on them but in different interpretations. She invited us to her baptism in her church next Sunday so we will go to that. Do I wish she was baptized into our church well yeah but 1. You gotta respect agency and 2. Being baptized into any church is better than living a life of chaos and sin haha it's still a sign of faith on her part so why wouldn't we attend. Their church rented the community pool and they are gonna do the baptisms there. Our conversation got cut short because we had to go to dinner so after dinner we went over to her parents place and talked with all of her fam. That was pretty fun. A part of the mission I love is when you can talk with people who have different beliefs but still have mutual respect and still get along. That's the case with Bekah and her fam. Its a good break to not be chastised for our beliefs haha. The zone chat blew up again while we were at dinner with the Walmers because they sent the new housing requirements paper and everyone started sending GIFs and memes about not having furniture (not being disobedient at all) and the same STL and now her companion sent scriptures into the chat chastising us for disobedience....... I don't think they realize that everyone is gonna get rid of their furniture and by sending a meme of an empty room doesn't mean we are disobedient..... I do believe an elder might have crossed a line though when he sent Proverbs 21:19 in response to these sisters chastisement. Look the scripture up. I can't say that I didn't laugh.

Lesson Reviews

We had a great lesson with Taylor. We addressed how he was planning on being baptized somewhere in Chico and how that wouldn't be by the priesthood authority and wouldn't be binded in heaven. We talked about that for a bit and then addressed a major concern that he brought up to us. He told someone about his experience feeling the Spirit by reading the Book of Mormon and they told him about Revelations 22 and told him to stop reading it. We addressed that and it lead to a very spiritual led discussion on how to determine truth. He said that the he feels the Spirit from the Book of Mormon and wants to read it now that he understands how the Bible was put together. We invited him to read 2 Nephi 4 and to pray on where he should be baptized.

Sidney

We read from 1 Nephi 16 and discussed the principles we could learn from the chapter. We talked about having faith and how that guides our lives. We also talked about true repentance and having a sincere desire to change.

Well that's it for this week. Transfers are on Friday so I could be in a different area next week. I usually already know transfer news by now but we get it 2 days later now so I don't know yet. I know for sure I'll have a new companion but heres to change! Wish me luck!

I love yall

Elder Proctor