A Pretty Slow Week

 As the title suggests, yeah, it's been pretty dang slow. It was supposed to be set up to be a fairly busy week, we had appointments set up for every single day. But guess what, they all fell through. It be like that sometimes. Anyway, I'm gonna talk about my day-by-day because maybe I'll remember more if I do it this way.

Wednesday: We actually went to the lady we baptized (P) this week's work to volunteer. She happens to work at another thrift store called "Waterfront" which is a lot more organized and put together than that of Salvation Army, I was pleasantly surprised. But yeah, we show up and P immediately makes us meet the manager who runs the whole dang place. Our job was basically to just put away their already tagged and priced items on the shelf, what a joy! Some lady who worked there actually got ticked off at us because we weren't putting certain glasses in their specific place. As soon as she left, we just rolled our eyes because that lady had to chill, all the glasses are the fricken same on that shelf. 

Thursday: WEEKLY PLANNING, gosh it's just the best time of the week. We do this every single Thursday where we just talk about goals of our investigators and how we can apply them. I hate it so much, Elder Peterson and I dread it every week. It is supposed to be an hour and a half long about something we do every day already, but it's just on steroids. The end of Weekly Planning is what we call "Comp Inventory" where you talk about what you like about the other companion, so awkward. We kinda just look at each other and say "Yeah, I don't you. You're a dope dude." And boom, that's the end of that, next. We also taught Peggy the rest of the remaining commandments that weren't taught yet, and the girl was so ready to be baptized it was a breeze of a conversation. I'm getting better and better at teaching the more I do it and Elder Peterson says I have a powerful voice when I testify so that's great to here.

Friday: P’s baptismal interview with our district leader, Elder Bobadilla. Other than that, there wasn't too much that happened today that was memorable. I guess it's good to mention that I am getting pretty baller at playing piano because Elder Rust (Elder Bobadilla's companion) is amazing and is teaching me a thing or two. Things like Clocks by Coldplay, The Minecraft thing, you know, just dumb stuff like that. 

Saturday: P got baptized. Yeah, that's two points on the board right there for Jackson Batman's baptisms. He's heating up. Elder Peterson informed me that same morning that I was going to be giving the talk on the Holy Ghost, so I had to throw something together. I got a lot of compliments after saying I speak very clearly and don't say "And umm.." which I was surprised. The baptism was fantastic, her family who aren't members drove down from Pensacola and saw P get put onto the path that leads to Eternal Happiness. How jealous they probably were. She was baptized and confirmed by her Father-in-law so I didn't get in all white for this one unfortunately. 

Sunday: Another typical Sunday, took the sacrament and all that jazz. P was confirmed so that was a spiritual experience within itself and I was apart of the circle. After church, we went and visited a lot of people who were referrals. One in particular, A, who was a referral from the Spanish Elders, we've been trying to visit about 10 times at least and she has never been home. It seems like everytime we go to her trailer park home, there's always someone new in that house. This most recent experience was the most interesting because we basically watched an entire drug deal go down. Some random car pulls up, gives them a bag, collects some cash, then drives off and that was it. We go to the door and some guy named David said Aretha isn't home and doesn't know when she will be. He had an ankle monitor on, not surprising he was on house arrest. 

Monday: Went to the fake Gator Alley because the original one wasn't gonna work for our whole district. We think we saw one gator, but it was so far out in the water that it could've been a tree branch. I took a pic, you'll see what I mean. Not too much else happened, played a butt ton of ping pong and anybody who knows me really knows I'm killer at ping pong. No competition from the other elders. 

That's my week, a lot about P but that's okay because she is now following the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. Let's hope that we don't stop this hot streak of baptism that we are on right now. 

Guys, I want to let you know that I know that this church is true without a doubt. The Book of Mormon, that little book sitting on your nightstand, is the truest book on Earth and a man will "get closer to God by reading it" as Joseph Smith says. The fulness of the gospel, what Christ taught when he was on the Earth, is contained within it's pages. Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God and what a blessing it is that we get to have it. Take advantage of it. I just recently got my witness that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and I will not shut up about it. Read the fricken Book of Mormon, it will change your life for the better, it will allow the spirit to preside more often in your life and you will see miracles happen. A man will not just get closer to God by reading the Book of Mormon but by ACTING on what it teaches. The church is true guys, the church is true, because the Book of Mormon is true. 

Love y'all 

Elder Jackson Quincy Batman

Just Another Week

This week has been a little slower, not gonna lie. Our teaching pool is getting smaller and smaller because we're kinda just baptizing everyone we get. I'm also the humblest guy you'll meet, so there's that. Nah I'm screwing around, we just need to find some more people to give the "good news" or the gospel if you will. Obviously that means we either have to receive referrals from members or we need to go tract... and Elder Peterson and I aren't the biggest fan of tracting. I don't know what it is, we just have had absolutely no success when it comes to that. Call me crazy, but it's really fricken weird having guys dressed in white shirts and ties going up to your door trying to encourage you to change your life. We still do tract, don't get me wrong, but my gosh does it suck. 

 We did have Follow Up Trainer's Meeting this week which allowed me to see the people I came out to the mission with which is super dope. I got to see my old MTC companion, Elder Pitcher, and that's always a blast because I love that dude. Anyway, this meeting is basically seeing how us Trainees are adapting, how we like our companions, what's going well, etc.. Its a hefty drive to get to the building where the meeting is held, about 3 hours. Not fun, its not fun doing that 2 times in a day. But I'm always happy to have events out of the ordinary every once in awhile, makes the mission not so repetitive. 

 We also had P-day today, and main part about it was we did some boxing training with some member living in the Daphne Area of Alabama. It was so fricken tough. This man, as soon as I get there, hands me two 5-pound weights and tells me to run to a certain curb. Well that curb was a mile away, and then I gotta run back. Literally shoot me. We then proceed to do jumproaping for like 10 minutes and then a very frightening ab workout. The whole boxing part, that didn't even really happen. He just wanted all of us to throw up, and a lot of us did (I didn't).

Anyway, like I said, not a lot went on this week (at least from what I can remember right now). The mission has been a great experience, 10/10 recommend.

Love y'all,

--
Elder Batman

Another Week In The “All Time Best Mission” as Everyone Here Calls It

The title I put for this email is honestly very true, I'm having a blast and a half. My companion is a dope laid back dude who shares a very similar humor to me. The man is hilarious and we have had a lot of moments recently where we can't even speak because we are laughing so hard. What a blessing that is, holy heck. And there's these other Elders, Elder Bobadilla and Elder Rust, that live about 100 yds away from our apartment who come over all the time and these guys are such cool people. We all get along so well and have tons of laughs. We call ourselves the "Foley Squad". It's just such a good time right now, let me get into what I've been doing recently:

- We had interviews with our mission president this week. Basically it's a thing you do every transfer where you meet with President and talk about how you're adjusting, how's your companion, how's your obedience. It's all very scary because the dude is very direct and very powerful. Don't get me wrong, I love this man, he's been a HUGE blessing to this mission, but you don't go joking around with President Allred. This man knows when you're slacking off, he knows when you're not getting up on time, he just knows, I don't know how but he does. It's terrifying but motivating, I always am trying to keep myself in check before I go and meet with him. Anyway, my interview with him went great, we talked about the Book of Mormon and finding a witness of it because that's something I have a huge desire to find at this point and time. I'm just having a hard time testifying of a book that I don't have a witness that it's true, but President gave me great insight and told me to finish this dang book and pray about it. And then, in his very scary voice said "After that, you go ahead and email me and dare tell me this book ain't true." Yikes, alright man. I'll read and pray about it.

- Went to a member's house who lives in Gulf Shores which is right by the beach. This member lives in a rich neighborhood, has all the private gates to get in and all that, her house was absolutely huge, nice cars, all that jazz. The problem is, I guess this couple was vegan which I didn't know until I got there. I'll tell you right now, I was so freaked out about what I was going to be served for dinner. Luckily it ended up being some sort of vegan-hamburger that wasn't all that bad. They had a vegan cheddar cheese slice which... was an interesting texture, all organic condiments, and a pineapple slice was on it. It wasn't all that bad, I was pleasantly surprised and relieved.

-Taught the Plan of Salvation to this very nice man named J who showed much interest in the church. This man is a legend, he followed through on the commitment we gave him last lesson which was to read a little bit of the BoM and pray about it which was so awesome. He even came to the lesson with a list of questions he was curious about, just a perfect investigator/friend. The only thing is during the first discussion we gave him last week, he was chewing tobacco. Of course we noticed this, so in the next lesson we brought up the Word of Wisdom. John said "Eh, I just chew to pass time really. I'll get rid of it right now." He then proceeds to take his 'dip' and throw it into one of the church's garbage cans (we had the lesson at the church). The field is for sure white and ready to harvest, we are definitely finding the people God wants us to find. We also talked about the Law of Chastity and right now he does live with his girlfriend, but he said he's working on changing that. Oh, and I did ask him to be baptized and he said yes, but no date yet until we figure out the whole girlfriend thing. 

Guys, the mission has been such a blessing in my life. I talk with my family every week and they all say they already see so much change going on with me even this early. Yeah I go on and on about all the weird stuff and not so fun things about missions, but as I mentioned in the beginning of my email, they are a blast and a half. I'm loving it and can't wait to create more memories and tell other funny crap that goes on.

Love y'all,

Elder Jackson Batman

2 For 2 Baptismal Dates

As the title suggests, yeah, we got another on lock for baptism. Her name is P, she has a very strong desire to become a member of our church so that she can get sealed to her husband who is a member. We taught the 1st lesson to her and asked her to get baptized, and BOOM, she said yes. Elder Batman is getting some great success early and he ain't complainin'. Anyway, moving on to other things about my week, it's been a little slower for sure. We got the board game Catan which is a super dope game about territory and harvesting materials and my companion and I play it in our spare time when we feel it's okay to do so. It was my companion's birthday this week on the 30th and because of this, we kinda took a little more extra time to play Catan and relax. We aren't too worried about it, but we are getting kinda cocky because we are having a lot of success so we think we can slack off a little bit. Terrible mindset and I'm aware of it so we are working on it and hoping not to be humbled. 

Other things that happened this week:

-Did service at the old Sally(Salvation) Army two times this week. I'm getting real good at tagging shirts and marking their price, let me tell ya. I'm always competitive about stupid stuff that doesn't matter that much, but hey, the nice ladies at the Sally Army are happy.

-Talked with another friend(investigator) who's name is S and he's from England. He's a stud and is super dope to talk to, his wife is a member, so we're hoping to get some lessons scheduled. We just visit him at his job and talk to him. He does work at Hooters, but that's not a problem. We just call that a sweet tender mercy from the Lord.

I'm completely kidding, we don't look. We just sit outside the place and he comes out and talks to us. We lock our hearts, don't worry. 

-We went to a farm for my p-day today that had HEAPS of different animals. As missionaries, we are not allowed to ride horses so that kinda blows but its alright, it was still a blast. The weather today was like 70 degrees so I got a little sun kissed, and it was just amazing. There's a big bull on the farm that is named Enos who is very intimidating and constantly stares at you. Obviously I'm a boy and an idiot so I just want to play the game with a red cloth and challenge it to charge me, but that's what companions are for; so I don't do that. 

As I mentioned, it's been a fairly slow week so I don't got a lot to report on. Just know that I am enjoying myself out here in Foley, Alabama and I know that God put me in this specific place at this specific time for a reason. He knows my gifts and talents and puts me here to use them to strengthen His army in ways that other people can't. 

I love y'all, 

And yeah, I just said y'all because it comes out my mouth A LOT recently. That's the joy of serving in the South I guess.

--
Elder Jackson Batman