Shingles

 This last week has been quite a drag honestly. Our success has been very inconsistent, we set up like 9 different appointments this week and only 2 went through. A little discouraging forsure. We already are struggling with finding things to fill our time but then when people don't answer or can't meet up, that just adds more time to the 'what the frick are we supposed to do' category. We had a plan of putting 3 people in the same family on baptismal date this week but they had to cancel which is unfortunate. 

 Sorry, I don't have much to report on this week so I'll just give you some unneeded filler information real quick:

 Since we have a lot of extra time, I've kinda just been deep doctrine diving from any church source I can get my hands on. I read a lot of responses to Anti-Mormon material so I can best combat those attacks myself. Also recently just got into reading Saints which is fantastic, loving that book so far. We also like to make Facebook attempts by going into Bible Lover's group pages and asking thought provoking questions and then message the people that respond. There's a lot of other things that we do, mostly call the people on our list of referrals and nonmembers and just annoy the heck out of them until they get baptized. 

 Oh yeah, I have the shingles now. What a joy that is. I don't even know how I got it, I wouldn't say I'm particularly very stressed at this point in time, I've been vaccinated, I don't think I've been around anybody who has had it recently. I got no clue. All I know is it kinda eats rocks. Its all over my left arm going around my back. The worst of it is just the joint pain which makes it so I can't lift anything with my left arm without a lot of pain. The shingles themselves though, all the red blisters things, they don't really hurt all that bad. Just an annoying pulsating feeling. I do have to take 5 pills a day so that's not so fun but it's okay. I've heard a lot worse situations involving shingles and pain. Mine is just super inconvenient (like it could ever be convenient) because I'm on my mission. I'll be alright though, I'll just bite the bullet for a little while. 

 That's all I really got. Of course there's the service we do at the thrift stores and puppy barns, but there wasn't much that was interesting to note there. Just the same old. I do apologize for this email, its lame for sure. Count on next time to be better, because I definitely am.

--
Elder Batman

Actual Interviews For Once

 

Can you believe that we are finally able to do mission meetings IN PERSON now? We were told that about a month ago, yet for some odd reason we still did Zone Conference two weeks ago over Zoom. 🤔 I got no idea, I guess that rule is still inconsistent. Anyway, we did get to do Interviews in person, got to have a 3 minute heart-to-heart with the man himself President Allred. He's a scary dude yet super loving. Honestly a very good combination for a mission president. Our interview was mostly about how I'm doing with my new companion (it's going fantastic by the way) and he also said he's very proud of the new light he sees in me. I was a bit lost in the beginning of my mission, still turned to my old teenage behaviors in certain situations. But I've grown out of a lot of them, starting to channel the real ''Jackson Batman'' you could say. My mission president says I'm super close to being an amazing missionary, just a couple of kinks need to be sorted out. He has high faith in me and I believe in myself as well. 

   We got bashed again, that was fun. One of our most recent converts, K, invited us over early Sunday morning at 8:00 to just give them the sacrament and that was it- or so we thought. Keep in mind, we did have a 9:00breakfast appointment so this little get together really needed to be quick. Anyway, we get to her house and apparently one of her old friends who she used to minister with in another church for a long time was staying for a couple days just to spend some time with K and the others. Well, K said that he usually sleeps in til about 9:00 or 10:00 so they most likely won't interfere with our sacrament meeting. He definitely was awake for it, he intentionally woke up earlier than usual just so he could see us and bash us. We actually did the sacrament with him, we thought the dude was pretty cool and chill. Well, as soon as it's over, he completely questions some of the most deep doctrine in our church. He goes, "Go on, tell her about how you're gonna have your own planet." The spirit of contention was very much present so it wasn't a productive learning environment so we kind of gave them a simple answer and had to leave before we were late. My companion was fired up for sure, I had to calm him down because he was so ticked. Its whatever, that's the life of the missionary. It really is like that sometimes. 🤷‍♂️

   We had a fantastic lesson with a Bible referral who we eventually got to take lessons. It was wonderful, she invited her two kids (ages 7 & 16) to join on the discussion of the Plan of Salvation. They were engaged, super interested in everything we had to say. The little one probably asked the most questions, and you would think someone as young as that would ask some not-so productive questions, but you'd be wrong. She was hitting us with some heater questions. Caught us off guard a couple of times. But yeah, we're going over there tonight for another lesson. Very excited for that, we're getting close to potentially asking them to be baptized. 👀

   Well the life of quarantine is sort of over, but it almost seems like its about to make a comeback for a sequel. I spent 82 days in that church building staring at my hand and attempting to contact people using Facebook. Holy heck was that a trainwreck at times, but there was some small miracles here and there. I don't really want to go back to that self-isolation again but if we have to I'll bite the dang bullet. 

  Alright, I'm gonna stop talking now. Didn't get hit on by any gay guys this week, but hey, maybe next week? You never know what's gonna happen when your dressed so classy all the time. 

Love y'all, 

--
Elder Batman

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