Stitches

 

Wassup guys, I'm just gonna get straight to the point: I took a fat elbow right to the lip last preparation day and it wrecked my lip. My companion was going for a wide open layup in basketball and a little stupid voice in the back of my head said "hey, you can block that" and so I tried doing just that. The result was that I sorta slipped and landed right into his elbow and got a big cut on the right side of my mouth. It was bleeding a good amount and I knew immediately I was going to need a stitch. Soooo, we whipped on down to UrgentCare and got the stitch and as of right now, I just got the stitch taken out! I didn't see it fit to go back to UrgentCare to get the one stitch they gave me taken out so I took some sewing scissors and pulled that baby out. My mouth still looks a little weird, but it'll be alright. 

Anyway, now to more spiritual things, we've been super busy these last couple weeks. With how blessed Daphne is as an area and with the responsibility of being a Zone Leader, I don't really get breaks. We just run... like everywhere. We've got 2 baptisms lined up for 27th so we have been hauling trying to get these kids prepared for the sacred dunk. If there's one thing though that I've learned from my mission, opposition before baptisms is soooo real. One of the kids, Teegan, is getting constant thoughts of "you should go check out other churches.. you should push off the date so you're more 'prepared'.." It's been stressful work. Satan really does suck sometimes. The ultimate goal was to have Elder Olsen be here for his baptism because he just got word that he'll be going back to his original assignment in Ethiopia on April 1st.  Reason why was we so badly want this to happen is because Elder Olsen's father put T's dad on date for baptism 30 years ago. With that being said, you try to tell me God ain't real. It's such a crazy miracle, but we really want it to pan out. We'll see what happens.

There's also a lot of other missionaries going back to their original assignments and because of that they are closing a bunch of areas. Right now, we share a ward with the Fairhope Elders, but they are going to be taken out of the area to fill in for the missionaries that are going back. Well... That means I'm going to be taking over Fairhope's work... As well as Daphne's. I don't know who my companion is going to be, I surely hope he's a stud otherwise I'll probably have an aneurysm from the size of the workload. I'll let you know what ends up happening. 

I think I'll leave this here, hope y'all have a wonderfully blessed week. Praise God, Hallelujah, Roll Tide. 🐘 

--
Elder Batman 🦇 

ZL Batman

 

   I'm so happy to be back here in the Foley District in my baby area! I was here for 7 and a half months serving in Foley and now I'm serving in Daphne. I'm so stoked because it is a beautiful area and I'm super excited to get some work done here. Obviously I was a little sad to be leaving my old area in Cullman. My comp was sick, the area was boppin', members weredope, it was a dream come true. I did make a request to President to stay for one more transfer since a kid we were going to baptize was taken into the foster unit 30 minutes before we were going to have his Baptismal interview. He's supposed to come back to his family in April and I just wanted to be there for him since he knows me so much. Obviously, request denied. I'm in Daphne now. But of course, President said the Lord will pave a way for me to be there for him when that time comes.

   Anyway, my new companion Elder Olsen is a great guy, fantastic missionary. He lives in Spanish Fork and he actually knows a few of my friends from home so we have a couple connections. Elder Olsen works super hard, I'm having to adapt to his pace and I love it. A lot of growth is definitely happening right now and I'm really happy with what the future holds. One thing I've noticed with this area is that missionaries have kind of struggled using members in lessons and in my last area that's all we ever did. I definitely know the baptism we got with Deanna was because we had a member at every lesson so I'm definitely going to try fixing that situation here. But Daphne is soooo blessed, way too many people to teach. We should potentially have a few baptisms here this transfer. 

Ah yes, the Zone Leader life. That was so crazy to receive that call from President to be made as one of these. Usually they'd like you to be a District Leader before a Zone Leader since ZLs help out the DLs, but I kinda skipped a step. I figured it's because I was companions with two different ZLs, but idk, I just work here. Any who, there is so many little meetings and different things I have to attend and it chunks a lot of time. They're definitely productive, just not something I'm used to. I do love this assignment though, I've already grown a lot in this past week having to step up so I can be a great example and I just think it's so perfect for me right now. This last week I had a pretty bad cold so that kinda blows, but it was still really really good. 

Well, that's basically the jist of what's been going on. I'm super busy all the time, trying to get a full hour of personal study has been a struggle bus. We just don't have the time sometimes. Also, Elder Olsen loves just talking to random people on the street and since the Coronavirus, I haven't done too much of that at all in the last year. I'm happy and a little terrified to learn those skills again. 

Have a blessed week,

--
Elder Batman 🦇 

More Covenants

 

 Last two weeks have been NICE. Definitely feeling like we are being given success from Heavenly Father. Since we've had access to Instagram, it's been a game changer when contacting people that are younger. It seems to be the younger generations are more receptive to our schpeel since they don't know a whole lot about our church and really other churches. They see two 20 year old guys getting hype about some church and it gets them going. That's what I like to see. Anyway, we had a baptism this last weekend. Her name is D, she's 22 years old, and we met her on Facebook. There's your proof that we don't waste time on social media. I basically just asked her if she's curious to hear what our beliefs are and eventually got to a video call. The rest is history. It was not easy though, we told her she would face opposition by being on baptismal date since Satan hates when we do the right thing and an unfortunate opposition she faced was that her mother passed away unexpectedly. They don't teach you how to deal with this in Preach My Gospel. 

We weren't really sure what to do, I mean I don't know if I'd want to be baptized if I was facing something like that. But, D being the super solid person she is kept pressing on and made it to her baptismal date. Even she agrees that she feels happier than she ever has in her entire life. Her mom just died guys, the gospel must be true if she's happier than she's ever been. 

 On to other things, we have another baptism scheduled for next week for J. He's someone we've been working on but the timing has been rough until now. He's 12 years old and he's super excited to finally get baptized. We did have to call his mother and basically plead our case on why we think baptism is the play for her son since she was reluctant. She said something like "If you think getting him involved in the church will be better than any parenting that I could I do then I'll do it." We basically just said yes. It's true in every case. 

 Oh, we were able to get the recent convert in this area to go get his patriarchal blessing. I was so happy for the guy, he loved the experience. We are working real hard to get this guy prepared for the Temple one day. Especially since his father passed away not long ago and we want him to have that experience of baptising him. 

Other stuff... Well, Elder Ryser and I have been keeping track of everytime we get hit on by either male or female. When you're DMing people all day on both Facebook and Instagram, you run into a few here and there. We just laugh it off and try to change the subject with the person, but usually in this case it's not something we can really pursue further teaching-wise. Missionary work nowadays is so jank. Never would I expect to have to have push away so many gay guys on my mission, but it is what it is. 

That's kinda all I got. I'll let you know how J's baptism goes. Should be pretty dope if the kid can behave for a week. We'll see.

Have a blessed day, 
Elder Batman 🦇 

Almost 14 Months

 

 It's crazy to think that I'm approaching single digits for months left in the mission. These last few transfers in Cullman have just completely whipped on by, days are really just starting to blend. I feel like I just met Elder Ryser but I've actually been with him for about 3 weeks now. Quoting my older brother, the second half of the mission goes even faster than the first. Let's hope I don't blow it. 

 One of the craziest additions to the mission recently has been access to Instagram. Elder Ryser and I have been doing a lot of brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of eachother to try and make this work. It's kinda hilarious because we actually haven't received much direction on how to be successful on it, we're basically just writing the history books as we go. I guess that's the life of being a social media missionary pioneer. Facebook and Instagram have so many differences and honestly, having used to Facebook for a good year in the mission, I love Facebook so much more than Instagram. I don't know how to explain it, really just the amount of tools and option on Facebook is heaps better than Instagram when it comes to missionary work specifically. But, only the old people use Facebook so it's a win-lose. 

 Other stuff... Well, we have two people in date to get baptized on the 20th. I've said this in the past and usually hasn't worked out, but these two look promising. D, she is so prepared for the gospel right now. Yesterday, she came to out Zoom church service and even had her camera turned out which barely anybody in our ward does that. After the service, she ended up going to Decatur to visit her mom but also wanted to pay her old church a visit, the Pentecostal church. She said it felt completely different than the feeling she had at our church. It felt wrong to her, didn't feel like home. D told us that it truly has grown her testimony of her decision she is making to be baptized into our church. She is fully on board for being baptized. D also has a cousin that has read more of the Book of Mormon than she has and they both started at the same time. D has been talking to her a lot about the church, the only issue is that her cousin's dad is a pastor in another church and wouldn't approve. We're working on it, definitely trying to get the cousin to come to the baptism. 

 With J, the other person we have ondate, his parents were actually going to have him stop meeting with us and not be baptized. We felt impressed that we needed to call the mother and talk to her about what baptism will truly do for her kid and having that gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful conversation, the mother was impressed with what we had to say and decided that she'll give J another go at this. We know J is a great kid and this church will only improve the quality of who he is. 

 Other than that, it's just been a lot of joking around with Elder Ryser and making phonecalls. We get along very well, it definitely helps that he went to my high school. I feel like we will stay for a couple transfers together, who knows. We both can agree that we would want it that way. 

Alright, that's all I got. Forgive me for my slothfulness in not writing an email last week. It seems the longer the mission goes on, the more of a drag these things are to write. I testify of these things. 

Have a blessed day, 

Elder Batman 🦇 

1 Stayed, 3 Out

 

Some crazy stuff just went down at transfers this time around and I definitely did not call it. My bet was that both companionships in Cullman would stay, no changes made at all, but BOY was I wrong. I actually am the only one staying. Elder Lee is going down South to Fairhope, Elder Burbidge is going to Talladega, and Elder Hays is only going 40 minutes away to East Limestone (he's still in my district). But wait, here's the kicker that sucks rocks; they are not putting another companionship in Cullman again so it just going to be my comp and I. Not going to lie, not super stoked with that, I've been around another compansionship nearby basically my whole mission and now I'm 40 minutes away from everybody with just one random dude to keep me company. I think I'll be fine though, Elder Ryser (my new companion) actually went to my Highschool and I've talked to him a few times on the mission. He seems really cool, I think we'll do great. Very sporty type of guy and so am I. Now, with there being no other companionship in Cullman, that means I'm going to have to take on the other Cullman Elder's old work that they were doing. This is very nice actually because we'll be busier than ever. It definitely is sad to see my trainee go elsewhere and the other Elders, we really had a bond and got along amazingly, but it's for the best I'd assume. 

 Onto other things going, we found 2 new people to teach this week! Yeah kinda crazy, doesn't happen like that very often. These two were found through Facebook by just sliding into DMs and they look promising! Basically the go-to phrase nowadays is to ask them if they've heard of what our beliefs are, and if they haven't, we ask if they want to. BOOM, easy knockdown everytime.. well at least the 4 or 5 times I've tried it. We had a bit of a slump recently when it came to teaching lessons. That's mostly due to the fact that we stopped teaching 4 people in the last 2 weeks since they were leaving us on read with no care in the world of what we have to say whatsoever. It really do be like that sometimes. 

 Other than that, nothing really noteworthy happened. A lot of calling random numbers in our books to see if they have any desire in hearing our shpeel. Pretty soon here we should be getting Instagram, so if you want some nice Jesus messages on your feed on their, drop a follow @jacksonqbatman

I'll let y'all know how the new comp goes, this is going to be a weird next couple of weeks. 

Love y'all, 

Elder Jackson Quincy Batman 🦇 

Christmas & New Years

 

Hey guys, sorry for not writing last week, that's just me being lazy I guess. A lot has happened in that last 3 weeks with the holidays, teaching appointments, etc. I'll start off with telling you about Christmas. 

So, this time around for Christmas, our mission president wanted us to be really busy. The way he wanted us to accomplish that was by allowing us to go to member's homes unannounced and ask if we could leave a blessing on their home. It was a little bit difficult for us to grind all day since we are sharing a car with another set of Elders, but we were able to bless about 7 homes as the Cullman Area. The first house we went to was crazy. They lived way far out, like 45 minutes away from our apartment. We had them for a dinner appointment, but we did bless their home as well. They were super nice and genorous and gave each missionary a 20$ bill. Well, this family has a little boy that was a huge fan of me because he is super into super heroes. Before we left, he wanted to give me a gift and I was just like "sure man, what do ya got?" He gives me another 20$ bill that he had earned from chores or something like that. I looked at the mom and dad kinda like "uhhhhh" but then the mom said that I definitely should accept that gift. The little boy had such a kind heart and he wanted me to have a great Christmas. So so cool. My wallet is getting a little heavy now. 

Christmas morning we opened presents at an amazing member family in our ward. Elder Lee's mom is a true homie and she copped all 4 Elders a buddy the elf costume set which we then wore to the member's home. It was very very funny, they were laughing super hard when we showed up. They served us French toast which is my all time favorite breakfast food, can't really complain. 

New Years was kinda lame, the only thing interesting that happened is I couldn't sleep much since there was a crap ton of fireworks going off near our apartment. What happened the day right after New Years is we got put into quarantine for 10 days and this time we are being cracked down hard. No going to the Church, no hanging with the other companionship. That eats rocks. I mean, luckily it's only for 10 days but they did say something similar like that last time yet it lasted 9 months. Who knows what will happen. 

Other than that, we HAD another zone meeting in person which was fine and mostly just a lot of Facebook finding. We seem to be getting left on read a lot so that's not ideal, but what can you do, right? 

That's all I got. Have a blessed week. 

--

Elder Batman Hey guys, sorry for not writing last week, that's just me being lazy I guess. A lot has happened in that last 3 weeks with the holidays, teaching appointments, etc. I'll start off with telling you about Christmas. 

So, this time around for Christmas, our mission president wanted us to be really busy. The way he wanted us to accomplish that was by allowing us to go to member's homes unannounced and ask if we could leave a blessing on their home. It was a little bit difficult for us to grind all day since we are sharing a car with another set of Elders, but we were able to bless about 7 homes as the Cullman Area. The first house we went to was crazy. They lived way far out, like 45 minutes away from our apartment. We had them for a dinner appointment, but we did bless their home as well. They were super nice and genorous and gave each missionary a 20$ bill. Well, this family has a little boy that was a huge fan of me because he is super into super heroes. Before we left, he wanted to give me a gift and I was just like "sure man, what do ya got?" He gives me another 20$ bill that he had earned from chores or something like that. I looked at the mom and dad kinda like "uhhhhh" but then the mom said that I definitely should accept that gift. The little boy had such a kind heart and he wanted me to have a great Christmas. So so cool. My wallet is getting a little heavy now. 

Christmas morning we opened presents at an amazing member family in our ward. Elder Lee's mom is a true homie and she copped all 4 Elders a buddy the elf costume set which we then wore to the member's home. It was very very funny, they were laughing super hard when we showed up. They served us French toast which is my all time favorite breakfast food, can't really complain. 

New Years was kinda lame, the only thing interesting that happened is I couldn't sleep much since there was a crap ton of fireworks going off near our apartment. What happened the day right after New Years is we got put into quarantine for 10 days and this time we are being cracked down hard. No going to the Church, no hanging with the other companionship. That eats rocks. I mean, luckily it's only for 10 days but they did say something similar like that last time yet it lasted 9 months. Who knows what will happen. 

Other than that, we HAD another zone meeting in person which was fine and mostly just a lot of Facebook finding. We seem to be getting left on read a lot so that's not ideal, but what can you do, right? 

That's all I got. Have a blessed week. 

--
Elder Batman

Just Another Week

 

 The last two weeks have really just been grinding out Facebook finding and preach my gospel lessons. We've had a lot of success recently and I don't know who I can thank for it. Let's go with God. We are teaching 4 different people through messenger text lessons which still is kinda odd but it's working. As long as they respond back in a hasty manner, it works out. Believe it or not, we've gotten all 4 of those people to download Book of Mormon apps and are now reading and praying about it. What a crazy world. 

This is probably going to be a shorter email since, although we've been pretty dang busy teaching, not a whole lot of interesting stuff has happened recently. That'll definitely change with Christmas events within the next two weeks. One of those being I'm performing in a talent show and playing piano with another Elder. I don't know why I sign up for things, I don't play piano all that well. But hey, they said we need enough people to perform otherwise they'll have to do something else. I guess a couple of things that were interesting is teaching this guy named J in person. The last time we were over, we were following up to see if he had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Well, he did and he had an interesting answer. He (BTW, this guy is 12) said that he heard the thought that said "yes", but then a follow up thought of "why would you believe that?" We had a really good conversation on how typically the first thought you get in these situations is from the Holy Ghost and the proceeding thoughts are the adversary trying to get you to doubt the first thought you just got. J understood completely and accepted his original thought as the answer. He know has a little testimony of the truth and it can only go up from here. 

Another dope thing that happened would be us finally getting in contact with someone named M. She has a very busy life and didn't really have a lot of time for us to begin with. Well, we had a lesson with her at about the beginning of November and it was super duper solid, but contact got cutoff. That is, until two days ago. I just randomly hit her up on Facebook messenger and said "Hey, do you remember me?" She said "Of course I remember you, you are a missionary. You teach people about God." I then proceeded to explain that we really want to talk with her about God again since last time was awesome. She was so down for that and managed to find a 30-45 minute for us to talk to her in her busy life. We were feeling pretty bold so we just started the discussion by saying "Monica, we want to tell you about Christ's restored church" and then taught the Restoration. She was very intrigued and really wanted to have a Book of Mormon so we whipped on down to her house and gave her a physical copy. She gave us some pecans in exchange for the book. Super nice lady. 

Yeah, not a whole lot else to tell you guys. I have 3 picture this week and I'm sorry about that. Next email will be a banger, don't you worry. 

Have a blessed week,
Elder Batman