Feb. 2, 2009

I probably spoke too soon about the members getting better last week. They did well for a short time but now they're back into a slump. We went and talked to the first counselor in the bishopric to see if we could get him going out to do his home teaching and set up a family mission plan. He let us in a talked with us politely until we asked him to set up a family mission plan. Then he said that he already had one and it was to hold family home evening every week. We complimented him on that goal and explained that it was a great thing to do, but it wasn't really a mission plan because it didn't involve any missionary work. He then promptly told us that he would not do any mission work nor home teaching because he was simply too busy. I don't understand how anyone, including ourselves as missionaries, can expect this ward to do better if their leadership refuses to put forth the same effort that they're asking the ward members to do.

Then to add to it, last night we had an exchange planned with our ward mission leader. We had called him Saturday night to confirm it, and we had also set up plans to see one investigator and 2 families in the ward, he had called and confirmed appointments with all of them. We don't have the car this week so when we have an exchange we usually plan things on the outskirts of our area because its a lot harder to get there on bikes, and there is absolutely no public transportation here. Along with no curbs, sidewalks, or shoulders, so bike riding at night isn't always the funnest, nor safest thing to do (sorry mom). So about 20 min before our exchange our ward mission leader calls us up, we were at a dinner appointment so we didn't answer. He leaves a message saying that he can't go on exchanges with us because of the Superbowl!!!! Then we had to call and cancel two of our set appointments because we didn't have time to get out there and see them. We rode about 10 miles out to our other appointment and they didn't answer, then we rode another mile or two to our last appointment and they told us they were too busy to talk to us! Then we rode another 12 miles home!! So that was super frustrating. Oh well there's still work to be done.

We set a date for Ed and Vicky this week!! They're going to be baptized on Valentine's Day, assuming that the Stake leaders approve Ed. The bishop told us that it was entirely a Stake matter and that he had nothing to do with it, so we hunted down some phone numbers and Ed's called hopefully twice now to set up his appointment with the Stake President. With any luck he'll be ready to be baptized by the 14th. Then Hans has stopped seeing us. We've stopped by several times and each time his daughter comes to the door and tells us that he can't see us. We'll keep going until he tells us to stop though, its easy to stop by because we have another investigator who lives two doors down from Hans. His name is Sam, and he was a member of the Catholic church here until they decided to build a new church. They reviewed Sam's financial history and told him that he needed to donate 10,000 dollars to help build the new church. So he stopped going. That was about 5 years ago. We taught him the first lesson, and stopped by again his wife was sick so we couldn't stay, he told us that he'd been reading and we asked where? We meant where in the Book of Mormon, he answered, "In the bathroom." We got a good laugh out of that. He's made it almost entirely through 1 Nephi! Including the introduction and he read the 3 Nephi chapter we assigned him.

As far as food goes nothing strange yet. No gravy yet, but most people here in Hendersonville are what they call 'transplants;' they're from somewhere else. I did, however, hear that deeper south they fed our district leader Elder Calkins raw catfish. That sounds appetizing not at all.
I have been spoiled with packages and I feel really bad asking you to send so many but there's just so much random stuff each week that I go, "I never thought I'd need this," then I realize that I do. I did get the sweaters and the hand warmers. As far as ice storms they happened in Paduka, which is the part of our mission in Kentucky, but here it just rained really hard. Yesterday it was about 65 degrees and a slight breeze, it was the PERFECT weather. I had my short sleeved shirt on and was very comfortable. Right now its about 28 degrees and its freezing! I still love it.

So famous person for this week. Do you know Gary Allen? His real name is Gary Herzburg and he's an inactive member in our ward. We went by his house earlier and I got to play the leadsheet of a song he's writing. I played the piano background and he played the guitar part, it was awesome. He has the coolest house. It's a lake front house on a little peninsula within the peninsula, water surrounds three sides of his house. His front room is huge and has the vaulted ceilings, and he has a 7 foot grand piano that's just so pretty along with several guitars. He's a really nice guy, but wouldn't commit to anything important. Like coming to church. Oh well, he left last night to go on tour and we don't know when he'll be back.

That's about it for this week. I'll let you know next week if anything exciting happens.

Love ya'll

(I have started sliding into a few southernisms with my words, like ya'll, bigun, boy I'll tell ya, and then most of all no one here ever does anything, everyone is always fixin' to do things, "I'm fixin' to fix my car," "I'm fixin' to go fishin'" no one ever does anything they're always fixin' to do it.)