And it came to pass the I, Elder Browning, proceeded to give an account of my dealings with the Barstowites.
This week was fairly busy actually. The Wolcotts, the family who let us skype at their house, basically adopted us for the day. After I skyped and went out to the main room They said "dinner is almost ready! Just a few more minutes." So. We had dinner with them! Afterwards we played games like Pit and Rumikub. So it was a pretty good day after all.
I got your package by the way mom. On Friday I got a "Final Notice" in the mail saying if I didn't come pick up my package at the post office then they would return it to the sender. Usually if they try to deliver a package and no one answers, they'll leave a call slip that sticks into the room through the door frame. But I never saw that. So I go inspect the door (the front door which we never use) more carefully and sure enough, there it is, a package slip from over a week before hand, munched in the door. Dumb huh? It'd been at the post office all along! So that was stupid. But at least I got it haha. That poor little tree... it was so squished and bent I dont think it can be completely resurrected. haha.
So! Here's a fun story that I forgot to share when we were skyping. Usually when we go get the mail we would just... go get it. Like just one of us. However, it isn't like right outside the door so technically we should probably go together because it's out of sight from the apartment. Anyways. I was about half way to the mailbox when a truck drove past me and I noticed the guy looked at me and he had a black hooded jacket on, a black bandanna over his face, gloves, and black glasses on. Yikes! Pretty sketchy right? It gets better. I then heard the car stop and back up towards me. I was trying not to freak out because I had no idea what this guy was going to do. I kept walking forward with purpose even as I saw the truck pull up parallel with me in my peripheral vision. I then heard the guy yell "hey! Hey you!" And I'm just like oh crap. I'm going to die today. haha. Anyways. I hesitantly stop and look over at him and say "yeah? What's up?" The guy then asks "are you a missionary?" and I answer affirmatively and he then asks "do you have a Book of Mormon?" And I'm like... what? I told him I didn't have one but that I had a card I could give him so that he could call for one. I was so jumpy and he was so scary looking I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible so I didn't feel like telling him to wait while I went back to the apartment to get one. But he was super stoked that I could give him a card. So I gave him one and he was like "thank you sir!" and drove off. I thought at any moment he was going to pull out a gun or something. Or yank me into the truck and drive off. It's one thing for someone to have a scary face or tatoos or whatever. But he was the total "masked bandit." even had black leather gloves on. Hopefully he gets a copy and reads it and changes and doesn't want it just to make smokes since the thin paper is apparently ideal for that.
So that was pretty scary for sure. My instinct was telling me to get out of there but I felt no spiritual prompting to run, which in hind sight makes sense. Missionaries are protected!
Elder Patch exchanged with me on Thursday. We had dinner with the Heywood family who are working with a family on my side of Barstow that they hope will take the lessons soon. Brother Heywood is pretty big into music and recording and he showed me all his stuff. We ended up talking for quite a while about recording and music and stuff. He has an electric set and he asked if I wanted to play and of course I was like heck yes! I was just sort of messing around and getting the feel of things and started a normal beat and then he pulled out his guitar and started playing along. After a minute or two I paused and said "you wanna try something faster?" and he said "yes please!" so then we started up something a little quicker and almost made up a whole song right there on the spot. But we stopped there since it wasn't pday. haha. So that was super fun. He wants me to come back on a pday when I have more time because he doesn't get an opportunity to play guitar along with a drummer very often. Reminds me of good ol days with tanna man.
On Friday we did service for a lot of the day. A family in the ward was moving so we loaded up their moving truck. Luckily there was more than just the missionaries there otherwise it would have taken the entire day instead of just most of the day.
We spent a lot of Saturday driving. A few kids from a family Zacharias taught were getting baptized so we went to the baptism. We drove from Barstow to Lucerne Valley and met up with two other missionaries there, and the 4 of us drove up through Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead to Running Springs where the baptism was. By the time we left it had started snowing and it was a bit of an adventure before we got back on the main roads. haha. Unless it's Megan's driving, I'm not a big back seat driver (love you Megs!). But, when there's snow and the driver doesn't really know what he's doing... I'll help out. haha. Things like "slow down more before this corner" or "shift down gears more to help slow the car down without sliding." We made it down without any mishaps though. I'm not a great snowy driver but people seem to appreciate my advice. At least missionaries that I've given suggestions to do. haha.
We went out to the branch for church yesterday and I was reminded why I wasn't a big fan of Newberry. The people just all have skewed ideas. Most of the combined lesson was about how the church is becoming liberal and people complaining about how they're using more technology. I used the Thumper rule so i just kept my mouth shut. haha. If you sustain the church leaders as prophets seers and revelators, then the decisions they make are not the decisions of man, but the decisions of God. So. Get over it! That's how I felt at least. haha.
That was our week for the most part. Oh did I tell you I've been cutting hair for the past couple months? Yup. I think we're ready to go pro! haha. Most missionaries don't care to have anything more fancy than a fade which is pretty easy to do. Elder Patch really liked the last hair cut I gave him and now he won't go anywhere else. haha. So. That's a fun fact.
That's sad to hear about Preston. The totally stinks! What an un merry christmas! I'll keep him in my prayers. I sure hope Sam and Nathan don't get married before I'm home! And Brooks too! I don't want to miss everyone's wedding. Atkin would probably be next in line though.
And behold I, Elder Browning, do make an end of writing my dealings with the Barstowites. At least until next week ;)
Love,
Elder Browning
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