It ain't over till it's over I guess....

Man, this week was NUTS!!! 

Tuesday we had a pretty normal day, for the most part. We went and saw D, and then went to the Os and talked with the mom and her daughter in law, who we hadn't met before and is actually really awesome! Then we went next door to the R' to go see their newly hatched chicks, which were adorable. Then on the way to the next appointment, we got a call from the APs. There had been a last second transfer meeting and Fortie was OUT! This was like 7:30 the day before transfers, so needless to say our day went crazy from there. We drove all over and said bye to everyone, and then went home to pack.

Wednesday we drove down to Little Rock to pick up my new companion. It was a pretty good meeting. 

Anyhoo, so as far as transfers went, I got Elder HERNANDEZ!! He is from Veracruz, and has been out for 23 months. He extended his mission, so he goes home the 22nd of July. SO chances are I will be here until he goes. That'll mean 9 months in Jonesboro, too! #booyah

Elder Zickella Got Elder Croft, fresh out of the MTC, from Pocatello Idaho. He is pretty cool. 

After transfers, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a bunch of the Spanish elders and sisters, which was fun. A lot of new Spanish sisters got here, which is nice since all the others have gone home. Then we drove back, unpacked, and went to teach the kids at Mutual how to be everyday missionaries. 

Thursday we hit the ground biking, since going to little rock left us with basically no miles on the car. we talked to some Hispanics, then met up with the other elders to go do Q's baptismal interview. We got down there to an empty house. We called his dad, who informed us that Q had disappeared with his cousin who had come up to visit, and they hadn't seen him in 2 days. Sooooo we are hoping and praying that he comes back soon and hasn't done anything bad. After that, we went to basketball, which was once again full to the brim with people. 

Friday we helped out Bro. R with some stuff in the chem labs, then went around to find some more  people. And we found a lot! We talked to 5 guys outside of their houses, and they all agreed to let us come back and teach their families! Then we had dinner at the W's house, which is always super fun. 

Saturday was spent out biking some more! but first we went to the ward Day of Service at a cemetery, cleaning it up and fixing tombstones. It was fun, and I ended up being chaced around the place by the kids, who were using their water bottles to spray me. Great exercise. Then we went back and got to work!  It was really hot out, but we got a ride from one of the Vivint salesmen who happened to pass by. Then we went back up north of town to go see some of the people we had talked to earlier, but no one answered. Then my blood sugar crashed so we took a break until the other guys come and got us for dinner at the R's house. 

Sunday was interesting. Elder hernandez gave a talk in church (its funny because I still haven't done one :P) and it went well. After church the Ms fed us lunch, and then it was back on the road! We walked across town, taking our time to talk to people, so that we arrived at our dinner appointment exactly on time, with some new people met to boot! Dinner was super fun. It was with the Os, which are some o my favorite people ever! We had a lot of fun. We taught the kids to play Ninja Assassin (which they loved) Had a selfie party (I'll send those too) and had a good talk about missionary work too! 

And thus begins transfer 5 here in Jonesboro, Arkansas! I have a doctor's appointment next week in LR, so I may be writing from there. See ya!

Missionary Selfie

Elder Reay and Elder Hernandez

UNO MAS! UNO MAS!

Hello hello hello! How are y'all doing this fine morning? I'd tell you about my week in detail, but I left my planner at home, since I just got a new one for the transfer. So I will do my best.

First off, I am staying in Jonesboro for another one! This'll make 7 and a half months here, and it has FLOWN by, let me tell you! Fortie is staying as well. Elder Johnston is getting transferred, though! His trainer, elder Zickella, is getting ANOTHER newbie! This guy just can't stop! 

So anyway, highlights of the week:

Q's baptism has been postponed, he still has to work through his smoking addiction. He really wants to do it though, so I know he will. 

We had two baptisms this week! B and H are super legit. I got to teach both of them on exchanges. They were super excited, and it was awesome! I'll attach a picture. 

T has been working a lot, so we haven't been able to see her much this week. She is growing in her testimony though, so she'll be good!

D has been making leaps and bounds! He had dental surgery this week, so he wasn't able to come to church, but he was really sad about it. He WILL come next week. 

On a sadder note, S up and moved to Missouri randomly. From what he told us, him and his girlfriend had a falling out and so he made his exit. We'll be putting him in contact with the missionaries up there, and leave it up to them! 

What else.... oh yeah! So do y'all remember how I had said a long time ago that we would be getting Ipads? Well, they're in the office right now!!! We're getting training on the 27th, and then we'll be mobile in the weeks after that! 

Another sad thing, D apparently is done with church. One of the members was texting with him to see if he'd be coming yesterday and he said he wouldn't be coming anymore for "personal reasons." We'll see about that. 

That's about all I can remember! If you want to get in touch, my address is still:

Elder Andrew Reay

3700 S. Caraway Rd. apt. B12

Jonesboro, AR 72404 

 Love you guys! 

"Makes me think of my SMHS days!" commenting on his new tie

My Arizona Plant - I got seeds when I first got here and now it needs to be repotted.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day, with all you missionaries calling home and such. I only get to do that one more time. Then it's in person. 0.o

But hey, that's all wayy far off, right? Let's stick to the usual stuff. This week was.... interesting. We did a lot of stuff, but very little of it was teaching. Monday we went to Walmart so Elder Fortie could buy some Avengers shirts, then we went to a hamburger cookout at the R's house. Then we went and walked around, ran into T also walking around, and then saw J, an investigator we hadn't seen in a while. 

Tuesday we had district meeting, and then went to Five Guys with the R's and helped their daughter move some heavy stuff out of her dorm. So now I can say I've been in a girl's college dorm room on my mission :P Anyway, after that we went on exchanges. I ended up with Elder Zickella in his area. We saw some of their new investigators, then went to the Rs for dinner. It was super delicious, we had steak, lobster, bratwurst, mussels, rolls, potatoes, corn.... yeah I was stuffed. Then we went and saw one of their coolest people, B. She is REALLY solid, and as soon as she can move out of her apartment (she lives with a guy) she can be baptized. But yeah, she's super legit. 

Wednesday we unexchanged, then went out to the Rs again. He had asked us to paint/build his fence. So we spent about 5 hours painting and stacking about 80 8-foot-long 2x4s. It was exhausting, and we were both beat. After a "See you tomorrow" from Bro. Rs, we went home and crashed, because neither of us could speak in complete sentences. So after a power-nap, we went out to Bay to go see Q. We set a goal with him to have 4 no-smoking days with him for the week.

Thursday we went back out to the Rs to get some more done. This time it was about 20 16-foot 2x8s, which took about half the time. We went out after that, but no one we tried was available. We did do basketball that night though, and a LOT of people showed up that we hadn't met yet, which was fantastic! 

Friday was the first full day we had that didn't involve a service project. We went to see D, and that went really well. He's been making a lot of progress lately, and we are really excited about it! anyway, we were there for a while, then went to the Ms for dinner. Then we went to see S, and talked with him about reading the scriptures. A little note on that: All the missionaries know this, but for those who don't, reading the scriptures is one of the most important things our investigators can do to find out for themselves what we are saying is true. So, we try really hard to get them into the habit. Anyway, that went really well. 

Saturday was right back to the grind! We went to Bro. R's house to help him clear out a ditch that was preventing drainage from his yard. That didn't take much time. Then we got a call from Bro. R's brother, who called in a favor we had promised a month ago to help him make a fence for his chickens. So all of us (us and Bro. R) went up to his house and poured some concrete to set some posts. Then it started raining. Really hard. But we figured since we were soaked already, we may as well finish. So, we put up some of the wire, and basically made the framework. Then we drove home, dried off, and went to dinner at O'Charley's with the S's. then we went out to Bay and had a talk with Q. It turns out he hadn't smoked AT ALL that week, so he's doing great! Also, they "initiated me" by putting electrotherapy pads on various parts of my arms and turning it up all the way. Note: NEVER PUT THOSE ON YOUR FINGERTIPS THEY HURT REEEEEALLY BAD. 

Sunday morning was a little rough. None of our investigators showed up due to lack of cars, which was sad. But then I got to talk to the family, which was fantabulous! Hopefully they pass along hellos from me like I said! Anyway, after that we went to dinner at the Solis' house. Then we went to see D with one of the Vivint salesmen, who just got off his mission in the Redlands California area 3 months ago. It was a great experience, and they are good friends now. 

Welp, I'm off to go finish the R's fence today! I hope you guys enjoy your week! Keep in touch!

Well, THAT was more of a cow than I wanted to see...

I'll explain that at the end. How are y'all doing? Happy May the Fourth Be With You!! I got really concerned when I thought I had missed it. I hope your day is full of nerdy wonderfulness!

All righty, let's go over the week:

Monday the zone leaders got here, and it was pretty darn fun! We ended up with Elder Marquez playing Smash-Up again (I got destroyed) then we went to the Bs for dinner. Then we went to an appointment with T, a former investigator, and her mom. It went pretty well, and we are coming back to their place to teach them! 

Tuesday we started off with a district meeting with the zone leaders. It was good. Basically they came up to get some things rolling in Jonesboro. Most of the zones in the mission have a "core" area where it all gets anchored down. But our zone, since it was made last year, has not been able to find one. So we were chosen as one of the testing grounds. Anyhoo, after that we had an appointment with Sis. D, who came to church the week before. It went well, and we answered a lot of questions and set a date with her for the 17th of May to be baptized! Then we went to English class for the last week. They are going on summer break for a month, so probably I won't be here when they start up again, which is sad because there are 70 people from Mexico coming into the program, so we'd be a huge help! After that, we had a good lesson with D. We talked a lot about revelation and how the Holy Ghost communicates with us. He learned a lot, and it cleared up a lot of concerns. Then we went to dinner at the Ls' house, which was super delicious. We did try to set an appointment with don, but he didn't respond so we went to Bay to teach Q. He cut down to a cigarette every other day, and no coffee! He should be baptized this month. 

Wednesday we did a lot of walking around, and it went really well! We met two AMAZING people, T and A. we were just walking down the street and both of us felt we should knock on this one door. As we were walking up, their little dog jumped out from behind this little gardening wall and started going nuts. We were about to back out and keep going when they came out and calmed it down for us. We talked with them for about an hour outside about our message, and they both loved it! They told us to come back when A's mom was home, since she liked religion and would love to talk with us! 

Thursday started off with another lesson with T, which went wonderfully as usual. She is super prepared to get baptized. Then we went to the Gs, a couple where the husband is Hispanic and the wife is American. It's kinda funny, neither of them speak the other's language at all but they both understand each other. I guess in marriage, everything works out. :) After that we went to visit S, since she told us that she was leaving for a month to go help take care of her boyfriend's mom. She promised to read and text us any questions she has from it. Then we went to the Os to follow up on their reading, but only their kids were home, so we talked with them for a bit. one of them had the audacity to whip out his Ipad and start playing all of the Avengers II trailers. We were understandably upset. By the way, thank you all for not mentioning anything about that move to me yet. It's giving me PMMD. (Post- Mission Movie Disorder :P) So then we had dinner at Bro R's house, which was super delicious. I tried turnip greens for the first time. A little stringy, but pretty good! 

Friday we had a zone meeting that had randomly been scheduled. President Wakolo had gone to a mission president's seminar, and he wanted to tell us all about it. It was a really good meeting, and we are set off in the right direction. After the meeting and some waiting around to talk to the ZLs, we ended up getting back around 5pm. We went to go see A and T, only to be greeted by her mom handing back the Book of Mormons we gave them and telling us that she did not want us coming back again. Grr. But we stuck around the area, and ran into some more really awesome people, K and K, her daughter. We found them cleaning the garage, and we talked for about an hour or so. They are really cool, and both of them had a Book of Mormon already, and even THEY weren't sure how! But yeah, that made our day. then we saw S and C, and worked out some things with their living situation. Long story short, S is in the process of moving out and getting a divorce to his separated wife!

Saturday we took a F Day. We went to see T and talk a bit about the Word of Wisdom. She is totally down to live it, and she basically already was, which is fantastic. Then we went outside and saw that her neighbor was moving out, a really short old lady with a lot of heavy furniture. So the Mormon Missionary Moving Co. stepped right in! We got basically all her heavy stuff into the van before her son arrived. We were pretty pleased. then we visited a Hispanic guy named J, and had a pretty good discussion with him, though he was a bit tipsy. Then we saw D again, and committed him to come to church. He was excited to be able to go. then we went to the Bs, but a few of them were sick, so we ended up talking with the daughter and getting her to commit to come to church. 

Sunday was pretty good! T was the only one who ended up coming out of the people we had invited, but she still enjoyed it. We had a lot of new faces in church again, which is always nice. Afterwards, we took our lunch and went to a few people who weren't home before  going to the Os. As soon as we walked up, the mom, who was in the process of ordering food from someone, told them that we were there and to order 2 more of everything they ordered. Sooo we had a true Hispanic dinner. Highlights: Menudo (soup made from cow stomach) and Tacos de Lengua (cow tongue soft tacos). Menudo was...... interesting. It tasted all right, but the texture of boiled stomach is REALLY not good. Plus, it smelled a bit like what comes out of a cow stomach. Not doing that again. But the tongue tacos were REALLY GOOD! The meat is actually really tasty, and since they dice it you have to look really close to see the taste buds. But I would highly recommend it! Anyway, after that lovely culinary experience we went to Bay again. This week we set a goal with Q to go smoke free for 4 days of the week. It's gonna be rough, but he's in our prayers. 

Well, that's all! I'm super excited for Mother's day this Sunday,  since I get to actually FaceTime home and see them for the third time in 15 months! If you have any messages to pass on, just let them know! Or just email too. That actually may be easier. But yeah. BYEE!

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Llamado a Servir,

Andrew Reay