Last week we spent whole week out working as hard as we could "finding" We used up almost every hour of the day and had no visible success whatsoever. This week was alot better. On Monday all the missionaries in the Brookings and Sioux Falls Zones got together and helped clean up a tornado. It went through Wessington Springs this time. It was a really great opportunity to help the community and we were even able to share a little about our beliefs with a guy that was with the army there.
On Tuesday, we did service at the Sertoma Butterfly House and Marine Cove. It is pretty awesome there. It is a tide pool where they teach people about the sea life that exists in that type of habitat. Part of what they teach them is how to touch the animals. My favorite is in the marine cove. We helped teach people about the sharks and stingrays. There was another place called "the flight room." We helped in there also to answer questions that people have about butterflies....and we make sure there weren't any excapees!
On Thursday, we had our first lesson here in Sioux Falls. It was with a recent convert and her husband. We read about Lehi's Dream and then had a discussion about it as to understand it better. When we finished there we made our way over to the Petty family. They had invited us over for Root Beer Floats! It was really awesome to just have desert and get to talk about missionary work.
On Friday, morning I recieved a phone call that my bike had been stolen in my last area. We decided to go to the thrift store to see bike prices. On the way we passed by a car lot. I saw that there was a key left in one of the truck doors. I went in and told a worker guy that it was left in the door, pretty simple, then we left. We were headed on our way again but as we were walking I saw a few more cars with keys in them. I decided to double check that this wasn't on purpose and went and told the guy about it. While in the talking to him this last time he asked us if we had a Book of Mormon on us. He had a friend wanting to find a church and thought he would get one for them. After talking to him for a little while he then asked for a Book of Mormon for himself, because he wasn't a member himself, and would like to learn more. He also mentioned he might have some referrals for us too. This nonmember is doing better missionary work then most of the members.
After, talking with Aaron, the guy at the car lot, we continued on to the thrift store. We were given bus tickets so we decided to take that home. While on the ride there was a lady behind me that had a little daughter. When exciting the bus I simple said, "here this is for you" and handed her a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet with our card in it. That one small trip to the thrift store was surely inspired.
On Saturday, we went out to Humbolt for a ward clean up for a differnt tornado. I was with a different group and while we were there a man pulled up with backhoe for us to load but then left. I asked if we were supposed to be using it to make the work faster and easier. Another guy asked if I knew how to drive it. I was like Yeah! (yeah what I didn't say was that I pushed the controls for all of about 10 minutes while sitting on my cousins lap) He told me to hop up in there and for the next little bit I operated the backhoe. It was pretty fun I picked up the piles they would make and hauled them off to the burn pile. IT WAS AWESOME!!
That night we were able to meet with Derrick Weaver.He is a decendent of Jospeh Smith and has alot of questions about the church. We were bale to teach him the Restoration and he came to church on Sunday along with Abraham, Mark and Sam.
On Sunday, we were able to finally get in with Abraham and his family to teach them about the Plan of Salvation and how through the Priesthood there family could be together forever! There is Thomas, Emma, Abraham is 19, Issac is 15, Samuel is 14, and Mark is 10. I will be really awesome if there whole family can all be baptized together. I am very excited for them. I already am feeling a love for them even with only teaching one lesson!
