Wow, I feel like a wrote y'all just yesterday. But then again you did miss tons of stuff going on down here in the sticks so I figured I'd fill you in on a few sweet stories. To start, I decided I'd tell yall about when we were endowed with Power from on high.
A few weeks ago our Ward Mission Leader asked us if we had our keys with us, and we remembered giving them to the other Elders to get into the building, so we told him we didn't. Then he started to laugh with this creepy grin on his face as he lifted up a pair of keys that looked just like ours specifically pointing out the key to our apartment. We were a little shocked and ready to lay down a beating on the other Gilmer Elders. We tried out the keys on our apartment to make sure they were ours, but lo and behold they didn't work...so then we called the other Elders to ask if they still had the keys that we had given them and they drove over to give us our keys.
Now we had two sets of keys...and figured that the other Elders may have been given keys earlier on....so we just gave them a pair not thinking anything about it. When we showed up a week later for District Meeting, Elder Miller exclaimed, before we could get a word in, "Hey guys check this out" as he unlocked the door to the Stake offices. We just stood there....with awe and amazement on our faces. We took the key that had somehow gotten itself in our possesion, and tried another door.....The High Council Room....OPEN!!! So then we went to all the closets.....OPEN!!! Then the Genealogy room...because only like five people have keys to the FHC....OPEN!!!! Then curiosity got the best of us as we saw that the FHC was placed right next to Bishop Seahorn's office.....BAM OPEN!!! We figured he must have forgot his keys, but just to make sure....his office was right across from Bishop Jone's office and BAM OPEN!!! We all looked at each other wondering what this key couldn't do!?!? It was obviously higher than a bishops key because it could get us into any Bishop's office....but it surely wouldn't work on President Austin's office....until.....BAM OPEN!!!! It kinda scared us as we found out that we had a key that could (and this is a proven fact) open ANY door inside that building! (I just realized how big of a deal I'm making out of this, but please bear with me...when you've been on a mission this long ANYTHING is exciting haha.) We coulda made this story really interesting but we decided to only do a few mischievous things before going back to being honest about it and after our Stake President's Report, we went up to President Austin and said, "So we think we may have a Stake President's key...and we're not saying anything but it does open up EVERY door inside this building...." Then he just looked down at the key for a minute....then looked up at us and said...."......This is a very powerful key.....not only does this key open every door inside this building but every door to every building inside the Stake....." Then he looked down and paused for a second, staring at the key and said, ".......How on earth did you get hold of the Grand Master Key...." And that experience was about the closest a missionary will ever get to Lord Of The Rings as Elder Browning and I broke into laughter thinking about how movies were made about this stuff and how dramatic it turned out to be as we held the power of the Grand Master key! And if you are wondering...there isn't anything really cool or exciting in a Mormon church building...anywhere....it's just cool to get past a lock haha.
Another interesting experience this week was when I found out that the Beverly Hillbillies moved out of Beverly Hills and back down south having become our new investigators. This past Saturday night we were looking through the records trying to find people that we wanted to teach, and as we were looking we stumbled upon a record for a "Lil John"...because of the name we decided that it was definitely worth a shot haha. We called the number, and we weren't able to get a hold of "Lil John", but we talked to an Amber that told us to come by the next day at 8. We were surprised that it actually worked because any missionary knows that calling past investigators yields almost zero success...but it finally worked! So we got super stoked for this appointment, getting the address and some materials ready at which point we headed out.
Another interesting experience this week was when I found out that the Beverly Hillbillies moved out of Beverly Hills and back down south having become our new investigators. This past Saturday night we were looking through the records trying to find people that we wanted to teach, and as we were looking we stumbled upon a record for a "Lil John"...because of the name we decided that it was definitely worth a shot haha. We called the number, and we weren't able to get a hold of "Lil John", but we talked to an Amber that told us to come by the next day at 8. We were surprised that it actually worked because any missionary knows that calling past investigators yields almost zero success...but it finally worked! So we got super stoked for this appointment, getting the address and some materials ready at which point we headed out.
After being on the road for 20 minutes through the rolling hills and trees, we were able to see that we had actually arrived into "the middle of the boonies". We passed houses with confederate flags waving, and wondered how far out in the hills this family actually lived. The GPS finally told us that we had arrived, and as we looked to our right....we saw the Beverly Hillbillies. Due to the name "Lil John" and the fact that there's a rapper (or yeller) with the same name, we were expecting to find a black family and thought we might just kept on driving, but we weren't seeing the address we were looking for. We turned back and again drove past the Beverly Hillbillies. As we passed their trailer again, we still couldn't see an address, but determined that the place we were looking for was the trailer we had already passed twice.
So we headed back and as we got out of the car, we got to meet the family sitting outside (the Banjo music began playing in my head). We then went inside with 'Grandpa Johnston' who's 89 years old and Amber while the rest of the crew stayed outside drinking and smoking like it was going out of style...probably because everything else they wore went out of style about 150 years ago.
We started the lesson and got to know Amber, who has quite the southern story. I'll spare the details, but whatever you've heard about rednecks, yes....it's true and would apply to her. So just use your imagination there, but as we were talking to her and Grandpa Johnston the best crowd just starts walking in and out of the house, starting off with a man who's name was...you guessed it....Bubba. He cruises in holding a 20 pound watermelon with one barefoot, and a shoe on the other foot that had about 80 holes in it which matched his blue jeans perfectly. It looked like he bought them 25 years ago and hasn't washed or changed them since, along with a 'sleeve-ripped' tanktop that looked like it was from John Deere. He then greeted us with his scruff and warm smile that complimented his four teeth and then he just cruised out like nothing big had happened. Normal redneck occasions haha.
Then, everyone else came in to fill their jugs with Iced Tea and all that jazz haha. Elder Browning and I couldn't believe that everything was happening for reals and thought we may have been living a Hillbilly Dream. But. we got along super well with them and Amber was evicted from her apartment in Marshall Texas just a day before we called. We can all see it as a miracle that the Gospel has found her at the time it did!
Sadly Lil John's mom is die hard Baptist and we'll have to baptize her after Amber, but the whole Clan still lives within 2 seconds of each other at the next mobile home, in-between a couple other banners proudly waving the stars and bars, so we'll get them worked in the teaching pool sometime soon. On the good side we have an appointment with the crew this Tuesday and we're just as stoked as can be to meet with Amber, Grandpa Johnston, Lauren, Robbie, and Bubba and bring every soul, no matter how deep in the hills they may be, the Gospel.
Well I love and miss every singe one of yall but I wish yall could've heard the testimony that Raigan bore yesterday. I have now cried twice in my mission, and her trip to Palmyra was just full of all sorts of awesome stories and pictures of the Sacred Grove...ah she's so lucky. She'd been a member for 4 days and saw more church history than I have. She's already quoting scripture from the Book of Mormon and we'll be teaching some of her friends at her house this week! And the Gospel keeps moving on...you never can quite tell how many people it's going to affect when you ask them if they want to hear from two young men/women a message about Jesus Christ.
Elder Wilson
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