So, this week we went to a place called Middle Gate. There is nothing for miles around except a naval air bombing field where they often have full on fake warfare. Dogfights with blanks, bombs being dropped, flairs being fired from C130s, everything (the other elders got to watch one night...jealous). A member took us for his birthday. It is a restaurant in the middle of nowhere that has a giant burger eating challenge. It’s 3 pounds of food. If you finish it then you get a free T-shirt that says "I ate the monster." Tons of missionaries know about this place and everyone talks about it. Everyone wants to try to eat the monster. Fortunately for me and my companion, every night at dinner is pretty much a food eating competition because we get so much food. We drove on down and there really is nothing there. Just a few trailers around the restaurant and a few motel rooms that look like they were built in the 1800s. By the way, the bread is sourdough.
Our lesson with Jalena yesterday was definitely the most spiritual experience of the week. We asked her about the Book of Mormon and how she felt about it. She felt awkward answering, but the Spirit really testified through her. It was super cool. She is so strong. She really got a good grasp on the plan of salvation. She stopped us to ask questions...which we always want people to do, but they never actually do, and we were able to make sure she understood everything. She is learning a lot and growing. It’s pretty cool to see.
Church was pretty good yesterday. There was a family there that has been helping us with some missionary work but hasn’t been able to go for a while because they've all been sick. That was good. We had 8 investigators there! Kind of funny, 7 of them were kids. 6 of them are between 8-10. We are teaching a group of around 5 almost all from the same family. The kids just hang out with this member family all of the time and now are going to church with them. Things are looking a lot better. The members are really starting to step it up and the new leadership is starting to put together some very good things. The branch is really turning around now. One baptism will really get the branch to just take off. It’s looking good. We are also starting to get some referrals which will hopefully pan out.
