How to Teach a Drunk Guy . . .

Phew!

I won't lie, I'm super glad last week is over. But we did have some great adventures.

 . . .Like walking 40 minutes to the church for an 8 am meeting...in the rain. Aaand the church building was purdy cold...for the next 5 hours.

. . . Or heading in for the night and meeting a trio of drunk people. We told them exciting things about the gospel. The man of the group insisted on escorting us home for the evening ('cause it was dark out by then) but for some reason we felt safer without him O_o Before we left, his girl friend grabbed my arm and pulled me in and asked me to talk to him about fornication on the way home. I told him about how keeping the commandments makes us happy. Close enough, right? And thank goodness we managed to let him off before we got to where we actually 

live.

But one of the drunk ladies did agree to meet with us again...we'll have to check back when she's sober 

But everybody in town knows where we live--and people randomly drop vegetables off on our doorstep weekly. And anonymously. If only I super liked cucumbers and could eat tomatoes faster. Not to mention the pumpkin and watermelon still sitting on our counter.

We also had a fantastic district meeting--it wasn't particularly spiritual, but it was hilarious. We were all super sick--lots of coughing, sneezing, nose blowing. We couldn't hear each other 'cause our ears were plugged up, and everything was super funny. And then we made biscuits and gravy for lunch afterwards.

And we reached the highest temperatures for the year so far...our apartment was not at all a pleasant place to be those days.

It was a rough week--all but one of our appointments fell through for the whole week. But it's over now, and things are looking better.

We did have several miracles of note. The member we had lined up to come to our one lesson that did not fall through--had fallen through. We prayed to somehow be able to find somebody to come. We started walking over (it's just a few blocks away) and right before we got there, a member drove by and stopped to ask us if we needed a ride anywhere. We invited her to join us for the lesson, and she did! It was a great lesson with a lady named M. She is loving the Book of Mormon.

Another miracle happened as well. We'd had a rather unsuccessful Tuesday, and spirits were low beginning on Wednesday. We headed out for our first appointment--which fell through, and decided to meet some people in the area. The first lady we talked to invited us in, and we told her about the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. The next person allowed us to share the Restoration with her as well and set a return appointment.

We were ready to head in for lunch when we decided to talk to another lady outside. She was excited to see us and told us her husband was Mormon. They moved here in March, and didn't know there was a branch in Lebanon! He wants to get back into church and she said, "I wanna join the church and everything." So that was purdy cool.

Also, after church on Sunday, a man who got baptized about 4 years ago got married. We met his wife and she wants to take the discussions :)

Good things are coming. And we've got specialized training for new missionaries and their trainers tomorrow, so that'll be something exciting.

But the most exciting thing is that J got baptized on Saturday in South Bend! It was a great pleasure to teach him and see the change take place in his life the 3 months I was there :D

Hope e'rrybody has an excellent week!

Sister Bowen

Our super sick district + and then - zone leaders. (who were also super sick.)

~Elders Sneddon, Lawrence, Cronin, Foster, me, Elder Park, Sister Mercer, and Elder Bullock squattin' in front

~Elders Bullock, Cronin, Park, me, Elder Sneddon, and Sister Mercer in the cart.