Jared Wednesday Update - 07/01/09

Here are some pictures from this past week. The first one is of Elder Pulsipher and I from our team up in Locust Fork. Yea, I didnt' bring my razor so I need to shave. Oh, and the "will you?" on the front of my shirt is for a blood drive. On the back it says "donate blood." I got it for free.
The second picture is of Elder Combs and I from our team up. we had a fun time together. He is a great guy.

This marks the 420th day of Jared's mission. He is now 58% complete. I used to calculate the days and percentages every week and then the time seemed to pass faster. It seems unreal that he is now two months passed the halfway point. I see him with the power and energy of a freight train moving the work forward. Every week he has new people in his teaching pool and persons who want to be baptized.

Jared writes, "[t]his other guy we are working with Elders Allred and Heywood found him on our team up last Tuesday. We followed up with him on Saturday and when we were at his house I asked him if he wanted to go on a church tour right now. He’s like sure! So we went up to the church and gave him a tour and committed him to baptism. It was way awesome. The spirit was totally there. I loved it. He said he wanted to pray about it first but his is for the 19th. So we might have two in a row. That would be awesome."

Jared has also found success with lighting the fire within those who aren't yet baptized. He and his companion have been teaching a women, Marlene. "We have had the chance to be able to take her on team ups and talk to people around her home and she tells them the BOM is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet and everything then she’ll prophecy to them also... She is finding people for us to teach because she talks to everyone about us."

It looks like all those years of piano lessons and getting up to practice (thank you Sherrie) are of benefit to him now. "Saturday morning we went to a nursing home and sang hymns for them. That was a lot of fun. I played the piano too. I’ve been playing the piano a lot lately. I think I have become the primary pianist as well. It’s a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories from when I was in primary. They have new songs now that are cool too and I didn’t even know about."

He seems to spend quite a bit of time mowing lawns. I have to say that I can't remember him mowing our lawn, so maybe this is a useful skill that he has acquired as a missionary (Britney will appreciate his ability to mow a lawn).

When you are a missionary (at least that was my experience) you seem to be a magnet for people under the influence. I never knew what "alcohol on the breath" smelled like until I was a missionary and street drunks would come up and literally hang you my shoulder to either ask me for money or ask me to save them (although save might have ultimately meant getting them their next drink). Jared wrote, "I'm lovin every second of it. I mean, yesterday a crazy black drunk guy walked up to us and was preaching to us for about 20 minutes. It was nuts. Only in the south that would happen. He smokes marijuana and drinks and swears. Oh boy, Elder Allred and I got a kick out of that."

We continue to be the overly proud parents. I am also excited for Jordan to head down to Brazil. It will be exciting having missionary letters coming from two sons. It is fun to relive, in a sense, my missionary experiences through theirs.