Dear Friends and Family
This last week was nuts. I have quite a few stories to share. They aren't super spiritual but they are just...crazy. Let's not waste any time then.
My companion got a 24 hour flu Wednesday and he got permission to take a sick day. I read a lot, and I even Finished reading "Jesus the Christ". That's such a good book. Very inspiring. It helped me understand the role of the Savior and how to be more like him. I also got super bored super fast that day. I hate being cooped up with nothing to do.
Last Wednesday we had a typical missionary day. We knocked doors, taught people, got tired and retired home at curfew. That night was different. It went like this. After we went to bed we slept until about 3 AM. When suddenly, my companion, whose bed is situated by the window, hears our bikes getting shuffled around. His first thought was, "Oh crap, our bikes are getting jacked", when we hear a tapping at the window. And then a bashing. Someone was hitting our window pretty hard. My companion ninja rolled off his bed, and the next thing we know, someone else starts hitting our glass side door, and then they start hitting the front door super hard and trying to open it. This obviously freaks us out. I immediately jump up and get hit by an adrenaline rush. My companion tells me to run to the peep hole, so I do. I look out, and see nothing--they were covering it. I ran back to the room and grab the taser. (My companion came from North Las Vegas, and he got a taser while he was there. That place is the hardcore ghetto.) So I'm standing in our living room with a taser in my hand, muttering some phrases under my breath (according to my comp) and about ready to kill whatever comes in our apartment. We both go to the door and yell "Who's There?" really loudly. No response. We do it again, and this time we get a response...."It's the APs!", followed by a "It's President Youngblood!"
Elder Moore at this time admittedly got even more mad, because he then realized that it was a prank. By Returned Missionaries. That drove 9 hours from Rexburg Idaho to prank my companion and I. We let them in and they took a picture with my companion, and then they left in about 10 minutes. It took me about an hour and a half to get settled down and back to sleep. I was very mad, and am still very mad because of it.
At least they got a speeding ticket on the way there.
My District Leader right now is Elder Thomas (from Blackfoot Idaho. He's bigger than I am, but slightly shorter. He goes by his middle name. Which happens to be Porter. We are very similar.)
The other day he got a "Man Crate" which is a small crate filled with the spiciest things around. Ghost pepper hot sauce, Carolina reaper hot sauce, and another kind that has the name scorpion in it. Well, he also got some Carolina Reapers. They are the hottest peppers. Ever. Like, 2 million units on the Scoville measurement (I guess it's like the spiciness measurement) AKA basically they are stupidly hot. Well, our district and the zone decided to each try it out. We each tried some of the hot sauces, and almost died. Then we took it a step further Last district council, at the end and at lunchtime, we all agreed to each take a small piece of Carolina Reaper. I'm an idiot, so I did it too. We lined up the cups of milk and got a tub of ice cream. And we tried it out. It was spicy. Very spicy. The small piece would fit on the tip of my pinky. We were all surprised because it wasn't nearly as hot as we were expecting. There were a few more slices on the plate we had, and so I took 3 more slices. They all thought I was mad, but I did it. It equated to about half a pepper. So we all agreed to take it one step further and eat a whole half of one. So they did. I was still dying from the last ones, so I held off a moment (I also held off from the milk and ice cream the longest.) And then there was one slice left. Some of the older elders tried to tell me I wouldn't do it, while others were trying to tell me not to. But I did it. I ate the other half of the hottest pepper. I did it. My tongue burned like crazy. It was insanity. I ended up eating half a tub of ice cream to dowse it out. But here's the thing about the Carolina Reaper. The burning doesn't stop at the mouth. It goes down your throat and into your stomach. Come to find out later....it keeps burning even past that.
I was lucky though. After that we had weekly planning. And as soon as it was over, I got up and left to the bathroom. Aaaaand threw it all up. It was so hot, but totally worth it. Because I ate the hottest (legal) pepper. I did it. And am alive! And then I was working again...
We went on exchanges that day, and I went back to the slightly more ghetto part of Henderson. The people there love heavy metal, so I kind of like going there. They are easy to relate to, easy to get along with, and generally have a good sense of humor opposed to the slightly more uptight people in my own area. It's usually a well needed "break" from things, even though I'm still working, but it is still nice to be around slightly more rowdy folk. We met a guy who was recently baptized that just moved into the ward. He was cool because he plays the drums for a local band and he wears an eyepatch because he's blind in one eye. You just don't see that in my area. He was a cool dude. We also taught a lesson to a guy who was buddies with some of the "Hells Angels" motorcycle gang. He told us some crazy stories afterwards. Apparently his daughter was getting bullied at school and his "buddies" found out about it. He got a call from the school telling him that they might expel his daughter because one of the "angels" showed up to class and was super threatening to the teacher and a couple of students Crazy stuff. What a story too.
That night at dinner, we were with a family that has like 12 kids. Luckily, half of the kids were out of town, so it wasn't as loud as it could have been. We ate Little Caeasar's pizza, and after my exchange companion talked about the missionary work in the area, we somehow found ourselves talking about old 80's cartoons like Transformers, GI Joe, and He-Man. I also learned from these kind members, that they are making a He-Man movie in 2019. My exchange companion and I were stoked.
There is one person we are working with that has mental issues. He's bipolar and is very unpredictable. Long story short, he used to be a member, but wants to get baptized again. We've been helping him for the past couple of weeks. His challenge lately is that he wants to quit smoking. We helped him get some addiction recovery stuff and have been teaching him the discussions. Well, last lesson we had, we were talking about the plan of salvation. He was in the back yard and he decided that he needed a smoke break. He stopped halfway through and he started crying. He was scared that he was doing something so bad that he was going to hell. So next thing we know, he handed me his pack of cigarettes and says "Guys you helped me stop smoking! I'm done!" And he gave us a huge hug. It was cool, but also strange because he randomly started crying. He's a funny guy.
He has also met Obama. His whole family has pictures with him. Neat, huh?
Yesterday we did some service for Will and his family. He and his brother are converts, and his younger brother is a non member. They were laying some sod down in a pretty decently sized back yard and they called in their "secret weapon" which was us, I guess. My companion worked for a landscaping business back home, so he knew what to do. I'm pretty sure I laid sod once before, but apparently I did a good job. A good job laying the sod. They also fed us a lot when we were there. Hispanics are the best for that reason alone...because of all the food they freely give to me.
I learned today that I might be going to eat Buffalo Wild Wings with an investigator for lunch. This is such a weird week. This has easily been the weirdest week of my whole mission.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Live it and you will be happy.
3 Nephi 11
29 For Verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
30 Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.
-Elder Moore
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