Week 17 - "Coincidence? I think NOT!"

Hey, all! I just realized that I got the numbering messed up on my emails. Two weeks ago should have been "Week 15 - The penitent man shall pass," and a week ago should have been "Week 16 - I would like to thank you all for your wonderful GIFTS!" So we're in Week 17 now. The quote this week is from Dash's teacher in The Incredibles.

So you remember that email last week, and how I talked about in that spiritual thought I sent to my district that they would experience something that would let them know they were where they needed to be? (That was something Elder Thomas taught me, by the way.) I had that experience on my third day here in my new area. But I'll get to that in a bit.

On Thursday we got up, finished all our packing (I forgot a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints in the cupboard, and I'm not sure if I can forgive myself), got picked up by one of the brothers in the ward, and then went to New Albany for transfers. The South zones meet there for transfers, and the North zones meet in Tallmadge, if I remember correctly. There's a caravan of cars that goes from one area to the other and then back again to move missionaries between the sides of the mission, so I had a van to catch. When we got there I got my luggage and bike loaded up and saw all of the other Ohio elders from my MTC district! Elder Lambert and Elder Mitton were also coming up to the North zones, but I think Elder De Haan stayed in the South zones, though he did get transferred. Elder Mitton is training this transfer, too! Right out of the gate! He's going to be awesome. Elder Collier, who was one of my zone leaders and who I did an exchange with in Worthington once, was also going North with us and is also training. Elder Lewis, who was my district leader's companion this past transfer is filling that same role in the district I'm in now, so he came up with us, too. In New Albany I also saw Sister Tua'one from the MTC! She's been in Coshocton, and that's where Elder Thomas went. He doubled in with another elder. I guess they call it "blue-washing" the area when elders replace sisters, which is what's happening. I left Elder Thomas, which made me a little sad, and I told him he was the best companion ever, but he told me I'd have better companions. Elder Anderson is cool--I've enjoyed working with him so far--but I'll always appreciate having been with Elder Thomas.

After that there was a little devotional in the chapel, and then all of us who were headed north loaded into cars to head out. I got to sit right behind Elder Lambert, and we got caught up a little. He's been in OSU, and I guess working there is interesting because you don't ever visit people in their homes or apartments--you visit with and teach them in the institute building, and it's not uncommon for people to just not come. You also spend most of your time finding and trying to talk with people on campus, but they're not always receptive. It was good to catch up with Elder Lambert and talk about the experiences we've both had. It's interesting to see who we are 13 weeks later. I think we've both changed a fair amount.

When we made it to Tallmadge I saw Sister Pitt from the MTC! She's headed to Scioto. Then I met my new companion, and the bishop of my new ward took us from Tallmadge back to the area of Warren. It's been good serving here the past couple of days. It's got a very different feel from Worthington. I feel like people are far more open at least to talking with us, and the field seems far more white and ready to harvest: Elder Anderson and I have been working on putting old paper records into the Area Book Planner (he found them in a drawer in the apartment sometime last transfer, and he and his former companion started putting them in), and I guess that's a pretty common thing for missionaries up in these areas to have to do. It's been interesting to see how missionaries recorded things in the past--I came immediately into digital tools, so it's been kind of cool to get a taste for what some of the return missionaries I know had to do on their missions. But the reason I said the field seems more white is that it seems like there are a lot of people here that missionaries started meeting with but stopped meeting with for no reason--like there aren't any notes for why people's lessons were stopped. We went and visited a woman Saturday who missionaries stopped meeting with, and it seems like it was just because she fell by the wayside or something--like she just got forgotten. I looked at her record, and she wasn't a person being taught, but only because they hadn't extended any commitments to her, which is one of the qualifications--in Area Book Planner you're either a member, a person being taught, a person with interest (think potential investigator), other (usually "not interested"), or a Do Not Contact. We went and visited her, and it's a good thing we did that day, because her partner and another guy were out in the backyard looking over their duck pond, and after we had rung the doorbell twice we went around back and asked them if she still lived there. Her partner said she did. I asked what his name was, and he told me, and I asked if he had met with missionaries before, and he just pointed over to her inside the house--they've got some big windows, and she was waving us toward her and waving us in, so we went over there and went inside. We got to talking with her for a while and discussed a couple of different principles. I don't know if any of what we taught her stuck. She's going in for a surgery, and I hope that goes very well, because we let her know we'd be praying for her. One of the things she mentioned to us, though, was that they never answer the front door because they're always in the back of the house, and if we want to reach them we should always go to the back. I guess that's why missionaries stopped meeting with her, because the old missionaries got transferred out, and the new missionaries didn't know. We set up a return appointment with her, so I hope that works out and we can teach her something more significant. Between the people in that area that I had looked over that day, I felt prompted to go visit her (and one other woman we may have stopped by--I don't remember). It's interesting--I feel like the spirit has recently been speaking to me in quieter ways. I'm not sure if that's because I have been disobedient, or maybe because I'm making progress--I don't know. But I'm paying more attention to it now, and I feel like it's been telling me some more specific things. I still feel the joy that comes from the spirit in the same way and with the same strength, but I'm recognizing the spirit more as a still, small voice that just nudges me a little. As I've experimented with what I've been "hearing" over the past few days, I feel like I've been coming to recognize the voice of the spirit more clearly.

Anyhow, the reason for the subject line is this: On Saturday we biked over to the house of a less-active member to help her move some furniture. Elder Anderson named a member of the ward and said he was going to meet us there. At the very, very back of my mind his name sounded ever-so-vaguely familiar, but I didn't think anything of it. When we got to the less-active member's home we came in, and I saw the member who was there to help, and he looked familiar, too. I wasn't sure why. I started thinking maybe he was a Scrollie (someone who worked at The Scroll, the campus newspaper where I used to work at BYU-Idaho) that I heard about but never properly met or something. As we were leaving after helping the member asked me where I was from, and I was like, "Rexburg. Did you go to school at BYU-Idaho?" I was still trying to make the connection as to why he looked familiar. When I had walked in the door, he seemed like he had recognized me, too, but he didn't say anything. I wondered if I had met him, he had been a Scrollie, and I had offended him or something. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility--as the copy editor, I was in charge of the team that told people their work contained a lot of errors. But he was like, "No..." For a moment I thought, "Huh. Well, I guess it's just one of those things," but then he said, "But my brother did. Enoch?" I was like, "Oh, yeah! Enoch!" Enoch was an intern at the Standard Journal for a little while working on video production, and he was awesome. The interns were unpaid when I was there, and if there was anyone I felt the worst about not paying, it was probably Enoch. He produced really good, quality content for us, and he did it for free. He was extremely undervalued. I hope he knows that his work was worth far more than what we paid him for it. Anyway, I met his brother! It's a small world, especially when you're a member of the church. The member told me Enoch graduated, and I looked at him on Facebook, and I guess he's married now, too. Time passes quickly--it seems like that all happened so fast, but I think it's been a few years. Anyhow, I think that was the indication for me that this is where I'm supposed to be right now.

In case you're wondering, the job we did while we were there was to move some furniture. We took an old, beat-up couch to a burn pile the less-active member has behind her house (she's married, I think, and her husband was directing us). I took off my suit coat and put it on a mattress next to me when we walked in the door, and Elder Anderson seemed apprehensive when I did that, so I picked it back up, thinking maybe I had been rude, and he was like, "Put it here, maybe," and pointed to the handle on a chest of drawers. When we were taking the couch around the back, I found out what the real reason was: He was like, "This is bed bug heaven. Try not to touch it very much." He checked the bottom of the couch, and I guess he saw signs that it had been treated, but I took off the sweater I had been wearing under my suit coat anyway and stuffed it in my bag before we left, partially because I was getting warm anyway--the day was starting to heat up--but partially because of the potential for getting bed bugs on the rest of my clothes, too. Later he said he wasn't worried about the couch or the mattress I initially put my suit coat on being infested, but I keep thinking about bed bugs, and whenever I do I start feeling itchy. Ugh. Anyway, we moved the couch as well as a TV and a big, electric leather recliner to the burn pile in the back. I guess that's what some people do here with the old stuff they don't want: They just burn it.

Speaking of things that feel different from Worthington, there's a definable "bad part of town" here. Elder Anderson showed me on a map the places we've been advised not to go after dark. I don't feel unsafe--I feel looked after as a missionary--but it's sobering to know about this stuff. There are a lot of abandoned buildings here and stuff. We biked by one house that had a "CONDEMNED" sign on it, there's an abandoned hospital in town, and a lot of the houses look pretty old. It seems like a tough place to live. I feel bad for the people here, and I hope the spiritual insight we have can be a tangible blessing in their lives.

On the topic of spiritual blessings, we met with a husband and wife we're teaching my second night here, and they came to the adult session and the Sunday session of stake conference the past two days! The husband seems super committed to being a part of the church. His wife is still learning and hasn't taken as many of the lessons, but I think she feels something significant about what we teach and what we have to offer, and she seems like she's on board.

Things are good. We're doing the work, and there's lots of it to do. I love you all!

Elder Davis

Pic 1 - I found this gem under a dresser in the apartment. It's... interesting.

Pic 2 - A shot of downtown Old Worthington, so you can get a little sense for where I've been the past few months (I'm sorry I haven't taken many pictures--hopefully that will change).