Writings from West Virginia: Another week has flown by in Buckhannon!

Hello everyone! Another week down here in Buckhannon! Time is moving too fast. I'm going to miss it here in a couple weeks.

Remember how I said last week was a slow one? Yeah. This week was even slower. The Lord is trying to teach Elder Sawyer and I something with this week, and we're working on trying to figure out what. Our biggest problem was pretty much every appointment to teach investigators fell through today. It really sucks when that happens. Your heart drops, you put your head down and just sigh. Luckily, most of our appointments rescheduled for this week, and most people feel too guilty to reschedule again. They'll feel The Spirit eventually!

We had a really fun p-day last week! It was Sister Shreeve's birthday, so we decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings! Annnnnd they talked me into the Hot Wing challenge. Why did I do it? No idea. I couldn't eat all 12. In my defense, I had a burger right before so I was really full. My appetite hasn't been as big since I've been on my mission. I don't really know what's wrong with me. It really didn't even burn until after I stopped eating. Then it burned. A lot. I got really dizzy and all flushed apparently. Hot stuff does weird things to you.

Tuesday was a great day! We had the best lesson I've ever experienced thus far on my mission that day. Her name is D!, and she has some heavy reservations on The Bible and is having a really hard time believing in God and Jesus Christ. In the lesson, we testified of The Atonement of Jesus Christ. She was heavily emotional throughout too. She wants to know so bad, but is afraid that she won’t get an answer. All we can do is pray and encourage her. You can pray for her too. Please pray for her!

The rest of the week, as mentioned before, was slow. All other appointments fell through. We did have a great experience on Saturday! We were invited to go way up into The Boonies and help some of The Chapman family make Molasses (That may have been one of the most West Virginian things I've ever written)! That was a great experience. Elder Sawyer and I were on straining duty. After they crush the cane stalks and get the juice, we had to strain it so no dirt gets in to the pure juice. After that, they boil it for 12+ hours and then it turns into gingerbre- I mean Molasses! (Lets be honest, nobody uses it except for gingerbread).

While we were there, I got to talk to Goldie, the matriarch of The Chapman clan. She has 13 kids, 63 grandkids, 100+ great grand kids, and 7 great great grand kids. I grabbed a piece of paper and tried my hardest to figure out everybody. I got 13/13 kids, 36/63 grandkids, and 47/100+ great grandkids, and 1/7 great great grandkids. I didn't do too bad, did I? That's pretty good I think! Maybe I spend too much time with The Chapmans. :)

Last thing, I had a chance to give a great sister in the ward a blessing yesterday. I don't remember a whole lot of what I felt prompted to say (That's kind of how they work, haha), but I do remember that I talked about how we can't see our future opportunities and blessings, but God can. Sometimes, all we can see is how scary or sad or frustrating the event facing us is going to be. But always remember that you have someone watching you, who can see the great things that come from trials, even if we can't.

I love you all! Keep praying for me, keep writing and I will talk to you all next week.

Love,

Brax