Abandoned house in Ava week #10)

Here is a photo that I did take while in Ava. It's an old abandoned house with briars taking it over. There are actually quite a few abandoned houses around here.

My companion is in the picture. We took this picture while tracking.

Missionary training meeting (week #9)

Elder Flynn

I am pretty tired today. My letter may not be very long, but I will try to remember things as I write. I am not being transferred. I am staying in Ava and so is my companion. This week, we will be driving down to Bentonville for a meeting.

In Bentonville, they say sometimes that the milk costs only sixty or forty cents a gallon depending on where you go. The walmarts are everywhere there, and there are huge warehouses for walmart too.

I am happy to hear that everything back home is doing well. It will probably be awhile before it warms up here in Missouri but the weather has been bearable more or less lately. The sun has finally come out for a while. 

There are lots of deer around here. My companion and I were biking back to our apartment one night and we spooked at least half a dozen of them. Sometimes we have seen them in small herds out in the open on both sides of the road while riding in the car. Just as long as they don't hit the car or us while riding our bikes.

Because of the more pleasant weather, Ava has livened up a bit more. We have talked to more people when not tracting now. Hopefully that continues to increase. I know that I have still not taken pictures of the area, but it's just been kind of hard to find good locations to snap good pics. All in all though, the terrain is nice to look at and fun to drive on. In the town square, they have an arts and craft shop, a few salons, some small eateries(like specialty sandwich shops), and a movie theater. The movie theater plays free Christian films like I Believe, and I Can Only Imagine. I haven't seen any of them but I know this because we talked to the manager of the theater who recently bought it from someone else. She says that she really isn't in it for the money. For her it's more of a community service; thus free Christian movies. She said that we were welcome to share our beliefs anytime at a certain social that she holds. I thought that was intetesting.

Back in Ava (week #8)

I am now back in Ava. I got a little sick yesterday for some reason, but I am feeling better today. The past two weeks were very busy for me. My trainer and I went on exchanges with another set of elders in Mountain Grove. It was very nice up there. It was the second time that I participated in missionary work with three other missionaries. What happened was first they came to live with us for a day, and helped us in our area and then they stayed with us overnight. 

The next day, we traveled to their area and stayed overnight at their place. The idea was that more missionaries in one area would be able to speed up the work in that area. Because the entire West Plains Stake is basically rural, I got to do some service that I never thought I would be doing. For one, I helped muck out horse stalls (that was interesting). I also helped split wood for the person who owned the horses. In the evening of that day, in downtown Mountain Grove, I attended a gaming society meeting or something like that. The other three elders I was with introduced me to a game called Magic: the gathering. As one player put it: "It's like hypercomplicated chess" except with playing cards. Only two of the elders knew how to play, so the other elder and I watched. It was a card game tournament. Our goal with attending these game nights was to find people who want to hear about the Gospel.

In Ava, while the work used to be a little slow, it has now started to pick up thanks to the exchanges. My trainer also has managed to find some community organizations to do service, which is great because we now need to do ten hours of service per companion. We have found some people that we might be able to teach the lessons to. Hopefully, some of these people pan out. 

Today, my trainer and I are taking it easy a bit. I am still recovering from being sick, but I think I will be able to go back out tomorrow. I gave a talk yesterday in church. In addition, I am now an escort for an eagle scout who is a nonmember. I will be escorting this Wednesday at a court of honor for six new eagle scouts. Some of the people are nonmembers so we might be able to find new people from that event.

I got the bike intact on the mail. Nothing got damaged except for a rear reflector, but I think that the rear reflector got damaged when I pulled the wheel out of the box. As for assembling the bike, I got lucky. There were two other elders from another area with me because my companion and I had gone on exchanges with them. One of these elders liked building things and he offered to help me assemble the bike. Thanks for sending very detailed instructions. With the elder's expertise and your instructions, the bike is fully assembled and in good working condition except for the broken rear reflector. All of the elders really liked the bike. One of them called it the king of bikes. Thanks for sending the wheel guards. Believe it or not, there are a few dirty roads around here and I know that the bike will come in very handy. I am also glad that you purchased a mountain bike because the terrain is a little rough in some areas. 

The building where we live now is basically a giant warehouse type building with work offices in it. There is a game room and a karate room. It also has a kitchen for the office workers with lots of food left over from previous missionaries so we are well provided for. I have also met a few people out here that like to take their vacations in Florida or that used to live in Florida.

Snow and Ice (Week #7)

A lot of things happened this week that I never really saw coming. My trainer is a zone leader, so he has a lot of responsibilities, many of which I don't fully understand yet. One that I do understand though is that he had to conduct zone conference which was last week on Wednesday. We left early in the morning to drive the one hour trip to the Stake Center in Sringfield. It had snowed the night before, so there was snow and ice on the roads. The roads are very curvy because the terrain is very hilly. Especially on z highway, which was a backroad we took. On the way, we came to a very sharp turn, and my trainer could not make the turn. We plowed straight into a road sign and landed at least 30 or so feet off the road. My trainer said that it was the scariest experience he ever had. We were unscathed and ninety percent of the truck was intact. I am thankful that the Lord protected us from harm. 

The right side of the truck on its front was badly mangled. The right fender, the right headlight, and parts of the bumper were destroyed. The front axle also got bent out of alignment, and so the truck wobbles when it drives. Luckily though, the truck is not beyond repair. I kind local helped us drive it off. He said that the truck was drivable. As a result, we made it to Zone Conference.

Right now, my trainer and I have been marooned in Springfield for a few days. We leave tomorrow morning.