ELDER FLYNN: August 2019

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Service Stories (week #35)

Today, my companion and I helped a nonmember help another nonmember take some old furniture to the dump. We had another nonmember help us, because he had a fully functioning truck that we could use. We tried to get all the furniture into one load which we did, but going down the highway was kind of sketchy. We had two mattresses, one of them very bulky, one boxspring, two bed frames, two dressers, and a couple of other bits and pieces. Counting the height of the truck, the stack was at least 9 feet high. The guy helping us tied it down and then we were on our way. Doing that this morning kind of tired me out, but we got it done.

The guy we were helping is trying to keep a pest control business afloat, but he's getting close to giving up on it. He currently has no other job, and he's taking care of six kids. We're not always entirely sure how to help him. We had him meet our mission president, and the mission president thinks that he's a special one.

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This week has been interesting to say the least. I did some things that I never would have thought would have been mission material, ha, ha. My companion and I finally got to visit a guy that is not a member that likes the missionaries. He had gone on a mammoth vacation for the past two months and so we were not able to see him for the longest time. Finally, he returned and then he asked us to help him help one of his friends clean up some old property that was intended for sale. While we were helping, we the nonmember talked to us about a talk show that he helps out with called "The Mystery Hour." He got into it one time when his motorcycle got stolen. I forgot how that exactly tied into him being involved with it, but anyhow, cutting to the chase, the director of the show asked him to be on the show to which he said that he would prefer not to be on it, and instead help out on the behind the scenes. So they let him do that. At first, it simply started out as a basement gig, graduated to some space on the radio, and now, it's fully televised in seventeen markets across the country, most of them in the midwest and south and one isolated one in Oregon.

So this nonmember asked us to help him on the show, and so we agreed to help him. It was weird. My companion and I were kind of like his "runners." He had us tape off seats in the theater, and he had us usher people to seats. After doing that, it was basically pretty laid back. We watched two entire episodes of this show. I had never really seen a talk show, so I got to see how they make them. They had cameramen filming the stage from three or four different angles. The audience is there for laughing noise. A lot of the jokes were not super funny, but the audience is encouraged to laugh as hard as they can even though something may not be so funny. I though the way some of the people laugh was pretty funny.(Ho,ho,ho,ho.) I also got to meet one of the actors in the lunch room. I didn't even know he was going to be on the show, ha ha, but it turns out he was from Orlando, Florida. I had never heard of him. His first name was Orlando and he's supposed to be a well known comedian. He asked us about what we do as missionaries. I also got to meet the screenwriter and stuff. They also had one of the actors from the movie "Sandlot." The nonmember said that he had tried to get Lindsey Stirling, but he said that she was too expensive.

The show was kind of like Studio C a little. Not as good, but similar vein of production. It was kind of fun to see the makeup stuff and the room where the actors hang out and stuff and the hustle and bustle. There were lots of technicians and cameramen. Anyhow, I thought that Analia, Erica, and Ethan might like to hear about that. They film the show in the downtown in Springfield. It kind of has a cool feel to it, but you got to be careful around there.

Recently, we also had a zone conference with a seventy, Elder McKay. Elder McKay was pretty clear about his message. He wanted us to step up our efforts. He said that this mission could go from a twenty five baptism mission to a ninety baptism mission. He also discussed a few other topics about the scriptures and teaching. It was a good meeting. The Ava elders stayed with us after zone conference because the truck got in a wreck again. This is the third wreck that it has experienced in it's first year of service. Ha, ha. This time, it was a deer.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Zone Conference (Week #34)

Aug 12, 2019

Face to face with the family (Week #33)

August 5, 2019

Another leadership Conference (Week # 32)

July 29, 2019

Friend from Ava (Week #31)

July 22,2019

I hope that everyone has had a great week. Something really cool that happened is that one of the recent converts in Ava that I became good friends with has moved from Ava into the area that I am serving in now which is Chesterfield Village. Now, we contact him just like when I was in Ava. I thought that this was a pretty cool thing that happened. Also, I have attended a Ward Council for the second time in my entire mission. Last week, my companion and I found five new people to teach. This week we found one. That's the up and downess of the mission. We bike half the week, and drive the other half. On p-days, we do our shopping at walmart, and then we get together with other missionaries at the stake center to play Settlers of Catan. There are three wards that meet at the stake center: Republic, Southern Hills, and Chesterfield. Republic and Chesterfield are Elders' areas (or testosterzones as the elders like to call them) and Southern Hills has recently become a Sisters' area. It used to be that both Chesterfield and Southern Hills were covered by one set of elders because both areas are so small geographically, but now that's changed.

I really enjoy all of your letters and thanks for continuing to send them to me. The work is moving along as usual. I love you all, and hope that you all will have a great week.

Games! (Week #30)

July 15,2019

I will have learned more games than I care to remember. I wasn't expecting that missionaries would be playing these many games. But you know, a lot of the people around here love entertainment. Sometimes, playing games is the best way to relate to others even though games are not your favorite things to do, but I'm adjusting. So far, I have learned how to play

Magic: the Gathering

Settlers of Catan

Exploding Kittens

Train Robbery

A Space game that I can't remember the name of

D and D

Trash

And then some games that I know already

Slaps

Uno

And other various card games. My trainer loved games. His dad was a judge for Magic tournaments and so he knew everything there was to know about game theory. He taught me how to build a Magic deck and how to play against opponents and stuff and beating them. I have built a Dragon deck that I have been carrying around the mission. How it goes is that you have a life that equals the no. twenty. Then you have mana which is pronounced like mana in the Bilble with Moses and the children of Israel and so forth. The mana is basically your cash money.

Then you have creatures. You pay for the creatures with the mana.

You also have magic spells that you can cast. You also pay for that with the mana.

All of this is represented with cards.

The goal of the game is to destroy your opponent by subtracting his twenty lives to zero. When it's zero, he's dead. You accomplish this by paying for creatures and spells and then throwing them at your opponent. Each of the creatures and spells have special abilities so they do their thing depending on how you want to use them. Anyways, it's supposed to simulate how it feels like if you were a wizard. At first, I didn't enjoy playing because you know how I am, but then one of the missionaries in my zone came on exchanges and he said, "I don't think that you have caught the magic of the game yet, and the reason that you haven't caught the feel yet is because you haven't built your own deck yet." It was kind of funny because it was like magic philosophy, and I built my own deck and still didn't like it any better really, but anyhow ha, ha, I have adapted because some of the nonmembers like to play it. Some of the missionaries like getting really powerful cards from nonmembers for free. Some of them are really expensive. Some cards cost fifty dollars depending on the quality of the card and its abilities.

Anyhow, I will probably just play these games while on my mission and when I come home, I will return to my gamefree lifestyle. You can learn some interesting things from people, ha ha. There is a couple that we are teaching. One of them was Russian, lived in South Korea, and then married a member there and moved to Missouri. The member knows a lot about cryptocurrency and bitcoins. A lot of its explanation is beyond me but it was kind of intriguing. I learned from him that the first purchase done with bitcoins was a pizza for ten thousand bitcoins. Don't worry, I won't be setting up any bitcoin accounts, ha ha.

East Zone Conference in Springfield (week #29)

July 8, 2019

Adjusting to the new area (Week #28)

July 1, 2019

I've been adjusting well, but it's definitely a culture shock even though it should be more familiar than I should expect. The area that I am in now is basically the exact opposite of my last area. A good comparison to Chesterfield is Mandarin. There are lots of very nice neighborhoods with sizable houses in several subdivisions. My companion and I live close to the middle of our area. Also, it probably isn't even a tenth of the size of the previous area that I was in. There are probably just as many members in Chesterfield as there are in the previous area if not more. There are a lot of young families and families that are sending sons off on missions. It's pretty easy to run into members in this area. Many of the members just live a few blocks from one another. All the people are very nice and remind me a lot of Oakleaf ward. We have done a lot more tracting than I've ever done before because there are so many houses. My new companion and I get along just fine. We share a vehicle with the sister missionaries that live in a neighboring area. We do not have a lot of miles to use, so we ride our bikes most of the time. I really enjoy riding bikes. There are sidewalks everywhere, so we usually use those unless there is no sidewalk, then we ride with traffic. It's pretty busy on the roads. There are a lot of people that live here. The city though is actually relatively clean. A lot of the members that I have met say that they enjoy living here. My companion and I are not yet clear on what plan we should develop for progressing the work most effectively here, but we're getting there. My companion has only been in the area for five weeks, and I've just arrived. President Strong has placed a lot of emphasis on creating area plans recently. We've kept ourselves pretty busy.

Chopped Wood (Week #27)

June 24, 2019

This is from my last area, we helped this guy in chopping wood for him. All the wood behind him is missionary chopped.

Elder Flynn leaving Ava (Week #26)

June17, 2019

Pictures (Week #25)

June 10, 2019

"Fate" (Week #24)

June 3, 2019

One of the things that I have been wrestling with personally is how to help others understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ and grace. I have been studying the scriptures a lot more as a result. I have been learning quite a few different things. One of the things that I have been discovering is that many of the people that we work with have concerns iwith fate. Some people seem to think that they are consigned to a certain fate mo mattet what choices they make. I have sometimes felt like that before, and I had kind of just shrugged off those thoughts and just kept going. Now these people are making me pause and face the concern. It's also interesting that our mission president really, really spearheads a theme of accountability, responsibility, agency, freedom, and just taking control of your life generally speaking. He often talks about taking a comfort path versus taking the pain path- meaning- the consequences of the comfort path lead to pain, and the consequences of the pain path lead to comfort, well not really comfort as in carnal security, but comfort as in maximizing growth, finding peace, reaching full potential, and having more choices. In the end, it's actually easier to take the pain path even though the comfort path appears more appealing- it seems comfortable, but the end result is pain, and the farther one progresses down that path, the harder it is to choose the right path. It also becomes more painful for one to get set on the pain path the father along the comfort path one goes. Ultimately it's like that scripture in 2Nephi:27- 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. Anyhow, those are some of the things that I am learning. The mission president has told me that fate is not part of the doctrine, so I am very thankful about that.

P Day (Week #23)

May 27, 2019

I've been doing well. I have a new companion, and right now we're just taking a break from the normal rigour of the week. Two of the people that we are teaching came to church this last Sunday so that was pretty awesome. I'm pretty tired today. Luckily, we're taking it easy today.

Other than that, there isn't very much to write about today. I have been better about writing in my journal for the past two days so there should be some things recorded in case I forgot about them. The weather is always very unpredictable. There's been lots of tornados recently, but we've been kept very safe from them and other storms. One of the people that we teach is a powerline worker. Last week, he accrued 82 work hours. Yesterday, he was pretty dead.

Giving a Book of Mormon experience (Week #22)

May 20, 2019

I am not being transferred from Ava. I am staying another transfer. My companion , however, is being transferred to Mountain Grove just north of Ava. My new companion will not be a zone leader. This will be the first time in which I have a companion that isn't a zone leader. My mission president says that he is a really good missionary and that he has only been out one more transfer than I have. In the meantime, the companion that I have now is staying the zone leader for the stake and will just work from Mountain Grove which is closer to our stake center anyways. The mission president has been meaning to do that for a long time.

Also, yesterday, one of the coolest things happened. My companion and I were down in Gainsville, and we were just heading out to go back to Ava when a guy comes out of his house to walk his dog. A lady that had requested a Book of Mormon a long time ago lived in the house that this guy was coming out of. We had tried to visit her before, but no one answered the door. When we walked up to this guy to talk to him, we explained that we intended to give a Book of Mormon to the lady that lived inside the house. They guy then introduced himself and said that he was her husband. We then asked him if he would give the copy of the Book of Mormon that we had for the lady. He not only agreed to do that, but he also said that he would read the book and even pray about it. He then said that we could come back next week to see him. It was the fastest turn of events that I have experienced so far in the mission. We were bracing ourselves for him to tell us off and stuff and we just barely explained what the Book of Mormon is and the guy had never encountered us before, but he decided that he wanted tor read the Book of Mormon. That made my companion and me both happy.

We've been doing good. We have been finding more and more people to teach. We are going to be very busy this week and probably for the next few weeks of this coming transfer. I know that all of you have been praying for me. Thanks for your prayers. The Lord has been giving my companion and me a lot of work to do and I am thankful for that.