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.