Pretty, cool...

                                                    So, Elder Street is in Harrisburg,

                                                     And Wright Ave is in Gettysburg.

I realized how much I missed history and stuff!

The  BIG thing that's happening is TRANSFERS. I'm not leaving. But Elder L is. We kind of expected it, c'mon, the guy's been here 9 months. But it's still sad. He's going out to Pittsburgh and he'll be a District Leader out there. I still don't know who I'll be with. I got recommended to train but there aren't very many missionaries coming in right now, so I won't be. I'm a bit bummed. But it's ok!  So I'm here, no word on who my new comp will be yet. But should be exciting, I just really hope the guy has a serious work ethic and dedication. This is a busy area; I know I was (and sometimes am) exhausted by the end of the day a lot. I'm kind of nervous, because Elder L and I are at a point where we're working super well together and I don't really want someone completely new to adapt to!  But we'll see.I'm pretty excited on the one hand for a new companion to shake things up and stuff, but it'll be stressful and tough to get him up to speed on everything and get to a united point. But we'll see. I'll find out tomorrow, so you'll have to wait a week!

Highly typical to get no warning. We were with the Zone Leaders when they got the calls, and when they gave the calls too. It's pretty blunt. But Elder B is leaving, and so that means there’ll be a new ZL as well. And Elder D is leaving so we'll get a new DL as well, probably my companion. So there'll be a bunch of new faces showing up. 

So, Gettysburg: I kind of wrote a lot about it in the letter. But basically it was really cool! We did the free stuff, mostly because we didn't have that much time. So we saw part of the museum but didn't go to all the things, which was a bit of a bummer. I would have loved to see it all again. But Bro V was a one-man tour, he just showed us all the important things on the battlefield, talked about strategy and troop movements, and provided tons of trivia. The civil war was pretty sad because families and friends were just fighting against each other! There's one monument to a general who died in Pickett's Charge, who as he lay bleeding out, asked to see one of the opposing generals, with whom he had been best friends. He was informed that was impossible because his friend lay dead on the ground about 20 yards away. Pretty sad, right? And we took loads of pictures. I'll get them to you in the next email. It was LEGIT! I realized how much I missed history and stuff! It was a long day, but we got to run around a lot at Devil's Den and so we had a truly great time.

So Thanksgiving was awesome! We had the Turkey bowl in the morning, not a huge turnout though because it was freezing! But still fun. Elder B loves football with a passion, so he had the time of his life. After, went to the M's for dinner. They live in the ZL's area, a less active family but super nice. Sister M refers to us, instead of THE missionaries, as HER missionaries. So that's pretty fun. We ate a decent plate there. Had real legitimate pumpkin whoopee pies, by the way! Thought you should know. You can pass that on the Char and Stan.

Then we went to the M's, who also had the L's over. Two super friendly families, just tons of food. We ate a ton there.  Then went to Brother B's apartment. He was kind of in a bad mood but we had a third meal. By this point we were all so terribly stuffed it was almost miserable. I can't recall ever being more full in my life. But then we played Uno with Brother B a bit and he was just having the time of his life! Cheered him right up. So that was pretty good.  And that was Thanksgiving!

 And the winter clothes came pretty much just in time, because now it's pretty dang cold here! It's snowed but nothing heavy yet, nothing's stuck. The only problem is lessons to women when there's not a man present, because we just have to stand outside and teach and it's bitterly chilly! But things are just moving along pretty well!

Love,

Elder Wright

Gettysburg was LEGIT!

Life, Then and Now

A hot wings eating contest....

So a rite of passage we have in Harrisburg is the Buffalo Wild Wings challenge. It's 12 blazing hot wings in 6 minutes, and it was pure concentrated misery.

Pretty terrifying, right?

Here’s some exciting things that have been happening this week.  

So, in zone training, we learned that we should be inviting our investigators to be baptized in the first lesson.  Seems pretty terrifying, right?  I think that too often, though, we think of baptism for our investigators as the last step.  Really, though, it is the first step into the Kingdom of God and they need to realize that.  

Anyways, I was in Harrisburg, but we were helping out the “drive” elders because all of our night appointments fell through.  So I was with Elder B.  He is really awesome, just friendly and generous and super personable.  We were trying someone they’d met, a 20 year old named J.  He wasn’t home, but his mom was.  She invited us in and was just super impressed that men of our age would be out doing what we’re doing.  We spoke to her by the Spirit and she was really touched.  She has seen the hand of God in her life when she survived a gnarly car wreck, and she was discontented with her church because she feels like it is corrupt and the Bible has been changed.  We shared the message of the restoration, and invited her to baptism.  She just said, “If it’s right, why not?” Then J came  home We briefly talked and extended the same commitment, and he wanted to too!  It was so cool.  I had such a big grin on my face because of them, it was just a great experience.

So have I told you about the N family? We really love them. They're members of the ward that we have set up a weekly appointment with. Brother N is active, he is super enthusiastic about missionary work and he comes out with us on team ups. Sister N is less active, as well as the rest of the family, a 19-year-old son and two younger daughters. It's been really miraculous seeing how they've changed in the last few months. We started trying to see them weekly, and at first you could tell, they weren't huge fans of us coming around so often. (Except Brother Nl.) But we've gotten to know them better and they've opened up to us. They are super warm and friendly now, and they've been to church every week so far in November! Getting them to stay is what we're working on now. We taught them last night, with the Atonement pushup lesson. It's a cool one. First we showed a Bible Video, basically about Christ's Atonement. It was called For God So Loved The World. Then we talked a bit about the Atonement. Then we changed it up. Elder Lozano told everyone they would be offered a piece of candy that they could accept or not. So he offered it to the first daughter, she took it. So he tells me, "Do 10 pushups." The second daughter declines, but I do 10 more pushups. Sister N doesn't want one, but I do 10 more. Brother N takes a chocolate, but I still do the 10. The purpose, as they were led to realize, is that it's like the Atonement. It's always there, Christ suffered for every one of us. We have to accept that, and really use his sacrifice to change for the better. The Atonement is limitless. What is limited is only how much we choose to apply it in our lives. They were really affected. They're going to start staying for all of church, and really kick some bad habits. And I got a nice arm workout from it. It was a great lesson!

So we had a ward activity this past week, the Hoe down! It ended up being a smashing success. We were pretty worried at first though because when it was about to start, there were like two families there. Needn't have worried though. Mormon standard time was in effect, everyone showed up at like 15 minutes after. We played the stick pulling game a bunch and I went bobbing for apples. Also had some intense games of checkers. But what was really great was how many less actives were there! Sister M has been coming out to church a lot after not being even on the radar for years. She is so nice and positive, and I think that once she is fully active then we can begin to teach her children, who haven't been baptized yet. IT's so great to be a missionary! I love it!

~ Elder Wright

Neither Rain, Sleet or Hail....