Locked Out

The Tin Man, 

which is one of Elder Mitchell's nicknames

Buenos!

Well, another week has gone by in Cookeville. This week was pretty standard, nothing super crazy. The weather has been a little nuts though. We've been having thunderstorms on and off, so it will rain really hard, then the sun will come back out and it'll be 85 degrees and super humid. It's great haha. It cooled off toward the end of the week. When we woke up on Sunday it was like 36 degrees. Also this week there were some areas (mostly in Kentucky) that got hit with tornadoes. Crazy.

We had a pretty good day in Monterey on Tuesday. We spent the majority of the day there. We weren't able to get in with some of the people from last week, but we did have another lesson with an old potential, M. He had a lot of questions about why Mormon isn't mentioned in the Bible. We kept explaining it to him, but he just wasn't getting it. Hopefully he'll gain a better understanding from reading the BofM. We found lots of new potentials, so the teaching pool continues to grow in Monterey.

On Wednesday we had the first district meeting with our new district members, Sparta and Crossville. Then, we went and worked hard that whole afternoon, but we couldn't get anything, which stunk. But, we had a member come out with us that evening, and we were able to teach a member present lesson, plus we got in with a less active family, the Gs, which was great. Now, in our zone, there is a goal to get one member present, one less active, and one other lesson a day. During our whole time in Cookeville, Elder C and I have only reached that goal twice. So, here we were, sitting with the member present, and the less active, but no other lesson! The member dropped us back at our place around 8:00, and we just started thinking of who we could go see. So, we went to this cluster of potentials and started trying people. Nobody home. Around 8:35, we tried this duplex that we thought might be Hispanic. We knocked on the first door, and they didn't answer, but then the other neighbor answered because he thought we were knocking on his door. Well, this guy that answered, C, had had contact with missionaries before in Mexico, and in Nashville, and he wanted to know more! So, we were able to teach him more about the Restoration, and he agreed to a soft baptism invite. Whoo!

Thursday was fun. We were trying a potential, so we parked the car, walked to the potential, they didn't have time right then, so we went back to the car. That was when we realized that Elder C had accidentally locked the keys inside the car...yup. So, we had to call the vehicle coordinator, and he had to drive an hour and a half from Nashville to come unlock us. Needless to say, he was not pleased with us haha. The rest of the week was pretty boring. Transfers are coming up though, we'll get calls on Saturday, so we're a little antsy for that. We'll see what happens!

My ponderizing scripture this week is 1st Timothy 1:12 which says, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." I love this short, powerful verse. As missionaries, we have been counted faithful to be put into the ministry. But, we can't do this without the Lord's help. Though him, and especially through the enabling power of the Atonement, we can do all things. Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Waiting to get the car unlocked

Some more sleeping pics