Elder Mitchell's Mission to Tennessee: Let Freedom Ring

Slip-n-Slide!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I hope you all have an awesome day celebrating our nation's independence! I don’t have a lot of time to write today, so this might be a little shorter. We had another good week in Cookeville. This week was filled with tons of tracting, with more tracting, with a side of extra tracting. It was fun haha. We haven't seen a bunch of success, but we were able to see some other investigators throughout the week. This week we saw V again, and it was awesome! She was asking so many questions about our church services and she told us that she would come since she had work off for the 4th! Plus, she told us she would bring her 11-year old son, and that she would invite her whole neighborhood to church. She's already doing missionary work haha. Unfortunately, we didn't see her at church on Sunday, so that was kind of a bummer, but we are going to try real hard to get her to church this next week. This week we also had another lesson with Y and J, who really want to go to the branch in Lebanon, but J works Sundays. But, when J gets a Sunday off, we'll head down.

This Friday Elder C met with the orthopedic surgeon. Apparently, he has a torn meniscus. So, he will need surgery to take out the meniscus. But, fortunately there is a doctor in Knoxville who can do it (plus he's a member!). And, the recovery for the surgery is only 10 days, so Elder C won't have to go home! So, that's good. The surgery should get scheduled soon, but it will probably be after transfers.

Other than that, it was a pretty low key week. We are enjoying our 4th of July though! This morning, the Lebanon Elders came over and we had a breakfast/softball game with the Burgess Falls ward. Then in the afternoon we went down a 1000 ft slip-n-slide that they had set up in the center of town. It was really fun, plus, President Griffin told us it would be great publicity if we went in our proselyting clothes, and it was! We got to talk to a lot of people about the church, it was great. And, tonight we have a cook-out with the Cookeville ward, and then fireworks! It's supposed to be a giant show, they said the Cookeville fireworks is the second-biggest show in Tennessee, so it should be fun!

My ponderizer this week is 2 Nephi 10:11, 14 which says, "And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles...For he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words." We truly are blessed to live in a land of liberty, a land of religious freedom. This country truly was prepared by the hand of the Lord for the Restoration of the Gospel. We don't have kings in our country, but we are part of the Lord's kingdom. He is our captain, our king, our savior. And as we follow Him, He will be a light to us forever. Hope you all have a great week and a great 4th of July!

Love,
Elder Mitchell