Trekking Georgia: A Missionary Experience to Remember: Email #2 from GA, ATL (Peachtree City)

Hey everyone! This last week has been crazy! Lets start out with the story of almost getting the police called on us... we called an old black lady (77 years old) because she was a former investigator and we wanted to try and come meet with her again... so we called her one morning and she answered... I asked her how she was doing after stating who we were and she told us that she wasn't feeling well... so I offered that we could come over and leave her a blessing. She said ok so I asked her where she lived because I wanted to verify that her address hadn't changed since the last missionaries visited her (about 2 years ago) she then said something to the extent of "you should already know where I live!" and then hung up. Elder Schlesinger called back and tried talking to her but she hung up again... I was worried about her because she's so old so we decided we'd go over to the address on her file to see if she was doing ok... well, we get there and she opens the door before we even knock and starts talking about someone was stalking her over the phone and she thought it was us and she was going to call the police on us! She said that the missionaries knew where she lived and the person over the phone was asked for her address so things didn't add up... long story short, we spent the next hour proving to her that we didn't mean anything by it and that we were, indeed missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that just wanted to come make sure she was ok. She showed her all of our missionary paperwork, pamplets, etc. but eventually her neighbor had to come vouch for us and calm her down! We felt bad but we really just wanted to make sure she was ok... we had to laugh it off!!

We've had a lot of up's and downs lately... Elder Shlesinger is struggling with his undiagnosed medical problem pretty badly... we even spent an entire day at the ATL hospital for an appointment about it... on Sunday, we stayed in since he could hardly do anything with a massive headache and body aches... so I ended up calling people to schedule appointments, reschedule others and I even ended up calling people and pronounced blessings/prayers over the phone so we we're still fulfilling our missionary work. Gotta make the best out of the situation! I feel bad for him and pray for him a lot... we even went to see our missionary medical specialist... she has do a lot of breathing exercises, medatation techniques, etc. for about an hour... it was awesom!! It was like Spiritual yoga... I loved it! She also gave us some amazing brownies and cookies which I ate WAY too much of!! (I gotta start eating better). It helped me a lot though... just as much as it helped Elder Shlesinger, I'm sure. She actually looked at me before we left and said "You know about this kind of stuff, don't you?" It was pretty cool that she knew that! I said yes, I was studying that kind of stuff before coming out here... so she tasked me to help him relax and stretch and do other things like that.

We have our first baptism date set for an investigator! She won't be getting baptized for awhile though.... unfortunately she is going to prison for 20 days... and then when she gets back we have to finish teaching her everything but we're so excited for her!!! She loves the gospel and has a big desire to change and really feels like the church is an answer to her prayers! We've met a lot of great people lately... even met a "Born Again Christian" family that we've been able to talk to and help through some service (moving out)... they're amazing people and they love to pray with us... it's pretty cool cause we'll pray and leave them a blessing and then they follow up with a prayer of their own right after.

It's been cold here lately but not nearly as cold as Utah!! Everyone here is a kind of a whimp when it comes to the cold haha. They go out in winter clothes and we'll be out there nearly sweating!!! It's going to be funny if it ever snows... they won't know what to do with themselves! The people are amazing though... so nice and respectful. We've been yelled at and had the door slammed in our faces a few times, but for the most part everyone is great. It's interesting to think about though... even if Christ himself went out to do missionary work, people would still reject him. I mean, they already did reject him in the past... "We don't have time" "We're not interested" "Go solicitate somewhere else" "I don't need the blessings".... I'm sure he'd hear the same things and be rejected in the same ways.

Thank you to everyone for writing to me!!! I really am SO busy that I won't be able to write many of you back, but I'll try my best to get back to everyone! Thanks for all the pictures and snacks! I love all of you cousins out there!!! I miss you lots but I'm happy to be here doing the Lord's work... keep writing!! I read every letter and look at every drawing. I'm buying some stuff today so I can hang up all the pictures in my room. I gotta get going but I want you all to know that I love you so very much and pray for each of you every night. The scripture for today is Mosiah, chapter 24. Love you all!!!!

A full planner ... Just another day in the life of a missionary! We always come up with multiple backup plans just in case our original plans don't work out.