Out in Nature (September 17-24)

On Monday we had the Carlton Elders with us, and we went and camped out at the Mountain Biking Park, and we went biking, we called family and we played some games at the picnic tables. We also had the Brainerd Sister missionaries there because half of the park is technically in their area. After spending the majority of the day at the park we went to McDonald's and talked with Ray, and some of the other people that walked in, to finish off the day.

On Tuesday I had my official exchange day with Elder Fletcher, and we went and talked to Stan for about an hour, and we both almost fell asleep during the conversation. Stan had a stroke 9 years ago and he has almost made a full recovery, however he still has trouble speaking and he talks in a really monotone voice. We managed to pull through and once we left and started walking again we got woke up. Then after we had lunch we went to Crosby to do some tracting and we also played on the great big playground for a little bit, to get re-energized. And sometimes when people see missionaries have a little fun, we seem more approachable to them. We finished off the night by having dinner with a nonmember and we were at the American Legion. It was her second time, and she wants to take us again with her husband Charlie. She has been so awesome!

Wednesday we did a little finding in the morning and then we decided to go over to the Rusty Gun, which is a gun shop owned by a couple members. Elder Layton loves talking to them because they are his type of people. One of them, Larry, is a paranoid, army vet who believes in a lot of really far out conspiracy theories. One of them is a half blind man, that left his old life behind and bikes everywhere and chooses to live his life almost like a homeless person. He likes the idea of survival, so he only brings bare necessities and bikes to Florida and back to Minnesota. Then there is Shawn the member, and he is a Gun nerd and knows just about everything about guns or relating to guns. Needless to say it's a bunch of Gun loving crazy rednecks. I love it, I think its hilarious, and Elder Layton gets along, probably a little to well with them. Then that night we had mutual and that was my time to shine. The youth here really like me, and so I was able to have a good time with them, and really build that important missionary relationship. If they see that the mission is fun, it will help them to make that decision to serve.