Here's the hook for this essay: Squirrels bite hard.
But first, Jannet. I think you guys prayed too hard for her. She's doing much much better now. We haven't had a formal lesson with her in a long time, but she's figuring things out in her life. She plans on moving to her friends house, to get away from some toxic relationships, so hopefully we can meet with her a couple times before then. I know she's been enjoying meeting with us because she calls us A LOT. She also gave me her grandfather's tie clip, so maybe she's been enjoying me especially (
). It's a small clip, but I like it. I might give it a good polish sometime. [photo below]
). It's a small clip, but I like it. I might give it a good polish sometime. [photo below] Last week Elder Child and I went to talk to a guy named Dallas. It was incredible!! His "brother" (really good friend) came in as we started and then sat down to listen! They both asked awesome questions and loved what we were sharing. We taught them about the Restoration and about how you have to read and pray about the Book of Mormon yourself to find out if it is true. They took the invitation to heart and told us they would read and write down questions for us. We are meeting with them again tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited. His friend's name is Tristan by the way. A couple of great guys that couldn't believe we volunteered to go without girlfriends or wives for 2 years 
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. Here's the part you've been waiting for. A friend of Derrick's, Mr. Adkins, asked us if we could help him move some dirt from the side of his pool. His pool was installed wrong, so he needed us to dig down to the bottom of it so he could fix some of the foundation. After a while we had finished digging and he began cutting things with a tool. We can't help with that, so we found entertainment by watching this squirrel dart in and out from under Mr. Adkin's tool shed. It wanted sunlight, but each time it came out we were there and it got scared. Then I had the bright idea to try and catch it. I sat next to the hole for a while, my hand hovering over the spot it would come out. Eventually it did come out, and I almost got it. It just barely squirmed back into the hole before I got a hold on it. We gave up for a while and helped him clean out the space between his fence and the shed. Then I noticed the squirrel was sitting about 3 feet from the hole. Mr. Adkin's son (or friend, I couldn't tell) came up with me. We put our arms on the tree so it couldn't go up the tree and I was standing between it and it's hole. I slowly leaned down until my hand was a couple inches above it. Then I snatched it up before it could run. Now, I admit this was a dumb decision, but I figured I would be fine since I had work gloves on and I grabbed it by the neck. As soon as I stood up it bit my thumb HARD. I threw it down and then it tried to attack my leg, so I kicked it away. It ran away with red on its face. I realized it was blood and I seriously hoped it wasn't mine.
It was.
I looked down and my glove had a hole on my thumb that was getting pretty red. I pulled the glove off and saw that the squirrel had bitten pretty deep. I immediately rinsed it off with water and then put some hydrogen peroxide on it with bandaids. But Sister Simpson (mission nurse) suggested I go to an urgent care. So I did, and they said I was fine. Which I new. They said the squirrels very rarely actually have rabies and that I just need to take some antibiotics to prevent infection.
So yeah, pretty dumb of me. But the fact remains: I CAUGHT THE SQUIRREL!!
My mother doesn't care about that detail...
We recently had a good conversation about faith with some members last night. We talked about how faith without works really is dead. I was reading in a Book of Mormon study book and it talks about the brother of Jared. About how the Lord didn't give him the answer but instead let him figure it out. The brother of Jared made the stones and then asked the Lord to give them light. The book talks about how there's work with faith. Just like we can't expect to get a trophy before winning a race, we can't expect the Lord to give us blessings without doing everything we can to be prepared to obtain the blessings. And that's the key, we have to do everything we can to obtain the things we ask for, and then the Lord will provide what we can't accomplish on our own. God didn't tell Nephi how to get the plates from Laban, nor did He tell Ammon how to convert the king. Just like them, we have to put forth all of our effort before the Lord will jump in to fill in the rest.
We haven't met with Ebony in a while, but I think we are soon. Dallas and his friend need some prayers so they can find for themselves that the Book of Mormon is true. Jannet is trying to move away from some abusive people. And Marcus needs to know that what we have to share with him can seriously change his life.
Also, one thing I forgot to mention, Brother Fidler showed us his garage and some of his projects. They are AWESOME. Pictures below.
Stay cool guys. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVYNLEA!!!!!!!! (tomorrow)
1) The Tie Clip
2) Cool college building
3) Statue of liberty
4) Brother Fidler's license plate collection (51, try to figure out why)
5) project 1
6) project 2
7) still project 2
8) Elder Child and I
