This Is Peru!

This Is Peru!

August 10, 2010

Companions for a Day


Friday, August 6th 2010:

That day was just like any other day. Woke up around 10, (yes, I know I will have to change that, as well as going to bed at a decent hour preferably before 3am) and had myself a bowl of the favorite cereal, you guessed it, Cap'n Crunch. My dad asked me to go up to Tremonton to run an errand and save him some time. So, I got dressed and was about to head out. I went downstairs to grab my iPod for the drive, when I got a phone call. I saw that I didn't recognize the number, but answered it.
"Hello" ..."Hey, what's up?"..."Oh, nothing really"..."Do you know who this is?"..."Well, I can't say that I do!"..."Well, this is Elder Florence, how's it goin?"..."What?! Dude, what are you doing??"
Okay, so some quick background before continuing with the story. Eric is my really good friend from here in Ogden, who left on his mission on May 19th. He was called to the Mexico, Hermosillo mission. He did his 2 months in the MTC, but whilst there his visa had still not came. So, he received a temporary assignment in the SLC South mission for 4-6 weeks. He has been there for about 3 weeks now and is hoping the visa comes quickly. Anyway... on Tuesday, I got a letter from Eric saying somehow he got it cleared that I can come do splits with him on Friday! I was SO excited I can't even tell you! But, the very next day I got a short letter from him apologizing and saying how sorry he was and that rules are rules and it just couldn't happen. So I was super bummed, but I just shrugged it off. It seemed too good to be true anyway. Now, on with the phone call...
"Well, for our appointments today we are supposed to be teaching with members, and the one that we counted on coming can't come anymore. So I talked with the President and said that I have a member friend up in Ogden that might be able to come and he said 'Well, alright then'. So do you want to still come today?"..."Are you kidding me right now? I really can come?"..."Yeah man! Can you be here by 1?"..."Heck yes I can be there by 1!"..."Alright bro, it's a deal. Just call me back on this number when you get close."..."Alright! Will do! I'll call you in a little while!"
So I rushed back into my room, stripped down, and got dressed in a shirt and tie really quick. Grabbed my scriptures, a camera, and whatever else I needed and I was off to West Jordan! I hustled quickly, but got caught in the blasted I-15 traffic that we all know and hate. So I was late about 15 minutes, but their 1'oclock appointment canceled so it was all good! All three of them (Eric is in a threesome companionship until he leaves) rode up on their bikes and we gave each other the customary bro hug/hand shake. It was so good to see that kid again! I missed him. So we all jumped in my car, and headed out. They had the luxury of air conditioning in the scorching sun for that day, for which they were very grateful. We started out going to the trailer park where they had a few contacts. The first had to go to a parole meeting, because he just got out of prison. So that didn't work. Next we tried an investigator that from what I heard was just gold and was ready to be taught about the restoration, because he believes we are still in the Great Apostasy. Sadly, he wasn't at home. So after that, we tried our luck going around knocking on part member families homes. We walked for quite a while, and no one was interested unfortunately. After that we were all pretty sweaty/thirsty/needing to go pee, haha so we went to the church and got a drink, took advantage of the air conditioning, and used the restroom! We talked about where we wanted to go for dinner, because Erics mom Rachel was kind enough to offer to pay for all 4 of us! However, they did have a dinner appointment set up at 5:30 and I had to just wait it out because they weren't planning on 4 missionaries. But in the meantime, they have a kid named Daniel who has a baptismal date set for next Saturday! So we taught him the rest of the Ten Commandments, and challenged him to keep them. And he will! Daniel is such a cool kid. He is actually a tattoo artist, so he has a lot of tattoos on his arms and stuff, but he has a good heart and we can all see the Spirit working on him. It was such a good lesson and it kind of made up for all of the back luck earlier. After we were done at Daniels, it was time for their dinner appointment. So I dropped them off, and went to the gas station and just waited. They called about an hour later, and we went to their house to grab a few things. Their house was pretty, well, used. It's really old, and the basement is UN-finished. It looks like it could be Mexico down there actually. Needless to say, it was pretty bad.

So we got what we needed from the house and went to dinner. We ended up at Bajio, which turned out to be a A LOT tastier than I had expected. It was very delicious, thanks Rachel!! After talking and having a really good time at dinner, we tried going back to some of the contacts that weren't able to see us/weren't at home. And, you guessed it. No one was available. So we went to the Ward Mission Leaders home and sat down and had their weekly meeting with him. He is a great man! After we had left, we saw that it had rained and the sky was very dark, threatening of a big storm. So we decided we were done, and I took them back to where they locked their bikes up. Me and Eric got one last picture together and we said our final goodbye for the next two years.

I will always remember that day. It was so fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better Friday! Preaching the gospel, being a missionary, and being a companion for a day with a best friend.

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