Hey Fam,
If you are a high councilor then you can just skip over the next paragraph....
Here is the Joke for the week,
I don’t recommend to try these at home!
Top 10 Ways to Get a High Councilor to End His Talk.
10. Look at your watch Shake it Hold it up to your ear
9. Yawn. Stretch. Curl up on the bench and take a nap
8. Start snoring
7. Say "Amen" loudly after every sentence
6. Throw your kids' cheerios up in to the air and try and catch them in your mouth
5. Throw your kids' cheerios at the high councilor
4. Lead your row in a Chinese fire-drill
3. Pull the fire alarm and lead the entire congregation in a real fire drill
2. Raise your hand and object
1. Take out your hymnbook and start singing the closing song
Well here is a story of the craziest Sunday of my mission... Viewer discretion advised.
So we have/had this investigator named Rachel (not actually her name but we can pretend it is) and she was found about a week before I arrived here in the Lima ward. 2 weeks ago she was found and here is a little back ground on Rachel that leads up to how she was found. Rachel is from California and has had a hard life. She was abused from the age of 6 to 16 by a relative which led to some other not so great things and experiences growing up, at the age of 16 she got into a string of bad abusive relationships, one after the other. She found one guy who was alright and while they were together, about a year ago, they met missionaries in Oakland and began to investigate. Rachel learned a lot but had a lot of changes and stuff she had to make and wasn’t ready at that time to do that. Well she left that guy due to other reasons and moved to Kentucy with her mom and while she was there she started to read the Book of Mormon. We also think she started to watch some stuff that maybe wasn’t true so it led her to have some mistaken views but she felt the spirit and when she met some people from Ohio and moved here. She really wanted to go to church and meet with the missionaries again and felt she was ready to be baptized and knew it was all true. So on Christmas Eve she called up Elder Bennett and told him her story and how she wanted to come to church and be baptized. So they met with her, set a date and she came to church. She was mad it was only one hour cause she wanted all 3, that never happens, lol. But anyway Rachel is very open and will share her story with anyone and everyone. She is a very kind compassionate soul who really wants to change and has made a lot of dramatic changes over the last year and recently has felt the spirit very strongly. We think that because of the dramatic changes and everything that is going on in her life may have caused for some problems. Well I met her last Thursday and she told me everything I have just shared with you and then we had a lesson on Friday.
Well, that morning she had texted us and said, ”I am getting rid of all of my worldly possessions because they are holding me back and not letting me be as happy as I should be.” We both thought that was a little bit odd but if it works for her than it works for us! We were thinking she was going to like let us the stuff or give it away but no... when we pulled up to pick her up that night with a member we saw this fire in the back yard (she lives in a place surrounded by farms). So I thought it was just a burn pile or something but elder Bennett immediately knew what it was. So when we pulled up we saw her running around with her phone recording the fire. She was burning most of her clothes in a metal cage and she was recording it for youtube. Now she only has 7 shirts and she burned all the worldly things she doesn’t need, that doesn’t happen very often either. Well the lesson went well and she still seemed golden and what not. When it is time for church we have a member who picked her up and when he got to church he told us that her roommate had walked out naked when she went back into the house to grab something and it had caused her a little bit of grief. During sacrament she leaned over to me and said " I have a message prepared can I share it?" I told her that there were already speakers and she was fine with that. Well after sacrament she looks at me and says "can you tell everyone to sit back down? I would like to share this message with them." Well I was a little bit worried at that point but I explained to her that fast Sunday would be next week and she could have the opportunity to bear her testimony there. That calmed her down and she was good with that. WEll, next she said she had a present for us and she took us out into the hall and she gave us these paintings she had made which were pretty awesome, one was the ocean and it had a pearl and represented the Pearl of Great Price and then the ocean was everyone in the world. She said within every group of fish there is a Mormon who is a good example. Then the other painting was a representation of the kingdom of God painted with sand, it is pretty great. Sadly I did not take pictures of them this week but they are in the apartment so I will take some pictures and send them next week. So next we went to Gospel Principles and we were a little bit worried because Rachel is kind of like a little fire ball of energy waiting to explode hahah. In gospel principles she shared her whole life experience with everyone, which I am okay with because I am used to people doing that as a missionary but I don’t know about the ward members. Then she started talking about women and the priesthood, Heavenly mother, garments and the potential to become like Gods and she said that she was fine with all of it. She had mentioned how she was wearing white underneath her clothes to get used to it now and I looked and she was wearing a white undershirt that looked like a garment top. So at this point I was thinking, "You are either really prepared or you are a little bit off today..." Well gospel principles got over and she went to relief society, and there again she shared her whole life story. After the lesson started she was sobbing and they asked what was wrong and she said "I am just so happy" and then one of the sister missionaries said "we can go out side and talk about this if you would like?" She said okay but instead of going out and talking with the sister she ended up running out of the building. I was in the bathroom when that happened so when I came out Elder Bennett said, "Our investigator just ran away, but she said she would be back in a minute and she left all her stuff here so she is probably just trying to get calmed down.” Well after 15 minutes one of the sisters went to look and couldn’t find her, we waited until church was over and that was when we were a little worried so we went and looked and couldn’t find her. Well someone had mentioned earlier that if they had run off they would have gone to the gas station. For some reason that stuck with me and I looked at Elder Bennett and said, ”For kicks and giggles let’s walk over to the gas station and see if we can find her.” That was definitely inspired because the rest of the story wouldn’t have happened had we not gone there. Well we got to the gas station and I was going to ask the cashier if they had seen a short little blonde girl with a red dress come through but right before I asked the guy in front of us said to the cashier, "Did y'all hear about the blonde girl that was arrested at the end of the street for running around naked?" I thought "There is no way, please no please no.” Elder Bennett and I looked at each other and we both couldn’t believe it so we asked the guy, "Was she wearing a red dress before she got naked?" He said no she was wearing a pinkish type of white shirt before it happened. So that made us feel a little better. We thought that since she wasn’t wearing a red dress that maybe it wasn’t her. So we hopped into the truck and rode down to the other gas station and went in and asked the lady at the cash register about what happened. First we explained what Rachel looked like and the descriptions matched exactly with the girl that was arrested. So at that point we knew it was Rachel. The story that the lady told us was this: There was another lady driving around the building and saw Rachel sitting by a pole with her undershirt on and when she came out of the drive through, Rachel was completely toppless and ran up to her car and asked for a shirt and the lady told her that she didn’t have a shirt so Rachel gave her a hug and said, “I have forgiven the he person that did this to me ( referring to her step dad who abused her) and ran off to the front of the building. At this point she had mud wiped all over her face. So she tried running into the gas station and then two cops pulled up, wrapped her in a blanket and arrested her. SO after we heard that we got the police department number and went out to the pole to look for any of her stuff to take to her and we looked at the ground and we found her white undershirt she had been wearing earlier and we saw where she had dug her hand into the mud and then wiped it all over her face. So we go over to the truck and throw the stuff into the truck and we are driving back to the church when about half way down the road Elder Bennett points out a red thing on the side walk and we look at each other and say "there is no way..." well we pulled up and I hopped out and picked it up and sure enough it was Rachel’s dress and it was ripped right down the middle, kind of like what the hulk would do when he rips his clothes off. We threw it into the truck and knocked a few doors to see if anyone had seen what happened but they saw nothing. I guess she was running and about half way in between the church and the gas station she decided she didn’t need clothes anymore.
After that we went to the church and told the member who gave her a ride he didn’t need to worry about it... and we got all of her stuff she had left at the church and called the police to see if she was at the jail and they told us they had dropped her off at the hospital due to possible drug usage or mental break down. So we head on over to the hospital, I found a bottle of oil that fell out of her bag and it said "Holy Annointing Oil, Blessed by Rachel Evangeline.” Well that was a surprise, lol. Anyway we get to the hospital and have to tell this story to the social worker and everything and the social worker told us that she seemed to have just snapped or something and has some serious mental health issues and will need some intense therapy or meds to fix it. Rachel was also going by like 3 different names and at this point she was put into a safe room so she wouldn’t harm herself or anyone else. So when we put all the facts together we think that with all the dramatic changes she is making in her life that it caused her to get stressed and with telling so many people her life story in such a short time span and seeing her room mate naked that morning that it cause for her to have like a PTSD type of flash back and she snapped. When she left the church she had no idea where she was and was reliving a bad experience and that is why she ended up getting naked and running around. But if we look at it from another perspective it was actually a blessing for her because now she has the help that she needs to get over all of this, the help that she never had access to prior to all of this and she was dealing with all of this on her own. They have hopes that she will be able to make a full recovery.... but to sum it all up, it was the craziest Sunday of my life, our progressing investigator went from progressing to baptism to progressing to the psych ward in the matter of a day. I don’t think that I will ever have another investigator get arrested for public nudity either...
Well, other than that, Elder Bennet my new companion is super awesome and a great missionary and I am excited to be serving with him. The new area is massive but it is good and has a lot of good potential and there are people to teach. The zone leader life really isn’t that much different, all we have to do is make a lot of calls and send some texts and plan a meeting or two here and there and then go on exchanges each week. Hopefully it won’t take away from the work out here too much.
Happy New Years! Crazy to think that I will be home in 2017.
Love you all!
Elder Frandsen
Well, that morning she had texted us and said, ”I am getting rid of all of my worldly possessions because they are holding me back and not letting me be as happy as I should be.” We both thought that was a little bit odd but if it works for her than it works for us! We were thinking she was going to like let us the stuff or give it away but no... when we pulled up to pick her up that night with a member we saw this fire in the back yard (she lives in a place surrounded by farms). So I thought it was just a burn pile or something but elder Bennett immediately knew what it was. So when we pulled up we saw her running around with her phone recording the fire. She was burning most of her clothes in a metal cage and she was recording it for youtube. Now she only has 7 shirts and she burned all the worldly things she doesn’t need, that doesn’t happen very often either. Well the lesson went well and she still seemed golden and what not. When it is time for church we have a member who picked her up and when he got to church he told us that her roommate had walked out naked when she went back into the house to grab something and it had caused her a little bit of grief. During sacrament she leaned over to me and said " I have a message prepared can I share it?" I told her that there were already speakers and she was fine with that. Well after sacrament she looks at me and says "can you tell everyone to sit back down? I would like to share this message with them." Well I was a little bit worried at that point but I explained to her that fast Sunday would be next week and she could have the opportunity to bear her testimony there. That calmed her down and she was good with that. WEll, next she said she had a present for us and she took us out into the hall and she gave us these paintings she had made which were pretty awesome, one was the ocean and it had a pearl and represented the Pearl of Great Price and then the ocean was everyone in the world. She said within every group of fish there is a Mormon who is a good example. Then the other painting was a representation of the kingdom of God painted with sand, it is pretty great. Sadly I did not take pictures of them this week but they are in the apartment so I will take some pictures and send them next week. So next we went to Gospel Principles and we were a little bit worried because Rachel is kind of like a little fire ball of energy waiting to explode hahah. In gospel principles she shared her whole life experience with everyone, which I am okay with because I am used to people doing that as a missionary but I don’t know about the ward members. Then she started talking about women and the priesthood, Heavenly mother, garments and the potential to become like Gods and she said that she was fine with all of it. She had mentioned how she was wearing white underneath her clothes to get used to it now and I looked and she was wearing a white undershirt that looked like a garment top. So at this point I was thinking, "You are either really prepared or you are a little bit off today..." Well gospel principles got over and she went to relief society, and there again she shared her whole life story. After the lesson started she was sobbing and they asked what was wrong and she said "I am just so happy" and then one of the sister missionaries said "we can go out side and talk about this if you would like?" She said okay but instead of going out and talking with the sister she ended up running out of the building. I was in the bathroom when that happened so when I came out Elder Bennett said, "Our investigator just ran away, but she said she would be back in a minute and she left all her stuff here so she is probably just trying to get calmed down.” Well after 15 minutes one of the sisters went to look and couldn’t find her, we waited until church was over and that was when we were a little worried so we went and looked and couldn’t find her. Well someone had mentioned earlier that if they had run off they would have gone to the gas station. For some reason that stuck with me and I looked at Elder Bennett and said, ”For kicks and giggles let’s walk over to the gas station and see if we can find her.” That was definitely inspired because the rest of the story wouldn’t have happened had we not gone there. Well we got to the gas station and I was going to ask the cashier if they had seen a short little blonde girl with a red dress come through but right before I asked the guy in front of us said to the cashier, "Did y'all hear about the blonde girl that was arrested at the end of the street for running around naked?" I thought "There is no way, please no please no.” Elder Bennett and I looked at each other and we both couldn’t believe it so we asked the guy, "Was she wearing a red dress before she got naked?" He said no she was wearing a pinkish type of white shirt before it happened. So that made us feel a little better. We thought that since she wasn’t wearing a red dress that maybe it wasn’t her. So we hopped into the truck and rode down to the other gas station and went in and asked the lady at the cash register about what happened. First we explained what Rachel looked like and the descriptions matched exactly with the girl that was arrested. So at that point we knew it was Rachel. The story that the lady told us was this: There was another lady driving around the building and saw Rachel sitting by a pole with her undershirt on and when she came out of the drive through, Rachel was completely toppless and ran up to her car and asked for a shirt and the lady told her that she didn’t have a shirt so Rachel gave her a hug and said, “I have forgiven the he person that did this to me ( referring to her step dad who abused her) and ran off to the front of the building. At this point she had mud wiped all over her face. So she tried running into the gas station and then two cops pulled up, wrapped her in a blanket and arrested her. SO after we heard that we got the police department number and went out to the pole to look for any of her stuff to take to her and we looked at the ground and we found her white undershirt she had been wearing earlier and we saw where she had dug her hand into the mud and then wiped it all over her face. So we go over to the truck and throw the stuff into the truck and we are driving back to the church when about half way down the road Elder Bennett points out a red thing on the side walk and we look at each other and say "there is no way..." well we pulled up and I hopped out and picked it up and sure enough it was Rachel’s dress and it was ripped right down the middle, kind of like what the hulk would do when he rips his clothes off. We threw it into the truck and knocked a few doors to see if anyone had seen what happened but they saw nothing. I guess she was running and about half way in between the church and the gas station she decided she didn’t need clothes anymore.
After that we went to the church and told the member who gave her a ride he didn’t need to worry about it... and we got all of her stuff she had left at the church and called the police to see if she was at the jail and they told us they had dropped her off at the hospital due to possible drug usage or mental break down. So we head on over to the hospital, I found a bottle of oil that fell out of her bag and it said "Holy Annointing Oil, Blessed by Rachel Evangeline.” Well that was a surprise, lol. Anyway we get to the hospital and have to tell this story to the social worker and everything and the social worker told us that she seemed to have just snapped or something and has some serious mental health issues and will need some intense therapy or meds to fix it. Rachel was also going by like 3 different names and at this point she was put into a safe room so she wouldn’t harm herself or anyone else. So when we put all the facts together we think that with all the dramatic changes she is making in her life that it caused her to get stressed and with telling so many people her life story in such a short time span and seeing her room mate naked that morning that it cause for her to have like a PTSD type of flash back and she snapped. When she left the church she had no idea where she was and was reliving a bad experience and that is why she ended up getting naked and running around. But if we look at it from another perspective it was actually a blessing for her because now she has the help that she needs to get over all of this, the help that she never had access to prior to all of this and she was dealing with all of this on her own. They have hopes that she will be able to make a full recovery.... but to sum it all up, it was the craziest Sunday of my life, our progressing investigator went from progressing to baptism to progressing to the psych ward in the matter of a day. I don’t think that I will ever have another investigator get arrested for public nudity either...
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