Shotguns and such.

The mission home was great. They had the best augratten (pardon my spelling) potatoes I've had in a long time. The food there was so much better than the MTC.

As to the missionary work bit itself this week has been a huge rollercoaster of emotions.

I am currently in Cabot. It's a fairly large area and our boundaries are the boundaries of the ward. It makes it simple. The weather has been kind to us, Elder Clason (clay-son) and I, and the temperature has only gone up. It is just perfect, although the nights are a bit chilly.  I've heard several different stories about chiggers though, some telling them that they are the devil's physical incarnation, and others saying that they are they, but really aren't all that bad so long as you remember the golden rule when playing Pokemon: don't walk in the grass unless you want stuff to jump out at you. Luckily they won't come out until the mosquitoes come out too. While the work is exhausting, luckily I haven't fallen asleep anywhere other than my bed yet and have been in bed at a reasonable hour each night. Naps are nice too.

We are teaching several different families.  J*** and M*** are some of my favorites by far. They are as country as they come, complete with large dogs for hunting, living in a  trailor, and three different firearms within sight upon opening the front door. One time while we were teaching them M*** was outside and J*** kept on looking out the window behind him. In the middle of one of our sentences he jumped up, screamed "Hold on!", and quickly disappeared down the hall. He came back seconds later with a large hunting rifle, threw open the back door, and fired a shot at some target off in the distance. Please keep in mind that up to this point he had been super sick and on medications for a couple of weeks asleep. After he fired his shot he calmly walked back toward us, set the rifle behind the chair I was sitting in, and told us quite calmly to proceed with the lesson.

Apparently he was shooting at a dog that had been a nuisance in the area for a while now and was trying to scare it off and have a little fun at the same time. He put a bullet in the ground right under the dog's legs to see how high he could get it to jump. He said it went a couple of feet in the air and couldn't get out of there fast enough.   He's pretty awesome though.

We are also teaching B*** and M***  and they are great.  They moved out of their old home on        , the only day it has rained thus far BTW, and we were able to help them with that.  It felt weird wearing non-white clothes. Even now on Pday i'm still in my white shirt. Anywho, they moved clear out in the middle of nowhere, but it's kinda a good thing too because there are a lot of doors we haven't knocked yet there. I.e. all of them. M*** will be baptized on       and she is totally excited, and while B*** is ready as well he is also on parole right now and is waiting on the first presidency. 

C*** is a guy who has been taking the lessons for a while now, and was committed to be baptized next week, except for the fact that his company he worked for when under about a month ago and hasn't been able to pay for anything, including rent, power, water, and food. We were able to help him out a little there and get him some job help, but without those things he really wasn't looking for spiritual help until he was able to support himself everywhere else. The church is helping with the rent and such, and the ward members helped him get a suit from good-will so he can go look presentable at interviews. Once that is done we will get back on track with the lessons. Here's hoping!

While we were knocking on doors in a wealthier part of town (most of the area is poorer) a mid-age woman answered, took one look at our nametags, and said "I will listen to you if you listen to me." This was fine with us and so we began talking. She had been going to a nearby baptist school for several years now and had apparently talking with missionaries before. She started out basically telling us that Jesus is all that she needed, Joseph Smith was a lie, the BoM was made up, revelation is dead, prophets are no longer needed, and that even if the BoM was true it was unnecessary because she had the Bible.

We taught her as best as we could, but in the end she just interupted us and said that we were all taught a load of lies and should go home before shutting the door on us. The saddest part is I don't know if she was unable or unwilling to feel the Spirit talk to her, because He WAS there. Either she was ignoring the Spirit, or was so far gone as to be unable to anymore. Either way it was a very sad occasion, but a real insight as to how some people believe. I don't know what I could have done differently, but I have been praying about it and reading. Hopefully she will humble herself a little bit soon.

As of right now there are just two sets of missionaries in Cabot, elders and sisters included. Good thing we work fast!

I love you all!

Elder Jayden Barker