Week 99 - Going out with a Bang đź’Ą
Hey! Sorry I haven't emailed. It's just been so busy. We kept up that pace of 20 lessons a week right up to the last week. And now my last full week as a missionary has ended. Where'd the time go?
I have just a couple stories I want to share. One pretty cool one involved a friend named Mikelle Lobster Native Tupac. That's not his real name, but it is the name he put when he signed up online to meet with us. It's a pretty silly nickname but he was actually serious about meeting with us. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of Christ's church and the spirit was there. He recognized it, and he was very excited to meet again and learn more. Unfortunately, some things happened at home and his parents kicked him out. From that point we had a hard time staying in touch. We were worried we might not see him again. Plus, he lives in Nelson House, which we only visit once a week. But as always, God is a God of miracles. We saw him on the street as we were doing our last weekly visit of the transfer! We gave him a new copy of the Book of Mormon since he lost the other one when he got kicked out. And now he's texted us eager to know when we'll be back to Nelson House again.
Unfortunately, Elder Majeau and I will probably never be in Nelson House again. I'm going home this week, and Elder Majeau just got transferred to an area in Winnipeg as a zone leader! This means 2 missionaries are about to show up in Thompson with no idea what they’re getting into.
Personally, I think that whitewashing Thompson is a terrible idea. (Whitewashing is a nickname for when both missionaries leave, and 2 new ones come into an area). Thompson is a very unique area. In fact, it’s never been whitewashed before. At least, not in the past 50 years. And there’s lots of good reasons for that. However, if there was a time or way to do it, now is that time. The new senior missionaries have a great handle on things and will be able to help a lot. Also, Elder Majeau will be able to help through their weekly accounting calls. And finally, Elder Rempel is one of the elders coming up and if there was anyone that could handle Thompson, it's him. Is it still a terrible idea? Yep. But will it work out OK? Probably.
I could write a whole novel about my time in Thompson, and honestly maybe I will someday. But for now I'll share just one more miracle. Since I'm going home, I volunteered to give the sermon (or we just usually call them “talks”) at church to recount my experiences. We told this to a lot of our friends as well, letting everyone know that they should come see me speak before I leave. Well, we had record attendance in Thompson that day. There were 29 people at church (highest attendance this year), and 10 of them were friends that we are teaching (which is an all-time record). Now that's how you go out with a bang.
-Elder Hays
Oh, also we made another silly song, and this one is debatably worse than the last one.
P.S. - I'll probably write just 1 more of these emails next week to recap my travel experience, and also to share some of the stories from Thompson I've been holding back. But that will be the end of the Elder Hays in Winnipeg blog.