Scream Like a Little Girl

Well another week is here and gone and I still feel like I just got here. Our week went by pretty smoothly and not a lot of big surprises. On monday we met with our investigator Frau Loske and her boyfriend. They are still living together and still very old and stubborn. She loves to go to church, talk with us, and say she wants to get baptized, but does not want to do the one thing that is preventing her from getting baptized. She also tends to forget things we have talked about a lot so today when we go to meet with her we are going to go over the plan of salvation for the fourth time. It will be fun since now it is easy to teach her.
On tuesday we had district meeting and got to talk about recognizing the spirit. It was fun because it is just a bunch of 19 and 20 year old guys sitting around and talking about things their own way pretty much. After district meeting we had an appointment with a family that had been asking us to come by. A member came with us to drive us out there and back. He decided to go in and talk with them also. It was way cool because he got to know them well and they liked him so it was all pretty well.
We got to talk more about the book of mormon because they had been in temple square before but apparently they had a terrible guide that told them it was written by indians 200 years ago and we now hold it as the most holy scripture. So we had to do some undamaging (I think one of the anti-mormon guy just told them he was a guide and took them around) they had lots of questions but luckily we have lots of answers so a lot was cleared up.
On wednesday we went up to Crailsheim and talked to some people and went back to see an older lady from georgia she was very 'I don't want to talk about church because I am old' but then she wanted to talk about church and so it all worked out. After that we returned home and got ready to go to Stuttgart the next day.
On thursday we went down to Stuttgart for interviews with President Matern. It was a good experience. He talked to me about how things were going and asked me about some things here and there. Then he asked me about what type of companion I would like to have next. I told him a German if possible so I could constatly work on my German. I don't think I will get one but who knows. After that we returned to Ellwangen and met with one of our investigator who owns a bar. He doesn't drink or smoke and neither does his wife but they live in and run a bar..... it is kinda strange.
He plays chess with his buddies on thursdays and they all like to sit around and talk about how smart they are because they were teachers or doctors or whatever and that they are atheist because that is logical and they only believe in logical things because apparently they are better than everyone. They also wanted to play chess against me and my companion really bad because we both have never really played it outside of now we have a chess board and play each other some times. They bragged to us about how they had been playing it for 30 years and it is a game about logic and only smart people are good at it. I don't think the first guy that told me he is a professional chess player at tournements liked it when the first game we played I beat him. After playing with some of these 'amazing smart men' I think they started to calm down with their bragging when none of them were beating me.
Then I talked about how logical it must be that all of a sudden from nothing there saw just a loud bang and then there was stuff and that the earth just happened to fit in just the right spot to support life and how somehow cells just randomly appeared and that how all the people from around the world evolved from different animals yet we can all reproduce with each other and all have similar physical features, after talking for 30 years about how 'low chance there is that god exsists' I think they finally saw how low of a chance there is that there isn't a god. Because after that not one person told me how much smarter they were then me or about how my religion must be wrong because I belive in a god instead one guy that had been sitting outside with us watching us decided to ask us some questions as we left. They invited us to come back on thursday and since they all own a copy of some atheist book or another and bring it with them we are going to bring a book of BOMs to give to them and anyone else who is there.
On friday we had weekly planning followed by more doors. On friday I also got attacked by a dog and had to go to the hospital because my leg was a little torn up and had to make sure not to get a rabis shot. It wasn't bad and I don'T have a limp or anything - I thought it was kind of cool acutally. it did have an owner he just yelled at the dog and carried it off. I think he was taking it somewhere to beat it acutally. He didn'T aplogize to me personally but I didn't care. It was one of those dogs they breed to kill racoons I forget what they are not the weiner dogs cause those are for badgers. I didn't scream when it happened and didn't even know it had torn up my leg until afterward when i pulled up my pant legs. We went to the hospital but they said i didn't need the rabies shot (whew) that would have made me scream like a little girl. They just put a lot of cream on in and bandaged it all up. It is healing fine.
Saturday was the same way as well. Then on Sunday we had our investigators all show up and get to listen to a talk by Elder Middleton over the word of wisdom. It was very powerful and I know he was able to touch some of our investigators who have been struggling with alcohol. Our investigator class was hilarious to me because while Elder Middleton and our ward mission leader taught the lesson I sat next to Immanuel who kept falling asleep and almost fall off his chair during the class I moved my chair right next to him and he kept falling asleep and after a while he would fall into me onto my shoulder, that would wake him up for a second but then he repeated the process. I was having a hard time controlling myself to not laugh, a member who was present was laughing about it very hard and Elder Middleton also had to stop himself from laughing as it was going on.
After church we went to a member family's house and ate lunch with them. Then after that we went to another members house and had family home evening with them becuase they can't have it on Mondays. After all was done we went back home and played some board games at night knowing that pday wasn't really going to be a pday since after this email we have another appointment and then service for the rest of the day. I think there has been three days were I have acutally just been able to relax on pday, but I am not complaining.
If I get to teach a member something and bring them closer to baptism on a pday then I will do it without a doubt because we get time here and there to relax but I would much rather know that I helped people throughout all the days of my mission then have 1 day a week where I can take a nap or something that won't really matter after I am done here. I only have two years and even though before my mission I thought that was a long time now that I am here I realize how short it really is and am going to use all of that two years the best I can.
I know Jesus Christ gave up his whole life for us and I have no trouble giving up an hour of sitting around in order to spend an hour with someone who needs that hour of help. I am grateful to have this gospel in my life and want to share it with all these wonderful people here and hope that everyone I know and love will keep the gospel with them and take it on them. I am grateful that just like God prepared the people for the flood, for the coming of christ, and for any big event he gave them prophets to help them and teach them what specifically to do. I am grateful that I have the bible and book of mormon, which are an account of the miracles that passed when the people did as they were told and I am grateful that now God again has given us prophets, apostles, and the holy scriptures to prepare us for not only our lives, but for when Jesus Christ does come on this earth again. I am grateful for all of these things and know that I can only say them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

To respond to some of dad and moms comments/questions to me in letters and emails: yeah you have to pay for a lot of public restrooms but there are some here that are still free, but I usually am down to only using our restroom at home. It is a good plan so all is good. Mom told me about the grapes growing onto the truck. That is pretty crazy but cool too. You should have just waited till they covered the whole truck then got into the truck, turned it on and rev out of the parkplace and see how cool it looks to break free from a ton of grapes. It would have been sick, and probably not have worked but that doesn't matter. We don't miss out on anything for p-day believe me there is not a ton to do in Ellwangen and it takes to long to get anywhere worth anything to do. Stupid train ways will probably be done right at I leave this area and the people here will be able to get around four times quicker than we have been able to. But yeah enough of my moaning. Everything is still going good out here. We are getting new phones that are pretty much iphones but they are the samsung version. Which is kind of cool. hope you are having fun out there preparing for your trip I hope you two have fun. Just think after that trip it won't be long before I hit my 1 year mark. That will be cool. Idk I think it sounds cool.

I love you all and hope everything in your life not only strengthens you but helps everyone to find joy. And just like the scriptures are there to help each one of us personally I hope my letters help someone out there because I write it to each of you personally. I think of all those I know and love and my friends and family when I write these letters and I also think of people who I do not know and hope that if somehow someone finds this that does not know me very well or personally at all that maybe seeing the small miracles that I see during missionary work will be able to help them and let them know that God loves all of us and each of us. He knows each of our names, and problems, and I hope the best for all of you. Tschuss. Elder Hargett