The Mini Mission

Before leaving Pleasanton, I spent a couple days practicing as a missionary. Usually I would get assigned to a different location than my hometown, but since we just got two new missionaries, they needed all the help they could get. My two companions were Elder Arnell from the lively town of Paris, Idaho (population: 500), and Elder Stevenett from Utah. Here is what I learned from my mini mission

1. People love to give the missionaries food they don't want. Our apartment is filled with old cakes, candy, canned green beans, ect. 
2. If you ever meet a missionary they will always say, "Have a nice day" (even if people yell "Hail Satan" at you) 
3. Missionaries are all about service. We did 10 hours of service over 2 days. 
4. The strategy we developed for contacting (meeting new people) was finding streets that only had sidewalks on one side, or using trails. People can't just cross the street to avoid us, they have no choice but to cross our paths. But most people see us walking up and just turn around. 
5. If you are not interested in learning about our church, we will gladly wish you a nice day and carry on with our business. 

I have to say, I had a fantastic time with the Elders. Most people weren't home due to the nice weather and the fact that it was Valentines day. I got really frustrated after we had knocked on a lot of doors and nobody had answered, and I complained that “Nobody wants to talk to the missionaries on valentines day!” and then Elder Arnell corrected me by saying, “nobody wants to talk to the missionaries on any day that ends in ‘y’”. Nevertheless, our days were filled with service and meeting new people. I imagine that Chile is going to be very different. We won't get as nice as an apartment, and we definitely won't have a gym or a car. I really enjoyed my time with the missionaries, this mini mission just made me more excited to leave!

Elder Arnell and I are master chefs in the kitchen. I prepared a sausage on a hotdog bun, while Elder Arnell made the only thing he knew how to cook...bacon. 

We grabbed lunch at Subway with the zone (all the other missionaries serving in Pleasanton) after we finished weekly planning

Relaxing a little after morning study, before we head out to do some service. 

Service champ over here. You can't see it, but my shirt says, "Wanna taco about Jesus?".