Sooooooo much has happened this week!! I have a lot of things to report on so buckle up. Haha first off, Thanksgiving was great and we ate with a family here in our branch so it was pretty fun. It's hard to believe that it was my second Thanksgiving in my mission.. Time really has flown!
So I did something this week that I never thought I would do!! We have a friend here in Luray who is a Preacher for another church. So we went to his house and when we got inside it was a day after Thanksgiving. So he says: "Do you all want some food?" we said sure why not! Haha he takes us in the kitchen and says: "alright guys, I want yall to try something!" he then puts some kind of food In a bowl and warms it up in the microwave.. While it's heating up he says that he is going to feeds us some pig. Instantly I had to ask.. "What part of the pig?" he says: "I'm not going to tell you because then you won't eat it.." at this point I was pretty nervous. He takes it out of the microwave and places it in front of us. Guess what it was??! And guess what I ate?!?! I ate PIG INTESTINES!!! It had a really interesting taste. So I can officially say I ate pig intestine. I can honestly say I never saw myself doing that.. Haha
Later this week The Bennett Family from Romney West Virginia drove down to Luray Virginia and took me to dinner with Elder Jex. It was so good to see them again! It made me miss Romney a lot. But I love their family and can't wait for you all to meet them. They are so awesome! I took some pictures with them, so you should see them.
This week we had quite the scary experience as well! Earlier this week on exchanges with a missionary named Elder Mac Brown, we were knocking doors in a trailer park in Luray Virginia. While knocking we found a man and his wife named Beaver and Breezy. Now Beavers real name is Richard and Breezy's real name is Clara. But they go by Breezy and Beaver.. When we met Beaver and Breezy they were busy so they told us to come back the next day. So the next day Elder Jex and I got to the trailer park and parked the car and began to walk through the trailer park talking to people along the way to Beavers trailer. We finally get up to Beavers trailer and we look over and he is outside in Blue Jeans, and no shirt at all. Brief description of this man: Bald head, around 5'5" in height, big beer belly, tattoos all over his body... Anyways we see him outside. As we approach he comes over to us and says: "You know what?"... we kinda gave him a confused look.. He goes on: "You two are God's." we now look at him super super confused and he then yells: "don't look at me like I'm stupid! YOU TWO ARE GOD'S!" very confused at this comment, we look at him more thoroughly and see that he is covered in blood all over his chest. We see that he has tears in his eyes and that both his wrists cut. Alcohol stenched his breath. He looks at us and says: "Y’all are here for a reason. About 5 minutes ago I was going to go behind that trailer here and hang myself." Both mine and Elder Jex’s hearts drop.. Then Beaver looks at us both dead in the eye and says: "Give me one good reason not to hang myself right now." at this point elder Jex and I are just blown away with shock. So of course we take the gospel aspect of it and tell him how precious one soul is in the eyes of God. But then he calls for his friend in a neighboring trailer and asks the man for a Gun.. He says: "Well if I can't hang myself I'm going to use the Gun." again, both elder Jexs and my heart drop because we know that if a drunk man, considering suicide, gets ahold of a gun it won't just be him in danger. So we continue trying to talk him down from his anger. And his conversation continues to get more and more violent. Then all of the sudden he just goes into his trailer and was in there for about 5 minutes. In the meantime elder Jex and I dial 911 and tell them to get here now. While doing so, we start to get away from the trailer and begin to wait for the police officers to arrive. Beaver then comes back out of the trailer and wants us to come closer again. He kept beckoning us to come back closer. So we kept trying to talk him down... 30 minutes LATER the police show up! I couldn't believe that it took them 30 minutes to come to a dangerous situation like this. Any ways we got away from him and kept our distance, but the police officers finally came and took him in an ambulance. Looking at the spiritual aspect of this, I know for a fact that God's hand was all over this situation. He allowed us to be in that spot at the right time to stop and help this man from ending his life. If we had been any earlier or any later who knows what would have happened. So I know God was aware of all of this. The other aspect of this is it was wild and it scared the heck out of us. This whole time a 45 year old, suicidal drunk man is asking two 19 year Olds to give him one good reason not to end his life. It was quite the experience!
Then later this week we were with a member about to go teach an older lady named Barb. We went into her house and started talking with her and then she went and got her two accordions! So I put one on my shoulders and started playing an accordion! Haha it was pretty awesome.
My week has been great and I love Luray already! The Branch is awesome and Elder Jex and I are looking forward to the work here. So much to do and not enough time to do it!
Thanks for the emails and for the support. I hope you had a great thanksgiving! I love and miss ya!
Love, Elder Welling!
