This week was a pretty busy and exciting week. It has definitely kept me and Elder Bass on our toes! The first part of the week wasn't too exciting, just the normal lessons and knocking a few doors in between lessons. But on Thursday we got a call from Rashida, the girl we have been working with, and she said that she wasn't going to be able to make it to the appointment that we had with her that day. She said that her mom had completely locked her and her 11 year old sister out of their apartment and was moving a few hours away without them. It turns out that her mom hadn't paid the rent in a few months and got an eviction notice, so she decided that she would leave before they kicked them out. She also decided that she wanted to leave her two daughters behind. As you can imagine she was pretty upset... Not only was she left alone, pregnant, with her 11 year old sister, but she also was homeless without being able to get into her apartment. We had her tell us where she was and we went to meet her where she was so that we could figure out how we could help her. We ended up finding her outside of a hotel where her and her mom were having an argument about her not giving them the keys so that they could at least have a place to sleep that night while they figured out a place to move after that. We ended up walking with her to Burger King a few blocks away and bought them dinner since they had not eaten all day. We then made a few calls to the bishop to see if we could find them somewhere to stay and to get his advice on what we should do next. We decided to have her go back to her apartment and we would come back over there after a meeting we had. After the meeting me and Elder Bass were able to track down her mom and convince her to give us the keys. We have spent the last few days trying to help her figure out what her options are now that she will be without an apartment in a few days and is pregnant and taking care of her 11 year old sister. She will probably end up in a shelter until she figures out what to do. It has been pretty stressful but there have been several people that have stepped up in the ward and helped her out.
Next, on Friday, we were on our way to an older lady's home in the ward when we got a phone call from another lady in the ward asking if we were close to the lady's home who we were going to visit. It turns out that she had posted something on Facebook about not doing well and that she couldn't move and nobody had heard from her all day. We got to the house and when nobody answered decided that we needed to try to figure out if she was okay. The member who called us got ahold of her daughter and her daughter wanted us to try to get into the house and see if she was in there. I ended up being able to get into one of the windows and we searched her house for her. I was honestly worried that we would find her and she wouldn't be okay. Thankfully she wasn't there but had been able to make it to the hospital earlier in the day. We were grateful that she was okay but had a little bit of a stressful few minutes while we didn't know what we would find. I felt like a burglar, "breaking into" her house, but it was for a good cause so I was able to justify it.
Saturday, we had the baptism of Ed, the deaf guy that the sisters handed off to us. It was a beautiful baptism. I included a photo of Elder Bass, Brother Hunter (who is also deaf), Ed and me at the baptism. It was awesome to be able to see Brother Hunter sign the baptismal prayer and baptize Ed. Since Ed is a little bigger, Elder Bass was in the font with them to make sure that Ed was not dropped. Right before they stepped down into the font, Ed turned to Elder Bass and pointed to his head and signed J-A-W and then made a biting gesture and pointed to his leg. He was telling Elder Bass that if he let him hit his head then he would bite his leg off. It was really funny and me and Elder Bass got a kick out of it.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful other than Saturday night. As you can tell in the photos that I sent, my hair is getting pretty long. Saturday night I was helping Elder Bass give himself a haircut and since the missionary budget is thin I decided to let him cut my hair also. It actually turned out really well (I'll try to send a picture next week) and I didn't have to spent $20.
Well I have made it through my first transfer and the time is flying. I really do love being a missionary and I know that there is nowhere else that I would rather be!! I love this gospel and I am honored to be able to be an ordained minister of the gospel and an
official representative of Jesus Christ. It truly is an amazing work and I love being able to spend all my time serving The Lord! Thanks for all the prayers and support! I love yall!
-Elder Bloskas
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