Wednesday was 4th of July. We had a couple of parties that we went to and had some really good times and good food. First we went to a parade. And if there's someone who doesn't like the 4th of July or doesn't appreciate it, then they can come right on down to Newberry. The street that the parade was on, each house was decked out and had food set out so that people could have snacks and water as they walked or golf carted through the parade. Strangers were talking with strangers, friends with friends. It was all very cool. Part of the parade there was a firetruck that was spraying water from its hose and created a water party in the street. One of our potential investigators invited us to come sit with them and watch the parade from their sisters house. And then we met all of their family who were all very nice. Then after that we went to the potential investigators house for lunch BBQ, and that BBQ was as if it was from a movie that you would watch about a perfect family and all. They had all their family there, one of the sons of the family brought all his college friends down for it. A boyfriend of one of the daughters at one point broke out his guitar and started singing songs about Jesus. Everyone had a very thick southern accent. People wore America colored asocts. It was all very picture perfect. Plus there was some really good southern BBQ and desserts. Then after that we went home to do some studies and such, visited some people to wish them a happy 4th of July, then went on to our next party at a returning less active's home on Lake Murray. That one was very fun as well, there were a lot more members there, but there were some extended family members of the family that invited us that weren't members as well. There was some very good food there as well. And every man there had served in the military, one in the army, one in the marines, and one on nuclear submarines, so we heard all about their cool war stories too. And that was about it for that day.
Interjection: I just got word of where I'm going, I will be going to the Greenwood 1st ward in the upstate. I will be going with Elder Powell, who has been my favorite companion thus far (Charleston). So I am super excited about it. We are also going into a brand new Spanish area, and we are staring from basically scratch, which will be a challenge but will be super fun too. And I've heard that the ward there is super awesome and that the area is super fun too. So I'm super excited now and will basically be counting down the hours.
Thursday was the famous Spanish conference. Last conference we made goals of baptizing 6 people and finding 140 new investigators. Which we hit both of those goals. We baptized 10 people and found 141 new investigators. So we had fun congratulating ourselves for that. And we talked a lot about how we can continue to improve the work and such. It was fun to see everybody again and all that as well. Then after Spanish conference we had another lesson with Sally which was super good. She recognized the spirit, learned why it is important to ask for guidance in her prayers, believed the Joseph Smith story, and commited to go to church. Plus she had finally read some of the book of mormon. So it was super good.
Friday we went to help our former bishop move in the afternoon. Then we had dinner with one of the members, while there it started monsoon raining again, except it didn't let up in 30 minutes, except kept raining for about 3 hours. At the members house we had a bop it competition which I came second in. I had to hide my competitive frustration from the members. Then we shared our message and played with their kids and gave a blessing as we waited for the rain to let up as we were on bikes. Plus the father is Brazilian, so I practiced my Portuguese with him. And by practice I mean speak the 10 or 14 words that I know to him. Then we went to another appointment with an older member. Then we tried to knock a little bit in the rain.
Saturday we had gotten a call early in the morning to go fill up the baptismal font. So we did that and brought our bikes with us so we could bike around that area afterwards. The church is on a super steep and long hill, that's really fun to bike down since you get going so fast. Well my bike doesn't have any brakes. So it's a little less fun. As we were coming down the hill Elder Elmer slammed on his brakes to turn on a street. I also slammed on my brakes, but nothing happened. So I tried to turn a bit out of the way, but failed and slammed into his back tire as he was turning, and I hit the ground with the force of an elephant falling from the empire state building and slid a couple yards too. My first thought was aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!?!?!! Then I was like what part of me is broken. Then I realized that I was okay to stand up and then I hobbled around for a little bit, until the shock and adrenaline wore off and realized that I was in a lot of pain. So I sat back down and started taking inventory of my body. My whole left side hurt quite a bit. I then looked at my bike and saw that it was in pretty rough shape as well. Half of my left pedal is broken, I only have a half a pedal now. My seat is super ripped and messed up. The frame is super scratched. My body isn't broken but it is quite bruised. My shoulder has a large bruise, my elbow has a large bruise, my hand is super road rashed, my thigh has a big bruise, my knee has a big cut and bruise, and my ankle has a small bruise. My shirt was super ripped up and torn. It was quite the situation. So we biked to the nearest member, which was the ones we had dinner with the night before, and had him tend to my wounds. He poured some hydrogen peroxide on my knee and hands. Bandaged me up and we were back on our way. We saw some former investigators and potential investigators and said goodbye to them that day and that was about it.
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