Adventures from West Virginia: Birthdays and the Eye Patch

This week was kind of slow. Sister Nelson and I are still having a blast, but we don't have too much to report for this week.

Happy Birthday, Sister Nelson!

It was Sister Nelson's birthday! It was fun, we were actually on exchanges, so I couldn't wake up early to make Sister Nelson birthday pancakes, because she wasn't here... So instead, on exchanges when Sister Johnson was here, we blew up a ton of balloons and filled up our living room with them. Then we put up a 'Happy Birthday' banner up in the living room and it was a Minion one! So cute :) So then we head over to Radford to exchange back. Sister Nelson had no idea when she walked into our house to see all the Balloons everywhere! It was fun to see. We had a blast! We went out to Macado's for dinner. When I told the waitress that it was Sister Nelson's birthday, she asked how old she was turning. When Sister Nelson said 21, the waitress asked if we had any fun plans for tonight and if we were going to go party... Haha no! We don't do that kind of thing, and the waitress just looked at us like we were weird... :) oh funny missionary things.

Balloons

So I had an interesting experience while I was on exchanges. Sister Johnson and I were knocking on a door and they weren't home. We start to leave and we see a man across the street. He looks kind of creepy, wearing sunglasses, a hat and some old tattered looking clothes. I say, "We should talk to him," so we walk over to the edge of the street, and call out to him. "Hey, how are you doing? I have a question for ya!" Then some cars started up the street, and so we had so wait on our side and he was on his side. The streets are already tiny in Virginia and so we are trying to not get hit by a car! Anyways, this guy comes over and we see that under his sunglasses, he had an eye patch.

Decorating the House for Sister Nelson's Birthday

We find out his name is Tyrone and he goes on to tell us how he lost his eye...... A bungee cord was stretched out and then the hook end flew into his eye and well... he doesn't have 2 eyes anymore! So crazy.. So we start to teach him about the Restoration and when we motioned the Book of Mormon, he said that he had one! It was really cool. He told us that years and years ago, he had met with two young guys with white shirts and ties... Oh man, I love that! We challenged him to pick up his Book of Mormon and read from it, and we are hopefully going to be meeting with him this week! I love how REAL the ripple effect is. EVERYTHING you do, matters. It effects the investigators you are teaching, the members you are serving with, and the missionaries to come after you for YEARS! I have had a goal on my mission to leave a positive ripple effect, everywhere I go,

in everything I do. I know how important it is, and how sometimes the people you are finding and teaching now might not be ready now. But the missionaries down the road might be able to harvest the seeds you have planted. I LOVE THE WEST VIRGINIA CHARLESTON MISSION!