The Book of Mormon Musical

Hi guys! So this has been one of the longest weeks of my mission! And one of the most interesting haha Last Monday we said goodbye to lots of people hat I wanted to see before and Elder Rushton and I were running around like "chickens with our heads cut off" (as Elder Rushton would explain it) to get things done. We had a last little game night with the F and then we went and helped the L get their rotten meat refrigerator out of the basement! (remember that Ethan?) but it was nice to have a last memorable experience with them! Haha and Yes I got pranked by the gunman of North Tonawanda and they actually got me! They built it up for the whole night and then Mike and Elder Rushton kept really good faces which made it so much more believable. So when I saw a black masked man open the door to our sunroom I was like this is not happening right now, we turned off all the lights and ran into the kitchen and Elder Rushton was "freaking out" we called M (because he said to call him if we see something suspicious) and he came down to "save us" but I was like M don't be stupid we aren't worth it! hahahaha but again I felt that feeling of "I'm not going to die" after about two minutes I realized that it was a joke and I went marching outside to get mad at J! I'm glad they came because the adrenaline rush got me out of my sad feelings of leaving and made me feel like there would be more good times to come! :) Tuesday was transfer meeting, and I was glad we got to go. We were able to go because we had to bring our truck up to exchange for a new car! it was a great transfer meeting and it was nice to see some of the missionaries that I came out with. We went and grabbed some five guys for lunch and then headed back to our Amherst to exchange out stuff. Then Elder Rushton and Elder Hunt dropped Elder Durfee and I at our new apartment and then peaced out! The Kenmore Elders (E. Eastman, E. Woerner) have a van and they will sometimes drive us around to the store on P-days so since we all didn't have food we had to run to the store and get some! The other Elders had to be to an appointment in like an hour though so we basically had 30 minutes to shop for the whole week and it was kind of stressful in a way because there was no GF bread and it was like the only chance we would have to get food. Once we got back our apartment I realized that our area is way bigger than I thought it was, It's the entire east side (which is the most ghetto) of the buffalo metropolitan area. That night was a pretty hard night. Wednesday we helped a family move into the ward that morning and that was a good feeling to have something solid going on, and to meet at least one member of the ward! We also went to a district leader training which President conducted, and that was an awesome chance to learn from President Francis. The other Elders in our district called us that night and said, "Are you going to the Book of Mormon play?" I was like are you serious? I came in on the week the BOM musical is in town!? Heck Ya!

I went from having one of the worst nights of my mission to one of the best nights of my mission! So yes this whole week we have had permission to stay out later to stand out side and hand out Book of Mormons answer questions and teach people! :) We have been getting home around 12am each night after riding the metro back to the UB campus (they have one main subway here in buffalo so it's cool) so yes we are all a little tired after having a week like this. We were all super smiley and answered lots of people's questions, and about 80% of people responded really well! We handed out over 120 BOMs and gave away a couple thousand Mormon.org cards and Hill Cumorah pageant cards. The cast was super cool with us and the house managers always came and talked with us! I had the chance to talk with one lady named J who is a Disney animator and is super interested! Lots of people took pictures with us so that was fun:) Thursday (get ready for this) Elder Durfee and I were excited to visit some of our referrals so we bike into our area (our apartment is about 3 miles out of it) but Elder Durfee wasn't feeling well so we had a couple of detours but then I kick in my city map skills and I find us a bus stop a couple blocks away I was able to find a stop but we waited there for like 30 min, And while waiting I had a drunk guy trip and spill beer from my shins to my feet! Lol the bus never came so we biked to another stop and were able to get on with our bikes! (some buses can't take bikes) we get to the Utica metro station and I was so happy that we would be able ride the train the rest of the way to the church. But Elder Durfee left his wallet on the bus we just got off so we biked the rest! Poor Elder Durfee! He lost his MSF card, Home Card, $50, temple recommend, license, and most importantly BUS PASS! We had a great district meeting! I did my training on becoming Legit! Or in other words developing Christlike attributes and having real intent haha. Then finally that night we took care of show biz ;) and had lots of success and lots of laughing moments so ya! Haha Friday we helped a lady in our ward named Sister H move from her upstairs apartment to a downstairs one We met an inactive lady named M K. We weekly planned and then another great adventure amongst the crowds.

Saturday Sister H was going to take us to the temple but since Elder Durfee didn't have his recommend we decided it would be easier to catch up on some referrals after the matinee show. We stood outside the show with just the zone leaders and us, because all the other Elders went to the temple. And long story short I was on the back side of the theater with Elder Christenson, and Elder Durfee and Elder Haws were in the front. My Bike got stolen (no exaggeration) 5 FEET AWAY from E. Haws with the lock snipped and everything! Can you believe that? I've had it for two days and it gets stolen in broad daylight five feet away from us missionaries. So as a result the people we were going to visit did not get visited haha. That night T T (a recent covert as of last week) took us to a Chinese buffet and that was truly a blessing:) Sunday we met our ward mission leader (he was just called last week) his name is Brother M from Canada, he is passionate about his new calling as well so we are hoping for more good missionary work! Church was good but I got Elder Durfee's sickness so that was fun! Haha after church we went to the matinee show and then we had the last show of the week last night! Which was really fun but also a little sad because I loved doing that! So despite the hard week I am smiling away and I know that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." -Philippians 4:13

Started from the bottom now we're here! Elder Crowley