13th Week

Hello Family and Friends!

We are currently sitting in the Library in Athens Tennessee. Athens is a smaller city, I'd almost compare it to Vernal Utah in terms of size but I'm actually not too sure that about. I'm quickly learning the town the through the powers of tracting but more on that later.

Transfers were Wednesday and as such we drove down from Oak Ridge to Farragut. We met at the Mission Home and had breakfast and then went over to the stake center where are the groentjes (Nederengels for Greenies), like myself, were set into a room and instructed on the ways of the field. Later the trainers came in and I discovered that I was assigned to Elder Badal from Ogden Utah. Elder Badal has been in the field from 11 months now as hits his year mark next month when we'll be together. He's a great guy who likes to laugh and works pretty hard. I've been getting him in line with the White Hand Book, luckily he wasn't too far gone, and so things have been going great between the two of us so far.Like I said I've been learning the streets through the power of tracting. Since I got here in Athens on Wednesday, we tracted for a total of 19 hours, 18 in the Sun and 1 in the rain. Looking back on it, I think I preferred the hour in the rain because I wasn't sweating like a dog during that time. I love tracting and I find that here in the Bible belt we are greeted with one of three different replies generally. 1st - I'm sorry, I'm baptist and I'm not interested. 2nd - I'm sorry, I'm christian and I'm not interested. My favorite 3rd - They look at us through the window notice the name tags and yell through the door, "I'm not interested go away." I haven't been damned yet but apparently my companion was last transfer so maybe tomorrow or even tonight? The best was last Friday night we were walking through downtown (Not much of one) and we ran into who we are now calling Obnoxious Oscar. He started to bash with us and informed us we belonged to a false church. My 2nd favorite part is when he said we didn't baptize in the name of Christ. I was like what? Then my favorite part is as we were leaving my companion shakes his hand and the guys looks at him and says, "That a pretty tie." My companion was hot over that one all night. I harass my companion every few minutes with a good, "That a pretty tie."

The other thing of note is the branch here in Athens. It is a good enough size to be made a ward but it lacks the proper amount of Tithes payers among other things to get it there. The branch president is a former mission president, who if you ask me, is a bit crazy and a little out of control. He chewed me out the first night for not being fluent in Dutch, and then in PEC on Sunday said something along the lines of, "and I know there are a few people in here who's families are not having family prayer. Brothers that is not acceptable you need to do better." Trust me it wasn't said in the kindest most gentlest way. During sacrament meeting the 2nd speaker of three was MIA for a few minutes. I was waiting for the Elder Nielson your new come speak to us. I was ready though.Things have been going great and if Elder Badal could shake the snake that is after him things would be perfect. That is a story for another time.

Love

Elder Nielson