So probably the biggest event that went on this week was Balloon fest. I only took a few pictures of it because I didn’t want to look like a tourist, but I’ll be sure and send them home. There were TONS of people at this thing. Like if you took all the people that attend Strawberry days events and made them all go on the same day, that’s how many people were at balloon fest. Main street was empty and lots of stores actually closed because nobody was shopping, they were all at the high school.
Parking was insane. Luckily because we’re missionaries we were able to park at our church which was only a few blocks away from the high school. We had talked to a member of the ward who was on the committee that put together balloon fest about what we could and couldn’t do as missionaries there. He told us we weren’t allowed to just hand out cards, but we could walk the festival grounds and if people talked to us we could share the gospel or whatever we wanted with them. We ended up seeing a lot of members there and they introduced us to their friends. We also had a lot of people approach us from different wards. It was cool because EVERYONE was watching us. I think it was a pretty awesome publicity move and hopefully it makes people more open to listening to the missionaries when we knock on their door. We also ended up opening the church parking lot for public parking. We had a lot of people park there because we were the only parking lot out of all the churches schools and fields that didn’t charge for parking. But we did leave pass along cards on windshields and passed out pamphlets and stuff at the front of the church.
Other than that, our week was pretty much business as usual. The weather here has been absolutely horrible. Upper 90s with 90% humidity almost all last week. I’ve just gotten used to being sweaty and sticky all the time. This week I’m kind of missing Utah –the weather sucks, there’s no mountains, skiing would be a joke because the tallest “hill” they have is shorter than the bunny hill at Brighton, the roads are horrible–which is ironic since Michigan is the auto capital of the world, and the crime rate is ridiculous. I do like the Michigan community programs and the festivals are really well done and there are a ton of them.
Other fun news this week, it turns out that GM put out a recall on the 2012 Chevy Cruze we drive so now we have to get that taken care of. I had to call the dealer and find out what was wrong. Nothing major, they’re just replacing a shield at the bottom of the engine that will make it so when we change the oil, it won’t get all over the car. But on top of that, our front brakes are making a weird squeaking noise that sounds like we’re running over a puppy whenever we stop. The car only has 5000 miles on it!! But I guess I shouldn’t expect anything more out of a GM car –haha. But in all reality I like the Cruze a lot. It has been my favorite of the mission cars by far.
We’ve been having more and more help from members in the ward recently. Elder Mayfield and I set a goal to have a member with us at every investigator lesson we have. It has been paying off so far. Our investigators are getting good fellowship with people in the ward and the members in turn are feeling more involved in the work. Last Sunday we had maybe 10 people ask us about the progress of different investigators.
Well I hope everyone is doing well and having an awesome summer. Thanks for all your letters and everything! I’m trying to write everyone back ASAP.
Love, Erik