Sufficiently Soaked

There was not a day this week were I was either dripping in sweat or soaked in water. It literally rained neck deep to a giraffe this week. There are so many little miracles that we see everyday and I kind of take granted for all of them. One miracle that we saw this week was we found a pretty solid family while tracting! Yes tracting works. Not only that but we also found a PMF (part member family) this week.

Cool things that happened this week was we helped out at the Schneider’s farm and man do I love working hard in the heat! Something about it is just satisfying. E. Doty and I are having a good time
together and laughing until I cry. We also had a lot of serious moments this week as we have been in the right place at the right time. I love how the spirit can really lead and guide us even if we don’t know it at the moment.

I love the Paducah ward and good things are about to happen. I will try and find a story for next week. I love y’all and hope y’all have a blessed week.

Love, Elder Q

Senior Citizen Day

I went on an exchange with week with good ol E. Doman. Hence the title of my email this week. As we were tracting around the “danger zone” we talked a lot about home, what we have learned on our missions, what the mission has become and other things. It totally ruined me though for the rest of the next day. Anyways, we had a good time oh and he is going to the strawberry days rodeo too so that is cool.

Story of the week. On Sunday while we were out finding people, it started to rain. It wasn’t bad but if anyone knows southern weather then you know it will pour at any minute. So we get to walking to a dormant member’s home and you hear the rain first then it hits you. We go running to the man’s house all the while getting soaked. We guessed on what house was his and this man told us to come in. We get in there and the man is standing behind a pulpit and said “how did y’all get here so fast? I prayed ya here.” Then he proceeds to welcome us to the “amen corner” and the “pirate church” this guy was a legit loon. I was having s good time ha! He talked about how he is a Jesus freak and how he is the mayor of new Paducah. His house looked like a rebel hideout from movies or books. There were plans and writings on all the walls. He told us that he is a prophet and guess what? His name is Q! We bonded on that but then he also says he is apostle. In his words, “apostle mean homeless, ask Paul!” Anyways, we got out of there but we now have a refuge if we need it in “Dollar Town”

We are still finding away and hopefully will get a baptismal date soon! Love y’all and have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q

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Elder Doty's weekly:  

Hello everyone!

So one of the highlights of this week is the fact we met a "prophet". His name was Quinton and he is the head of a pirate church (fitting because he looked just like a prophet). We met him because we were walking around in a neighborhood trying to find some less active people and interested dumping on us. So we ran to the house we were trying to go too and knocked on the door. Someone from the inside yelled and told us to come inn the side door, so we did. As we enter, we see Quinton standing in his kitchen with his Bible in one hand and cigarette in the other. He proceeded to preach to us for about 20 minutes, it was dumping outside so we couldn't leave haha. He showed us his map of Paducah and began to explain the "New Paducah". Part of his map was labeled Dollar Town and another was labeled Danger Zone. Dollar Town is the part of Paducah that is a little bit more run down and kind of poor. But Danger Zone is where all the stores and rich people are. Needless to say it was an experience to remember. 

Besides that it was a stellar week! We had exchanges with our district leader and his companion. Elder Quirings mom sent us a bunch of snacks and we are now loaded with chips and salsa for the rest of the transfer (thanks Momma Q). I hit my year mark and got to burn a white shirt! 

I hope you all have a fabulous week. Thank you for all love and support!

Love,

Elder Doty 

Deja Vu

First off I love my mom so much! It was a great time talking with the family and my mom. I can’t wait to see them! First week back in Paducah has been straight deja vu. It is weird coming back and being a different person then when I started. I have learned so much but not too much has changed here except some people have moved. It is quaint little town here in Paducah. I love the ward because they have such a family feel. I am glad to be finishing my mission here.

I don’t have much to report because the days are just flying by. We have been doing a lot of tracting.  Wanna hear a cool story?  We were knocking in a trailer park because we had a lesson there that fell through. We knocked into this one guys home and he let us in and told us about his wife who is having health issues. She was laying in a bed and the whole time the spirit was like “ask if you can give her a blessing.” I was putting it off for a while then the man asked if we could say a prayer. I followed the spirits nudge and asked if we could give her a priesthood blessing. We taught them about blessings and then gave her one. During the blessing the spirit was so strong! We talked about it after and both of them felt the spirit. They accepted a Book of Mormon and was so happy to read it. We see them tomorrow.

I love y’all and have blessed day! The church is true and the restored gospel is real. Until next week have a blessed day!

Love, Elder Q

Conner's new address (the same one he had in the beginning)

204 Glenn St. Paducah, KY 42003

First will be the last

Early Tuesday morning the sun was shining and E. Hunter and I were leaving to take on the world. We hadn’t heard any transfer info so we had our hopes up that we would stay one more transfer. After we put our sunscreen on we opened the door and out phone starts to ring. The caller ID says President Stone, my heart sank. He starts off by saying, I have some good news and some more good news.” We got so happy! He then proceeds to say that he couldn’t keep two good missionaries together for that long so he needs to spread the wealth. E. Hunter will stay and be the District leader and get E. Jorgenson. E. Hunter is a stud and I will miss him so much! He will be a fabulous
missionary and maybe even the best that I have seen. I am going to drum roll...... Paducah! I am really sad leaving this area but if I had to move my last transfer, it would be Paducah. It will be so weird going to back since it has almost been 2 years! My mission is becoming full circle. I knew when I left the first time that my time wasn’t finished there and look I get a second chance! I will be with E. Doty and he is the Zone Leader is president wants me to help him out.

This week has been pretty normal. The earth almost flooded her one day and that was fun! We have done a lot of walking in both sun and rain and I am rather burned ha! I was sad to say goodbye to the district and Theresa. I will say goodbye to some more peeps tonight and I might cry. I absolutely love my district! We have all grown so close and I tear up just talking about it. Anyways, we did a plethora of service this week as always. We had 2 solid Investigators at church and it was a dope experience. This area is just on fire. I will miss Ronald getting baptized. He is Winston’s dad and man, he will be a General Authority for sure.

That about sums up my week. I am just in morning and so torn but I bet Paducah will be awesome! Have a blessed week y’all! See ya on Mothers Day!

Love, Elder Q

One More Time

Hello!

I keep getting the comment, "You only have one more of..." It hasn't really hit me yet but my heart dropped when my mom sent me my flight plans. Anyways, I had interviews with President Stone this past week and it was really good. I learned a lot from it and even had a good conversation on really being Christ-centered and have him be the one who is telling me that I am doing well in life. I feel like I am getting better at listening to the spirit that tells me that I am doing the right instead of an outside source. We also discussed how much I have changed over these past two years. He started to tell me an experience he had with a missionary at the beginning of mission as a president and halfway through I realized he was talking about me. I thought he was telling me about another missionary! I guess in essence he was but it just blows my mind what repentance actually does. It really does change the very nature of you.

We had a cool experience this week finding people. We checked out a referral that the Spanish Elder found and this dude is solid! He wants to come to church and be baptized and we talked to him for like 10 minutes. I am sufficiently razzed about it. The rest of the week was pretty normal. Well, we did teach these two guys who asked us if we would like a hit. We tell them no thank you but then proceed to smoke some illegal drugs right in our face! So I may have gotten a second hand high but it is fine. Ha! Anyways, things are still going well for us over here in good ol Goodlettsville. We spent like all day at the Bishops storehouse yesterday but it was a good time. I did an exchange with E. Hoffman and that was a blast! I love just going and knocking doors! Most stories start off as "there we were, tracting..." I love meeting the people here in the South! Anyways, Y'all have a blessed week!

Love,

ElderQ

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Conner's flight lands on Friday, June 22nd at 2:30!  Homecoming will be Sunday, June 24th at 11:00.