Pittsburgh Week 14

We did get an invite to Thanksgiving, quite a few actually. So we'll be going over to a members house for Thanksgiving, so we're pretty excited for that, and we are set. Do you remember when I got my shoulder surgery over Thanksgiving weekend? That was horrible, haha! I remember laying on the couch and watching you all just stuff your faces, then you brought a plate over to me and I couldn't even eat it because that  medicine was making me sick. Oh what a terrible day... Anyway! I love Thanksgiving. :)

So I have a funny story to tell. Don't freak out, and as a precursor, I'm fine. So the other night we were walking down a busy street talking to people and we see our friend Kevin the hobo. We say hi to him again and just talk to him for a little while, then he shakes our hand and tells us we're awesome and to keep up the good work. Then after he shakes all our hands, he goes and gives us all hugs. While doing so he tells us that he loves us. In the non-creepy way, more like, "thanks for always stopping and talking to me, you guys make me feel important" kinda way. Anyway, when he comes to give me a hug, he kinda presses his face against mine. It was really weird because he had some scruff and it poked the side of my face then we leave. Then while we're walking away, 10 minutes pass or so and my face starts to feel all warm and throbby and itchy. So I ask my companions if there's anything on my face and it was all red and looking rashy! They then proceeded to tell me that I got hobo disease, and now that because I have the disease I'm going to lose everything and become all scruffy and dirty and smell bad, and then laughed at me haha. I asked for some hand sanitizer and then rubbed it on my face. As I quickly rubbed it on my face, my companions are laughing their guts out. It went away by the end of the night so it was no big deal. It was funny because my companions got such a kick out of it! Oh well, the moral of the story is, don't hug hobos.

Anyway, this week was a very good week for us. We got the highest number of lessons that we've had since I've been here in the South Side. As we are doing finding, we are striving to make our street contacting more
effective in the sense that we are focusing on teaching, more than just handing out paraphernalia. The results of such are prominent, because we are finding and obtaining more return appointments for potential investigators. We found 2 new investigators this week and we excited to be able to teach them in the coming weeks! The companionship is doing well, with the addition of Elder Shipp we have a new determination to work harder and more effectively. Baily is doing pretty good. We have come to find out that a couple weeks ago she allowed her boyfriend to move in with her (prior to us teacher her the law of chastity) because his roommates in college were doing drugs and he wanted out of there. When she found out that that was a bad thing, she expressed sincere remorse in an expression of emotion (crying) and didn't know quite what to do. Currently she is praying to find out what she should do now, because we had a great lesson with her on chastity. So hopefully things will work out. She says that they're going to get married and she doesn't believe in long engagements. We're praying for her. This week was a great week and we felt very accomplished about the things we are doing here in the South Side.

Other than that I don't think anything too exciting has happened. It was just a regular week.
Anyway, that's all for now!
Love,
Elder Benjamin

Elders Serrano, Hurley and Shipp with the Pittsburgh Steelers Stadium in the background.  I'm sure Elder Serrano is wishing her were there, for a little while at least.