15 Aug 2016 - Final

One last time. It's crazy how time sneaks up on you. As I wrap up my mission a song comes into my head. It's "Your Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. I can't believe it's all over tomorrow. It doesn't seem like I've been out that long. At the same time I've been out here for forever. Home life is kind of a blur, I don't remember what it was like back home. It seems like a far off dream.

Anyway this week was really good! On Monday we went and cashed in all of the coins I've collected over the last two years. It came out to about $76, but the coin machine took like 11%. So I got 60 something dollars back. I went and bought a new pair of shoes at Ross. There just walk around shoes, but there pretty sweet. So  for our activity we played basketball and volleyball. It was really fun. We have a sister in our mission who is going to play Division 1 college volleyball after her mission. She was on the other team. She is kinda scary when it comes to playing volleyball. But anyway she went to spike the ball and I totally blocked her and everyone started yelling and shouting. Then we started smack talking back and forth the rest of the game. It was really fun.

On Tuesday I had my departing interview. We talked about continuing discipleship, college, dating, and how my mission experience was. I love President Palmer so much, Sister Palmer too. We had a lesson with Lyna. We went over the baptismal interview questions. On the way back we ran into two other sets of Elders and we make s'mores in this lady's front lawn. Then we went and saw her pig. And yeah that was Tuesday.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Jefferson. We taught him how to grow his spiritual crop.

C- Church

R- Read

O- Obey

P- Pray

It went really good and he paid really good attention. We also taught brother Neff. We read 3 Nephi 9 with him. Then we went to the McFarlane's. It was a good visit.

On Thursday I had "Trunky Temple Day." That's what all the missionaries call it. We went to the Salt Lake Temple. Then we ate a chuck-a-Rama. Then we went back to the mission office and had a testimony meeting. It was powerful. I was tired the rest of the day. We went on a mini exchange right before dinner until the end of the evening. I was with Elder Weller the DL.

On Friday we had district meeting. We gave a training on working with stake and ward leaders. We compared working without ward leaders to when Teancum goes to kill the Lamonite king by himself and then gets killed. Following that we had my funeral. That was pretty much our day.

On Saturday we had Lyna's Baptism! It was good. There was lots of people there. I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Coleman baptized her. After the baptism I got changed and played basketball with the young men in the Marshallese branch. Most of them were non members. It was fun. Then one of our ward mission leaders took us out to Braza Grill for lunch because I'm leaving. Then we had a lesson with Tommy. We talked about his baptism. Then we went to the church to use the bathroom. We were both in stalls on opposite sides of the bathroom. Someone walked in, used the bathroom and then walked out. We didn't think anything of it. But when we got out and were leaving we saw the bishop and two cops. The bishop saw my shoes and bag under the stall in the bathroom and thought someone had broken into the church and was going to vandalize it. Then when we got it figured out and left we went outside and ran into another set of cops circling the building. So we got the cops called on us. Then we gave a lady a blessing and taught Bill Tate later that night.

On Sunday in the first ward we went to, the bishop had me stand up and announced I was leaving. Then we had Lyna's confirmation. Then at the last Sacrament meeting the Bishop announced I was leaving and then had me come up and bear my testimony. After dinner we had a meeting planing an event with some of the wards and then we visited the McFarlanes.

Love,

Elder Pleshek