29 - 9/25/17

This week was busy! We were able to teach a lot though, even though we spent all day Tuesday in a car shop. We needed to get our battery replaced.... but it took 4 hours! So it chewed up a good portion of our day, but we were still able to go out with a young man from our ward to visit some people and still made it a productive night. We have been making a lot of calls and trying to be better about making sure the ward comes out to visit people with us after dinner and it has been really paying off! Lots of work with less-actives (one couple has started the Temple prep class so that they can be sealed before the temple closes in January!) and visiting "rescue families". We have also been accompanying people to do their home teaching.  We also did a lot of service as well and was able to help a lady in the ward who we are particularly close to move some things. As you can see, I was a big help.

Hard work. It has also been really warm and humid this week so that made things quite pleasant. I am hoping that it cools off so that the leaves start to turn because Matthew robbed us of a proper Fall color show last year! 

We have been doing a lot of walking and talking to people to try and find some new investigators, but it hasn't paid off yet. My short leg (particularly in the knee) has been bothering me a lot the past couple weeks, so last week I finally broke down and bought some insoles at Walmart.... and boy, they've been making all the difference! 

I love you! Have a great week!

Hello - 9/18/17

This week was a bit better than last week! We taught 4 lessons on Tuesday, which is the same amount that we taught the entire previous week! So we were off to a good start! We are trying to build up our teaching pool so that we can continue to stay busy, but it is hard! If we tract in the right neighborhood, we can get 15 new investigators a week, but none of them will be promising! So we are going for quality over quantity. Hopefully, we will find some more promising investigators soon! The lady who has been in Denver for 3 weeks came to church and liked it! We might go to her Episcopal Church sometime soon, as long as it doesn't interfere with our services. I am very hopeful for her. She has some good fellowshippers in the ward and seemed to feel at home!

The family who was just baptized came to church... with the father! We weren't able to meet with them last week due to crazy schedules, but we have an appointment set up for tomorrow. Also, we thought that another investigator was giving us the runaround, but it turns out that her boyfriend does not like her meeting with us. So that explains it. We are meeting with her later today since he won't be home at that time, even though it is P-day. Sometimes you have got to do whatever it takes!

Nate got baptized! He has been taught by the Clayton Sisters for a couple months now and he got baptized on Saturday! So happy for him!!!!

Other than that, this week has been boring. I love you!!

Elder Ciminski

This guy was hanging around our apartment.

We aren't worried about Hurricane Jose... - 9/11/17

They opened a Hurricane Irma shelter not 1/2 mile from our apartment, and most of the stores around here are low on food and out of bread, water, and alcohol. Gas is still low and expensive. Prices are still slowly going up. Lots of Florida plates too. Apparently, it isn't as bad down there as the news makes it out to be. We talked to someone who left Tampa Saturday morning, had a bit of trouble finding a gas station with no line, found one and filled up, then left to stay with his parents up here and had no traffic the whole way up! The prophecies of the last days are being fulfilled and everyone is "fearing and trembling". You would think that the work would pick up for us...but everyone is too busy "hurricane prepping" and our appointments keep falling through. What can you do?

Enough about the doom and gloom! The Baptism was amazing! According to Bishop's rough estimate, there were over 100 people there! The largest baptism anybody has ever been too!! It all went very well. The talks were wonderful and there were no major mishaps. Except in a football game later that night, Caleb fractured both his ankles in multiple places. He is fine, but frustrated. Then I had the incredible honor of performing all 3 confirmations on Sunday! I love that family so much...I actually started to choke up during the Sacrament Hymn "I Stand All Amazed". I hope that I am able to marry into a family that is as neat as they are! I can see some wonderful things in their future!

We just got back from doing some golfing....and golfing is not my sport. The next time I go to Top Golf though, I might be half decent!! I don't see where so many people find relaxation from it..... so many things to remember! Bend your knees, don't move your head, hit low, keep your shoulders loose....

Other than that this week was pretty dull. We weren't able to teach a whole lot for many reasons, but this week should be better! I love you all!

Elder Ciminski

What else can go wrong? - 9/5/17

The District

Don't ever ask that, because God will answer!

I have never been so stressed in my life to be honest. Since Hurricane season has arrived and Harvey hit, it seems like everything has exploded. Gas went up to $2.64 a gallon as of yesterday when we filled up, which isn't that bad but the last time we filled up it was $2.13. Also, we went to WalMart yesterday and was doing some food shopping and noticed how packed it was. We went to the back and serpentined our way forward like we usually do and I noticed that the store was trashed, even for a WalMart! Especially the basic things like water, bread, sugar, pasta and milk. There was dry pasta all over the floor, and the checkout lines were so long! Then we noticed that most people had a flat of water or 4 gallons of spring water in their carts. When we finally made it to the cashier I asked her if people are stocking up and she was like "Oh yeah!" Then she went on to tell me that last week was crazy too because due to a tornado not too far up the road they had to evacuate the store and all the employees took shelter in the back while they waited for the storm to pass. She was really nice though!

Yesterday was Chaotic too. We had a Zone preparation day so we went down to Goldsboro to play sports. As usual, I watched because I can't handle all of the competitiveness. Instead, I was busy collecting a ton of info from the District like the miles driven by the District for meeting each month (1,173), baptismal dates, baptisms that have happened in the past year, and safe houses for hurricane season. I was able to round up all that info and send it in (all on the heels for being responsible for the safety of my District and knowing that they are safe after a violent storm complete with flooding and tornados passed through the area last Friday night), and the Zone Leaders were grateful because I am able to make their job so much easier by doing that. So that made it all worth it. But while were were down there we were supposed to find baptismal jumpsuits, but with everything else going on we forgot!!! So we are figuring out how to get that all taken care of, but it will all work out!

Then we came back and rushed to get ready because I had a baptismal interview to conduct. So we hopped in the car to make the 45 minute drive to Wilson.... and the car won't start. It just clicks. We pop the hood and look around and nothing is wrong. I am kinda freaking out because it has been a long stressful day, and then Elder Ahrens suggests to give it some gas when I try and start it. The car groans and doesn't start. By this time we are going to be late, so I try one more time before we give up and call to cancel and it starts!!!!! We hop in the car and take off, only to realize we forgot something. So we head back to grab it and hit the road again! We get only 10 miles down the road before we get a call from the teaching missionaries canceling the interview. At this point, I am ready to head to bed, but we went to Walmart (see last paragraph) because the place we were going to go (Aldi) is next to the place where we were conducting the interview. But there we ran into one of my favorite members who asks for a blessing because she got in a car wreck earlier in the week and has back problems from that. We were able to do that and help her with some things since she is also the caregiver for her parents and is a single mom to a struggling child who we are working with. So I guess it all worked out. The only problem is that my stress level was in the red!!! :D

The family we have been teaching had their baptismal interview and passed!!! They are still set to be baptized on Saturday and for a second I thought that we would have to move it again because of Irma.  She won't arrive (if she does at all) until late next week, so that isn't an issue. It is finally all coming together!!!! It has been a long time coming and we are glad to see it happening! We also had someone else move back from Pittsburgh and so we will be teaching her again. All very exciting!

That is about all for this week. Be looking for pictures! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Tree hit by lightning.

Picturesque North Carolina

I LOOKED AT THE SUN - 8/28/17

The picture shows how dark it got here. We were kinda underwhelmed. We did watch it thanks to 4 pairs of sunglasses and the reflection in our car window. It was pretty cool, and creepy.

A lot of things happened this week! We had a crazy storm come through. It knocked over some cinderblock walls, picked up a metal car port, wrapped sheet metal around poles, and took out trees everywhere. We were meeting with a family at the time and are glad we weren't in town where the damage was the worst. It looked like a tornado came through because all the damage was in a small area and was linear, but the news says it was strong winds. I am counting my blessings and am grateful I'm not in Texas. Hurricane Matthew was originally supposed to be a Category 4 passing through Currituck. So glad it wasn't.

We have a family on a firm baptismal date now! September 9th! Their interview is this Saturday. They are amazing and the entire ward is excited for them. The ward is supporting us pretty well. We are so very excited for them. THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED.

We also got a new investigator and he is Hindi! The Spanish Elders found him and we finally got in contact with him and started teaching. We are not quite sure how to teach someone who has 0 Christian background, but we will be trying! We have the pamphlets and The Book of Mormon in Hindi, so at least he will be able to read it in his own language.

The rest of my week is explained in pictures, so be looking for those! Have a great week!

Elder Ciminski

The district made me a birthday cake!

Not today Satan! - 8/21/17

We had Stake Conference yesterday. We were 10 minutes late! BUT IT WASN'T OUR FAULT!!!!! We were driving down and someone's truck caught on fire and they blocked off the highway for a while. It was funny because when we walked in, we saw the High Priest's Group leader hurrying in with his wife, then we pulled in right next to a large family from the ward running out of their van, watched another family pull in and park kinda illegally in the same neighboring parking lot, but before they could get out the Elder's Quorum President pulled in behind them (it was parallel parking). All within 30 seconds! Then we ran in ourselves dodging other cars plastered with BYU memorabilia frantically looking for nonexistent parking. It was pretty funny! The message was good. We got to hear our Mission President and his wife speak as well as Elder Smith of the 70. Turns out that he had the same career that I want to have! International Relations working with Senators and the lot! Pretty dang cool!

We also had a Zone Conference on Friday. That was an all day affair, but enjoyable. Lots of training and talks on just about every aspect of missionary work. I do like them... but meetings from 9-5 are a bit tiring! We are having interviews this week. My 2nd to last one! Also, I will be starting to plan for going home! I received an email telling me to start "My Plan" soon. Kinda crazy that it's here!

Other than those things this week was pretty slow. We weren't able to meet with a ton of people this week for many reasons. We still worked hard, but it was one of those weeks where you get to the end and you are like "Did we even do anything?". It's times like that where we need to push through and endure to the end! This week is shaping up to be a better week though, for which we are grateful. We have some good dinners with less-actives planned and several appointments set up. In addition, the family we are teaching should be receiving their baptismal interviews this weekend! It sounds better and better as I type it out! :D

We are going to try and not go blind during the eclipse. We are going shopping again this week, and helping a youth missionary shop too. Looking forward to checking out some of the shops around here too. It's going to be a good day! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Busy week - 8/14/17

We stayed busy this week. Lots happened and everyday was full of fun stuff. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I was feeling pretty bad about our week, felt like we didn't do much. Then I was filling out our progress record and realized that we had filled it up with lessons! That and expecting 5 investigators at Sacrament Meeting made me feel pretty good! We started to call said investigators to make sure that they were still good to come. Every single one cancelled. That made me feel bad again. Then we went to church disappointed, and had a ton of less-actives show up unexpectedly! That was awesome! Such is life, and missionary work!

We had to move the baptismal date again. They are pretty much ready and very excited to be baptized, but the only problem now is scheduling. Lots of things (like football, school, cheer, family, etc) is filling up their schedule big time. They will get baptized at some point!

We handed the other investigator over to the Clayton Ward missionaries to teach him. He was referred to us by a member of our ward, but lives in neighboring Clayton Ward. It was tough to do it but it needed to happen. We will miss him though!

The weather here is so cool for this time of year! Some of the trees are already starting to lose their leaves. We are not complaining one bit. Apparently there has been some "white supremacist" stuff going on and now a lot of African-American people around here avoid us. It has always been hard to work in these neighborhoods, but man, now it's getting tougher! lol. Then again, Selma's welcome sign read "Welcome to Selma, Home of the KKK" until 2005. And also a billboard until recently. So that is to be expected.

Anyway, that is all that happened this week. I can taste fall, and am looking forward to it! I love y'all!

Elder Ciminski