Well, as I told you I would be last week, I am now in Hannibal, Missouri. It is a very different town than what I am used to. There are hills, and steep hills at that, everywhere. most roads meander like it aint nobody's business, and the straight ones meander in the vertical directions. It still seems like a gigantic town, when in reality it's only 1700. But everything is so spread out due to random cliffs and woods. There are a lot more trees here. I feel like I'm back in washington in some ways, but our hills are bigger and less...rollercoastery. Yep, It's a word. I feel like I'm stuck in some sort of Labyrinth, and I'm just waiting for David Bowie to appear.
Don't get me wrong, I like Hannibal alright, but it's definitely a change. There are far less cornfields here in Missouri, and I miss them. But there are still plenty of churches, just about half of them are all baptist churches. It's interesting, for sure. And the town is most definitely a tourist town. It focuses heavily on their Mark Twain heritage, sporting the caves from Tom Sawyer, a Mark Twain Lighthouse, statues of both the author and Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and everything in the town being named after one of the three people, if not having most of the streets having random names from his books. It is cool to see sidewheel riverboats cruising along the river though.
Hannibal is a branch in a very small ward's building. They used to be a ward, but have had to be bumped down to branch status. They have just a little less members on the roles and far fewer attending than my last area, and I thought THEY had a lot of Less actives. Hannibal is a big area, though, smaller than my last area but still big.
We've been doing a lot of prep work over the last few days, and some good member work. I've been trying to meet a lot of the members so I can start off on a good foot with them. That's been good, mostly, until a slight accident during an activity at the branch president's house ended with one of his sons hitting his head and bleeding quite a bit. Luckily they're a way cool family and were able to just joke around through it (all besides the son) and even more luckily it was my companion's idea not mine. Poor Elder Bischoff felt so horrible. Poor kid.
Oh, Elder Bischoff is my new companion. He's cool and has a strong desire to do some good work, so I'm happy about that. He's been having some health problems as of late, so hopefully he can get those resolved soon. He still works hard, though, so that's good.
Seeing Cari and James and Mattie was awesome. James seems great, I'm happy he's my brother-in-law. Mattie does too, she's one of the few dogs I like a lot. But I'm sticking with me thinking she looks like one of the dogs off of Ghostbusters. Ooh, even better, she's kind of a mix between the stay puft marshmallow man and the dogs. It all works out in the end.
Oh, I also have an amazing bike. It was an awesome deal and I really want to ride it everywhere. It's a Felt Cafe 7. Look up the pictures. It weighs less than my boots and is sooo nice. Way good deal, too.
Well, that's it! Love you all!
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"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates
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