Merry Christmas Y'all!!!

Elder Barker & Elder Connolly

This week has been a pretty good week!
Last Monday we got to go to Frankie's Fun Park with a boy named L, who is preparing to enter the MTC on the 30th! He's great, and is so excited for his mission. He has been going out to work with the missionaries for the last couple months, and has been really helpful to the work. :) Anyway, we had a blast there, playing Mini-golf, racing go-karts, and trying the batting cages. Lo, and behold, I am awful at baseball. We left there, and decided to go get some food.
This is where it gets cool, because the spirit steps in.
We could not decide where to go, since it was Elder Wilbert's last p-day we were letting him choose, but he couldn't think of a place either. We asked L what was around, and he said there was this restaurant he had seen on the way down here and in passing to and from work. He had never been there before, but said it looked cool, but when we got there, it ended up being a bar. So, of course, we decided not to eat there, but there was this little Mexican food place around the corner that had no cars in the parking lot. L asked us if we wanted to try there, and I wasn't super down for that, but the other elders said why not. We almost talked ourselves out of going there, but L really felt like we should. He said "It's weird, I just really want to try it for some reason" Later, we will find out he was listening to the spirit but didn't recognize it speaking to him that clearly before. We go in, and there are tables one side, booths, and a bar on their other, very similar to an Applebee's. There was no one inside except for a girl behind the bar, about mid 20's, and she greeted us, and told us she would be our server. We asked if we could sit at the tables out front to avoid the TV’s inside. She came out and took our orders, then started to ask us about if we were missionaries. We explained a little about who we are and what we do, and she just laughed and said "I know, I'm a member" That was cool to hear! She told us her name was H, and she had moved here from Georgia a while back, but hadn't been to church in a long time. She told us she was trying to get back to church, but needs to get her schedule changed so she isn't working on Sunday's anymore. We told her that we would be praying for her and if there was anything we could do to please let us know. It was so fun to talk to her. Anyway, we got our food, had a nice meal and talked for a while, and when we were finished, she came out and said "Well, it's my month to feed the missionaries, so y'all are good. Have a great day!" There were 5 of us, and she paid for it all. It was just so cool to see :) She told us to come back when she works on Wednesdays to get half off when she is working, and we are going to be trying our best to get her back to church! We started to talk with L, and explain that 'feeling' he had of really wanting to eat there, was the spirit telling him we needed to talk to that kind-hearted member trying to make ends-meat as a waitress. He was so excited to have more experiences like that on his mission in the Czech-Republic.

We went to transfers on Wednesday and I said goodbye to Elder Wilbert. I love that guy, I miss him a lot. We had a good 2 hour drive to Irmo, so we had some time to talk. I am excited to get to hang out with him after the mission!

I got my new companion; his name is Elder Chris Connolly from Lehi, UT. He's a great kid, and is way excited about the work. I love that! :)

We have spent the majority of our time together thus far knocking and just trying to find some people to teach. Summerville is a very prime area with a lot of very very kind people, who are ready to learn, but with it being the Christmas season, everyone is so busy and hardly anyone has been home. We still work though! We have been knocking on as many doors as we can, and visiting as many less-actives as we can. We work a lot through referrals here too, so we have been meeting with Members and teaching the restoration in order to ask for referrals. We got caught in the rain on Thursday night and biked about a mile to our home and were spared from getting too soaked. It was raining decently hard, but the minute we got into our apartment, it just started to pour down, hard. Hah it was fun though. A good first few days for Elder Connolly.
I sang yesterday in Sacrament with Elder Lincoln and some other men in the ward for the Christmas program, which was a lot of fun!
And, we get to go fishing again this today! Stoked!
Merry Christmas Y'all!!!
Luke 22:32 "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

Our Christmas tree!