June 29, 2015

I thought libraries were supposed to be places of peace and learning. Not in Kent island. I had to shew off a little stranger kid from trying to sit on this chair with me, followed by his crying fit as his mother gave me the death glare. Focusfocusfocus

Kent Island is the largest area in the Maryland, Baltimore Mission, and has one of the smallest branches. From the top of the area to the bottom is a solid 3 hour drive one-way. The island itself is fairly small, but the area of farmland stretching alongside the Eastern shore reaches  far away minuscule towns with hilarious names like Pond Town. Apparently there's a saying that if you can do missionary work in Kent Island, you can do missionary work anywhere. I'm starting to see why.

I'm training Elder Teichert, a 20 year old dramatic yet hysterical Elder from Texas and Northern Washington State. He's possibly the biggest movie but I've ever met. For the most part all he does is quote movies in our off-missionary conversations. There isn't a single movie I've seen that he can't quote every punch line in. Not to mention the mission veil is cutting off my memories of music, movies, etc. That's actually a bit startling. He's a great missionary and has his full heart in love for the Lord. Not much more you could ask for.

Wednesday was President and Sister Richard's last transfer meeting in the mission. They've been the mission parents for 3 years now and will be "replaced" by President and Sister Christiansen...today actually. Wow. that hadn't clicked :/ The amount of love given from the Richards is something I can only pair with that of my own parents. They have helped me in every bend, turn, and jump thus far into the mission, no matter how insignificant the event at the time may have seemed. Man I love them.

I'll admit, leaving Urbana wasn't easy. But within the first day here in Kent Island I knew I am needed here. Other than Baltimore, I'm willing to say that this county is the most heroine plagued place in Maryland. I came into the area with 7 investigators, all of which have gone their own ways already. Each was highly addicted to heroine. One in particular, Joe, came to our appointment at the church building 100% high on the stuff. Even scarier, he DROVE to the church by himself. Having never seen him before, my first impression was seeing him drape himself on Elder Teichert and just cry ad cry and cry. I've never seen such an enormous tattooed man cry so much in my life. We ended up baby sitting him in the Church Chapel for 3 hours until his high had subsided and he was ok to drive again. In that time we had some of the most interesting conversations to help this man change his life, all while he was heavily under the influence. Bless his soul, I love him. His phone, however was insanely sketchy. He wants to change his life and never take a drug again. Prison has made a 5 year block in his life already and he said he'd rather die than go back. We discovered that a huge problem were the dozens of dealers constantly texting him to buy. Those text conversations were terrifying. So we went through each of the contacts with him on whether the person was a "good guy" or "bad guy". By the end of the purge his contacts had gone from 350 something to about 15. Don't worry, we blocked the numbers too :)

Seeing the substantial hindrance of drugs corrupt and destroy normally soft hearts hits me hard. I'd be willing to say over half of the people I street contacted this week had been or are currently addicts. THe saddest part is, they are some of the nicest, loving people!! Seeing them in despair and loneliness with no hope within sight leads me to throw on the gloves and enter the ring. These people need the undeniable, completely reliable love and hope of God. Life revolves around us in hundreds of separate lives going hundreds of different ways. But leaving everything else behind in pursuit of the one lost sheep from the 99 is all that is important. Love in our own lives is designed to be shared with others. They may not look pretty, they may not smell good, and they may have a massive great dane named Cain, but they need an outstretched hand.

Time to tackle the storm 

hehe

xoxo

Elder Burgess