A Muppet?

Hello Sam Sparks!! I'm America!                                                             Aug. 11, 2014

    There is a guy in town running for state representative for Tennessee who's name is mike sparks. and every time we see one of his campaign signs Elder A and i just say in our reporter voices, "Hello Sam Sparks, I'm America." which is a quote from cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Well one day we were tracting down some random road and we meet this really nice baptist woman who says she isn't interested but says she knows some members in our ward. when elder Allen asks her name she says, "Felicia Sparks. Mike is my husband." and points to the "mike sparks for representative" sign. 

    So, lets see, what's new going on out here......

    Our church building is fixed!!!! it felt so good to be in our building again.

    Tyron was able to make it to church again this week. still only for an hour, but we're working on it. he actually was only able to make it to the 1 o'clock session which is technically rock springs ward but, good enough for jazz. (i wonder how that saying came to be) We're actually almost done teaching tyron. we only have about 2 more principles in laws and ordinances to teach him and he's done. we keep trying to get a baptismal date for him but he still doesn't feel like he's ready. (proceed to pull out hair) 

    He's actually started calling me king Felix. Which at first, i thought was a reference to the bible, Acts 23:26. but no. Apparently, there is a baseball player with the nick name king Felix. so, i'm a baseball player.
    One thing i've noticed about black people including tyron, they could be big anything and they will still have the limp fish hand shake. anytime we shake a black persons hand, it's basically me holding their lifeless hand.
    We have a new/old investigator. I think I've talked about brook. Brook is a investigator that i met when i first got out here. she has two children, is fighting for custody of one of them, lives with her sister and is currently working at McDonalds. well, we had a baptismal date for her on the 5th of July, but we could never get through her lessons cause her 7 year old daughter, kaylie, is rather hyper and is always begging for attention. right now we are actually still trying to complete the commandments with her. we'll sometimes just stop by and see how she's doing and see if we can read a quick chapter of the book of Mormon with her. well, lately her sister, Savannah, has been sitting in on the scripture reading and originally, she was not interested at all. well, since coming and reading the scriptures with us, she has now attended a child's baptism in our ward, and she came to church on Sunday. And minus the swearing, she's practically a dry Mormon. now we need to share the restoration, plan of salvation, and gospel of Jesus Christ with her and she'll be caught up with her sister.
    We got a new bishopric yesterday. When we both got out here, the bishopric was Bishop lifferth, Brother Warren and Brother Tigert. And just like the ward back home, the two councilors are a bit older than the bishop and they still have more hair. Bishop L was excited to be out of the bishopric but the other two were kind of emotional about it. Well, the new Bishopric consists of Bishop Denise, Brother Vines, and Brother Whitaker. Brother Vines and Brother Whitaker are both some what aged men and Bishop Denise Is probably let 30's or early 40's and the councilors still have more hair.

    The funny thing is, Elder A and i where at the vines a couple of weeks ago, talking about brother vines son and daughter in law and their situation, when brother vines gets a call. he doesn't know the number but says he should take the call. he answers it and the next thing he says is, "Hello President." The stake president had called him while we were at his house and at first we're thinking, "Ha, he's going to get called to either young men's presidency or high council." after the stake president called out the new bishopric, it all made sense.

    It'll be an interesting bishopric cause brother vines is a man that doesn't mince words. he lets you know what he's thinking. as well as uses a colorful vocabulary. and brother Whitaker barely ever has a smile. when ever i go shake his hand and ask how he's doing, he always says, "fine" and asks how i'm doing and i say, "Fantastic" or "doing well" to which he replies, "Oh cheer up." or "don't worry, it'll get better". Now i know he's joking but at the same time, he needs to take his own advice. And Bishop Denise is one of those guys that tries to blend in with the crowd. this bishopric is going to be a school of fish out of water.

    And now a list of people I've been compared to now.

1. My Dad (never heard that one before)

2. My Brother (what? nooo)

3. A Muppet (ya. a Muppet)

4. Julian Smith

5. A ward member that I've never met and i don't remember his name.

    The Muppet story is, Elder A and i went to zone conference is murfreesboro, and sister king comes up to me and says, "Has anyone ever told you you look like a Muppet?" (insert awkward silence here) "uh what?" "ya you totally look like a Muppet. like you have the facial features of a Muppet and i could totally just see you running around flailing your arms about your head." (insert second awkward silence) "umm thank you?" "you are so welcome." she then goes and tells her companion, sister Richardson (the same sister Richardson that came out with me) and so she starts laughing and starts spreading that around. i am now known as the mission Muppet.

    I then decided to roll with it so when we are about to leave, i throw my hands in the air, give a muppetish scream, and run. that got quite a laugh out of the sisters.

    It seems there is always something that you say, "we'll never get a ____" but then as soon as one of your kids leaves on a mission, let's get a wii, i don't know if you got anything for malayna, let's get a dog. :)

              Miss y'all. Love,

                                 -Elder Felix