Letter from 6-10-13

Well, over here in Braksa things continue to get interesting. First off, we were
on a really bad Tornado Warning earlier this week. We were told not to go
outside. All of Braksa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, etc were on red alert. Sis.
Davis, who has lived here her whole life, said she had never seen anything like
it. And we had just had a lesson about signs of the second coming on Sunday. :)
Alas, we saw no tornadoes. :( Dang.

As for the people, the plot thickens! Sis. Anderson and I have been asking
ourselves over and over again "why are the less actives here SO against going to
church now?" We found out yesterday that about nine years ago, a couple had
moved into the branch. They were go getty sort of people, and so they
volunteered to help with everything. They also thought everyone should do things
there way, which of course ticked some people off. The branch president, who
wasn't very experienced at the time, tried to calm the situation down, but
unintentionally put gas on the flames. Things got heated, so bad that the branch
was split in two. A lot of people stopped coming. So with that, and then the
constant anti-mormon stuff being spread (which has increased dramatically ever
since we showed up, no surprise there), it's made Holdrege a VERY difficult
area. Yesterday was the worst I've seen. It was door slam after door slam.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have one new investigator who seems like he
has a lot of potential. His name is Jeff. The last time the missionaries visited
him, he wasn't interested, but since then he's gone through a lot of trials that
have really humbled him. We also met his daughter, Melissa, which was a crazy
experience. She told us she loved missionaries, and that was exactly why she
didn't want to talk to us because she didn't want to get attached. But she still
talked to us a bit, then she gave Sis. Anderson a quick hug, then when she
hugged me, she started crying and wouldn't let go. I was just like "whoa, what?"
But I hugged her back and told her it would be okay. After that she just poured
her heart out to us, and it was a serious holy crow moment. In the end she said
we could keep visiting her, so long as we didn't use the B word (baptism). It
will be interesting to see where that goes.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. Nobody's ever home, so most of the
time it feels like we're just running around pointlessy until we're exhausted.
But apparently it's causing small town gossip about Mormons. Planting seeds!