Nick arrived safely in Weiser, a tiny town nothwest of Boise on the Oregon border. His companion is Elder Kimball. He likes rap music and basketball. They can't listen to rap, but they can play basketball. They play about the same and are both very competitive, so Nick thinks they should always be on the same team. The house they live in is legit. It's a crazy grandparents' house with crazy carpeting, but they live by themselves. It's nice to have privacy, they can lay on the couch and read without worrying about anyone walking in. But the house is pretty dirty, so he will have to clean it.
There are lots of farms in Weiser, and Nick still hates farms. He said that although everyone makes fun of him for being afraid of birds, a rooster chased him around the freakin' field. So he thinks people should stop giving him grief about the bird thing. They had lots of turkeys too, and he thought those things were pretty scary. They're going back to buck hay on Saturday, but the chickens and turkeys will be kept away.
Nick said his first week in Weiser was pretty nuts. It's a lot like Buhl, but it's nicer, has more people, and it doesn't smell bad because there is no fish food factory. There are some pretty interesting people there, he already met some crazy small town people. The first guy he met was a ward missionary who stopped by the house to meet him. The companion offered him lunch, but he said he was alright because he'd just had a cup of coffee and a cigarette, then apologized for his weakness. Here's the craziest story: Thursday around 10:00 pm, there was a knock on the door. Nick's companion was in the shower, so Nick answered the door. It was Johnny, one of their investigators. He came right in and sat on the couch. He was quite drunk and was crying his eyes out. Apparently he and his wife had split up and he wasn't taking it well and just needed someone to talk to. When the companion heard what was going on, he didn't come out of the bathroom. Nick was happy to help, but it was quite an interesting way to meet him.
But they also met some of the coolest people ever! Cody is a member, his wife isn't, and they have a young baby. They apparently got upset at a previous missionary and cancelled Anna's baptism date, and didn't want the missionaries to come back for awhile. So they went back over to start re-building the relationship, and it was awesome. They got along great. After they talked for awhile, Anna said she was ready to take the lessons again. She knew she needed to quit drinking and get baptized so that she and Cody and the baby could be sealed as a family. Seeing Anna get baptized is a Weiser goal. By the next lesson, Anna had read a lot of the Book of Mormon. They are his favorite people to teach in Weiser.
They were teaching Julie, and her friend Mark came by. He's a Jehovah's Witness and thinks he's pretty tough and cool because he killed some people in the army. Mark decided to highjack the lesson and was throwing out all kinds of stuff. Elder Kimball is new and just froze. Nick had to try hard not to yell and bible bash. Mark thought the concept of the different levels of heaven was stupid so Nick read him about five scriptures from the bible about it. Mark said, "well, you're assuming, and you know what happens when you assume." Then Julie said, "no, Mark you made an *** out of yourself a long time ago when you attacked their religion." So Nick started laughing so hard. Long story short, he won, Mark lost.
There is a member family in Weiser that his friend Elder Beard told him was pretty cool. They invited the elders over for scrabble Sunday, and Nick figures he can dominate since he knows so many words being a rapper and all. The Brown family is pretty cool. Brother Brown knows football, so Nick loves to talk sports with him. Most people in Weiser talk about horses and farming, and Nick doesn't know anything about either. The Browns rank all of the missionaries and said Elder Beard will always be number one, so Nick's goal is to be number two.
One day all of their appointments kept canceling and Nick said he had to spend every day for the next week comforting his companion over it. He said you can't be depressed over one day because a mission is two years.
He started getting up at 6:00 a.m. instead of 6:30 everyday--torture. They play basketball at the church at seven two days a week, and the other days he did it just because he was in the habit of it. The group that plays basketball is pretty intense. They're all older and can't move very well, so they just hit each other. The team he was on won every game both days, so he was happy about that. He got a nasty elbow to the nose, but no blood (and never has).
They were invited to a recent convert's temple sealing, and it was the first one that Nick got to see. He definitely felt something very strong there, and is excited to do it someday. It was awesome just to see it.
He was on exchanges in Payette with another elder, and someone crashed into their car. Luckily they were okay, but the car was in pretty bad shape.
The third week in Weiser, Nick wrote that he'd had a pretty successful week as a missionary and as a human being. And that he is now a chef. When he was in Kuna, Elder Flores from Italy was teaching him to make real Italian food. So he's practicing a little in Weiser. There is a farmer who gives them free milk, eggs, and STEAK, his favorite!!! And he's getting pretty good at cooking it. He's even done some fancy stuff like marinate it.
The people of Weiser hate Californians so Nick is trying to win the natives over with his wonderful basketball skills. He thinks the early morning basketball crowd already likes him.
The successful missionary part was that they watched every session of general conference with an investigator. The best was watching with Cody and Anna, and he thinks Anna is getting close to baptism!
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