Elder Balzer - 7/3/2023

There's been a lot of service this week and if body parts could talk my back would be cussing me out. 

United community wasn't that bad, Brother Osipchaks mud mine was hard mainly because it was after the bad service. On Friday we were asked to help a less active family move apartments in the square. Ww showed up, but we were the only ones there. Everyone else was either gone, or getting ready to help another family move the next day(weak excuse i know). So it was just us and some random guy who showed up towards the the tail end of us being there. I'm glad he showed cause there was no way we could have gotten some of the heavy stuff in. I was completely drenched in sweat and shaking at the end from exhaustion and humidity; Hiner had to day a prayer just to get the last box. After hours, we got a good amount of it, but had to go and collapse for a minute.

Anyway I got better, but my message gun had its work cut out for it. 

The rains have just been coming down this week, the summer storms havent been that fierce, just constantly here. At least it's actual rain and not the sky spit mist that happens. I've fortunately avoided it and used a gadget that's not commonly known, an umbrella. Sadly my comp didn't avoid it and got soaked along with Elison on our Tuesday exchange, it just crept up on them.

That exchange was a blast, especially cause it felt like old times working with Elder Moss again. We had an awesome day and had some cool lessons. Plus we stopped by Huntley Meadows park to end the night and I saw beavers, full beavers 🦫 

It was awesome!

Grashia has been a Rollercoaster, a fun one that I would go on again. We've been having a lot of lessons with her, praying with her, calling her, talking about spiritual experiences she has had, and setting up her baptismal calendar with her. 

She had a really cool moment where she realized how much panic social media was causing so she deleted her other apps and focused on Gospel Library. She said that she needed to trust Jesus more cause the panic was making her faith waver, so she made a change on her own(plus help from the temple visitor center people). 

So we are helping her out and it's going well and the ward is being a lot of help. 

Two more cool moments for the week was going on another exchange with Elder Elison cause Moss was sick. So I got to be back on the bikes again, in my old area. Talk about a blast from the past and it was pretty fun, except for the bike back home. Turns out summer heat, humidity(thAts so thick now it fogs my glasses right when i leave the car), and the thick smoke from Canada burning(its happened a lot) didn't mix well. Plus I'm also really out of shape, so it was a wake up call to start working out again. 

Another was going to a hospital to visit a sick member from the Huntley ward that Sis Webb(the OG) asked us to see. He was very sweet and bore his testimony about the church and thanked us deeply. I hope he gets out soon, poor guy. 

This has been a busy week with new member visits and trying out new areas to work cause I've done the big spots way too much so I'm giving them space. I need something new after 6 months in an area. It's been good. 

Also if you ever feel like your getting crapped on remember that there's a always a brighter side. Plus I also had a bird crap on me so I can relate.