Alot has happened this weekend. I dont know where to start.
Most of the missionaries in Tuscaloosa are staying in Tuscaloosa.  We just needed a new missionary since Elder Lacour is gone.  So now I am with Elder Peters, (a utah mormon), which a really nice change, he following the rules.  Elder Osiemo is with Elder Gale.  Which is very interesting to me because Elder Gale was somebody that was with me in the MTC.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody. For us, we stayed at members home. Our choices were either the Mays, or the Blowers. One set of missionaries would go to one.  Bro. Mays said who likes Pumpkin pie?  Nobody had a preference so I said I do.  He then said that I am going to the Blowers ...lol  I found out they don't really like pumpking pie or any fruit pie. So it worked out, I didn't care.  With the Blowers we had a feast:  Turkey (of course), mashed potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese, bread rolls, develed eggs, some kind of marshmellow salad (it was good), and ...green bean casserole.  It actually took me by surprise since I was talking about it earlier that day.  It felt like I was at home.   There were a bunch of pies as well (pumpkin, apple, chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate).  The other Elders appeared to have a good time too, they said they saw the table and it was filled with pies, bro Mays said we take out dessert pretty seriously lol.  Thanksgiving was great, we played a game that was i think called retumpki which is kind of like phase 10, and we also played the life inspiring game of life.
  Its kind of hard to do missionary work during the holidays because we know that everybody is either away from town, or coming in from somewhere to visit family.  I wouldn't want to bother them so we really would just bike down some streets and just talk to people that are not at home.  It gets actually pretty effective because we did find some people that would be interested. It seems more appropriate then just knocking on their front door.
  We met someone a while ago through tracting.  Her name is Shirley.  We offered a blessing and asked what we could bless her for.  She said she wanted to quit smoking and that she had back pains.  She is one that has a lot of faith, because she refuses any medication and just relies upon God's help.  So she appreciated the blessing very much.  We go to her place occasionally to visit her.  She is such a sweet lady.  We have to talk to her at the doorstep since an other man is usually somewhere out.  The next time we talked to her was about the restoration.  For the most part she knows what we shared, until we talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She was fascinated about it. We gave her a restoration pamphlet and a copy of the book of mormon.  The next time we met, she said she was amazed at how much of this has been hidden from the world.  Shes been comparing the Book with the Bible using the footnotes.  Its just a challenge to get her to church.  Her sister takes her to a church called Double Portion.  (Im amazed at how many churches there are here in the south.) Which meets at the same time as ours.  So we just got to talk to her sister and hope that she is receptive to our message.  We got her in our prayers.
  There are a bunch of other people we are visiting that just have a problem getting to church.  Some just have a challenge getting up on time.
I do feel that the more I read the scripture through the lens of a missionary, I am more capable of sharing a story that would apply to the individual.  Like one time I shared the story of Nathanael in John 1 to someone, and it was just off the top of my head, and Elder Peters backed me up since he read that story that very day.  The story basically explains that Philip received an assignment to invite Nathanael to see Jesus.  Sort of a missionary experience where he simply says "come and see"
Well thank you all for all your support, hope you guys are experiencing you weeks better than ever.  I received some letters from pleasant hill, thanks to the Phillips.
"take care now y'all"
Jacob