hows it going yall?  (I say that on purpose, I dont really have the southern accent)  Most of the missionaries here have been here for a while and they don't have an accent either.  Some do though, but I think it is because they want to.
  Last week we had zone conference.  All the missionaries in the Bessemer zone met in the Bessemer building.  One thing I noticed was that these missionaries on average are very tall.  The average height is like 6'.  I'm surrounded by towers.  We could just start a basketball team and start dominating.  Anyway, we learned a lot from this meeting, the mission president spoke to us - he is very bold and loud, an excellent speaker for an area like this.  The main thing that they trained us about was to give a blessing to the people that we approach: members, investigators that we have been teaching, or simple strangers when we meet them at their door step.  It gets pretty awkward when we offer a blessing to random strangers.  It is a interesting tool to try out though, it brings out the two extremes: "a blessing? sure! come on in" or "what did you say? your a cult get out of here!"  nah we dont get much of the latter because people here are nice.  We normally just get a "no thanks" type response.  Or they don't really acknowledge that we are there to give a blessing, but they see our shirt, tie, and name tag and think that we are part of another religion, therefore we can't give a blessing.
  Well, it sometimes works.  we have been seeing this lady name Lora.  I think i mentioned her before, she lives in a ghetto apartment surrounded by, to put it blunt, 'evil people'.  We met here, and we always ask her how she is doing.  She always responds: not good.  And she has reasons.  I wont go into details, but she has been having severe problems regarding her health, her family, and her living situation.  We didnt know how to respond.  Elder Lacour said that he will share a scripture and that I will leave a blessing.  This happened yesterday, I don't even remember the scripture he shared.  I asked her if she believes that we have the priesthood authority. she said of course.  So I acted by the priesthood authority to leave a blessing.  I blessed her health, her family, her living situation, and that she will be able to bear the struggles that she is going through.  I also mentioned that Christ peace will enter this place.
  In the zone training when they taught us to give blessings, they shared the story when Jesus usually greeted people, he said "shallom" which by interpretation means "peace, be unto you".
As I closed the blessing, she burst into tears.  This person, like most of us, cant control what happens next week.  There wasn't much we could do to help, but we knew God could.  As we departed she said, I feel much better.
It was a good feeling.
  I must be honest, I have grown to hate my companion. :)  Much of the decisions he makes I don't agree with.  The fact that he is leaving this wednesday brings joy to me lol.  He's from LA, CA area about to go to college in utah.  He talks about football and politics alot. He is very conservative.  Which I guess helps in this area because football and politics are huge topics here.  But I tend to forget that I am a missionary.
Argh, im just mad mainly because of what happened yesterday.  After that big spiritual moment, we continued to tract university village.  We decided to go see someone we have been teaching.  His roomate showed up and basically said i dont want to be a jerk but we're not interested go away.  It made me mad cuz his roomate kicked us out.  I was a little flustered that night, and still am a little.
 This week we will try to start focusing on getting members to teach with us.  After wednesday, I will be in a trio until transfers next week.  I am excited about that, I ll be with Elders Osiemo and Peters.  3 companions in one transfer.
  We got a referral.  She came to stake conference with us.  Gracie and Walter.  Walter encouraged her to check out this church, Gracie's sister is a member and has been studying the scriptures with her.  They are excited for us to teach them.
  On a spiritual note, one of the speakers at stake conference was President Archibald, who is an institute teacher.  One of the things he said was that we need to sit up straight and square, like a fighter pilot about hit the eject button, because if we are a little off, the seat that is about to launch you at like 200 mph may break your back.  In comparison, he said we must be ready cuz you never know when you're thrown in a position where things are moving too fast to handle.  He related to how much progress this mission is building, especially with the age change. Next year, the number of missionaries are going to double.
Anyway, take care yall
Elder Miklich