Tis spooky time!

Hope y'all are ready for a ghost story, because I've got one coming right towards ya!

But, that was later in the week, so you're gonna have to wait.

This week started off pretty normal, all things considered. That was until we had the AP's come do an exchange with us. This experience really taught me that there are different missioaries out there, who do things very differently then how I or my companions would. 

We got to talk with a lot of people that day, so many that I can't really remember them all . We got do meet 2 different hunters, who oddly enough both had recently come home from hunting, so that was pretty cool... we got to see one of them packaging up antelope, so that was pretty neat.

So I didn't realize it, but apparently we had some goat meat hiding in the freezer... the AP decided to cook it up for his lunch, and DAAAANG that stuff smelled awesome! Problem was, I could tell that the air was getting foggy, so I opened the door to let the smoke out. My comp saw what I was doing and said "Elder Bahnmiller, you don't need to leave the door open. It's not going to smoke." Okay.....

I left the door closed, and sure enough, 20 minutes later the smoke alarm goes off. I just look at my companion like  and he just looked at me like , so that was pretty funny. Come on people, I got experience with this lol. Half of the stuff I cooked burned, so I ought to know when there will be smoke, even if it was technically "invisible". I learned a pretty cool lesson from that though. We may not see the smoke that signals the burning around us, because to us it may seem invisible. But the prophet (uh oh, did I just liken myself to a prophet?) can see the smoke, and warns us before anything bad happens.

Whats crazy is that the moment the door was opened for the second time, everyone in the apartment was able to see the smoke that hung around us.

Alrighty... I promised a ghost story, didn't I?

This week we had a bit of an encounter with the paranormal. Me and my companions were out tracting and got to the point where we were doing what we called "inspired knocking" which really just means that we would knock on the doors that we felt inspired by the spirit to knock on. Anyway, my companions got a phone call, so they were very busy with that when all of a sudden I felt I needed to look up and to my right. When I did, I saw someone in a dark covered patio watching us. Kinda creepy, but Ok. I pointed him out to my companions, and after there phone call we went and started to talk to him. He seemed wary at first, but after we didn't prove to be malicious, he let us onto his patio and we began to talk with him. We talked with him about the next life, and he explained something that I thought was kinda scary but also really cool. He said that the reason he was out on his patio was because his motion detector had picked up an "orb". An orb, he explained, was a being from the other side that could see our entire existence by staring into our eyes. Ok, cool... he then explained he had come out of his house to try and find it, and he couldn't really see it, but the camera showed it was there. He then said that after a moment, the orb had zipped away towards us. At this point I'm rather skeptical, but people have interesting beliefs, I suppose. But, he did show us his security camera/motion detector. And, on it, was a blue orb that just floated there. After a minute we see him come out of his house on the camera, and he starts to investigate the orb, which he can't see, but he was looking at his phone to see its location. What startled me was when the orb zoomed away, the position that he was in was the same position I saw him in when I had spotted him on the balcony for the first time.

I don't know how I spotted him, because his balcony was very dark, but I think it's kinda cool. This I think really shows that no matter what you believe in, or see, missionaries are sent by God, and people (and orbs) realize that. I dunno if that "orb" was faked, but I guess I now have a spooky story I get to tell my future kids about lol

I would like to say that I don't really believe in ghosts. I know that there are people on the other side, such as deceased family and friends, who want the best for us. I also know that there are the 1/3 of heaven who followed satan, who wants our downfall. So, I know that there could be some "paranormal activity", but I don't let this kind of stuff shake me or my testimony in Christ. If its real, cool, it doesn't really affect me, so why change my testimony?

(By the way, sorry for the REEEEEALLY long email lol)

So, yeah. My spiritual message today is to not let outside influences damage your testimony. A lot of things in this world may seem upended or crazy. There are a lot of subtle and not so subtle events and people that vie for our attention and worship. Distractions. Distractions from the being we should put our faith and our testimony in. This being is Jesus Christ. Putting your testimony in him, and your faith, will calm your heart and ease your mind as you see things from and eternal or "Celestial" point of view.

Thanks everybody for reading! Have a great week!

- Elder Bahnmiller

(Also, quick shoutout to my parents for sending me the most glitter filled package history has ever seen. My apartment is positively covered in glitter now...)

1. A service project I got to participate in! I would have put in the story, but this email is to long already. Essentially, I picked rocks for 3 hours and helped build a canal for some water in a local elementary school. If you are confused, I am too.

2. A member here has his own desert turtle pets. I got to hold one (they are actually pretty heavy)

3. BREAKFAST FOR DINNER! LOOK AT THAT DAD, ITS A REAL FOOD PEOPLE HAVE FOR DINNER!!!! mwahahahaha! (For reference, my Dad for some reason doesn't think breakfast is a dinner food...)

4. A lego Eiffel Tower that the bishop here built with his family during fall break. From the perspective of a lego fan, this thing is dope.

5. Big spider that I found yesterday hanging over a members patio.