My Side Quest: Transfer Week

It's transfer week! You know what that means! I will be staying in my same place, and I get to stay with my same companion. I am glad to stay because of some people in particular, and I am ecstatic that I get to stay with Elder Stewart and continue driving him insane with my antics.

Do you remember the lady who was drunk and then she started taking lessons and came to church with us? On the spookiest night of the year, we had a lesson with her at another member's home. It went really well, and in the end, I invited her to be baptized. She excitedly accepted, saying that she would've been baptized yesterday if possible. My luck has changed! She has been baptized before in another religion, and in my experience, the people who have been baptized in the past are adamant about not getting baptized a second time. She is one of the reasons I am glad to stay here. I will get to see it through to the end.

We have been doing service at a bike shop every week. If any stranger goes to the shop and does 20 hours of service, they will earn a bike. There is five of us who do it, and we do it for two hours a week, and so we've earned like three bikes. Because of us, any missionary who comes out and doesn't have a bike can come in and take one for free! It's exciting for us, because we have turned the bike shop around. We painted nearly the entire thing, cleaned things up, organized, and made it a friendlier place. The owner loves us and is very grateful for our help. He fixes missionary bikes for free when they help him. Thank goodness, because mine has been giving me trouble with the chain. Like once every other week, the chain falls off and I have to stop and fix it, and my companion doesn't notice until he's ridden four streets away.

One night, we were riding our bikes up some crazy intense hill in the rain. It was coming down so hard that I was having trouble seeing. We were on our way to a media referral, meaning that someone went onto LDS.org or something and requested to meet with missionaries. We had to travel through a gate which was open, and then continued up a miserable hill. When we got to the home, we found out that it was just a member who went to a temple open house and filled out a comment card, saying she loved it.

"That was alright, I suppose." I sighed as we got back onto our bikes. The hill we had just traversed was extensively long, and the cold rain made it worse. "Well, lets just try and find someone." We began our ride through the cold rain again. In a moment, we were traveling at high speeds through the stormy night. We flicked on the flashlights on the bikes to increase visibility. The rain started to fall quicker. I was temporarily blinded from being struck in the eyeball with a drop of liquid terror.

A bad feeling crept into my heart. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but the feeling got even worse. I squinted through the air, searching for any sign of disturbance. A glint of light reflected off of a gate which wasn't there before.

"Elder!" I cried. We grabbed our brakes as tight as our freezing fingers could allow. My brakes stopped me near immediately, but Elder Stewart skidded for at least 30 yards. He came to a complete stop less than a foot away from the gate. I caught my breath and dismounted the bike. "Good grief, Elder, you almost ended your entire career." I wiped water from my forehead and slapped his back.

"I know! That was scary."

"Who do they think they are, not allowing representatives of Christ to leave this neighborhood?" I angrily spoke while grabbing the bars of the gates. There was no emergency escape switch, and the space beneath the gate wouldn't allow our bikes to fit through.

"Imbeciles." He spat while shaking his head. I sighed and stared up the hill. There were no houses until fairly high up, and our legs were already nearly dead.

"I will not allow this." I turned back towards the gate and gripped it.

"Elder Ruth."

"Unacceptable." I pushed on the gate. It failed to budge. I pushed a little harder. No budging was to be had. "I will liberate us." I pressed my feet into the ground and pushed as hard as I could. The gate moved a fraction of an inch. "I can do this." I whispered to myself. I pushed even harder, and a crack of freedom showed itself.

"Elder Ruth!"

"No!" I cried through the dark rain. "I can do this!" I pushed as hard as I could and made a space wide enough for him and his bike. "Quickly! I can't hold open the rift forever!" My strength was rapidly leaving me. Elder Stewart quickly shuffled through with his bike. "It's too late for me, just get out of here!"

"Not without you! He yelled back. We locked eyes in determination. He ran back into captivity and grabbed my bike. He was once again on the other side of my bike.

"Remember me!!" My arms shook, nearly depleted of enerygy.

"Come on, you can do this!"

"THERE'S ONLE ROOM FOR ONE--oh yeah..." I slipped through the gate and allowed it to slam shut. I fell to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.

Anyways, the church is true. Seriously. It can be hard sometimes, most of the time, or all the time, but Jesus suffered for everything that you suffered for so that He would know how to comfort you. I must go, I am out of time.