One Month Down 9/29/25

What's up everyone, I feel like it was yesterday that I wrote my last email but I guess that's a good thing, here's a quick breakdown of my week.

Monday

First p day in the field and I went and blew 90 bucks at guitar center. Went to the office mueseum in Scranton and it kinda sucked tbh. Called my family all day it was great.

Tuesday

Had a service project at a hoarders house, it was gross. Everytime I picked up a box there was a cloud of cat hair that came off it. Cat poop was also everywhere, however as payment she said we could each pick something out of her food storage. EVERYTHING was expired so we walked away with some protein powder, not sure if we're going to try it or not but whatever. Also had my first member meal with an interesting couple. The husband only spoke english and the wife only spoke spanish so I have no idea how they even got married in the first place. Super nice though.

Wednesday

Pretty boring just phone calls and knocking doors all day.

Thursday

Hit my one month mark and I had my first exchange so the whole day I hung out with Elder Thompson. Dude is a full blown nerd, like dungeons and dragons and anime nerd but I love the dude. I was able to chanel my inner nerd and we bonded over cartoons and he suprisingly had a decent music taste. That night we put some chili in a crockpot and the next morning we woke up and ate some breakfast chili with our little squad.

Friday

Moved this senior couple out of their home. Got some lemon bread out of it so that was good. Played some chess at Jack's house and that night we had another member meal with the Hopkins. They are my new favorites, they are super nice and really easy to talk to. Talked sports for the first time in forever which was so nice. They were also making fun of my Utah accent, I knew I didn't say my T's like i pronounce mountain as "mounan" but I didn't know I suck at my S's. for example I don't say Joseph Smith i say "jozuf smith".

Saturday

This day was crazy, on Facebook we have videos and people can click the links and fill out a form to request a meeting from the missionaries. We get this referral right as we wake up so we call this lady up and she was catholic. She told us how we were wrong and we're crazy and all that but she invited us over so we could argue. So we drive over there and she stood us up. Never been stood up by a middle aged woman before so it was rough. Then we knocked some doors and ran into papa smurf (I'll get into in a sec).

Sunday

Really chill day which is nice. My comp is the district leader so he has zoom meetings all day and I just hang out and play the guitar all day. At church our boy Jack got the priesthood and I was able to stand in the circle. The spirit was so strong that Jack started crying! To let you know how crazy this is this dude is like a blue collar no bs kind of guy. Never thought I'd see this dude break down but after being catholic for 80 years and being LDS for two I'm sure this was quite the experience for him. I'm super grateful to be part of this guys journey.

I'm going to do a new segment in these emails, crazy guy of the week.

This weeks crazy guy of the week is Papa Smurf! On saturday we were knocking doors and when we see a guy out on the street we ask if they want to go to church. I see a guy whose about to hop in his car so I hit him with a "Hey man you want to come to church?" he hits me with a hard no and I say God bless and we keep walking. After about 30 seconds this dude runs us down and stops us. He said he had something to say and he wanted us to just listen to him with an open mind. I thought okay thats easy enough. He said how we need to consider how we could be wrong, fair enough I can consider that. Then he starts going on about how we have undiagnosed mental illnesses. The problem with listening to this guy with an open mind was he was COVERED in blue paint. Like arms and clothes but especially his face. He was bald and the paint stopped at where his hairline would have been so the top of his head was shiny from the sun and the rest of him was blue. Not sure if he was huffing it or painting for work but either way I think some sort of fumes were getting to this guy.

Anyway miss you guys, I know I never respond when you guys reply to my email but I promise I love reading them, keep me in the loop I want to hear about what life is like back home.

Love yall, Elder Monroe out.