Bovinephobia and In Loving Memory

Not a whole lot happened this week but I do have a few good stories

Bovinephobia:

Earlier this week we headed out into the country to find a less active member. We didn't have her number or email or really any form of contact information, just her address-- out in the middle of nowhere. When we got to the address there were actually 2 houses that matched the address. One had a really long dirt driveway, the other was just on the side of the road. We first attempted to go down the one with the long driveway. There was a cattle guard separating the dirt driveway from the highway and as we drove along and noticed some cows along the side of the driveway. There was no fence separating us from them but I didn't think it was a big deal, however,  Elder Rowley was nervous. The cows started trotting after us, not really running but trotting. Elder Rowley gunned it for the house eventually we passed over another cattle guard so the cows didn't follow us. We pulled up and realized that this couldn't possibly be the place so we turned around and drove back to the highway. The cows followed us again.

"They can't hurt us if we're in the car right?" Elder Rowley nervously asked.

I replied, "I guess if they really wanted to they could charge at the car, which could do some damage." He didn't like that answer. 

 We pulled up to the other and we took one look at it and despite all the "No Trespassing" signs we knew it was abandoned. 

So we turned around and headed down the driveway again, it had to be the house we were looking for. This time, twice as many cows were there and they followed us maybe a little faster than they did before but probably because we were driving faster. Elder Rowley floored it and was freaking out. Eventually we passed the cattle guard and parked. I walked up to the steps, "Wait, don't knock," he said.

"Why?" I said,

"Because they're going to pull a gun on us and murder us."

"Why do you think that? This is a really nice expensive house, usually rich people don't try and murder you."

"I-I just do." He stammered.

I insisted that we would be fine and that it didn't even look like anyone was home anyway but he refused to leave the side of the car, so I headed back to the car. 

I leaned on the car and  pulled out my tablet to make a note that we weren't exactly sure if this was the correct address. As I was typing Elder Rowley yelled at me "Get in the car!" As he slid into the driver seat and slammed his door. 

Tired of his attitude I said, "what's the hurry? I'm just writi-" he pointed forward and I saw a massive pitbull and some other dogs running towards me. I quickly entered the car and locked the doors. 

We turned around and as we drove back towards the cattle guard we saw the cows standing there watching us on the other side of the fence. Elder Rowley' s face turned white "We can outrun them right?" 

"What the cows? Probably not," I said, "but it's not like they're going to do anything to us."

I started laughing at the fact that these cows were standing there watching us and mooing menacingly. I rolled down the window (The pitbull was gone at this point) to get a better look at them. Elder Rowley started yelling at me like I was putting our lives in danger.

"Just drive through," I laughed. 

"You think this is funny?! Those things are going to murder us! Stop laughing! This isn't funny! What are we going to do?!" He screamed

"If you're that worried  just turn around and we'll find someone that lives here and they'll help us." I said, still laughing.

"NO! THEY'LL MURDER US TOO!" He screamed at me, "THIS ISN'T FUNNY!!!" (it was pretty funny)

Eventually, we found another way out and we didn't see any cows after that. 

Later, a member informed us that if a cow sees your car it thinks you have food so that's why they follow you.

In Loving Memory:

This one is shorter,

We were cleaning up our area book and we found records of this guy named Jose that was last taught by the missionaries a year and a half ago. Pretty much everyone in our area book was last taught over a year ago so that's a pretty normal thing for us to run into. 

We knocked on Jose's door and this girl answers. I noticed on her shirt the word "Jose" so I read everything on her shirt, "In Loving Memory of Jose T****" with a birth and death date listed and a picture of a young man on there. Inside I see other people wearing the same shirt, I think they were having a memorial service or something for him. I look at Elder Rowley I realize he can't see her shirt, I try to think of something that will avoid a very awkward conversation but everything I think of is going to make it more awkward. He opens his mouth, "Hey, does Jose still live here?" He asks. 

"You mean like, Jose T****?" She says with a very sad look on her face

"Yeah, is he around?"  He says

"Um... No. He's dead." 

I do a Jim Halpert stare at my shoes and it felt like we stood there for a very long time. 

Wanting to get out of this as quick as possible Elder Rowley introduces us, asked if she had much faith in Christ, she said yes. He asked if she went to church much she said no.

Then, still feeling awkward I just loudly bore my testimony of Christ and said the true gospel has been restored. and briefly talked about the Plan of Salvation. We asked if she was interested in our message and if we could stop by at a better time and she said sure and we set up an appointment. 

That's how we turned an awkward moment into a new investigator.

I love you all a lot and I love hearing from all of you,

--Elder Murdoch