Great Progress with Two Families, and Spiderman

This week was really hot. Really. Really. Hot. I guess, it wasn't so much hot as it was humid. We're not talking record-breaking highs here, but 95 degrees with 90% humidity is enough to make someone's shirt drenched after 4 hours.

I will begin with some serious news, and then I will discuss the humor that has occurred this past week. I find I have been lacking in the silliness department.

Good news is, Marty's court date has been pushed to October so that the lawyers can gather more evidence concerning the event. I was on exchange on Tuesday (AND WEDNESDAY. Talk about exhausting!), so I was informed that night after Elder Merrill talked to them. We're now taking this opportunity to allow the Spirit to mold their softened hearts. Faith and Marty have truly become humble. They came to church yesterday, and it seems like they're committed.

We're also working with a part-member family, the Garretts. Emily Garrett has been in the church her whole life, and her husband is a non-member. I get along with the Garretts extremely well. They consider us their friends and gladly have us over whenever we ask. They're getting back into reading the Book of Mormon and have grown a trust with us that I feel is the key to any progress occurring. Last night, we took a member family, the Dinkles (who I also have become very good friends with for nerdy reasons), to meet with the Garretts. Fantastic match-up. We're excited about the whole thing. Friends all around!

Now for the silly antics. We were stopped by a young African-American man that Elder Merrill knew in a previous area. He approached us as we walked down the road and was really friendly. He began to ask us questions. About spiders. This guy was anxiously engaged in hunting for spiders. We told him to look in gardens and stuff. He finally got to his point. He wants to be Spiderman. He seriously wanted to find a spider to bite him so that he could turn into Spiderman. We suggested he find a wolf spider. I taught him how to make a small ecosystem and everything. He wanted to catch a brown recluse spider at first, but those things eat away at your tissue when you get bitten. We also advised him to avoid black widows. He wondered if he should be bitten on the hand or the neck. We suggested the back of the arm. We spent a good half-hour discussing how this gentleman could actually acquire Spidey powers. It made me think of Elder Carter and the kind of conversations we had.

Elder Merrill had an interesting experience on exchanges, and the sisters in our district asked him to write a story about it. Then they asked me to illustrate his story. I'll type up the story when I get home, so I'll leave that story open for a couple months until I get home. But it was a very fun experience to draw up pictures for the story. I've had a couple chances these past two weeks to revive my creative abilities, and it makes me excited to unhinge them when I come home! Until then, I gotta work, work, work.

Love y'all! Have fun getting back into school!

-Elder Staib

I got to feed a bunch of really pretty goldfish! It was so much fun!

Elder Merrill and Jesse, from the Cabot ward, pretending to fly!

Elder Wheatley, who's in my district and was follow-up trained by Elder Kowalk, went to the same Tough Mudder my sister and brother-in-law went to!