Posted by:
randyj
(
)
Date: August 07, 2016 10:41PM
We were supposed to knock on doors every minute when we weren't teaching or going to church or on P-day, but if we had done that, we would have knocked on every door in our given area in just a few weeks. So we'd knock on doors for a couple of hours in the mornings, and a couple more in the afternoon. One of the nice things was when tracting away from our apartment, we'd get fish & chips & a soda from a corner deli. Sometimes we'd find a shady park bench to sit on while eating, and just pass the time. Sometimes there'd be a soccer or cricket match in the park to watch while eating.
We were supposed to work until 9:30 PM, but I never felt good about knocking on doors after dark. So, instead of just going home, we'd go to a library, bookstore, park, or anywhere that was interesting. I spent about half of my mission near the beach, so sometimes we'd walk or ride our bikes along the beach. If there were some church members in the area, we might stop by just to say hello and pass a little time. If there was another set of missionaries nearby we might stop by their flat and chat or whatever. One set of elders had a ring toss board on their wall, so we'd have ring toss contests. Anything for recreation and to pass the time.
When I was in Mackay, North Queensland, Australia (on the Great Barrier Reef), on Fridays, which was district study day, our four-man district would take the Toyota up the coast to one of the beach communities. We'd knock on doors for a couple of hours, then meet back at a store/deli and buy sandwich fixings or hot dogs and eat at a picnic table on the beach. Sometimes we'd stay until sunset and play on the beach.
When we tired of knocking on doors in the city, we'd ride our bikes out of town a few miles and knock on a few in the country. The purpose was to get some different scenery than anything else. One day, near the end of my mission, I was on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. We rode our bikes several miles inland to sightsee, and I got a flat tire. We had to walk all the way home.
We had some investigators in beach towns 10 or 12 miles away from our flat, so we'd take a bus down the coastal highway to see them. Those were scenic trips. In one town there was a cafe which made American-style hamburgers and milk shakes, which was rare for us, so we'd eat there before catching the bus back home.
And of course, on P-days, we'd play racquetball, or frisbee football, or go to museums, zoos, etc. In the tropics, we had a few water balloon fights on P-days too. But we never went in the ocean, because Satan controlled the waters.