QUESTIONS:
Did you get the ward bulletin? yes! It was funny to see
Andre Either made the bulletin I couldn't believe all the announcements
either. Do we still have some singers in the southern California Mormon choir?
Do you do service on other days besides your p-day?
yes. we actually don't do any service on p-day. I few people
have asked us about that, but I feel like I've never heard of missionaries
doing service on p-day. We do service every Tuesday with an old couple who
still get all their heating from burning wood, and have a giant property (they
used to raise Beefalo, a mix between cow and buffalo) and they always have
stuff for us to do. Also last week we went to 2 different soup kitchens to
volunteer. We'll try to pick on of them to be regular helpers at.
What did you have for dinner on Sunday?
Good question. We were at the Andersen's home. they really
felt like they knew someone else with connections at arcadia. Sister Andersen
asked if I new a Jim Fox in the ward. I said yes! tell brother fox I'm in his
cousin, Leslie Andersen's ward. Also they mentioned they were great friends
with Erica Moore! Ashley Andersen is home from BYU for the summer (1 year older
than me) and she said she was great friends with Erica. They told me I should
go out with her when I get back. I said that I didn't say hi to her in my
American Heritage class, so too late for that. All this was happening as we ate
some delicious taco's, and then chocolate cake. Logan Andersen (going to a be a
junior at high school next year) said he would invite his friend Ben to mutual
this week.
What did YOU think of the WW training?
It was good. I enjoyed watching it. The things that were
sort of new-ish were how much they are going to be implementing technology for
missionaries (no word for here in the MBM yet) and talking about having our
chapels open all the time for tours, so there's still some questions to be
answered. I think a lot of it is they just want to help people be missionary
minded in everyday life. There is no formula, it's just a lifestyle. I thought
the section of the faith needed for missionary work stuck out to me (and fun to
see young Monson). Last general conference in Elder Andersen's talk he gave a
promise that as people sincerely pray about who to share the gospel with names
and faces will come to mind. A few times here in Canton ward I feel like I've
seen that promise come true, but often people will say they prayed about it,
and "I thought of my co-worker _____, but she would never join because
_______ (is an atheist, or strong in another church, etc) and my friend_____
but I can't say anything to her because ______ (she would get offended, won't
ever be able to keep ____ commandment or etc) when in actuality a lot of these
people are being prepared to hear the gospel and we as imperfect people are
just unable to see it.
I wish I could have a hard copy of all that was said to read
it over, I'm sure there is more to be gleamed. One thing for me that stuck out
also (besides just another confirmation that working with the members is
central to everything) is we need to do a better job of having the ward
leadership come with us on some of our visits, both to less actives and
investigators.
Does each companionship have one phone to share?
yes. the AP's have a phone per each missionary though
When one missionary gets transferred, the phone stays there?
yup
How will it be decided who will get a car, who will get to
ride a bike?
It's all the mission president. It's part of the very tough
decisions they have to make
How are all your clothes holding up?
doing great. Maybe I'll get my suits and things dry cleaned
since I hit the year mark
How are the necks of your white shirts....as in dirty, or
clean?
doing fine. They don't ever come out sparkling shiny, but
it's not too bad.
Have you seen any other missionaries that wear a retainer at
night?
no, but many have admitted their supposed to. Some say
they're supposed to, but it doesn't fit anymore, so they don't. I'll make sure
I don't slip into that category.
Does your apartment have air conditioning?
yea, and it works well.
How are your shoes...wearing out?
doing just fine. My tennis shoes are doing fine also.
You guys did tons of stuff! it all
sounded fun. That's really exciting about Grandma too. What did she do to help
quit smoking? any of the old querky things like cinnamon sticks and gum?
Good to hear the many adventures we're
basically enjoyed by all, because even if something is worse than school, it's
ok as long as you don't get homework!
Too
bad about Christophers broken nose though! if it's going to happen,
basketball's a good way to do it at least. The first thing I thought when
reading that was the facemask thing.
did
Griffin
I
also got the package about my year mark. It was very fun. Greatly enjoyed Griffin 's talk, good to know dad is still throwing things
across the table and good to know Griffin
We helped
someone move I thought it was the perfect chance. It was admired by many.
Also,
at the top of the letter inside (EDITOR:inside the box that I sent for his 1 year anniversary) you put the quote by Elder Andersen "this
isn't missionary work, it's missionary fun" if you look at the talk (and
the footnote) you will see when he said that he was quoting something Jackson
Haight said to him over the phone about working on the digital mission here in
the Boston Mission. Jackson
Rubik's
cube: Now that I have one I feel the need to solve it once, then I can always
say I did. Can you send instructions? Elder Stevens was really excited to see I
got one and asked if he could scramble/solve it. I said only if he knew for
sure he'd be able to re-fix it afterwards, because I kind of liked having it
all lined up. The colors on it are cooler than regular ones. He scrambled it up
when I got it and has been tinkering with it since, to no avail. He's gotten
"very close" many times, but alas, we are not playing horse shoes.
We
played football last week like I said. It was very fun. Elder Stevens didn't
super want to go, but I'm glad he was willing to give it a try. He played in
the 1st of our 2 games. I won both times and really enjoyed it. Had to
quarterback us for a few drives in one game (I think in the 4 drives I was passing
I had 1 pass td, 1 run td, and 1 pick and 1 turn over on downs).
Today
elder Stevens said he wanted to play tennis. He hasn't played much before, but
their were rackets and balls in our apartment and he wanted to give it a try.
We played for about an hour this morning. I was glad that my (very low)
expectations were exceeded. We never kept score and it was very different from
the "You play to win the game!" style that I am used to, but it was
still fun to do some physical activity for a while.
We
had a pretty good and productive week. had good meetings with active and less
active members and investigators and met 3 new people with fairly strong
potential to become investigators. The first happened because there was an
older single lady at church I didn't know, who is active so we asked if we
could come by some time and talk because we're trying to meet everyone. She
said yes, and in fact her brother was just moving into her house, so we wouldn't
even have to find a chaperon to come with us; also he wanted to feed us. Nice.
While at church we asked about her brother's potential receptiveness to the
gospel, and what about the gospel we could talk about that would most likely
catch his interest. We wanted to make it as easy and natural to have an
uplifting/spiritual discussion during dinner, so when we got there for the
dinner appointment I asked If I could leave our spiritual thought that the
beginning of dinner instead of the end. The plan worked great. We had great
discussion over pizza and nothing formal about teaching him was set up, but
they both said we could pop by anytime for a glass of water and to talk or
whatever. Perfect. Also they said they leave the door open and we could just
come by and eat whatever's in the fridge if their not home (not a joke).
the
2nd is when we dropped by a house of some members on our ward list we'd never
heard of. I 20's looking girl answered and said her dad was an inactive member
and she investigated the church in the past and really considered joining the
church, and was willing to give it a try again! she said she quit meeting with
the missionaries then mostly because she was too busy.
the
third is when we went to visit another inactive couple in the ward. Their
neighbor was on the porch and we got talking to her (then the inactive couple
came heard us and came out and talked too). We gave her a book of Mormon, and
gave her a blessing too (at the suggestion of the inactive couple, she has
cancer). She really enjoyed it all, but said she would need to talk to her
husband. hopefully that goes well.
Oh,
last exciting thing to report about. Yesterday on the way to dinner we saw a
bald eagle! we saw it fly out of some trees right next to the road where we
were driving. I parked and dashed out to try and take some pictures. We saw it
one more time in our searchings, but only for a second and it flew away again.
sorry no picture!
that's
all from me!
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