August 18, 2015

This week was better than last week, that's for sure. We had a really good zone conference that I came away from actually feeling a sincere desire to change and be better, which is the point of those but it has rarely happened in my experience. The downside to the zone conference was that we got the tiwis in our cars, the "black boxes" that monitor how we drive, where we drive, what time we drive, etc. It's nice to have Steven Hawking tell me to slow down now. The other low point of this week was when I found a mirror that helps you see your face up really close outside of the thrift store, had my back to the sun, and, like an ant with a magnifying glass, concentrated the sun on my face for just long enough to burn it. No permanent damage, but I felt pretty stupid afterwards. 

In church this week, a sister missionary who served in the Yuma branch 5 years ago came back with her husband to visit. Her and a member of the branch left in the middle of Sunday school to go and talk outside for a little bit, and no one knew why but didn't pay much attention. Later they came back in with tears in their eyes and told us that they realized that Brother Mortensen was the missionary serving in Pennsylvania who baptized her family when she was 7, and now years later she served in the area and met him 5 years after that in tiny little Yuma Colorado. It was a really cool moment to see that. The effects of our efforts really will all be shown to us at some point, whether in this life or the next. 

For P-Day, and the reason that I didn't send this out until today, we went down to Greeley with a less active who is going to college there in 3 days to help him move some stuff into his apartment and then we played volleyball with some missionaries and friends down there. It was awesome, especially since the weather was perfect, alternating between really hot, cloudy, rainy, hot, cloudy, etc. 

Thanks to all of the friends and family that sent me some encouraging and uplifting words. It means a lot to know there are people that care even though they may literally be halfway around the world. 

I got bacon soda, I got bacon soda

My mission president in all his glory and terror

Friends and I in front of the temple

Comp and I

Colorado (this was outside in someone's front yard, in their dog's cage. 

Remember that dog that could jump like 4 feet?)

A turtle we found in the road and "saved"

Volleyball with missionaries and friends

August 10, 2015

I'm just gonna get straight to it. Sometimes I hate being a missionary. Like when your investigators drop you because their church is in Spanish and they feel more comfortable even though 2 of the 3 hours are in Spanish just for them, or when you go to teach another investigator and their son comes over wearing a shirt with a naked woman hardly covering herself and it's pretty hard to teach any lesson at all and focus on anything else with that in your face, or when you feel terrible because you aren't a perfect missionary, not even close, so every flaw is intensified 100x, or how sometimes you feel that you push people further from Christ because you lose patience or say something stupid and then you lose all desire to go out and find people and teach them because of the fear of making things worse for them not better. So that's how this week was.

I guess I deserved it though. I said a prayer at the beginning of this week, sick of failing and and feeling horrible for doing so all the time, and simply said "Father, please break my heart so that I can be humble and finally change". Didn't think that one would be answered, but the first part certainly was. It didn't have the effect I thought it would or wanted though. Instead of being humble and wanting to improve, I temporarily don't really have desire to even try anymore. I guess that's the part of answering that prayer that's up to me though. 

On a happier note, my new companion and I get along great. He's phenomenal at piano, so it's great to listen to him play at old folks homes and stuff while I get to just relax. He's similar to me in some unique ways, like he seems to get upset over small stuff but isn't actually that upset, he has a strong personality, etc. 

We were able to paint half of Martha's porch this week (well, it's the posts that hold up the add on part of her trailer) but we ran out of time to paint the top bar. She wasn't the one who dropped us, so that was good. We'll finish it another day. We also had a cool lesson with another family where we talked with about 6 people about prophets and other parts of the gospel while we ate some of their 100 ears of corn (they got it free since they work for them) and then had cornbread later. So there were some good parts about this week at least.

August 3, 2015

So...my companion and I were digging a trench, and apparently some form of frogs/toads live in the dirt, so my companion, being slightly psychotic, wanted to cut off their heads with his shovel. I told him no way, and then 5 minutes later he threw a fat one at my back. Well, I wasn't going to take that, so I threw it back at him and then it was bleeding a lot and its leg was a mess...so I cut its head off to put it out of its misery. Just wanted to relate that horrible story to ya'll.

For transfers I will be staying in Yuma, but I'll have Elder Clavel as my companion. I don't really know a lot about him, but from what I've heard we'll either love or hate each other. I'm a little nervous. I think we'll get along, but...you never know. His parents are from Chile but he grew up in California, he plays soccer, and he is really girl trunky. Not a good combo for us, but we'll make it work.

We had dinner with a single lady in our ward (outside, no worries people) and we had a long, fantastic discussion on marriage. It was amazing but kind of no surprise to me that she reiterated a lot of the things I had been telling my companion all transfer and how many things we agreed upon. Anyway, it was just a great conversation that kind of made me want to go home and get married like I've been dealing with for 11 months now. Oh well.

On the way home from that dinner, we took a different way home. When we came to a crossroads between a road that took us south when we needed to go north or a semi road that took us straight, we went straight. And ended up driving through 4 ft tall weeds around a cornfield until we found an exit. It was really fun though. 

This transfer went by fast. I'm kind of starting to believe that at some point in the future my mission will actually end. Isn't that a scary thought? It has made me reconsider what the heck I'm doing out here, what I need to improve, and how I don't want to have any regrets. 

Our investigators are doing...alright. Again, they all didn't come to church, but we'll be helping them paint their porches this week (it got pushed back a week) and hopefully be able to motivate them to come to church, read their scriptures, pray, etc.

(P.S.  Kennon found his glasses!)

 A frog/toad (what's the difference anyway?)

Martha and her family with my companion saying bye

 Volleyball dives in shallow sand