April 21, 2014
Two Weeks of Awesome!
Hey all, sorry for not writing a long email last week. I was
a little lazy. It's a lot of work moving your fingers a few inches. :)
So last week..is hard to remember already! I'll just give
highlights! Two weeks ago a sister in the ward died, and we just happened to
visit her daughter the day after. We hadn't heard about it yet. Wednesday the
9th was her funeral, so after Zone meeting we booked it back to our church
building to get there, since her daughter asked Elder Mosley and I to be
pallbearers. It's a good thing too, since the other pallbearers were all under
the age of 14, excepting one other guy. It was a very good funeral. This sister
had been in the ward for many many years, and well known and loved by everyone.
Right after the funeral, we got a call from a part-member family who needed
help moving, so we booked it from there way out to this small house in the
country to move a bunch of the heavy stuff into the Uhaul they got (Since
everyone knows us missionary boys are famous for manual labor and moving heavy
things. Stripling warriors!!) The rest of last Wednesday was super stressful
and busy as well, so we were completely dead by the end of the day. Some of the
most tired I've been in a long time. It was awesome!
Thursday through Sunday were not too much to
speak of (at least that I can remember. I only have my planner her, not my
journal. Sorry!).
Now we're back to this week. I don't remember if I've told
you already or not, but along with readying 10-15 pages of the Book of Mormon
each day, I've been studying the Doctrine and Covenants as well. Talk about
motivating for missionaries! Just about every section has some tip or advice on
how to be a better missionary. I've been marking it up like crazy!
Last Monday we were able to meet this awesome guy named
Bill. He's about 70 years old, and has been going to the same Lutheran church
for 48 years. But we got to talking with him for about a half hour, and he
decided that he actually was interested! It was pretty funny, since for the
first 20 minutes he thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses, who he had talked to a
little years before. After he realized that we weren't, he suddenly started
saying all these things he disagreed with their church. I chuckled inside.
haha!
Tuesday we spent a lot of time working with part-member
families and recent converts. We are trying to turn the ward into a missionary
force of it's own, and for the members to have confidence in the Lord's promise
that they will be helped and blessed, so we found a few small successes from
that.
Wednesday we had a really fun district meeting. We did
an activity where one sister (the investigator) was blindfolded and had to walk
3 or 4 times across the cultural hall. The catch was that 4 missionaries were
"the adversary" and were trying to hit her with balls to keep her
from reaching the goal. The rest of us had the charge to protect this sister
from getting hit. Lots of fun! We also talked a lot about faith, something that
is always pushed by President Nilsen and something we all can have more of.
Afterwards, we helped a couple who are ward missionaries re-arrange their
furniture in their living room. (They're old. haha). The McGlaughlins are some
of my favorite people in the ward, so don't worry. Brother McGlaughlin is
hilarious, and would approve of me calling him old. :)
We also went and visited a recent convert who recently had
surgery for potential cancer. It was a pretty bad visit. Mostly because she
picked up the habit of smoking like crazy again, and got a roommate who is
nearly a chain smoker. I just wanted to complain about how much tobacco smoke
annoys me. It's so obnoxious.
Thursday we got to go to the temple!!!!!!!! FINALLY! I
hadn't been in a year, nearly to the day! I love being able to go to the
temple, even if it is packed like a can of sardines with the whole zone in
there. I finally got to see the new temple film too. So awesome!!! My companion
tells me it's the old-new film, not the new-new one. I loved it. I want to go
back! I also saw a member from Moundbuilders ward there, and got to talk with
the Temple President for a while. I've met him before, he's an awesome guy.
On Friday we got a surprise because we got a call from
one of our assistants, Elder Nygren. He's been doing a mission tour, and
decided he wanted to come work the day with Elder Mosley and I. So we drove
over the the next area over and picked him up and had a really good day! We had
planned really well the night before, and it's always invigorating to be able
to work with other missionaries. It was a beautiful day, so we did a lot of
walking, had an awesome dinner with a part-member family that we've been
working with, the Calls, and found a bunch of new investigators and potentials.
He can do the mission tour right now because they just called a 3rd and a 4th
Assistant. The older ones, Elder Nygren and Elder K are going home at the end
of this transfer, so they're "training" the new APs. So the older
ones are taking turns going around the areas while the other stays and works
with the new ones.
Saturday was awesome! We got to get up and go do
service for most of the day! Yay t-shirts and sunshine!!! We first went to a
recent converts house/small farm and did work there, and then after lunch went
and helped this 90 year old lady who we met the day before, as she was doing
yard work by herself. It was super sweet to help her out, since she reminds me
a lot of Grandma Slocum.
I ended up getting a really good sunburn on my arms, neck, and face. About time! I've been so white forever it's terrible! So now I've already gotten a pretty good farmers tan built up. haha!
Yesterday for Easter we went to get another part-member
family awake to come to church, and they said they would. Unfortunately, they
just didn't show up. Bummer. Luckily, a couple other investigators we weren't
expecting showed up for Easter with their family, who we're going to start
teaching this week! Aw yiss! We had dinner at the Stephens, a kinda strange
family of the ward. They're huge into playing difficult strategy board games,
reading fantasy and scifi, and quilting. It made for interesting conversation,
but we had a bonfire and made smore's for dessert. We had a good time!
Today we went Disc Golfing as a district, so that was pretty
fun. We also played some soccer and football. Taking advantage of the perfect
weather!! Love it!
I love and miss you all! I hope everything in Missouri,
Arizona, or wherever you are is going fantastic!
Mom and Dad, Brother McGlaughlin, the old guy I talked about
earlier, told me to make sure and remind you that you love me! He says that
parents sometimes forget that ;)
Have a great week!
Elder Aaron Toombs
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