Letter #56

This week was our first week to not have a car, and it was pretty much the rainiest week since I've been in Aberdeen.  We did a lot of walking.  And we will be getting bus passes soon.

We had a baptism this last week, so it wasn't all bad.  Any week that you can have a baptism is a good week.  So that was super exciting for all of us.  It was probably the best attended baptism that I've been to on my mission.  He had a lot of family there (members and non-members), and he had a priest in the ward do the baptism, so that was an awesome experience for him too.

We also had interviews with the mission president this last week.  And this is actually his last tour for interviews as mission president, so that's kinda a big landmark in the mission.

And yeah, most of our week consisted of walking in the rain, and talking to druids.  We got a referral from Port Angeles, which was pretty cool.  She might actually talk to us later, so that would be nice.
Also, now that we have the car back again for a week, the weather looks like it's going to be pretty nice, so that would be awesome.  Also, I drew a fox in my planner during sacrament meeting.

Well, this is a super lame letter, but I love you all!  And I'll talk to you guys later.

Letter #55

Okay, well this was the first week of the new transfer, but it didn't really feel like it, since I had the same area and the same companion.  We got 2 new missionaries in the same area as us though, and we see them a lot, so that's kinda exciting.  One of them is a Spanish missionary, and he's okay I guess.  But not as cool as the one that we lost here.  And then Elder Pope is with our District Leader, so that's a party.  We have some pretty fun times.

Well, I don't have that much time left because of so many other interesting emails that came today, so this is going to be a pretty lame email this week.  But I probably should've told you that before you read the first paragraph.  Anyway, now you know. 

My emails have gotten so much more candid.  I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not.  Well, the only exciting thing about this week is that we prepared for a baptism for next week.  Besides that, we talked to people and knocked on doors, and I drew a picture of an octopus that was alright until I started trying to shade it in, so I drew a frown on him, because he's ugly now.  And then we did some bible bashing and had a district meeting about how we need to teach people, not lessons, because it would be cheaper for the church to send every person in the world a dvd player with a dvd of someone reciting the lessons than it would be to send us out, so we need to be real people when we are teaching.  And then we have interviews next week.  And that's pretty much everything that I can think to include in this email, because it wasn't that eventful of a week besides good weather.  And I'm almost out of time, so bye

Letter #54

Transfer calls came this week, and I will be staying in Aberdeen with Elder Murillo for another six weeks.  So that's pretty cool.  And one of my old companions in coming back to this area, so that's going to be way exciting to have him in the district again.  Luckily I spent this whole last week telling everyone that I was going to be leaving, so of course, everyone has been making fun of the fact that I will in fact be staying.  But one of the investigators that I have been working with since I got here finally agreed to be baptized, and so I'm glad I get to stay around for that.

We had a ward conference this Sunday, and so that was pretty exciting.  We had a training from the stake presidency on ward councils, and then there were some wild times in sacrament meeting, because this was the last Sunday for one of the members of the stake presidency.  And he's like a pretty emotional guy anyway, but since he was moving and all, he didn't even make it to the beginning of sustainings without crying.  Poor guy.  And we brought some less actives to church with us who hadn't been in years, and they're not sure yet if they want to come back or not, so they were just kinda dipping their toes in this week, and it was this awkward cry-fest.  But they fed us later that day, so it can't have been too bad.  And then we almost got through gospel principles class without too much deep doctrine, but then we started talking about the pearl of great price and that got weird of course, even though it doesn't have to.  But oh well.  And then priesthood was pretty normal, and we got this crockpot back to some members who gave us a meal in it like 3 weeks ago.  So yeah, cool.

And yeah, that's all of the interesting things about this week.  We also spent a bunch of time doing things in the rain, and we knocked on houses that belong to strangers, and we talked to some people that don't want to get baptized, and I am officially at the point where I would rather not have members sign up to feed us, because then I can just go home and take a nap instead.  And I decided to start running at the gym instead of lifting weights, because I decided I would rather be skinny than muscular, even though neither I'm unlikely to be either of those any time soon, but I digress.  Aberdeen will be fun or whatever.  I kinda wanted to leave, but this place seems to be getting better every transfer, so maybe I'll want to stay by the time I leave this place.  So yeah, happy st. Patrick's day. 

 

 

Letter #53

As of this week, I have lived in Washington for over a year.  So that's super weird.  That's kinda a long time, and kinda not.  But anyway, transfer meeting is coming up this next week, so I might be leaving Aberdeen pretty soon.  We'll find out this Saturday.  This is actually the first area that I'm kinda excited to get out of, which is a little sad, but I'm pretty ready to get out... Haha.  But I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up too much yet.  And if I kept my companion, I would really mind staying another, because he's pretty great, and the ward here is super great as well.

Anyway, we had a pretty exciting week, because there was a musical fireside put on by the mission at the Elma stake center on Sunday.  So all the missionaries in the Elma, Centralia, Olympia, and Lakewood stakes got to come and sing church music.  We filled the whole chapel and half the gym with members/investigators, so it was a pretty good turnout.  Way better than the last fireside I went to.  And it was way fun, because we didn't have to go tracting, and we got to talk to other missionaries.  Oh yeah, and it was a spiritual event or whatever.  I should be on the blog for that pretty soon, so you can look out for me there.

And then Elder Murillo was pretty sick in the middle of the week, so we had a few slow days.  The first day he was sick, he didn't feel like resting, so we helped a member move some furniture. and by the time we got to the piano, he realized that that was a bad call.  And then we went over to this other member's house for dinner, and the mom there had an auto-immune disorder.  So yeah, after that day, we took a rest day for him, and things got better after that.

And then it's been pretty rainy this week, so yeah.

Anyway, I'm about out of time on the computer, so I'm going to end this right here.

Letter #52

I think my biggest overall accomplishment this week was probably this 1000 piece puzzle of Edward that I found on an exchange and did during my decomp/meal times.  But there was a piece missing from it, so I'm still pretty bitter about the whole affair.

Anyway, we started our exchange on Tuesday, which was a pretty weird exchange, because we did it with the ocean shores elders, who live in Aberdeen and work here most of the time, so I didn't even leave the area for the exchange.  And we had dinner with the same member and stuff, so it wasn't that different than normal.  We saw some of their investigators, who I already knew because I see them at church sometimes, and we found someone who actually lives closer to us, but it's their guy now.  So yeah, that was our exchange.  The cool thing about it was that Ocean Shores lives with the Spanish elders, and so it was way fun being with other missionaries for the night.  Lots of new people to talk to and stuff.

And then we helped one of Ocean Shores' investigators move into a new apartment so her abusive ex-husband won't find her when he gets out of jail, so that was nice.

And then one of our investigators was in Idaho last week (visiting a missionary from this ward who is supposed to go to Brazil, but is visa waiting in Nampa), and he went to a baptism there and had a good time and stuff.  He lives outside of our area, but he really wants to keep coming to our ward.  But he's not like a crazy person like every other one of our investigators, and so the stake president wants him really bad in the ward he's supposed to be in.  And he was literally in tears on Sunday over how much pull he was getting to go to the other ward, and he felt like he was getting guilt tripped and stuff, and all he wants is to come to our ward.  Ha, I have no idea why anyone would want that, but whatevs.

And then we went tracting and stuff, and nothing that interesting has happened this week, so sorry this is a super lame letter.  But I have some video journals on their way, so there should be some interesting stuff on those.  Yeah, and that's about it.