Hello Family,
Slow week, nothing too much happened and as a companionship we didn't teach a single lesson. We did have exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Grant, it was super nice and an uplifting experience. He told me I was being too hard on myself, but I dont think that I am. I think that I can do better than Elder Gregson and I are right now. Being with Elder Grant was fun because instead of me making sure we are actually doing something he had plans and we had made plans to follow throughout the day. We went to the university and walked around and did some street contacting, we didn't have any luck with that but we were able to come into contact with a man named ei-pi? We set up an appointment with him for next week but I wont be there so that's fine. We also got to have dinner with the Orr's, it was awesome! We had egg mcmuffins (homemade of course) and fruit, he has two kids and one on the way now. We taught a lesson on Christ like relationships, which went well, after photos and a goodbye we went to another appointment with a few native ladies.They were super nice to talk to and are very interested in the church. Two of them are baptized and they are just less active, they do try just not every week kinda deal. I also got some great tips from Brother Orr, like how the first transfer/companion is the worst, and that as long as you are working hard you will see miracles. He said something that really stuck out to me was that if we aren't working hard, we are not worthy to have the people we want to teach and so forth,we need to be working hard so we are WORTHY to find those people that are placed in our paths.I've been doing things to try and make the apartments feel like home. I'm going to print off some of the photos you guys sent me ( maybe some jeeps!) to hang up around my study area.I think also im going to buy some fake greenery/shrubbery to put in my personal areas to liven it up. This is one of the loneliest areas in the mission. Its one of two of the areas that are super secluded. We rarely get to see other elders around here, but because my companion is district leader I get to travel around a lot more than I would if I didn't have him as a companion. Nice thing is is when he takes off I may be the new district leader. Elder Grant said that he thinks im going to be a Zone leader soon, he said that im a good elder with a lot to give to others, and I was all like "Heck yah im awesome!” hahaha, but I had to chill and realize that's not because of me, but because of the best parent's ever! Whenever i think of a question or a debate I always think " What would dad do?" and that has helped a ton, even when me and Elder Gregson argue about things and it goes against what dad or mom said I know it isn't right, and rather an opinion on a fact.We had church in Estevan this week and it was super good. I learned a ton from just the talks and the sunday school lessons. In sacrament a talk was given by brother Pippo on the light of Christ and just being a helping kind of person. Brother Pippo works in a coal mine so he talked about how when he first started he had lunch with the guys and they finished a bit earlier, so they decided to turn off their lamps and relax in the darkness. We had done this when I was in grade five and we went to Franks slide,so I could definitely relate to what he was talking about. The whole time Brother Pippo had his lamp off he said he was thinking "what if the light never comes back?" "what if i never see the light again!" "how will I make it back to the light" and I thought that was really interesting in relation to the gospel and how we should always have the light with us so we can see what is around us and where we need to go and if we need to turn around. In Sunday school we learned about stumbling blocks from a talk given in general conference recently, i cant remember exactly when, but it was talking alot about how stumbling blocks are often seen as sin, but rather one of the bigger ones we face as members is extremism. What it meant by that is holding one law above another, and how we shouldn't be making rules that are easy for you to keep seem important and that are difficult for others to follow and chastise and judge them for not keeping the same ones you are when we should recognize that we are all not perfect, and "take the beam from our own eye before taking the mote from thy brothers eye" or whatever that scripture is. This was a huge answer to my prayers, I had been praying that Elder Gregson and I would be able to work together better, and hopefully we will.
This week has been a slow and uneventful one. Not much happened. It's hard to do stuff because of my companion right now, he is getting more lazy and doesn't want to work. When I suggested that if we got up and got ready faster we could be out of the apartment by 9:30AM he basically said I was being disobedient to mission rules cause the schedule is from 6:30 to 10:00 so we should be out at 10:00. I have suggested that we get up and run every morning and im going to do it whether or not he likes it. He said if it is below 0 he isn't going to go out, panzy, haha I hope the next companion I get is a lot more motivating. I'm going to start working out to try and get moving in the morning we don't have many weights but im going to use milk jugs with water as weights. Elder Gregson doesn't like to fill up with gas whenever I suggest it so we left to swift current Sunday night with little over half a tank of gas and we BARELY made it. The tank wasn't registering for gas and we couldn't start it the next day. Sooo we had to get a Jerry can this morning to fill it up and then the battery was dead so we had to get some jumper cables as well. I was pretty ticked off at him but it was super fun I thought.
I've started to realize that unless I do it, it wont get done. Elder Gregson hates talking to people and hates talking on the phone, so I've gotten VERY good at that. I was already very comfortable with talking with people but now im even better. I'm starting to make the appointments cause Elder Gregson wont. We are in swift current right now and the terrain is soooooooo much nicer out here, rolling hills and such makes it alot better. I saw a Medicine Hat sign and I kinda giggled thinking, “ I could be home in like 6 hours" haha, that would stink though, i could definitely serve out here i think at some point. We have one appointment with Greg from Estevan on Wednesday, he was the most promising investigator so far so we hope we can get in with him at some point.We have transfers next Monday, Im kinda hoping one of us gets transferred but I HIGHLY doubt it, Saturday this week is my 2 month mark, 1 year 10 months left, i cant wait to see some green around here!!Questions from Sadie:
Sadie wants to know have you been getting along with your companion?
Sadie wants to know if you have had any interesting food?
Sadie wants to know if you want it to get warmer?
How is your teaching going?
Are there any 9 year olds in your branch?1. Barely,we have been arguing a lot and he is very stubborn. I have managed to get some blinds open in the apartment without him closing them cause he is a vampire, the man hates natural light. He was getting annoyed at how slow the camera was at uploading the photos so we uploaded them to google drive and thats why you cant access them, so Im not going to do that anymore.2. Yes! I have been eating macaroni and hotdogs and peas alot! all of my favorite foods! other than the Balute (chicken embryo) nothing crazy though.3. Kind of, I like the hovering Around 10 degrees range4. Not many people like to hear about how they can live forever with GOD apparently.5. There is one young family they have a daughter that is probably 8 or 9 (Pippo's)Keep on keeping on! have fun at basketball and whatever else you guys do, I pray for you everytime I pray, I love you all a ton. XOXOP.S. love the fat cat photo HAHA!LoveElder Sheen
