I hit the 20 month mark in the mission today. It was a really frustrating p-day for me today. I was virtually obligated to go to the movie, but I decided to sit in the mission office and study instead. For some reason President Cook was in there today and he told me that he also preferred not watching movies and studied instead, so he completely approved of my decision. I studied for 2 hours while the whole zone vegged out and ate junk food.
Miracle #613: The chapters of the Bible that I read today in that extra study time were exactly what the two people we visited needed to hear today.
The rest of the day irritated me because Elder B. chewed me out for not supporting the zone and I told him that I refused to support an absolute waste of one third of my free hours by watching a dumb movie. I just want to forget today completely.
Today was decent. It was going to rain today so I spent a lot of the morning making some super ghetto mudflats for my bike. After that, we had our weekly planning where I leveled a little bit with my comp. I told him that I am getting pretty tired of leading the sector for the past 5 months and I need him to take some of that for me. I actually haven't even left the sector for 2 months and the stress of doing this work is emotionally exhausting. I want to be able to work harder, but I am so very tired, and especially tired of feeling that I am always the one pushing for the work to get done.
Miracle #614: We spent all but 2 hours outdoors today, but right when it started to rain today, we were indoors.
The funny part of the day was when we wen tout to leave and discovered that my comps. bike had not 1, but 2 flats. We filled up his tires and they held the air….weird. As we rode our bikes, they still held the air, but when w had our lessons, we would come out and find his rear tire deflated again. I am convinced that we have someone following us from appointment to appointment. Tonight we spent ages making calls, especially about the two sisters in our district who are difficult to motivate. April 15, 2016
Today was super cold. It rained virtually all day long and despite our mudguards, we got pretty thoroughly soaked. The other sucky thing was that my “waterproof” jacket only stays waterproof for about 2 hours in the pouring rain. I literally was soaked to the skin. No one wants to answer their door when it is cold and rainy so we had ZERO success contacting. Luckily, we had a few lessons lined up during the later part of the day. Those lessons saved me from freezing to death. We were counting on a member to go with us to 2 of the lessons, but the member flaked out so we were really worried we wouldn’t be able to teach at all.
Miracle #615: In both of the houses where the women are usually alone, there were men present so we were able to teach the lessons.
The funny part of the day was when a bus passed by and just managed to splash water all over my comp, but missed me completely! It was also funny putting on our soaking wet jackets after every visit. It was kind like the sensation of jumping into a cold lake. Super freezing for 10 seconds, but then you get used to it. I got the chance to use a lot of mission gear that I never though I would use, such as my leather gloves. I am SUPER grateful for my winter boots this year because without their added warmth, I might have actually gotten frostbite….well that is a little over dramatic, but my feet did help me from getting ridiculously cold.
April 16, 2016
Today was very wet, but luckily it wasn’t as cold as yesterday. Despite the rain, we had a good day today. Today we were supposed to clean the chapel, but we ran into 2 problems. 1. The people who were supposed to help us didn’t show up and 2. the cleaning closet with the supplies was locked and we didn’t have the key. We at least tried to organize a little bit. Lunch was super late today, making us late to a lesson we had right after lunch. Somewhere in the first 2 hours of working, I got a second wind and had more energy while contacting.
Miracle #616: While we were contacting in the rain, we noticed a tiny little side street that doesn’t even appear on our maps. I have never been on this street in the 5 months that I have been here, so we contacted it and we found one person who is interested in hearing our message.
The funny part of the day was realizing how dumb we look with our rain jackets over our backpacks. We look like twin hunch backs on bikes. Elder B. and I talked today about our failings as missionaries and our weaknesses as a companionship. I think that we are both resolved to fix what we can. The other funny part of the day was seeing this super aggressive rotweiller staring us down. Overall, it was a good day.
Today was ridiculous. It rained ALL DAY LONG! Church was only sacrament meeting because of all the rain and the consequent flooding. The streets are basically rivers and lakes. The worst part of the rain is that ALL the plans fall through and very few people are willing to leave their houses when we contact them. We tried working on the bikes in the beginning of the day, but by 6:30 we were soaked to the skin and freezing so we when back in the house to change and just leave on foot.
Miracle #617: Despite all of the rain, we found 3 new investigators and taught a real lesson on the street.
The funny parts of the day were also very lame. The first was when, in the pouring rain, my comps. front tire popped. We were able to convince someone to let us fix our bike in their little garage. I fixed his flat in record speed (just under 5 minutes!), and we made it to lunch in time. After lunch, I took advantage of the only real piano in the ward to practice scales for about 20 minutes. It was quite relaxing for me. I miss playing so very much. The other funny part of the day was when we were outside with a member on our bikes and our hands got sopping wet and bright red from the cold. We were all joking around and slapping each others hands and laughing at the numbness and pain we were suffering.
April 18, 2016
Today was pretty good. We kicked off the day by cleaning for an hour became with all o the rain, the house got filthy from tracking in mud and stuff. After that, we worked out together and started our studies. This morning we had a lesson right before lunch, which turned out decent. Lunch was a nightmare. We ate with a family where the husband is a piece of work. We were talking about our bikes with the sisters and this member helpfully chimes in that before the missionaries didn’t have bikes and he thought that they were a waste for the missionaries because we baptize so little and don’t seem to be doing anything. I got pretty ticked off spoke my mind a little too much. My companion had to come to my defense and rescue. Lunch was very tense.
Miracle #618: For me, there were 2 miracles. 1. Even though it was supposed to rain today, the skies cleared up and it was a nice day. 2. The other miracle was in a lesson where we had an unforeseen participant who was very confrontational. But, we held our own and testified with power in the end, teaching how to receive spiritual answers.
Despite all of the conflicts, it was a good day. We were productive and I felt like we worked well. The funny part of the day was when I was trying to fix my exercise ball that I use for a chair in the mornings with super glue because bike patches don’t stick at all. I applied the super glue with a napkin and it started burning the napkin, but I didn’t even notice the smoke so it went in my eyes and burned my eyes.
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| We had WAY too much fun building this campfire! |
Today was zone conference. They shared a message that they introduced by saying “we’ve decided too share a message that we shared almost 2 years ago, there are 35 people in this mission who have heard it before. I thought to myself “I haven’t been here long enough to have heard it…” But when the message started, I recognized it and I felt so OLD in the mission. The rest of the zone conference was way good and gave me some good ideas on how to finish my mission strong. After the zone conference we had a complicated lesson where the family was fighting with each other the entire time. Then, we taught another family where the kids were good. To finish it off, we had a great lesson with S.
Miracle #619: One of our investigator’s husband stayed for the entire lesson. We read and explained the story of King Lamoni.
The funny/interesting part of the day was having my temple recommend interview with my mission president. At the end of the interview, he just asked me if there was anyone in the mission that I would like to be with or anywhere in particular that I would like to go. I think that mean that I will finally be leaving this sector for the last part of my mission.
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