OK very exciting week.
In
Idaho everything is kinda sparse. Houses are usually farther apart and
towns aren't huge. But my area is actually pretty populated. Because of
that there are a lot of Mormons. In our area there are definitely non
members but there are even more less active members. So we rely a lot on
members here but a lot of the members aren't really in to missionary
work. So it is kinda slow at times especially because we are working in
an area that was not really being worked on before.. haha
Alright so Monday
we didn't have very many lessons or anything planned so we went and
pulled up sod for 4-5 hours. They are laying a sidewalk in a park area
and we helped set it all up. It was a huge job!! I really enjoyed it and
thought it was a good activity but there were no nonmembers there. But
we helped people and that's what matters! It was a fun time and we got
Jimmy Johns for doing it not that we expected pay or food but it was
nice. After that we went back, showered and headed to a dinner appointment with Stake Patriarch Hall and his wife. We have had a lot of
salads here. And we had another. But the dinner was nice and they are
friendly.
Then we met with J. Williams who is a total biker. As we
were getting to know him his was cleaning his leather chaps because he
had a date that night and was riding his motorcycle. Haha but he is
awesome and really wants to improve his life. He is on parole and he won't be off for 2 years but he says he has already
been baptized and they are trying to find his records. So we are
crossing our fingers and praying because he can't get baptized if he is
on parole so if he already is that is a great thing haha.
Tuesday
we had exchanges and they weren't too bad. They were sorta silly
because they put me with an elder who has only been a missionary for
like 2 weeks more than I have been but he has been in the field for a
while longer. Anyways, he is a Spanish speaking elder and I am not and I
went into his area.. So we had some Spanish lessons but none of them
went through, which is sad. But I couldn't have helped anyways so I
guess for selfish reasons it was a blessing haha! We taught a kid about
our age named Jesus Castillion and he spoke perfect English so the
lesson went well for me. He committed to be baptized!!! YAY! Plus the
whole day we got the car and that was nice because my legs are always
tired from walking all day. But exchanges were good.
BUT THEN. I
returned to my apartment only to find we had been invested by gnats! The
previous missionaries had left a bag of rotting potatoes in the drawer
and gnats came in force. Our apartment smells of broken dreams and hard
times. So we spent forever cleaning and had the housing coordinators,
Brother and Sister Wilkins, come and hook us up with cleaning supplies
and good vibes. That takes us clear into the next morning all the way
through comp study.
After cleaning and trying to fix the
bad smells that dwell, we got picked up by our district leader Elder
Cooley, who is awesome and a really great guy, and went to do service
for an older lady. My companion and Cooley's companion went to trim her
bushes and Cooley and I took out a full fledged rose bush! It took a
while and I received a battle wound or two but It was good fun and we
got the best of the bush. Soon after defeating the bush we returned and
got ready for dinner.
We had dinner planned with the Ribiero family but
when we arrived she told us her husband was not yet home from Brazil,
which is where they are from, so we could not eat inside. So we ate in
her backyard hahaha it was funny. She has three little girls and they
are all awesome. Sister Ribiero has a super strong accent so sometimes
she would ask us how to pronounce a world or in Portuguese ask her little
girls how to say it. They all have perfect English and Portuguese so she
asked them for help a lot haha. Anyways, dinner was good! We had fish
and for dessert she gave us this guava thing, that looked like a cube of
jelly, with cream on it and it was super good! It started raining a
little so we finished and headed on our way.
Our Mandarin appointment
was next but we had to wait for Brother Maughn, who is in the stake, to
eat dinner. So we played basketball and I beat my companion in Horse
somehow because he is pretty good at basketball and I have -9 skill
points. But that was fun. Sadly when we finally made it to our Mandarin
appointment the guy couldn't meet with us so we had to move the
appointment to Sunday.
(get excited for that part)
We had an appointment with the
Burton family but they canceled as well so we will meet them for the
first time this coming Wednesday.
The parents aren't at all interested but they want their daughter to
choose for herself so they are super supportive! We are stoked for
that!
Fray-da-hey! This was the hardest day this week. We
had dinner with these Old People who really liked talking and feeding
us sloppy joes at 1:30
in the afternoon Laugh out loud. So that was odd and we couldn't find
anyone else to feed us so we ordered Jimmy Johns haha. Gotta love the
Jimmy Johns.
Then we just explored the zone and walked around for ages
and no one would talk to us. I got home and was super tired but not sad
or anything. I just determined I had to work extra hard in the next few
days.
Saturday
was a good day! We studied the stress book for part of comp study and
had a good laugh. It is a good book but some of the things are sort of
silly. We went to a burger joint called Shakas and it is inside of a gas
station so it was weird at first but they make dang good stuff and
missionaries eat for free so it was awesome because I am down to 4
dollars of my mission funds haha. On this particular Saturday
there were like fifty garage sales! So we went to a few because those
people have to talk to us! I bought a storm trooper and named him "5
million" because that's how cool he is.
That night was the Cedar Ridge
Ward potluck in the park. On our way there a mildly obese lady called
out to us. As we approached her she explained she wouldn't get paid for a
week and had no money left for gas and that she needed some.. SO we
gave her like 16 bucks which explains why I have only 4 dollars.. haha
but she was kinda not all there and kept saying she wanted to kill her
ex-husband. She said she knew it was illegal so she would let God punish
him for her. so we were like alright well do you want to get
baptized?!?! And she was kinda interested haha so we got her info and
what not and went to the potluck. At the potluck they had squash and I
ate a ton of it and it was well.
Later we went back to the Homeranch
ward area and talked to a few part-member families. We met with the Brown
family for a while and only the Husband isn't a member but he let us
share a message and pray and they gave us cookies! Then we knocked on the
Quick's door. We had their address down but no info. An approximately
16 year old girl dressed rather scandalously answered the door and we
talked to her for a little and though she was beyond awkward she did
seem a little interested. She gave us a number but when we texted it it
said it was a land-line so we think she gave us the home phone but it was
still successful though a little odd. Then we saw a kid who looked about
14 in a black wife-beater and pajama pants walking around with a little chihuahua in his arms and it was funny looking.
Sunday! This was my most favorite day. We woke up at 5:30
for a meeting with all the ward Mission leaders and it was good and not
too long. Then we waited for the Homeranch ward to start. Bishop Hillam
is awesome and had us bear our testimonies and introduce our selves to
the ward and it was great! After that we headed to another ward and did
the same thing because we asked if we could. Then we went back for lunch
and I had giant pretzels. Then we taught Brian Peterson again and it
was awesome! He is a good guy and is really trying hard to come to Christ. We discussed scriptures and stuff for a while then headed to the
last meeting. Brother Maughn spoke in that meeting and he mentioned us
and talked about the guy from China he found for me to teach and it was
AWESOME! That ward is the least missionary minded so its kind of hard to
work with them.
Immediately after the meeting, Brother Maughn drove us to the MANDARIN MEETING! Yongteng is an awesome guy!
I'll be sure to get a picture with him soon and send it to you all. He
let us in, offered us tea (which we declined) and had
us sit down. We talked about a lot of things and all in Chinese! I was
surprised that I could get a general understanding of what he was saying
and we actually conversed a lot about the church. He has read the Book
of Mormon! But he read it more as a work of literature than as the
words of God. But he is very respectful and loves Christian religions.
Today I am teaching him the difference between Mormonism and other
Christian religions!
Then we went to dinner with a ward member and a less-active guy named Robbie Hall picked us up for a devotional. He has
had a hard life. He is covered in tattoos and has a pony tail and
drives a super cool black camero. He is awesome! He was baptized young
so now he is just trying to really keep the commandments and he is
really good about going to church and is always willing to learn more.
We are having dinner with him tonight!
So this week was
awesome! I loved it and I know that the Lord has blessed me and helped
me so much already. I believe I was called here for a reason and whether
or not I help that Chinese family I know that my ability to converse
with him will at least plant some seeds. I love you all And I am so
grateful for you and your prayers!
-Elder Christensen
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