Dear Apparent Fans,
Remember that both with the 116 pages lost with the translation of the Book of Mormon and my letter, the part we do have basically sums up what was lost. I just told a little story or two that was lost and took up a good portion of time to write and I didn't feel like reiterating.... I may this email, we'll see.
First I'll address a couple concerns Mom asked me about and go from there.
1) It's not that cramped in the apartment with three elders. It's really a good sized place and is about right for three. The only one that really thinks it's cramped is Sister Chapman, who was kind of "wiggin out" when Senor Nelson first moved in about space and clutter. This only really added to the large amount of stress we were under. Sometimes after a hard day's work or on a P-Day where I just want to relax it's hard to smile and say "Sure, I'd love to scrub all the mold from the corners of the walls of the bathroom (that's been there for long before any of us moved in) right now." But it's a blessing that she lets us live there and she's a well-intentioned good sister.
2) This month we have had more meals with members than most missionaries have in a transfer. When I first got here the meal calendar was barely full, but the last couple weeks it's been jam-packed. Like every day and then some somedays. It's awesome, and the meals are almost always incredible. A lot of times we have to cut them off short because we have so many plans. The other two say that the loads of food means that they love us. I like to take all the credit there.
So, updates on the work: things are going...well. We haven't kill each other or any more dogs yet. (Ok, the story about the dog: back when there were two spanish elders here, they had an investigator with a sick dog, so they did everything they could to help. A veterinarian suggested giving it Peptobismol. So Elder Poulsen and Elder Nelson ran to get some and ran back to the investigators' house to admister it to the dog. They burst in, acting in their best EMS ways, and, ignoring the fatal appearance of the dog, tilted its head back and administered the peptobismol with a syringe into its mouth. When they were finished, they let go of the dogs' head and watched, in horror, as it just limply fell to the side. The investigators are still meeting with us, which is good. Good enough story that for their one sentence update in the zone's newspaper it said "We killed an investigators' dog with Pepto Bismol," while ours was "Elder Gates is as green as the forests of Oregen. Or Washington or wherever he's from." Yep, he spelled Oregon that way, something we don't let him forget.) But yeah, things were less exciting this week. We were dropped by the seventeen-year-old kid that seemed promising, and a lot of appointments with other promising investigators has fallen through. So, to skip over the sad parts, I'll update you on the good.
For one thing, Senor Nelson, having learned from a role play that was done during District Meeting this week that was done solely to help him on this matter, successfully committed a couple to marriage and baptism, which was way cool.
We have a baptismal date! Technically, we've had it for awhile, but can't count it until it's less than three months away, and so now we can count it! He's basically a member, he's even come to lessons, he just is waiting for marriage and a time when family can be in town.
I went on splits this week with a member and taught the first lesson basically by myself! Granted, it was to a member because my appointment with Todd, our Dry Mormon mentioned earlier, fell through, but it was still cool.... Won the love of the members there, I guess. They seemed impressed with me. I don't say it to brag, because I'm as surprised at them being impressed as they were with me.
We also took a trip to Washington, or as Iowans call it, Worshington, for district meeting. It was really good and felt like a miniature Zone Conference, since it was half the zone and nearly as spiritual. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Ranch, an awesome buffet place, and pigged out. Last Monday we ran into a Senior Missionary Couple from Nauvoo here in Muscatine at Wal-Mart because they were going to a place nearby to help out at a festival thing. They gave us $40 for lunch, which we used at pizza ranch. I considered it a blessing. We also went to a swinging bridge on the way back that went over a ravine. It was kind of like the ones that you see in Indiana Jones or whatever, but made out of heavy duty cords so it was safe.
OH! I almost forgot! I keep forgetting to mention that we are volunteer coaches at the Y for a 9-10 year old soccer team. I tell you, I would be awesome on a team like that. I'd be a bad goalie, though. Something's scarier about it being kicked instead of thrown. Anyway, we have won our last two games, the first 2-0 and the second 12-1. We rock. The parents love us, too, even, it seems to some extent, the one that seems like her kid's soccer team is her entire life. One said, after telling us we were great coaches, that she didn't know how we had so much patience with them. You kind of want to say "It's the Holy Ghost, want to learn more?" Probably should have, it didn't seem like a good time.
I'm slightly inundated with the letters from everybody. Those who are still waiting for a letter back, please be patient, I'm trying my best. We're pretty busy out here.
And the humidity here isn't bugging me too bad. It's definitely turning into Fall, which makes it easier, and the humidity is just kind of like some parts of washington, especially in the mountains or near the coast.
Ok, real quick story that was left out of last week's email. So we were tracting in a nearby town and when we knocked on one door, a girl in her twenties came around the corner and got really excited, grabbed her bible, and invited us into her backyard, where she began talkingreallyfastkindoflikethisinreallyjumbledquicksentencesthatdidn'ttietogethertoowell. We tried our best to answer her questions and teach her. It was amazing to watch her as she learned, for she considered herself to have studied religion very well. She got upset when we mentioned that the authority had been lost from the earth, saying she didn't think God would allow so many people to have been lost, so I told her about Christ ministering to people in the next life who had not received the gospel and sending forth missionaries to go and do more and about baptisms for the dead, two things talked about in the New Testament (the latter in...thessalonians? and the former in 1 Peter 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 3, in case you were wondering). This really pacified her, which was cool to watch how her whole demeanor changed.
The gospel's true. This work is of God, and while it may not be easy, is lead by God. I know so, and love being a part of it. Keep strong in the truth.
Love,
Charlie
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Three Muscatines and the Internet of Doom
Hello Everybody,
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hello Everyone!
Hello Everybody!
Well, a crazy thing happened this last week that never really happens: I got myself another trainer. I'm now in a threesome with...Elder Nelson. The other one. So I have two Elder Nelsons as companions. Yeah, it's just that confusing. And Elder Nelson II is a spanish speaking missionary. So I'm trying to just learn a little spanish. I might as well since I'm going to be sitting through lessons where I can't understand much. Anyway, a change happened elsewhere so we lost the other spanish speaking elder so he could go train and kept Elder Nelson so we can push forward in the work with the spanish speaking people. So for conveniency and to lose confusion, Elder Nelson, the original, will be Papa Nelson, and the new one will be Senor Nelson. Comprende? Technically, we're not supposed to give nicknames to other missionaries, but how can you not when you have two with the same name? But yeah, we like to refer to ourselves as the Three Muscatines. (No clue if you know this or not, but it's pronounced Muskateen. Just in case.) I also have a firm belief that three people companionships is just an unnatural thing. It can be a lot more fun at times, though.
I guess now would be a good time to apologize for not being able to write yesterday. It was busy, because we were trying to finish moving in Senor Nelson, there was a ward picnic, and we may or may not have gone to the Nauvoo Temple. You see, we took Donald, a recent convert, and "stud" as Senor Nelson likes to call him, to do baptisms for the dead and got it okayed by President Talbot. So we left at 6 in the morning and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Nauvoo. It was so awesome to see my first baptism on my mission!! Even if the person being baptized wasn't who the ordinance was for, it was still way cool. Not to mention it was in one of the most historic temples! And the biggest font in the world. And it's just cool to be baptized for the dead anyway. Afterward we got some fudge from the Fudge Factory and got a couple souvenirs before heading back to the picnic. We never even got to shop yesterday, so we're going after this.
Not much has changed otherwise, it's just been kind of hectic trying to do the work of two separate companionships in one, but we're dealing. We're also pretty sure that there will only be one companionship in Muscatine from now on, for our district has now been absorbed by another and we had to move all of the stuff out of the other apartment. So we're all wondering what will happen next transfer, whether Papa Nelson will go and I'll be finished training with Senor Nelson, or if we'll stay in a threesome or what, because Greenies don't transfer out of their original area until after at least three transfers here.
Other news: Last week, before the Three Muscatines were formed, I went to Iowa City with Papa Nelson because he had District Leader Council. So while he was there, I went with one elder who came out with me, Elder Knapp, and one who has been out only one transfer, Elder Perazzo, and drove to downtown Iowa City (it was weird being in a legitimate city again) and OYMed (open your mouth, meaning to go and talk to random people about the gospel as they are mosying on through their day) people. Now THAT was a good and odd experience. Nobody was really receptive, but it was good to get practice of talking to all sorts of people. I think I prefer small towns or suburbs though. It also gave me a chance to drive! I also stayed in Iowa City that night and got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hall. He's a way cool guy.
I'm getting more used to talking to people, but it's still something I'm getting used to. I can more easily say what I need to, but I'd so much more prefer just sitting back and observing while tracting or OYMing. The ten hours of tracting a week we're supposed to do is helping, though. I can also do much better with lessons now, but only when I'm comfortable, but my comfort area is growing for sure. Or else dissolving completely, who knows. I'm becoming a better and more vocal missinary for sure. I think this is something that all greenies have to go through to a point. I hope.
Little unimportant things: I'm definitely still adjusting to Iowa. It's weird having to talk over the sounds of cicadas. And when Taffee, Sister Chapman's, the sister whose basement we live in, cat, brought a cicada in last night, it made the weirdest noise. Well, they always do, but even weirder in person. What a funky bug. The climate is weird, too. It can get so muggy at times, and this year is a much nicer one than most. And for an idea of what most of Iowa looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. It's the shire, thousands of years in the future.
I believe things are pretty much summed up now. The seventeen-year-old guy is still pushing forward. We talked to his mom and she's really supportive of him coming to church and talking to us, so at least there's no actual pressure on him about staying catholic. He really wants to be baptized, and I really hope things work out with him. He even came to church and mutual and has signed up to do certain things in mutual this next week.
I've really come to realize how satan can get in the way of people doing what they should. Certainly, people live lives and can't do everything we expect of him, but I've seen people fall through a lot on appointments and such, and it's just the way it is I think. Things come up, and get in the way, and it's sad. I also met my first anti, and all it did was increase my faith. He'd be really mad to find out that's what he accomplished. Still don't get why people would try so hard to fight us, but it doesn't get to me as much anymore. Papa Nelson even told me he likes it when people fight him, for it's exactly what people did to the prophets of old, and even the savior. I still think that's crazy to like it, but at least he has a good attitude towards it, and I'm tryin to be the same way.
Remember, the message I've been sent forth to share is true. I know it. I know it will bring so much happiness and peace to everyone who accepts it in their life, because it has in mine, and I've seen it in others. Never forget that it's true. And those who don't know, find out for yourself. Ask God if it is. He'll let you know.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Well, a crazy thing happened this last week that never really happens: I got myself another trainer. I'm now in a threesome with...Elder Nelson. The other one. So I have two Elder Nelsons as companions. Yeah, it's just that confusing. And Elder Nelson II is a spanish speaking missionary. So I'm trying to just learn a little spanish. I might as well since I'm going to be sitting through lessons where I can't understand much. Anyway, a change happened elsewhere so we lost the other spanish speaking elder so he could go train and kept Elder Nelson so we can push forward in the work with the spanish speaking people. So for conveniency and to lose confusion, Elder Nelson, the original, will be Papa Nelson, and the new one will be Senor Nelson. Comprende? Technically, we're not supposed to give nicknames to other missionaries, but how can you not when you have two with the same name? But yeah, we like to refer to ourselves as the Three Muscatines. (No clue if you know this or not, but it's pronounced Muskateen. Just in case.) I also have a firm belief that three people companionships is just an unnatural thing. It can be a lot more fun at times, though.
I guess now would be a good time to apologize for not being able to write yesterday. It was busy, because we were trying to finish moving in Senor Nelson, there was a ward picnic, and we may or may not have gone to the Nauvoo Temple. You see, we took Donald, a recent convert, and "stud" as Senor Nelson likes to call him, to do baptisms for the dead and got it okayed by President Talbot. So we left at 6 in the morning and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Nauvoo. It was so awesome to see my first baptism on my mission!! Even if the person being baptized wasn't who the ordinance was for, it was still way cool. Not to mention it was in one of the most historic temples! And the biggest font in the world. And it's just cool to be baptized for the dead anyway. Afterward we got some fudge from the Fudge Factory and got a couple souvenirs before heading back to the picnic. We never even got to shop yesterday, so we're going after this.
Not much has changed otherwise, it's just been kind of hectic trying to do the work of two separate companionships in one, but we're dealing. We're also pretty sure that there will only be one companionship in Muscatine from now on, for our district has now been absorbed by another and we had to move all of the stuff out of the other apartment. So we're all wondering what will happen next transfer, whether Papa Nelson will go and I'll be finished training with Senor Nelson, or if we'll stay in a threesome or what, because Greenies don't transfer out of their original area until after at least three transfers here.
Other news: Last week, before the Three Muscatines were formed, I went to Iowa City with Papa Nelson because he had District Leader Council. So while he was there, I went with one elder who came out with me, Elder Knapp, and one who has been out only one transfer, Elder Perazzo, and drove to downtown Iowa City (it was weird being in a legitimate city again) and OYMed (open your mouth, meaning to go and talk to random people about the gospel as they are mosying on through their day) people. Now THAT was a good and odd experience. Nobody was really receptive, but it was good to get practice of talking to all sorts of people. I think I prefer small towns or suburbs though. It also gave me a chance to drive! I also stayed in Iowa City that night and got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hall. He's a way cool guy.
I'm getting more used to talking to people, but it's still something I'm getting used to. I can more easily say what I need to, but I'd so much more prefer just sitting back and observing while tracting or OYMing. The ten hours of tracting a week we're supposed to do is helping, though. I can also do much better with lessons now, but only when I'm comfortable, but my comfort area is growing for sure. Or else dissolving completely, who knows. I'm becoming a better and more vocal missinary for sure. I think this is something that all greenies have to go through to a point. I hope.
Little unimportant things: I'm definitely still adjusting to Iowa. It's weird having to talk over the sounds of cicadas. And when Taffee, Sister Chapman's, the sister whose basement we live in, cat, brought a cicada in last night, it made the weirdest noise. Well, they always do, but even weirder in person. What a funky bug. The climate is weird, too. It can get so muggy at times, and this year is a much nicer one than most. And for an idea of what most of Iowa looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. It's the shire, thousands of years in the future.
I believe things are pretty much summed up now. The seventeen-year-old guy is still pushing forward. We talked to his mom and she's really supportive of him coming to church and talking to us, so at least there's no actual pressure on him about staying catholic. He really wants to be baptized, and I really hope things work out with him. He even came to church and mutual and has signed up to do certain things in mutual this next week.
I've really come to realize how satan can get in the way of people doing what they should. Certainly, people live lives and can't do everything we expect of him, but I've seen people fall through a lot on appointments and such, and it's just the way it is I think. Things come up, and get in the way, and it's sad. I also met my first anti, and all it did was increase my faith. He'd be really mad to find out that's what he accomplished. Still don't get why people would try so hard to fight us, but it doesn't get to me as much anymore. Papa Nelson even told me he likes it when people fight him, for it's exactly what people did to the prophets of old, and even the savior. I still think that's crazy to like it, but at least he has a good attitude towards it, and I'm tryin to be the same way.
Remember, the message I've been sent forth to share is true. I know it. I know it will bring so much happiness and peace to everyone who accepts it in their life, because it has in mine, and I've seen it in others. Never forget that it's true. And those who don't know, find out for yourself. Ask God if it is. He'll let you know.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
First MTC Now Muscatine
Hello Everybody!
What a crazy week and a half it's been! I'm now in Muscatine, Iowa, right on the banks of the Mississippi. It's a town that SORT OF kind of reminds me of Auburn, in a way, kind of small, spread out, but has an even smaller town feel, kinda like if Auburn's downtown took up all of Auburn, and has hills like crazy. At least compared to the rest of Iowa. Which made it great that we have a car share with the other two elders in the area and not just to ourselves. My thighs will be massive by the time I'm home....
Anyway, for the trip out here, we woke up at about 2:30 am Wednesday morning and had to meet out front at 4. I got up early to finish packing and all that kind of stuff. Our flight left at 7ish and I had a chance to call home before then. The flight was nice enough, I got to watch the ground go by and saw the Grand Canyon for the first time from above. We arrived in Phoenix (I know, out of the way, but not as much as Atlanta. Some elders here had to go through there to get here) and had an hour layover till we left again. On that flight, we got onto the smallest plane I've ever been on, basically a flying cigarette, and sat by an elderly woman. I was tired and knew I should probably share a message but was far too tired to start off a conversation on religion. So she started it for me. 79-year-old Penny started first by asking me if I'd ever seen a sitting Saint (I believe it was Francis. I really don't know. I'm sure I will understand them all by the time I go home, though....) and I told her I hadn't. She then started just talking and asked me to tell her what we believed in. I seriously wondered for a second if she was LDS and was just trying to test my knowledge, but I started in anyway. It was an awesome discussion, she said that the things I said all made sense, such as that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were all separate beings, and other stuff too that I could prove from the Bible (I couldn't quite tell if the spirit was there. I'm sure it was, but that little jet that was four seats wide was so loud I could barely tell) and wanted to go tell all of her family about it, but wouldn't accept any pamphlets from me, and only took pass along cards for bookmarks. I even asked her to pray about it, but I think she's more focused on praying for me because she loved me so much. She admired what I did, and didn't want to offend me, but had been Lutheran all her life. I've found out quickly out here that no matter how much some people can feel it's true, they still are too closely tied to their religion to really consider it. It's truly sad....
Anyway, we were met at the airport by the president, and got all of our stuff. I started feeling sick, most likely from the fact I had not had anything to eat or drink all day. We went to eat at McDonalds and then went to the mission home to drop stuff off, and then went tracting. I still felt gross but did my best to start off door approaches. The Assistant I was with took it farther. I started to realize that people would generally decline it very nicely, which i suppose is nicer than outright rejecting what I have to share. Later that night I finally got rid of the illness, but not till after nearly sleeping through being taught important information, groggily going through a great interview with the president, and shoving down a delicious dinner that I wish I could have enjoyed more. I love President and Sister Talbot a lot.
The next day we got our assignments and companions. I am with Elder Nelson. He's a really good missionary, hardworking and yet fun. I'm his first trainee, or son as they refer to them here, and he's used it to pull pranks on me. Like when I first read off who my comp would be to the group of Trainers who were not wearing nametags, he had another elder stand up. He also switched his nametag with the other Elder Nelson in our district (our district comprises two companionships, one English, one Spanish, both for the same ward that covers about as much area as Auburn and Kent Stakes combined) and convinced me that I was gonna be stuck in a spanish speaking area. He also tried pushing the beds together to convince me there was only one, but I knew the rule against that in the white handbook already. Also, when I was out tracting for the first time, he pulled another trick on me. We were tracting out in the south end of town, an area usually just taken by the Spanish Elders, and knocked into a family that, only after saying a few things to, invited us in. That alone was sort of intimidating, but then the daughters were sort of rude. We started answering the questions of this sort of large family, and Elder Nelson had me answer quite a bit. I let him answer the gay one, though, which he did very poorly. After about fifteen minutes or longer, the dad went into the back and then brought out two framed pictures: one of Jesus, the one that has him in red and staring straight forward that nearly all LDS people have in their home, and one of the Mexico City Temple, where apparently he had been married years before. And that is how I met the Gerrido family in the ward and came to hate my companion. He's district leader, and while he's pulled pranks on me, a really cool guy. We play a lot of chess in our free time, during lunch and such, and works hard. He also calls me Pops, from God's Army. Apparently I remind him of that character, even though he's my pops.
The work here in Iowa is going strong. We've gone down about 40 or 60 missionaries (I thought the president said 60 but Elder Nelson said 40...either way a lot) in the last year or so, but the baptisms have doubled. As I flew into Des Moines, the smallest airport I have ever been in, the ground was covered by low hanging clouds which sadly obstructed my view of where I would live for two years. So I jokingly thought to myself about how the field was white, all ready to harvest. I guess I was right. Elder Nelson and I have a goal for four baptisms this transfer, two nearly are for sure, one's possible, and one more we put down just to see if it'd pop out of the woodwork. Success apparently bumps up when there's a new elder around.
The weather here has been a lot like WA, cool and wet. Friday it opened up and is sunny, but still fairly cool and humid. Cicadas, locusts, and crickets can be constantly heard making a raucous, which is new to me. We live in the basement of a widowed sister in the ward. How we can live with a single sister is beyond us but whatever, we stay fairly separate other than in the kitchen or if she needs to do laundry. Elder Nelson calls our apartment the Batcave, which, for once, is not a good thing. It's a nice enough apartment for a couple 19/20 year old guys, but is no Hilton.
If there's anything else to talk about it'd probably be a 17-year-old guy we've been talking to and gave a church tour to today. None of the missionaries have really taught a full lesson to yet, but he said he wants to be baptized. I just sat there in awe mostly as that lesson was taking place. He says, however, that he is the last male in the bloodline and his grandpa was a strong catholic and he feels an obligation to stay catholic, even if he never goes nor has any other connection to it. I'm hoping he recognizes and follows the answer to his prayer on the matter.
I also would like to mention that I will have an opportunity to go the the Nauvoo and Winter Quarters temple at least once each, which is pretty dang exciting. Also, we are allowed to listen to any music which invites the spirit, so mom, send out all the motab ya got, and any other cds you think would bring the spirit. Elder Nelson has a cd player, but I'm gonna buy a small one of my own. I also bought a comforter and pillow for a pretty good price at Wal-Mart. Email time is not monitored on here, so send emails, but everyone, send letters!!! I need mail!! Oh, and send me my priesthood line of authority, I don't know if I'd ever really need to whip it out, because it'd probably just end up being contentious, but I think it'd be way helpful.
Everyone here is very religious, which is good, but can get in the way. I love the people here and respect them. OH, and I saw what is apparently the oldest church west of the mississippi. Barely made that one. It was surrounded by clouds of bats. Nearly all of the streets here are by name which is so disconcerting. Also, no mountains to tell the compass points, and the streets bend with the river, so sometimes they go north south east west, and sometimes they're slanted. And it's the home of a Heinz factory and another factory that does stuff with corn (imagine that) that is on the far side of the river and sends out smells sometimes (thus a loving name that floats around, Muscaletrine, or Muscastench, I like the first one better).
Oh! And if Tyler Russell is going to the Accra, Ghana mission, that mission presidents' daughter is in my ward. Just had dinner with them last night (dinners here are amazing. I had barbecue on saturday that changed my life).
I think that's everything. I could ramble on forever but I should probably go. We gotta shop and play some Settlers of Catan.
Pray for me to build up more courage, but more importantly, pray for the people of Muscatine and especially the investigators. I love this work, and I love all of the people I'm trying to serve, and I love all of you. The gospel's as true as it's ever been.
-Elder Charlie (still trying to drop that first name thing) Gates
What a crazy week and a half it's been! I'm now in Muscatine, Iowa, right on the banks of the Mississippi. It's a town that SORT OF kind of reminds me of Auburn, in a way, kind of small, spread out, but has an even smaller town feel, kinda like if Auburn's downtown took up all of Auburn, and has hills like crazy. At least compared to the rest of Iowa. Which made it great that we have a car share with the other two elders in the area and not just to ourselves. My thighs will be massive by the time I'm home....
Anyway, for the trip out here, we woke up at about 2:30 am Wednesday morning and had to meet out front at 4. I got up early to finish packing and all that kind of stuff. Our flight left at 7ish and I had a chance to call home before then. The flight was nice enough, I got to watch the ground go by and saw the Grand Canyon for the first time from above. We arrived in Phoenix (I know, out of the way, but not as much as Atlanta. Some elders here had to go through there to get here) and had an hour layover till we left again. On that flight, we got onto the smallest plane I've ever been on, basically a flying cigarette, and sat by an elderly woman. I was tired and knew I should probably share a message but was far too tired to start off a conversation on religion. So she started it for me. 79-year-old Penny started first by asking me if I'd ever seen a sitting Saint (I believe it was Francis. I really don't know. I'm sure I will understand them all by the time I go home, though....) and I told her I hadn't. She then started just talking and asked me to tell her what we believed in. I seriously wondered for a second if she was LDS and was just trying to test my knowledge, but I started in anyway. It was an awesome discussion, she said that the things I said all made sense, such as that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were all separate beings, and other stuff too that I could prove from the Bible (I couldn't quite tell if the spirit was there. I'm sure it was, but that little jet that was four seats wide was so loud I could barely tell) and wanted to go tell all of her family about it, but wouldn't accept any pamphlets from me, and only took pass along cards for bookmarks. I even asked her to pray about it, but I think she's more focused on praying for me because she loved me so much. She admired what I did, and didn't want to offend me, but had been Lutheran all her life. I've found out quickly out here that no matter how much some people can feel it's true, they still are too closely tied to their religion to really consider it. It's truly sad....
Anyway, we were met at the airport by the president, and got all of our stuff. I started feeling sick, most likely from the fact I had not had anything to eat or drink all day. We went to eat at McDonalds and then went to the mission home to drop stuff off, and then went tracting. I still felt gross but did my best to start off door approaches. The Assistant I was with took it farther. I started to realize that people would generally decline it very nicely, which i suppose is nicer than outright rejecting what I have to share. Later that night I finally got rid of the illness, but not till after nearly sleeping through being taught important information, groggily going through a great interview with the president, and shoving down a delicious dinner that I wish I could have enjoyed more. I love President and Sister Talbot a lot.
The next day we got our assignments and companions. I am with Elder Nelson. He's a really good missionary, hardworking and yet fun. I'm his first trainee, or son as they refer to them here, and he's used it to pull pranks on me. Like when I first read off who my comp would be to the group of Trainers who were not wearing nametags, he had another elder stand up. He also switched his nametag with the other Elder Nelson in our district (our district comprises two companionships, one English, one Spanish, both for the same ward that covers about as much area as Auburn and Kent Stakes combined) and convinced me that I was gonna be stuck in a spanish speaking area. He also tried pushing the beds together to convince me there was only one, but I knew the rule against that in the white handbook already. Also, when I was out tracting for the first time, he pulled another trick on me. We were tracting out in the south end of town, an area usually just taken by the Spanish Elders, and knocked into a family that, only after saying a few things to, invited us in. That alone was sort of intimidating, but then the daughters were sort of rude. We started answering the questions of this sort of large family, and Elder Nelson had me answer quite a bit. I let him answer the gay one, though, which he did very poorly. After about fifteen minutes or longer, the dad went into the back and then brought out two framed pictures: one of Jesus, the one that has him in red and staring straight forward that nearly all LDS people have in their home, and one of the Mexico City Temple, where apparently he had been married years before. And that is how I met the Gerrido family in the ward and came to hate my companion. He's district leader, and while he's pulled pranks on me, a really cool guy. We play a lot of chess in our free time, during lunch and such, and works hard. He also calls me Pops, from God's Army. Apparently I remind him of that character, even though he's my pops.
The work here in Iowa is going strong. We've gone down about 40 or 60 missionaries (I thought the president said 60 but Elder Nelson said 40...either way a lot) in the last year or so, but the baptisms have doubled. As I flew into Des Moines, the smallest airport I have ever been in, the ground was covered by low hanging clouds which sadly obstructed my view of where I would live for two years. So I jokingly thought to myself about how the field was white, all ready to harvest. I guess I was right. Elder Nelson and I have a goal for four baptisms this transfer, two nearly are for sure, one's possible, and one more we put down just to see if it'd pop out of the woodwork. Success apparently bumps up when there's a new elder around.
The weather here has been a lot like WA, cool and wet. Friday it opened up and is sunny, but still fairly cool and humid. Cicadas, locusts, and crickets can be constantly heard making a raucous, which is new to me. We live in the basement of a widowed sister in the ward. How we can live with a single sister is beyond us but whatever, we stay fairly separate other than in the kitchen or if she needs to do laundry. Elder Nelson calls our apartment the Batcave, which, for once, is not a good thing. It's a nice enough apartment for a couple 19/20 year old guys, but is no Hilton.
If there's anything else to talk about it'd probably be a 17-year-old guy we've been talking to and gave a church tour to today. None of the missionaries have really taught a full lesson to yet, but he said he wants to be baptized. I just sat there in awe mostly as that lesson was taking place. He says, however, that he is the last male in the bloodline and his grandpa was a strong catholic and he feels an obligation to stay catholic, even if he never goes nor has any other connection to it. I'm hoping he recognizes and follows the answer to his prayer on the matter.
I also would like to mention that I will have an opportunity to go the the Nauvoo and Winter Quarters temple at least once each, which is pretty dang exciting. Also, we are allowed to listen to any music which invites the spirit, so mom, send out all the motab ya got, and any other cds you think would bring the spirit. Elder Nelson has a cd player, but I'm gonna buy a small one of my own. I also bought a comforter and pillow for a pretty good price at Wal-Mart. Email time is not monitored on here, so send emails, but everyone, send letters!!! I need mail!! Oh, and send me my priesthood line of authority, I don't know if I'd ever really need to whip it out, because it'd probably just end up being contentious, but I think it'd be way helpful.
Everyone here is very religious, which is good, but can get in the way. I love the people here and respect them. OH, and I saw what is apparently the oldest church west of the mississippi. Barely made that one. It was surrounded by clouds of bats. Nearly all of the streets here are by name which is so disconcerting. Also, no mountains to tell the compass points, and the streets bend with the river, so sometimes they go north south east west, and sometimes they're slanted. And it's the home of a Heinz factory and another factory that does stuff with corn (imagine that) that is on the far side of the river and sends out smells sometimes (thus a loving name that floats around, Muscaletrine, or Muscastench, I like the first one better).
Oh! And if Tyler Russell is going to the Accra, Ghana mission, that mission presidents' daughter is in my ward. Just had dinner with them last night (dinners here are amazing. I had barbecue on saturday that changed my life).
I think that's everything. I could ramble on forever but I should probably go. We gotta shop and play some Settlers of Catan.
Pray for me to build up more courage, but more importantly, pray for the people of Muscatine and especially the investigators. I love this work, and I love all of the people I'm trying to serve, and I love all of you. The gospel's as true as it's ever been.
-Elder Charlie (still trying to drop that first name thing) Gates
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