2011: The Prequel to 2012

Hello everybody! It's me, Elder Gates. I'm still here and ok and all that. Anybody who would care to explain why I felt like starting my email that way, please mail your explanations to me. Speaking of mail, sorry for all of you that have sent stuff and I still have not responded. It's been crazy here and hard to get caught up on much of anything. The trio ended on Tuesday, with us driving to Iowa City for Elder Wilson's new comp, Elder Cooper, which took all day. Then I got violently sick that night. Since we believe that extremely violent entertainment is not appropriate, I do not see why I could not have simply explained this to the virus and have it leave me alone. And I can't even sue the FCC for it or nothing. What a dispicable time we live in. Some may argue that the flu is not entertainment, but if SAW can be listed as such, why can't my virus? While I've never watched Saw, I'm sure it would have the same results. I apparently even puked so hard into the toilet that the toilet not only fought back by splashing in my face, my eye decided to burst a blood vessel. How my eye was even connected to this fight between me and the toilet is beyond me, but I still argue it was an odd way for my eye to try to get its point across. Even now, a week later, my eye still is bloody looking. My branch president, who's a doctor, explained the plethora of colors it will change over time. I turned to one of the Quincy elders and told him how straight that sounded. My Branch President laughed and told me that as long as I didn't go marching in any parades with my rainbow eye I'd be fine. I told him that I came out here to escape those parades in the first place. Anyway, speaking of Quincy ElderS, we lost Elder Wilson on Tuesday last week to a sad but not entirely unexpected case of New Comp Syndrome. The saddest part of the whole endeavor was needing to rush him to Iowa City to acquire this New Comp Syndrome. Luckily, he got a pretty good case of it, or so it seems, so that's a relief. When Christmas Eve came, we were finally able to step out into the light for District Meeting and a WEDDING!!! The wedding was great and simple and short and perfect. There was barely anybody there which is cool. I wore the pink tie I would have worn to Cari's wedding. But they're MARRIED! I was sick for all of the dress shopping and all of that jazz so I missed out on that...darn.... Christmas Day was great with breakfast with our Branch Mission Leader's family. It was so much fun to sit around a tree with a family and open presents. It felt like home. Just without the orange rolls. We then called home, and it was great being able to see my parents on Skype. It was also good to see that mom still hangs my photos on the wall across from the computer desk. But it was weird, yet necessary, to talk to them about going home plans. And while it would be fun to have a Gates Christmas Vacation in Hawaii next year if I'm there, we'll see if i even choose that for school. Not sure yet. I'm with yall, I'll probably end up at Provo. Then it was time for lunch at an investigator's and then dinner at the Branch Mission Leader's house again. We also went and said hi to Dena's dad that night. The baptism for Dena should be on for saturday, but we haven't been able to get ahold of them for a few days, which is kind of scaring us a tad. She'll be baptized, I know, but I don't know when. All in all, though, we're just happy to be free to do work again, with no more drama nor meetings nor sickness.
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"As for myself, I am an optimist. It doesn't seem very much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

Holy Night, Batman! Santa Brought Me Another Comp!

So, yeah, favorite quote of the week. An investigator was shooting his daughter with a nerf gun while we were visiting. As we left, she said "Hurry, shoot the Mormons before they leave!" Apparently not much has changed in the last two hundred years here in Missourah.So, here's the dillio, yo. One of the people in the companionship in Quincy needed to take off due to health reasons.So, currently, we are in a trio with Elder Wilson. We cover both Quincy and Hannibal, have two apartments, two cars, and two phones. We'll find out today at some point whether or not this is permanent. We, personally, hope it will be, for a few reasons. One, it's nearly Christmas, and it's a terrible time for a missionary to be pulled out just before he can do all of the Christmas plans he has been looking forward to. Two, the missionary who left will, in my opinion, need to be in a trio to make dealing with his health problems easier. Three, we're selfish like that and want to stick together. The three of us get along great and it's hilarious. While this will be the most insane planning I would have ever had to do in my life, I know we can do it and keep ourselves on track with everything.

Dena is still on for baptism. She wants me to baptize her, and is excited for it! We're still helping to make sure she is done with cigarettes for good. They're now on for getting married on christmas eve, which will be interesting getting arranged but we'll do it. All three of us missionaries, if it is three, will wear pink ties for it (mine from Cari's wedding). We also started teaching the children of our other major investigators. Well, actually, we started, and then our investigator took over, which is what we wanted anyway. That's pretty much all we really had in the way of missionary work, due to all the switching up and zone conference.

Zone conference was really good, but getting there was tricky. In the thirty minute drive just to Quincy, we saw three different accidents due to the freezing rain. Elder England was fine enough on the roads, he just went really slow. When we got out to help a person out of a ditch, we had to skate across a sheet of ice, commonly referred to as the road. It took us over an hour to reach Quincy, and then we had the joy of driving all the way up to Mount Pleasant that night going really slow, and then off to Iowa City the next morning. Conference was really good, including a talent show (our zone did the twelve days of christmas, changing up the words. Elder England and I decided that "on the sixth day of christmas our mission gave to us 6 more weeks with him....") and a cookie decorating contest. I, of course, lost that one. I thought I ingeniously turned a bell-shaped cookie into an angel.

But that's about it. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!! Remember who it is all about!
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"As for myself, I am an optimist. It doesn't seem very much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

16 MONTHS?? I LOST COUNT AND THOUGHT IT WAS 15!! Dang it....

Still no snow. Drat. Keep waiting for those Christmas cards, everyone, because they're not happening till there's snow.

Christmas goodies! I want wagonwheels, some divinity (not too much, I love them and all, but too much sugar and me is no bueno), frosted cookies, and whatever other amazing cookies we make that I can't think of. No bakes, while not particularly christmasy, are a must. As for SKYPE, I'll have to check to make certain. We're having breakfast and dinner (not the lunch dinner, but the supper dinner) with our branch mission leader and his family on Christmas, which is great because we love our branch mission leader and his wife reminds me of mom. I'll need to ask them about SKYPE, which will be tomorrow. I'm happy to know it will probably work on your end so I'll make sure it's good on this one. I hope it works!!

Dena and Casey are doing GREAT!! Casey even bore his testimony on Sunday and was participating class more than most of the actives and having awesome comments. I'm so proud of them!! Dena, as I put it in coordination, is, come hell or high water, getting married on the 26th. I'm still uncertain whether that was an appropriate use of the word hell, but it came out and I regret nothing. Either way, she's determined to get married and thus baptized on New Years Day. They're incredible, and are just bound to get more incredible. She wants to go dress shopping and wants some opinions, and since she's dropped a lot of her former friends due to their bad influence, she wants us to be there. Yep. Me. Dress shopping.... We also had to help her understand some things that apparently has been glossed over in the past. It's awkward coming in after somebody has been taught, supposedly, all the lessons at least once, and not knowing all they might have covered or not due to bad records. She accepts most things so well and easily, she's great.

I don't know if I remembered to mention it last week but Dena's dad is in the hospital, and she has had us come and visit him a few times now. And while she wasn't sure how much he'd like us, he, in fact, loves us and enjoys our visits of us sitting there quietly and being sarcastic. He actually corrected his girlfriend when she referred to us as Dena's friends and let her know we were friends of the family. Which, if the rest of the family agrees with him, opens up doors to about a quarter (hyperbole, but a lot) of Hannibal and the surrounding areas. Which is AMAZING.

Well, that's about it. Sorry for no hilarious stories, we've mostly just been working with Dena and Casey and trying to visit less-actives and our few other investigators this week. Christmas is coming! If you want to celebrate christmas right, invite the missionaries over. If somebody has offered them dinner already, that still leaves lunch and breakfast open!!
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"As for myself, I am an optimist. It doesn't seem very much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

The Levels of ADD: ADD, ADHD, ADBlu-Ray, AD3D and- SQUIRREL!

This was a realization from one of my AD3D conversations with Elder England this week.

I couldn't help but laugh at Mom's subject line for this week's email, hoping I'm still "All Right." I was just joking about that with my last subject title because I got my left foot ran over, so I was literally "All Right." So no, I'm not still all right in that sense! My foot's fully healed, and i know it's a blessing. But in the other sense, I'm even better.

Mom seemed to really want to hear about my investigators, which works out since that's what I want to talk about anyway. WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE! All yall in other areas probably would get excited about this, too, but it's especially exciting for me. I hadn't had an investigator at church for the entire time I was in Mason City, and all of the baptismal dates I set there fell through pretty quickly with less-dedicated investigators. And when I came here we ended up with investigators with all sorts of things to overcome first, like custody battles and marriage and smoking and blah blah blah SO when Dena, one of our investigators, decided that she wanted to get married to her live-in boyfriend, Casey, a member, Christmas weekend so her mother would be around for it, we jumped on the chance! And for as solid as she was before, she's WAY solid now! I LOVE what baptismal dates do for people who really, really are willing! She is now trying to talk to us about planning a wedding and making sure she has a modest dress and all the stuff we'd tell her to do anyway! I do NOT know ANYTHING about planning weddings, though. Helping someone find a dress and all sorts of junk is WAY beyond me. While many missionaries have had to marry people on their missions, I've never had to do it before, so this is exciting but sort of scary, too. But Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown, I'm getting to see my investigator married and...Happy Birthday! A Baptism two days before the anniversary of the day I entered the world. So, yeah, be excited. This should ring a bell with my previous emails and my belief it's a principle of the gospel that bad things and good things tend to go near each other. It took a long time of sickness and pain but now the Lord's sending blessings. Ok, I shouldn't get so excited, in case it falls through, but I have faith it won't and I'm praying hard for them!

Oh! Whoops! I completely forgot to mention this part, but you can probably guess already: transfers are this week, but neither of us are going anywhere. Thank goodness.

Oh, Thanksgiving! Well, this week was pretty lame in most ways of missionary work, but some cool things happened. We had both a Lunch and Dinner appointment on thanksgiving. I hate stuffing myself like a turkey but it was all just so good. Lunch was at the house of a couple of our investigators, where we also got to meet his parents, and the dinner was at a member's home.

Anyway, I gotta go! One last thing: I may be able to SKYPE home for christmas! I don't know how feasable this will be for you or even for us to get a member that can do it but i'm gonna try. Just so ya know!

"As for myself, I am an optimist. It doesn't seem very much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

I'm "All Right"

Last monday, I was being dumb as we were leaving the Library from writing you all and I stood too close to the car as I was backing Elder England. The car bumped me as I was planning on it doing as Elder England was checking the front end, but then it did something I wasn't expecting: the back tire decided to take a little trip up over my big toe and onto my arch on my left foot. It was there that Elder England parked the car and only moved forward when he saw my frantic gestures in the side mirror. I hobbled around on the foot the rest of the day just thinking I had bruised up my toe. The next day brought pain to more parts of my foot. Yet, in that same dumb mind that thought it was smart to stand close to the car came the new dumb thought of not getting it checked out and expecting it to just go away. By Wednesday night, when it had not gone away but had gotten worse, I called Sister Jergensen. She told me to get ahold of our Branch President who's a doctor and have him check it out. I called him and left a message, and by noon on Thursday he had arranged for me to get an X-Ray. But before I could go in for that I had to get approval from Mission Medical through Sister Jergensen. I called or texted Sister Jergensen a couple times throughout the day on Thursday, but due to meetings I didn't hear from her until that night. By that point she just told me to go in the next day, which I did as soon as I could. There at the clinic I walked up and told them who I was and they checked me in and soon had me X-Rayed. Yet as the X-Rays were finishing up a new person walked in, informing the nurse that there was some confusion at the front desk (they hadn't even asked for my insurance card). There at the desk they started asking me questions (more like an interrogation). They listed off an address and asked if that was mine. I thought for a second, as it was some foreign address, wondering if that was mission medical or the old Illinois Peoria Mission address or the branch president's address...wait, why do they even have my address...? Meanwhile, as I thought, the people got more and more curious looks on their faces. They then asked my social security number. I couldn't remember that for the life of me. They then asked our phone number, which I couldn't remember either. They quickly realized I was not the person they had signed me in under, and then asked me if i had even had an appointment with the Doctor that's our branch president, which I hadn't. Altogether, a plethora of red flags were raised to everyone present. The nurse or radiologist or whoever it was that checked my foot informed them that she hadn't yet gotten the X-Ray's processed. I quickly realized just how abnormal my visit there was, and how they must not understand in the slightest what was up. They had me fill out a new patient form and they got a copy of my missionary insurance card and I was on my way. I even offered to pay a copay but apparently I didn't need to. By saturday late afternoon I still had not heard from our branch president, and I was getting anxious just sitting around keeping my foot elevated to reduce the swelling that was going on, when finally I called him. He informed me that he had not yet received the X-Rays nor the Radiologist's examination of them, but to keep off my foot and keep it elevated in the mean time. This is also what sister jergensen had told me, and if you don't know already, keeping off a foot and keeping it elevated is nigh impossible as a missionary. But I got crutches on friday and have been using those since, and while I was uncertain at first, I'm pretty good at them now. Even sunday morning our Branch President still had not gotten the X-Rays, and I'm starting to think that it may be possible that due to the absurdity of my visit, the people in Radiology had either never done anything with them or chucked them. So, yeah, still not sure what's wrong with my foot. I can walk on the balls of it, but that starts to hurt over time, and my big toe hurts to use much, but my heal I can't use at all without considerable pain. It's all pretty much swollen, but not too much so, but the only place of good bruising is underneath by big toe nail.

It's crazy to hear that the weather is changing so much in WA. Here in MO it's starting to get a lot colder, and that all started as I was sick the other week. It's still not as cold as it usually is. Usually by now the first snow has come. Today is very windy, though. The fall here in MO was very pretty with all of the trees (yes, there are trees here, not just corn and soy fields).

This week we picked up a new investigator. She lives in one of the government housing areas here in town. She's one that we had tracted into awhile back but had only really tried checking up on her once before this week. She actually ended up being pretty awesome and during our first appointment just started reading the Book of Mormon on the spot and was too indulged to be much use to try to teach at that point. We've taught her three times now, the first time being Wednesday. Sunday she actually came to church! But she was so scared, being used to All-Black Churches, where apparently people spend the whole time gossiping about you and never care to actually be courteous and shake each others hands. She came in late to sacrament meeting, staying out in the foyer, and left early, but in that small amount of time it made an awesome impact. She got to see the sacrament, got warmly welcomed by the few members who came into the hallway with handshakes and whispered greetings and smiles, and the talks she heard seemed, at least to her, to be directed towards her. She couldn't believe it! We went over after church and she was still the happiest we'd ever seen her and all excited about this new-found, gregarious congregation! To all congenial mormons everywhere, thank you for making this church great. We tried to set a baptismal date with her on sunday but she was nervous about that and then got into one of those The Projects Yelling Matches you always hear about, so we left.

Another of our investigators ended up with her ailing father in the hospital, which got her reasonably upset. She invited us out to see him thursday night, and apparently it made his night, and he still talks about it. All we really did was come in and sit there and told him about my foot, but apparently that made a major impact on him, and our investigator has asked us to stop by again! Another door opens!

As for Thanksgiving, we have two meal appointments, one with a member in the evening and one with an investigator. It's incredible to us that we have four amazing investigators, all who love us and two of whom are personally working towards baptism and the other two doing great as well. No dates yet, but that will change shortly!

It's crazy to us how fast this transfer is going, and all the great things happening, despite all the things going wrong with me!
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"As for myself, I am an optimist. It doesn't seem very much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

And Then In-Flew-Enza... I Should Have Shot Her When I Had the Chance

Well, I really wish I had more to report on this week than what I do. As you may be able to tell from the title of this week's email, I got sick this week. It all started monday night and it's kind of wrapping up now...I hope. It's ridiculous. It all started off with cold symptoms, but just whiped me out. I couldn't understand why I was so tired from this thing. The cough began to go lower into my throat until sure enough I got bronchitis. And then sunday afternoon, after I had gotten drugs for the bronchitis, I began having diarrhea. So I officially had the flu. We had a dinner appointment that night that I did not feel up to, but went to anyway. After eating a little bit of my sloppy joes and using the restroom, the member kindly let us leave early so I could sleep. The members of this branch are so nice. When I called up Sister Jergensen to tell her of the newest update in my situation, she couldn't help but motheringly rub it in that I hadn't gotten a flu shot. I deserved that. After hearing her and President Jergensen talking about which drugs I should get (she, as a mother, recommended peptobismol since that would deal with the upset stomach, but her husband, as a pharmacist, recommended immodium since that would be most effective at killing that), we got permission to leave our apartment (at this point it was after 9:30 pm) to get what I now needed as a flu victim. I got both pepto bismol and immodium, but as the diarrhea was the most disconcerting of the symptoms, I took that that night. It worked, but I don't know if I should be happy about that or not. I still haven't gone number two. I know you all cared to know that, but, as it is a free service to all yall who want to know updates on my life, you get what you pay for. Yesterday we went to church, only really because Elder England had to give a talk. I sat down on a back pew and watched as everyone came in. A new move-in that loves missionaries kept talking to me and I really wasn't in the mood for a hunky-dory conversation, but I pulled through. Elder England did a great job of covering for me and getting everything done that we needed done. He informed our dinner appointment for that night that I was sick with the flu and she kindly said that she didn't want me in her house, but they came by later with food and chicken noodle soup, with chicken shaped noodles, made especially for me, with other things as well. Our branch mission leader also came by with some chicken noodle soup and crackers and gave us 7up. He and his wife asked us at church if there was anything they could do and when I said I wished we had more chicken noodle soup now that I was restricted on my diet they jumped at the chance to bring me not only that but other things as well. I love our branch! We got NOTHING done this week, though. Well, a little, but not much. We taught a couple lessons that we had scheduled, and we went to this branch activity where the men make cakes and compete. I had wanted to make a cake but, obviously, I didn't. Elder England did, though, and we put hotwheels on top for decoration. We also went to Carthage last Monday. By the time we made it to Nauvoo we only had a little bit of time before needing to leave again so we did nothing there, but carthage was amazing. We took the last tour of the day of the jail, and it was just us, so it was great. I loved being able to see for myself the conditions and what it was all like. Really, you should all be jealous.
That's about it!
"I am an optimist, it doesn't seem much use being anything else." -Winston Churchill
Elder Charlie Gates

Nobody Died. Except the Cowboy....

Remember how I talk about ups and downs? This week was no rollercoaster. This was more of one of those rides that shoots you straight up and down so fast you lose your lunch just to gain it back again. Saturday night we taught the stop smoking workshop finally to a part member couple we've been working with and it went really, really well. We were way stoked and so were they. We even helped them with their fear that once they got off of smoking they'd go crazy and potentially kill each other (both have psychological disorders to an extent with no meds due to the cost...besides tobacco). They also had overcome all of their reasons for not being able to make it to church. She had gotten a new job that no longer required her to work on sundays and they had gotten a new car so they had a ride. The next day, they weren't at church and later when we stopped by their fears had come to fruition. Yeah. Nearly everything in their house had been destroyed or damaged, he had had his bags packed ready to leave, and they had smoked. They had also apparently gone to church early, having forgotten to reset their clocks and had left when nobody was there. By the way, I do hate daylight savings time. Our other investigators had the flu ravaging their family and the people we had set return appointments up with and had taught lessons were uncommital in arranging return appointments. In our other pursuits for the week, we tried to check up on some referrals of people who had requested copies of the Book of Mormon, neither of which worked out. One was a home just inside a cemetery gigantodogs and never answered and another was way down south. We went to it, thinking it was it, asked for the person, wasn't there. We then went to another old potential investigator, just to realize I'd gotten the names mixed up and had gone to the house of the old potential asking for the referral and were now headed to the referrals house, not the old potentials. This was disheartening, as the old potential was a friend of a member who had re-referred us to them, and we had completely messed it up. So we went to the referral, knocked on the door three times and never got an answer, even though they were obviously home. We then tried to leave, and Elder England backed up, without me backing him because I figured he wasn't going to back up and didn't get out to back him when he did, and he ran into a ditch. I pushed him out, just to see something metal sticking out from beneath the car. It was one of those reflector things they stick on either side of a country driveway. But this was no cheapo one, this was one with little fancy things on it, including a cowboy design on top. Elder England crawled under the car and took awhile getting it dislodged. It was all bent out of shape. We went back, knocked again, still no answer, so we left it with a note offering to replace it. Still no call. We're not THAT scary. We did have some cool stuff, like getting in with a few less actives and having a lady say she'd always wanted to attend a mormon church and was way excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon. We're also going to Nauvoo today for a Zone P-Day. It should be fun. So it wasn't all bad. It never is. I'm still staying positive.
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"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

With All These "Eggs" and a Sunday Holiday You Would Think It Was Easter, Not Halloween

I don't know if this is the case, but I feel like I've never heard the phrase "good egg" as much as I have in the last 24 hours. I've heard of plenty of bad eggs but all of these good eggs are just reminding me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

This week.... I don't have too much to report on, or so I feel. So if I take this seldom opportunity at typing on something with a backspace to have some fun, please forgive me.

Um, we were planning on a really productive week, but didn't get it. Tuesday night we got a call from the Zone Leaders letting us know that interviews were the next day in Quincy and that our last district leader should have told us that.... So I spent some time calling back and forth cancelling the exchange we had planned and figuring out everything. When all was said and done, not only was our nightly planning shot, but all of the work we wanted to do the next day was, too. So we went to interviews early and it all got bumped back a few times as the interviews elsewhere went over. Oh, did I inform you of who's in my new district? Remember Elder Havice? Yeah, he's in Quincy now. Anyway, we got stuck in Quincy nearly all day and got no work done on the Homefront. And the Zone leaders went on a one night and a free dinner exchange with us after the interviews. The interviews were pretty nice, though. I got to talk to President about this new calling of mine and he complimented me, as usual, on my optimistic attitude behind my work. I'll admit, I usually am pretty optimistic about the future out here. I don't see how you can't be. I've just had enough of thinking life sucks and being with people who think that and that nothing ever goes right and blah blah blah i'm just sick of it and being positive about the future, even if this moment is hell, keeps me going. It's funny, actually. Thinking life's terrible and it can't get better breeds apathy (it's called learned helplessness from what I remember from psychology) yet the only thing that will bring you out of that state is to get up and keep trying. Yeah, I might be wrong, things might be eternally messed up; but things aren't going to get any better with that mindset. So I just have to continually keep on chugging along believing next week will be better than last.
Don't get me wrong, this week wasn't bad, life doesn't suck, hell hasn't completely combined against me, and the North Koreans aren't out to kill me, but let's face a fact: Missions aren't easy. I know, that sounds depressing and all that junk. But it's fact. And the only way to overcome that fact is an optimistic outlook on how you can improve in order to improve your situation. Yes, you can be the best missionary the world has ever seen and never have a baptism nor plant a seed that ever truly comes to fruition in this life. But as PMG says, a successful missionary is not measured on convert baptisms, reactivated members, or if you invited 7,945 people to be taught this week. It's on your commitment to the work. And how committed is someone who eternally has a negative outlook on what comes next? So, yeah, this week's numbers didn't exemplify a missionary you might read about in the Ensign, but I'm committed to improvement. When you have the Savior beside you, and you live worthy of that, how can you fail? Even if your area doesn't improve, at least you will. And apparently that's the thing President appreciates the most about me. Is that a wordy and lengthy enough explanation?

Besides that, I had my first district meeting. It was all on love. Apparently they all liked that. Well, at least, those who responded, which was all but one. But you just can't make everyone happy. There's only one person I have to please and He's not the one who needs the advice.

We had a trunk or treat Saturday night. I didn't dress up, besides brinking my sunglasses and having a concealed nerf gun. We gave out cruddy bubble gum and pass-along cards.

We went tracting yesterday. We called it quits when the people started handing us candy. And yes, we did have restrictions for both sunday and saturday nights. We had to be either in by six or being driven around by members. On neither night did it effect us too much. Saturday we came in from the trunk or treat and all that at about the same time and sunday we came in by seven and then had to deal with all sorts of calls between the zone leaders and Quincy and stuff. I feel like the people who watch Dragnet and want to be a detective just to discover when they become one that it has a whole lot more to do with paperwork than fighting crime.

The stop smoking workshop we've been trying to set up fell through again for the I-Don't-Know-th time. It should work out now. Really. I hope.

Still teaching the same people. That's all going well. Nobody came to church this last Sunday, though. Well, at least not in the way of investigators. Thursday night we got a call from a less active I've been feeling an urge to visit but didn't know how to get ahold of him. Well, he called us and asked us to come over, which we did, and he told us he wanted to come back to church and just needed a ride. It was seriously the easiest less active work I've ever done.

Well, i think I rambled enough today. Hope you enjoyed it. If not, there are no refunds.

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Greetings from Halloweentown, Missouri

Have I mentioned yet that I've finally officially discovered how to spell Missouri? I could never remember if it had two R's or two S's.... And did you know it's capitol is Jefferson City? I guess I just always looked at it as the chigger-filled anti-mormon mob-minded-citizens state I never had any desire to step foot in. I definitely have gained much more charity for this state and its inhabitants since I had that belief.

That was a bad way to start this off. The reasoning behind my topic is that this town definitely seems like a spooky town. It's scary to be in at night! All of the houses downtown are very old and with the big hills you get some interesting designs and precarious placements for the lots. Last night we went looking for a less active at night, but the house was empty with newspapers on the front porch from june and a yard completely overgrown, yet an erie light glowed in one of the upstairs rooms. And the house totally looked like it was from some remake of "The Haunted Mansion."

Anyway.

Oh, you probably want to know about my new companion. I feel like I get a new one a week nowadays so it's just normal. I'm running out of room in my pmg to write in their names (Number ten, eleventh transfer). I now have Elder England from Stockton, CA. He's a good kid it seems, and doesn't have any major illness besides a residual cough from a cold he had, but that's it.

While we have some good plans for the area and great things about to happen, not much really got done this past week. It really was sad to see such a dichotomy between our half of the district and Quincy's. That's ok, though, we'll be stepping it up a large notch due to no more days spent inside.

Oh, but in the way of stories, things did occur there. Like the halloween parade we went to, the most exciting part being a cool picture I got of a passing motorcycle. I also was sitting at the house of the part member family we're working with and their son was seated beside me with his head on my should, falling asleep. I thought it was cute until his father picked him up and realized he had not only peed his own pants but mine, too. So expect some money taken out of my account for dry cleaning. They want to pay for it, but we're more worried about their money going towards a marriage license right now than for their kid's accident. On the bright side, they have potty-trained their new puppy!

Thank you for the positives of being co-pilot for the rest of my mission, mom. My actual bet is that if I run into an occasion where neither me nor my companion can drive, they'll just have neither of us drive. Elder England keeps saying, when something almost happens but I warn him before it does, "Hey, you almost got your driving privileges back!" Yeah, doubtful.

I believe that's all! It's not a full week, so there's a lot less to write about. Sorry to disappoint. I'm happy to hear that Brad has grown so much. From the emails I would get here and there that he was sending home, it really seemed like he had changed a lot for the better. I'm also glad my D&C 127 quote is so popular and was used in sacrament meeting. But I have to be honest and give credit where it's due. I got that scripture from Rachel in a letter she sent and I really liked it.

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Elder Gates the Gregarious: District Dictator of Quinnibal

Yep, transfers are this week. Sorry, I forgot as well that they were happening. Time really is accelerating quickly out here.... We got transfer calls on Saturday. We were in the apartment at 2 when President Jergensen called me, asking me to serve as the new district leader of the Quincy/Hannibal District (I will, from henceforth, refer to it as Quinnibal). He then let me know that Elder Bischoff was being transferred but to not say anything to him about it until the Assistants would call later that night. Well, Elder Bischoff overheard that and killed any amount of secrecy. Oh well. So, yeah, Elder Bischoff's taking off. We think he's going to Iowa City YSA from what the assistants were hinting at, and, if that's the case, puts him right next to one of the best hospitals in the area. He finally had an ultrasound this week for gallstones, so he'll be finding out about that soon. He had to have the info released to the mission office. I am also pretty excited about my calling as district leader, not because I'm a climber or anything, I really don't seek leadership, I just have the privilege to talk all of district meeting. Well, I did that already, but now I won't feel guilty!

To answer your questions:
1) I apologize for not explaining better about losing my driving privileges. That will be for the rest of my mission. Yep....
2) Elder Bischoff is well enough to drive, but it's probably better to keep him off the bike as much as possible.... Which is funny, since if he is going to the YSA that means no car, just walking and biking and riding busses. He's...the same as always, as far as wellness goes. I'm sad to see him go, but excited for a well missionary that can help us achieve the wonderful potential Hannibal has.
3)PLEASE send me my ballot. I forgot I would still have a say in this election, which I most definitely keep hearing about. Please also send the voter pamphlet, as I will otherwise just vote for people with the funniest name in the local elections. (Anybody willing to go outside and even run for the public office of Assistant to the Senate's Note Taker's Coffeemaker with a name like Cord Heimerdinger or Turd Ferguson has my vote)

Things are going great here in the way of the work. A family that we're working with has had us over to eat twice now and wants to feed us before each lesson. The father has really been the only one sitting in on lessons, but the mother is interested too and the kids love us. They are unmarried though, something we didn't know, and the husband she's still married to left her and completely disappeared on her a couple years ago. So marriage and baptism will take some time, but I feel very strongly that they will be baptized eventually. There are seven children there, so it's a pretty full house. It's an interesting situation, but, sadly, a situation that is a lot less uncommon than I ever thought before I came out on a mission. We'll also need them to quit smoking. But a strong testimony of the gospel needs to come before anything else. We watched the Restoration and the Testaments with him this week, and we gave him both so he could watch them with the kids!!

Besides that, the week hasn't been too much different than normal. I took the extra time inside this week to clean, work on my Plan of Salvation visual aides, peruse through a Deseret Book catalog that an former missionary serving here signed himself up for with this as the address (I'm working on my christmas list with it), read old Friend's, and accidentally beat Elder Bischoff at chess.

That's about it in the way of my week. Good job Lorena! Soke in all of the attention you can for walking. Pretty soon people will be expecting it out of you and it won't be as exciting. Nicole Ellis' Farewell, eh? Crazy. She'll do good. Now, maybe, God will get her back for the time she stuck a rat in my apartment at college. And no worries about missionaries freaking out when they see you with your name tags, we do the same thing when we see others wearing them. We always silently cross our fingers that they're new proselyting missionaries. And just because you're not a proselyting missionary doesn't mean you can't not tract, as some members in one of my areas did that. But believe me. We'd prefer you'd leave that up to the pros. Welcome home, Brad! You'll have to let me know what it's like to be an RM.

The weather's definitely changing and Halloween's coming fast. I don't know if there is a creepier town to stay in for halloween. Don't get me wrong, Hannibal's a wonderful, beautiful town. But at night....

Well, Charity you all!
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Ten TEN ten tEn teN 10 Tenn Tten Ttenn..Dtenn? 10 Tens!

Yesterday marked The Tenth Day of the Tenth Month of the Tenth Year of the Tenth Century (ok, maybe not, but whatever). I hope you celebrated just as much as I didn't. Oh, and Happy Columbus Day! I think? I don't know, people don't celebrate him like they used to. They would if they had the Book of Mormon. I'll work on that.

This week was one of those rollercoasters you read about. Where do you read about such rollercoasters? My emails. If you notice something about rollercoasters, they neither really go up or down if looked at over the long scheme of things. Over time, the rollercoaster will not have continued its upward movement anymore than its downward movement. Now, life is not, entirely, that way. But, I believe, it is against some eternal law for us to take some rocketship straight upwards, continuing forever, nor an eternal fall into some dark abyss. We are ment to continually go up or down; but for us, the general trend of whether it will, in the grand scheme of things, go farther upwards or downwards, is up to us. Not to mention that, over time, the rollercoaster of our lives changes, so that the scenery and style of the rollercoaster is not constantly the same. And so, I like to think that, inch by inch, my life's rollercoaster is being jacked up so that, over time, I will continually get higher and higher, spiritually, emotionally, and personally speaking. However, the rollercoaster does not, necessarily, completely change each circuit around.

Now, if the circuit of a roller coaster is, say, a week, there is not too much of a major difference between this circuit and the last few. Some of my downs this week are similar to my downs of last week; namely Cabin Fever.

More time was spent this week indoors. The hospital has still not contacted Elder Bischoff pertaining to his possibly deadly illness, leaving us uncertain as to whether he will be good to go from one day to the next. And, as I believe I've mentioned before, if you ever want to depress a missionary who actually wants to be out here doing the work, you just have to keep them inside. And one common sign of depressive feelings is apathy (which, hilariously enough, has an adjective brother named apathetic. Pathetic is right). Apathy set in pretty good this week, so that even in little spouts mid-week when Elder Bischoff could work, I just didn't care. That changed, however, on Thursday, when we went to a lesson with a part member family on track for being a full-member family and their friend. Their friend started asking questions into much deeper doctrine than somebody who is unsure of the validity of the first vision needs to delve into. It didn't help, either, that he was being goaded on by his member friend. I finally had to call it all to a halt when an argument started to break out between the member and the friend over the nature of the Godhead. I told him the only way he could know of anything was if he knew the first vision was true, recited it to him, bore testimony not only of that, but of the nature of God and Christ and my sacred calling to be His representative and told him to read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I said I said it, but that's wrong. I love how the Holy Ghost speaks through me the most when I get frustrated with someone. He takes control and says what God would have them hear. Someone might say that it's just adrenaline or something I feel, but I know it's not. If it was me defending those points, I would be much more worked up, I wouldn't feel a tenth as good, and I would be using many more unkind adjectives with people. Hearing words coming from my mouth testifying of my sacred calling as one of Christ's representatives effectively dispelled all depressive feelings and its subsequent apathetic tendencies. Which was good, because the next day I never left the apartment.

We found a new person to teach this week, but I'm still uncertain of her devoutness to learning. She's looking for a church for her daughter to go to. We street contacted her while tracting her street and she invited us back. We taught her on the doorstep as her hamsterdog ran around the yard chewing thorn-covered plant stems. We found a lot of people in that area who invited us back. I'm pretty sure it's because it's a low-income area. You have to hand it to Alma, he was right in turning to the humble people. They listen...mostly.

We went to a funeral this week for a member I never met. I realized while I was there that faithful Latter-Day Saints don't die, they just get transferred.

Oh, I almost forgot. This week would have had far more ups than downs if I had. Friday I got a call from our mission vehicle coordinator informing me that he had gotten a letter from Salt Lake informing him that I needed to have my driving privileges revoked due to me being in a "serious" preventable accident. The mission vehicle coordinator was surprised, and really apologetic, about revoking my driving privileges, as I had, up to that point, no marks on my record and it wasn't, in neither his mind nor mine, a serious accident. But the people a thousand miles away and unconnected to the situation do. But I can be justifiably bitter that I, a granny driver most of the time with these blessings of vehicles, can lose my driving privileges when others who intentionally drift around every corner and do crazy stuff in the mission vehicles do not; or I can let it go and be happy. Back to that whole "we choose the eternal path of our roller coaster" analogy.

I think that's about it. It was a good week. I consider my rollercoaster higher than the week before.
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Make Every Day a Tuesday

Since laziness is more of my style, I just figure I will copy over my journal entry from tuesday to explain the reason why I want to make every day like that one.

"Okay, so, today was hilarious. We went down south to Louisiana, just shy of Mexico, after dropping Elder Bischoff"s poop samples off at the hospital. Louisiana has MOUNTAINS! Well, hills, but it still got me all sorts of excited. We had lunch at a little diner run by this cool black grandma named Izola's Place and had it all paid for by a sort-of investigator that we are still trying to teach a lesson to. When our food came out we realized we both liked the looks of the other's meal, so we switched, to the surprise and confusion of the waitress. We followed the almost-investigator... to a worksite for no real reason before deciding to try and teach another time. We tried to find an old potential but instead found a giant white bunny. We then set off on a mountain-ish highway looking for a referral named Eliazar. It was a beautiful day so we had the windows down, blasting MoTab. When we were unable to find the referral, we began to head back. Despit the fact the road said 'Semi's use alternate route,' I saw up ahead a largte semi come around a corner. At first I was frightened by the driver's apparent inability to keep the truck in his lane, I quickly became aware of another horror: dried corn flying out of his trailer. Afraid of what grain would do to our open-windowed car, I yelled, 'We're gonna get grained!' [to warn my companion of our doom.] A shower of seeds landed on our car, but didn't enter. We began laughing almost too hard for me to drive. I then asked my companion to call the referal, whose address was a Louisiana, MO, address, to find out his location, but when he typed in the phone number it said it was a Louisiana State area code. This person resides far outside our area. More laughter. We then went to a town named Bowling Green and got barked at by a man in his house while knocking on his door. Laughter. On our way to the next town, maps in the backseat attempted, on two different occasions to decaptiate me, one even suicidally leaping out the front window. In order to forestall any further murderous plots, I rolled up the windows and turned on the air conditioning. Soon we found ourselves up a single lane, mountain, forest trail that was marked on a map but not in real life. Broken farm and construction equipment lurked behind trees, along with the sad remains of a couple three houses, one of which being a trailer home perched on a hill, both ends sticking out in open space. Elder Bischoff got scared of the potential of zombies and almost convinced me to turn back when we saw a house with this referral's last name on it. And a cowardly dog. Nobody was home, so we left the requested item with a not. We then left, elder Bischoff insuring his door was locked on the way out. ON the way to Hannibal, I found out why my camera charger was missing, but Elder Morris promised to have it delivered to me from Elder Shelman at Zone Conference. We stopped by Lover's leap on the way in.... We then had dinner with a member family...who didn't fully appreciate the humor of the day as we did. We then taught a new member lesson to a child whose mother is blessed with patience. And now I'm running out of ink. I bought this pen yesterday! Oh, we also played bing pong tonight. I never knew all those rules! Also nearly unintentionally played chicken [or, as my companion calls it, turkey] tonight. Not my fault! G2G2Bed.

Notice:
No drugs were used in the making or writing of this day. Besides Zyrtec."

Maybe this recitation of the events of this day are much like many others I send home. You just had to be there. Besides that day, things were fairly uneventful. We spent a good amount of time preparing for the Stop Smoking Workshop on Thursday, a guaranteed way to stop smoking in seven days. The lesson, due to our high amounts of preparation and the Spirit, went great, despite things that could have otherwise been very distracting. It really did a lot in building trust in the members there, we believe. And the people we taught it to? Well, they've already given in and smoked. But they've recommitted themselves to start again. Kind of disappointing. But what can ya do?

Went to zone conference. It was good. Got to hear from our mission doctor on how to be healthy and all that jazz. Had a sister missionary in the Nauvoo Mission take a picture of our district next to the temple. It's kind of weird having a mission inside our mission just for Nauvoo, kind of like how temple square inside the Salt Lake City Mission.

GENERAL CONFERENCE was amazing. Didn't see it? Fix that. Watch it. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk on pride. And Jeffrey R Holland's. And all of them, for that matter. An investigator came to part of the sessions! The first investigator I've had at church for five months. Yyyup....

Well, that's about it!
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Elder Bischoff"s Misery in Missouri

Another week is by, and still no improvement on Elder Bischoff. He has actually been worse off. There were a few days of not doing much at all due to him feeling completely nauseous and in pain. The doctor's appointment was useless. After a month of waiting, all they did was tell him that as far as they could tell, he was perfectly healthy, and gave him stuff for a stool test and sent him on his way, never doing the ultrasound he came in for in the first place. So now we have to go turn in the stuff and wait some more for them to test it all. And, in the mean time, Elder Bischoff suffers and I get bored. So, many of you who have been waiting for letters back will get replies shortly. I'm sending off four letters today that I wrote on saturday alone. We still somehow pulled off three member presents this past week, but that was the only number that was worth anything. Not that I'm a number monger in the slightest, I've been companions with number whores and know what it's like to be with someone that only cares about looking good to President, but it shows we still did something this week to serve others. One was with a couple that are going to take the Stop Smoking Workshop that we're starting this week, another was a part-member couple that also needs to quit smoking and get married and they kept asking questions about ghosts and possession and all sorts of stuff that I know very little about and which I am not very concerned about, and the third was with a fifteen-year-old and we took another young man with us whom he clicked with well. The stop smoking workshop will be done this week and we'll be able to get about six people to become nonsmokers, which will be great. I wish there was more to report on, but there really isn't. We're being fed well, and I got to visit Palmyra for the first time. My area here has a lot of places named after others (Louisiana, Paris, Philadelphia, Palmyra, and just outside of our area is Mexico. I also enjoy that Hannibal was the conqueror of Carthage, another obvious area in our Zone.) I can travel the globe without leaving my area. I was all sorts of confused when my companion was telling me about people in all of these places. It took me awhile to realize that they were names of towns here. I still get confused when somebody says they went to Mexico or that somebody worked in a plant in Mexico. I hope I don't sound despondent, I'm not... mostly.
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates

Hearing from a General Authority in Nauvoo... Can It Get Much Better?

I didn't write yesterday because we had a meeting at the Nauvoo Stake Center where our zone, along with Peoria, Davenport, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids Zones where W. Craig Zwick of the Seventy talked to us. He actually, surprisingly enough, is Sister Jergensen's brother. So that was cool. It was an amazing meeting and the Spirit was so strong. It was probably the most powerful meeting I've been to in a long time. And he handled himself in such a way we KNEW it was a general authority speaking to us and conveying these things to us. It was wonderful. He gave great insight on how to improve ourselves, and what he said, along with the Spirit, burned into my heart and made me want to improve myself. Not that I've ever been a terrible missionary or person, but I now know I've felt the "cleansing by fire" effect the Spirit has. I mean, I've repented plenty of times, but this was different. I don't know if I'm explaining myself right, but that's how it felt. It was a change of heart, and one that was not so gradual, but immediate. Make sense? Oh well, I can just say you're not in tune with the Spirit enough if you don't. Just kidding....

This week has been interesting, too. Elder Bischoff has been having health problems for awhile now, and over the last few days it's been getting worse. He's going to see the doctor again tomorrow after a month-long wait between appointments, and hopefully they will be able to determine what's wrong. It's been getting in the way of the work somewhat, and it's been hurting him, since he has such a strong desire to do well. I really feel sorry for him.

We also picked up an interesting new investigator. We've been teaching a Part-Member family that has had some interesting stuff holding them back from marriage, but it sounds like that's being resolved and so, once we get them through the Stop Smoking Workshop, they should be set to be baptized! It's such an interesting thing, that not only do we get to teach spiritual lessons, but we also get to teach people how to quit an addictive substance that I've never even tried nor been tempted by (I'm pretty sure I'd die if I tried it. Asthma comes in handy.). Anyway, well, the husband and member there introduced us to his friend up the street to whom we taught a lesson by answering his questions. It was a really spiritually led discussion and both my companion and I felt incredible afterwards. I hadn't felt that good after a lesson for a long time. He wants to continue meeting with us, so I hope that he, too, will be baptized.

Oh, you wanted to know about my bike and "digs" (do you mean apartment?). My bike is incredible. It is so handy for this hilly town, and it's so lightweight and made for roads and not offroad. I never ride offroad anyway, so I'm set. I've been cruising along while poor Elder Bischoff, with his borrowed mountain bike (no joke, the name of the bike is a Hooger-Booger) that can't get out of Low Gear. I still need to follow him all over this labyrinthian town, but every hill I have to pass him, both up and down, to make sure I don't lose momentum and have to struggle on through. I also tried out my cup holder (stock), but got a cup that was too big and it accidentally bounced out at one point and fell right into the drain. Whoops. As for my apartment, it's alright. It's better than my last one, for sure, but still feels a little cramped, mostly because some missionaries decided awhile back there was enough room to bring in a ping pong table and I'm taking my time moving in.

Well, I gotta get going. I hope you all have a more enjoyable week this next week!

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

PS. They really DO say Missourah. I thought Rachel was joking about that.

A Whole New World Here in Hannibal, Missouri

Well, as I told you I would be last week, I am now in Hannibal, Missouri. It is a very different town than what I am used to. There are hills, and steep hills at that, everywhere. most roads meander like it aint nobody's business, and the straight ones meander in the vertical directions. It still seems like a gigantic town, when in reality it's only 1700. But everything is so spread out due to random cliffs and woods. There are a lot more trees here. I feel like I'm back in washington in some ways, but our hills are bigger and less...rollercoastery. Yep, It's a word. I feel like I'm stuck in some sort of Labyrinth, and I'm just waiting for David Bowie to appear.

Don't get me wrong, I like Hannibal alright, but it's definitely a change. There are far less cornfields here in Missouri, and I miss them. But there are still plenty of churches, just about half of them are all baptist churches. It's interesting, for sure. And the town is most definitely a tourist town. It focuses heavily on their Mark Twain heritage, sporting the caves from Tom Sawyer, a Mark Twain Lighthouse, statues of both the author and Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and everything in the town being named after one of the three people, if not having most of the streets having random names from his books. It is cool to see sidewheel riverboats cruising along the river though.

Hannibal is a branch in a very small ward's building. They used to be a ward, but have had to be bumped down to branch status. They have just a little less members on the roles and far fewer attending than my last area, and I thought THEY had a lot of Less actives. Hannibal is a big area, though, smaller than my last area but still big.

We've been doing a lot of prep work over the last few days, and some good member work. I've been trying to meet a lot of the members so I can start off on a good foot with them. That's been good, mostly, until a slight accident during an activity at the branch president's house ended with one of his sons hitting his head and bleeding quite a bit. Luckily they're a way cool family and were able to just joke around through it (all besides the son) and even more luckily it was my companion's idea not mine. Poor Elder Bischoff felt so horrible. Poor kid.

Oh, Elder Bischoff is my new companion. He's cool and has a strong desire to do some good work, so I'm happy about that. He's been having some health problems as of late, so hopefully he can get those resolved soon. He still works hard, though, so that's good.

Seeing Cari and James and Mattie was awesome. James seems great, I'm happy he's my brother-in-law. Mattie does too, she's one of the few dogs I like a lot. But I'm sticking with me thinking she looks like one of the dogs off of Ghostbusters. Ooh, even better, she's kind of a mix between the stay puft marshmallow man and the dogs. It all works out in the end.

Oh, I also have an amazing bike. It was an awesome deal and I really want to ride it everywhere. It's a Felt Cafe 7. Look up the pictures. It weighs less than my boots and is sooo nice. Way good deal, too.

Well, that's it! Love you all!
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

From Meredith Willson to Samuel Clemens

Hello Everybody,
Yep, I found out where I'm going: Hannibal, Missouri, the boyhood home of Mark Twain. It's in the Nauvoo Stake and is on the exact polar opposite end of the mission. God seems to like to keep me livin on the edge. It'll be nice being south as it transitions from summer to fall to winter, though.
It's really weird finding out where you will be transferred to the saturday before transfers. It allowed us to be able to find a ride on sunday, but it still makes it weird for the rest of the week. Having never known I would be transferred when I was for all of my other tranfers, my main goal for the last few days was visiting members and saying goodbye, an opportunity I have never enjoyed in the past, besides for maybe one person or so. So yeah, it's been interesting. Luckily, or unluckily, I have one less thing to pack: a bike. In our apartment complex, there are garages, which are usually a blessing. The garage is one long building separate from the main tower. Inbetween each garage is a wall consisting of wire stapled to boards. Our new next door neighbor decided to leave their door open one day, and a day or so later we realized that not only had somebody cut through the wire wall, but had also stolen my bike and pulled it through while the door had been left open. So, I'm bikeless now. I filed a police report and all of that jazz, but it's likely it will never be found. Poor Dorcas, she was so nice with her fenders that I had found in our garage and lights and gel seat and front shocks. Really, Elder Shelman's bike looks so much more nice, it's surprising that mine was the one stolen. But stolen it is. So, yeah, the assistants have offered to sell me a missionary's old bike. I don't know yet. I'm not too worried for some reason. Maybe Heavenly Father is just trying to make sure I don't go on a homicidal rampage with all the junk going on. But no worries, God takes care of his missionaries.
I can't wait to see Cari. She was supposed to be here yesterday morning, then it moved to last night, then to this morning, now for tonight. I'm used to investigators rescheduling, just hopefully Cari won't drop us as it seems all of our investigators have done. We're pretty much investigatorless at this point, since most have seemed to disappear or turn uninterested or both. We did a lot more Less Active and Part Member work, though, to make up for it. Since reactivated less actives seem to bring lots of member referrals, we're trying that out. We'll see how the new missionary does things here. I can prep for the transfer all I want and set things up how I would like them, but it really doesn't matter if he comes in and completely changes it.
Yes, I did get all of the stuff you sent out mom, thank you! I bought a cheap frame and framed the picture you sent of grandpa. I loved reading over all of the stuff. You were right mom, he really was the real deal. I've always looked up to him, and it's nice to see, written down by his children, all of the traits he had that I admired.
I don't have much else to say. Going by a few members' homes has been nice, and it's good to know that while nothing really has happened or come about in the way of investigators being baptized or even coming to church while I've been here, I still seem to have made a postive influence on some members. I can actually leave and not feel like a total waste. That's probably not fair to say, but people's agency getting in the way of their salvation just gets sad after awhile. Anyway, that's about all. I get to leave tomorrow morning at 6 so sleep is going to be less than I would like.
Love you all!
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

"I Believe In Christ, So Come What May. With Him [We'll] Stand In That Great Day"

As you mentioned in your email, I did handle the news pretty well, considering. I loved being able to talk with all of you. I love you, mom and dad, for your ability to keep up your senses of humor. That helped me, knowing you two were handling it well. I did a lot of praying and really received help from my Heavenly Father through His Son's eternal sacrifice. The next day, at ten, I busted out of the doors and marched my companion up the street at breakneck speed, tracting. I had, the last night and that morning, recieved an assurance that I would see my grandfather again and that my family is eternal. I knew that this message did not only have the possibility of improving someone else's life, but that it would, beyond a shadow of a doubt, change everyone's life for the better. Everyone can benefit from the blessings of the temple and the truths of this gospel, and I was obligated to share it with my fellowman. I read 1 Nephi 8:10-12, and I realized that that was me. I had partaken of that tree of life and I now desired to share that absolutely incredible fruit with others. And so up I went, with poor Elder Shelman in my wake, boldly proclaiming these truths with everyone I saw. We went up the length of the street and then headed to a potential's home and taught them, obtaining 3 new investigators, and sharing with them why I knew this message was so important. They had lost their father in the previous year, and I let them know of the recent loss i had had and how much comfort this message brought me. In a week, in the mission, the typical goal for contacts or amount of nonmembers we took a gospel conversation as far as we could is 80, and that day we got 41. I continued on in my fire the next few days, ecstatic about the gospel, but it began to wain as the week went on. Saturday, I crashed, literally and emotionally. I went to head out the door, and my heart felt heavy. It didn't relent after visiting with our ward mission leader. I informed my companion of my feelings, and let him know that I needed to take it easy that day. So we filled our time trying to meet up with investigators and keep appointments, but otherwise visited with a less-active member, Earl, who I appreciate the humor of. I probably should have pushed through, but I figured if I took one day of taking it easy, but still not sitting around the apartment, it would be better than letting things consume me. I had realized throughout the week how little i was being affected, and wondered how that could be with how much I love Grandpa. But it hit that day.
But let me get this straight. I'm fine. I'm actually happy I'm on my mission...to a point. I wish I could have been there for everything, but out here I've been allowed to come to know even more fully of the truth of the gospel and I've really received so many more blessings from being out here. Things could be so much worse, and I'm so glad that Grandpa is in a better place, and i know he's doing great work over there. I love him dearly and I'm so happy that he is no longer physically limited from serving his Father.I can't wait to someday have an experience like I have had twice in the temple, of rejoicing in the celestial room with my family, just being able to see even more people I love there.
Yesterday, with the news that transfers are next thursday, more people signed up for feeding us. I was told by one mother how her young daughter had chosen her favorite missionary a few years ago and that her son couldn't decide on his favorite missionary. Over a few years he searched for his favorite. Finally he's found one, and it's me. Others, too, have expressed some sadness at the possibility of me leaving, and when i added that to the calendar, our next two weeks all but filled up.
Work's going great. I love you all so very much and wish I was there, but know it's better for me to be out here, sharing the knowledge that has blessed us all with others. I could not have asked for a better family. I'm starting to wonder if it really was you looking at me in the Adoption Showroom or if I was picking you out of the list of Adoptive Parent Resumes. Either way, God made the right choice. He always does.
Take care and I look forward to the stuff from Grandpa's Funeral.
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Apparently the Ring of a Telephone is Not Always a Harbinger of Horrible Events

This week was an interesting one. I've been praying for the faith to expect miracles, because I read that somewhere in a New Era that I should expect miracles as a missionary, and I've been praying to see them. I guess it's paid off, but not in the way I expected. Can't complain, miracles are miracles. ("wonders of wonders, miracles of miracles...."-Fiddler on the Roof)

Tuesday is when I really started to recognize the things happening. We went to service at the community kitchen, and a lady that always works there, but isn't a member, said, "You see that boy over there? I know him. He has troubles. You should go talk to him. Come." Being the 4 foot something mexican lady she is, she shuffled on over to a 20-something young man and began talking to him. Immediately some lady sitting on the table beside the one he was at turned around and told him to not answer any of her questions. Poor Jenny looked confused at the intrusion in her conversation and informed the lady that she knew Jeremy and that she was just trying to help him by referring him to us because she felt we could help him. The lady turned to me and told me she didn't feel religion should be brought to someone's doorstep. I just told her that we do just what the Apostles did of old, trying to share the gospel with everyone. She couldn't argue with that, and nobody can. She said, though, that we talk to people about things different than what they grew up believing, which, if I had had a chance to respond to, I would have informed her there's no point going around sharing something people already know. But she eventually left and I left a card with our number on it with Jeremy. Later we went to the church to get a copy made real quick and on the way in told Elder Shelman to call Aaron Anderson since he lived in the town he and Elder Johnson, the elder he was going on exchanges with the next day, were going to visit. The problem is that there are two Aaron Andersons in the ward, the second one being a 20-something year old kid that has Down's Syndrome and lives on his own, alternating between considering himself no longer a member and considering himself less active. Lately it had been no longer a member. Anyway, Elder Shelman called the latter one and pretended like it was on purpose and asked if there was a time we could see him. I didn't know what to expect at that as last we knew he was avoiding missionaries. But he agreed to see us that night. While we were at the church, we ran into a member there and were talking with him. As we were doing so, the phone rang, and after a short conversation, he turned to us and said into the phone "Well, in fact, there are some Mormon Missionaries right here!" We went outside and met with a lady from hospice who had had to look all over the place for the number for the church and was lucky enough to find us there. She had been told it would be nearly impossible to find us, and yet there we were, "by accident." She informed us that there was a lady who had been given only a few months to live and had asked to meet with mormon missionaries. She gave the name, and I knew it to be a less active member that missionaries used to meet with a lot in the past but had moved and we had lost track of. We met with her yesterday and that was tough. Trying to share comforting words with a lady who is on her deathbed who hasn't been active in forever and hadn't even been to the temple or anything.... But she's ready for death, she just wanted the "inner peace" missionaries always brought with them. I really relied on the spirit there. We'll be meeting with her once a week from here on out. I also got a call on friday during weekly planning. With the creepy, "Psycho" style (EE EE, EE EE, EE EE)ringtone, I knew it was President Jergensen.
"Hello Elder Gates," he said after the usual pleasantries associated with a phone call from the president, "I just got off the phone with your sister." That's never good. I immediately wondered who had died. "She says she's coming out this way just after labor day weekend and was wondering if she could have lunch with you. I have no problem with it, just make sure it's an hour and a half, 2 hours MAX, and that it is during lunch, not dinnertime." I was dumbfounded. I was barely able to slip out a few heartfelt thank yous and a bye and that was it. He called all of my leaders above me and let them knew, and I soon got a call from my district leader expressing his envy. Needless to say, I'm stoked!!
Thursday we also turned our three main investigators, Carol, Cheryl and Cayla over to Hampton, since they're closer and girls too and all that kind of stuff. That was tough, but we turned around and are finding more people in Mason City itself, so that's good.
We also got let in twice during a tracting session by people who saw how sweaty we were and just wanted to offer us cold water. Finally, my plan is working!
Well, I should go, Elder Shelman got bumped off early by a jerk of a librarian. I won't call her out on it, though, I'll leave it to God to smite her.
Love you all!
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

PS Finally got my year-mark shirt burned yesterday. Some members were kind enough to do it for me when I hesitated. I'd heard horror stories recently of a missionary here awhile back that had had to do a bunch of community service for burning without a permit and stuff. At least if members do it, it's not my fault. I didn't even ask them to, they just took the old shirt for me and did the work. It was one of the shirts that was too small for me just after coming out and I'm sure would be EXTREMELY small on me now if I tried. If I do go on and burn anything else, I'll do it at members homes in the country.

"Might As Well Be Walking on the Sun"

So, yeah, this week was hot. And we spent nearly the entire week tracting. Wednesday was especially long for tracting. My companion carries around a handkerchief to wipe the sweat on his face. I don't, and don't even wipe the sweat off. Why? Because I figure that it has one of two benefits:
1) It might keep me cool.
2) It will work even more guilt (or possibly Godly Sorrow) into the spirit of those who reject us, for they will ever remember the servant of God who came to them, sweating profusely, and they turned him away. (This only works if they have a soul.)
Yesterday, however, I looked at myself in the mirror after a long bike ride, and realized just how gross I look, so maybe people didn't let us in because they were afraid of me sweating all over their furniture. Can't blame them there. I still hope they feel guilt.

Tuesday we took a trip out to a town called Charles City, a place I haven't been yet, and saw the perfect shot I've been waiting for: A picture of a gate next to the sign for Charles City. So finally I've found a picture of my name, Charles Gates. It's a nice little town, but it also has the curse of a trailer park: it causes tornadoes. It's been nearly wiped out a couple times. So be happy that that area is closed and that I'm not there. It's led to some cool stories by some people, though, like the one where a guy dove into the basement just as the tornado wiped out the building above. People say that a tornado has never hit Mason City. I just inform them that I've been one to break, or witness the breaking of, records, good or bad, since I've arrived in Iowa.

Speaking of Iowa being the hot spot for crazy weather: there was a ton of flooding down in Ames, Iowa. Nearly the whole city was underwater. It was all far away from me, and even if it wasn't, I sure hope it never effects us in our third story apartment.

Yep, I bought a backpack! I looked for one that seemed sturdy but lightweight and had all the stuff I'd need. So, I got myself a Converse backpack. Yep, now's the time to be jealous.

That's a good idea to get recipes from people. People have listed off the recipes before to some things, but I didn't write them down and I also probably spaced out for a second each time they do it, so next time I'll act differently.

We had district meeting in Fort Dodge. I made the mistake of looking at the map and realizing just how far that is. Luckily, though, we got to ride with the Hermanas, and I won the rock, paper, scissors for who would drive. It was nice not having to drive it myself. They're good Hermanas, so I'm thinking of turning our investigators down in Bristow over to them, since they're closer, and it might be easier for them to connect and help the mom and two daughters we're teaching there. I hate giving them up, but having investigators an hour away is tough, especially when the Hermanas cover the same area.

We did find some people to teach in our finding efforts...kind of. We tracted into these two girls in their twenties who invited us back. We came back, and they let us in, and luckily there were two other guys there with them. We taught them the first lesson, and addressed one of their concerns pertaining to why bad things happen to us. I used D&C 121 & 122 to do that, which is different since I usually shy away from D&C with investigators, but it helped her, so that's good. The girl who had her question answered seemed kind of interested, but she left early for work. Her brother, who took her to work, seemed completely disinterested. The other guy started off not being interested but then seemed much more so at the end. The other girl seemed interested at first and then not as much by the end. When I asked when was a good time we could come back, she said she'd call us. But she was interested in us coming to the party they were having later. When she asked if we partied, I said, "Probably not in the way you're thinking." She was kind of disappointed.

That's basically it! All's well!
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Elder Gates: Missionary or Hobo?

Before you think that my Subject is proclaiming my pile-ness (Pile is a term in the mission for a lazy missionary. While this sounds like an insult, realize that most piles revel in their pile-ness. Kind of like apostates. There aren't many piles, so don't think that missionaries are lazy bums. Just hobos.), let me explain. On our way back from all of our meetings this week, we drove through Britt, Iowa, hometown of the Annual National Hobo Convention. We stopped briefly at the Hobo Museum and Gift Shop and got a couple free brochures and a cheap magnet. While some misguided teachers in school stressed the offensiveness of the term hobo, know that hobo is a compliment in the homeless society. As a chart in the Museum said, a hobo is someone who travels to work; a tramp is someone who travels but refuses to work; and a bum is someone who neither travels or works. Hobos travel the countryside looking for work on farms, or at least that's what they traditionally do. Hobo is short for Hoe Boy. And my companion quickly made a few correlations, and came to the conclusion that we're basically high-end hobos. And that's definitely what I felt like this week.

We traveled down to Fort Dodge tuesday night and Elder Bisschop and I headed out the next morning to Des Moines. We then got the privilege of three days of meetings. The meetings were really good, so there's no sarcasm in that last sentence, but it was everything outside of the meetings that was crazy. After the first one, we broke for the evening and I discovered I was traveling to another companionship's area in Des Moines to do work with them. I was assigned to that with three other missionaries, not including the missionaries assigned to that area. Six of us, altogether, in a one-room apartment, traveling in a five-person Mazda 3. Yeah. So we squeezed into the Mazda and went off to work, all splitting up to do and visit different people. I went with the senior companion, who's also a trainer and district leader, to visit some people with a member. One was a potential who is catholic, but only because her husband and children are such. So when we read off the Articles of Faith with her, she loved them, especially the Godhead vs. the Trinity and how we don't believe in original sin, and wanted to discuss them more. So that was good. Also visited another investigator. The next day, in the evening, my companion-for-the-day, the same as the day before, took me out to eat at Jimmy John's, a place neither of us had been before, to celebrate my year mark. I ahd also been able to see nearly all of the elders from my MTC district I had come to Iowa with and got a picture with them. One of them, though, Elder Vidrine, went to the Omaha mission, so he wasn't there for the picture. We then went and taught a group of four investigators and committed them all to a baptismal date. They're all from Africa and way cool, but afterwards they fed us. I scooped up my amount of spicy beans and chicken and poured it on my rice to discover two chicken feet looking up at me. My heart sunk. My stomach too. As I sat down by my companion-for-the-day, I looked over at him, horrified, and down at my food. He laughed and offered to eat it for me. I quickly, yet secretively, obliged. All you foreign-sent missionaries, just know, there's a good reason I went stateside. I only would have eaten those things if I could have gotten a picture of me doing it. As far as I can see, there's absolutely no reason to eat feet, there's nothing besides gristle there. Otherwise it was a really good meal. The next day we started traveling home, but it took forever to get everything done that we needed to, such as supplies and that, so we just barely had time to head back to Fort Dodge to spend the night, setting another baptismal date along the way with an 8 year old. It's always great to hear from the grandmother of a child that you're trying to teach "I usually take her off of her pills in the summer." I really wish she could have made an exception for us. We headed home the next day, Saturday.

So, besides that, the work here has not really progressed much while we've been gone. Our investigators, Carol, Cheryl and Cayla, didn't come to church, but last I spoke with them they were reading the Book of Mormon and Praying as a family. A member brought somebody to church that now wants to be taught, so that's awesome! We've had a bunch of member referrals lately, which is how I like it. Keep them rolling in!

Some changes we found out with this conference:
Zone Conferences will now be quarterly, along with interviews and Zone Leader Council.
Leadership Training Meetings, like the one I just went to, will be every other month and about the same length until the first of the year.
The only thing continuing on the transfer schedule are transfers themselves. So pretty crazy stuff.
The rest of the time was on some really good training that will improve missionary work a ton. They're not changing Preach My Gospel, as that is going to be the thing they plan on using, and believe we'll be using, forever. All that they've taught us is just from Preach My Gospel, just focusing on different points than before.

But that's about it. Almost exactly one year left! Not excited about that as much as I used to be, now it's kind of depressing. I can barely remember my first name, let alone what normal life is like.... But It'll be good when it happens. Good thing it's not for a long time.
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Whoa. We're Halfway There. Whoa-o. Living on a Prayer

Yep, this Thursday is my year mark. Crazy stuff.
A few things to reply to.

I didn't even know that Nicole was going on a mission, let alone turned in her papers! Crazy!! And to Warsaw, Poland...hmm.... Well, hopefully she is fed better than they used to be as well. Speaking of being fed really well, I've had pulled pork a few times on my mission, and it's amazing. Usually I just have it at restaurants when members are feeling especially nice, though. And yes, the corn is delicious. The Peaches and Cream Sweet Corn is pretty much sent down from heaven. Or Iowa. Same thing. I also realized recently just how old Lynx and Gracie are getting. I've been really hoping I wouldn't have to get an email here soon reporting their untimely demise. And I'm glad you have the same views on shaving I do, mom.

Crazy things that are taking place this week. We got a call on Friday after weekly planning that apparently there is going to be a three-day conference in Des Moines for everyone in leadership. Including trainers. So pretty much a good chunk of the week will be spent with nobody in our area. Elder Shelman will be in Fort Dodge with Elder Johnson, a missionary that came out at the same time as him, for those three days. BAD idea, but whatever. Better idea than him being with the sister being trained down in Hampton. So, yeah. We also had all three of those days filled with dinner appointments, so we had to reschedule those. It seems like most of our meals are having weird things come up causing cancellations, but it's all working out. We still barely ever have to make our own dinners. Sometimes not even our own lunches. And you wonder how I've gained 15 pounds or so. If it wasn't for me being dead-set on losing the weight, I might just ask for new shirts. But I'll lose it and be fine. I've cut back on my portion sizes and I'm sweating more than anything, so it all works out. Speaking of sweating, I'll be able to do plenty more of that, as this July has been more of a typical Iowa August, so my bet is that August will be really bad. Yippee. Oh well, I've realized I rarely need to carry around much water, a lot of people will offer you some while you're tracting, even if they are completely not interested. I even got brownies from some uninterested folk the other day.

In the way of goings on here, we've been just doing a lot of tracting and finding. Which has lead to the best stories. One day we set out, trying to improve my street contacting. While near downtown, we saw an elderly man crouched down on the grass. Unsure as to whether he was injured or searching for something lost or what, we approached him, asking if there was some way we could help. He informed us that he was looking for four-leafed-clovers. So we joined him in the hunt as we talked about his life and church. At one point, when the conversation had drifted to the latter topic, he said, "Yes, there are many people of your church that I admire. But what I don't admire," with as terrible of a way to start a sentence as that was, my mind began to conjure up all sorts of horrible things he might say next, "is that you two still haven't found a four leafed clover!" He was a great guy, but not very interested.

Yesterday we went out and tracted a good portion of a street. There we met a couple interesting people. One was a lady who right away told us that she had lost her faith due to all the terrible things going on in her life. Apparently she used to be a member of the church, and not only being upset about God letting bad things happen, she was also upset that nobody had told her about Kolob. Ok, my turn for a little tirade on here, that I didn't say to her. Really? I really think being upset that we attributed a name to the star closest to where God resides is kind of dumb. Especially that nobody told you that. You don't have to know EVERYTHING before joining a church. All you need to know is that it's true. And so WHAT if we named it that? Why aren't you getting upset that people call the place where God lives Heaven or name stars or constellations? People name things. And Kolob is only mentioned very shortly in Abraham, a book of scripture translated from papyri. Where are the people in an uproar about the multiheaded beasts in Revelation that some people take literally? That's more crazy to me than naming some star somewhere that is near where God is, wherever that is. But all I said is "Really? It's in the hymnbook." That caught her off guard, but she continued on being upset about them not telling her in Young Women's nor did they read from the Pearl of Great Price there. I really wonder how pertinent Kolob is to those lessons. It's not like we really hide anything in the church. It's like the people that get upset about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and our church covering it up. I have the article in the Ensign about it. No, the church doesn't go around with banners and billboards proclaiming these things to everyone. But maybe that's because we're more worried about things pertinent to a person's salvation. Really, people that get upset about this stuff have a lot more to worry about than they admit to even themselves. As long as they receive a witness that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet, not by us ramming it down their throats, but by asking them to read and pray, then it all comes into place. Otherwise, it's like talking to a wall. And the worse thing that can happen to those people that try it out, is that the answer is no, it's not true. But I know it is because I've received my witness through the Holy Ghost, the bearer of all truth. How can you know something's true or not unless you've tried it out and asked of God after learning about it?

Sorry for the tirade.

I also tried to help her understand that bad things happen to the best of people a lot of times, and that this life is a test, and that God won't allow us to be tested above that which we are able, and that we need to remain faithful so we can receive the blessings, even if those blessings don't come in this life. I bore her testimony, which typically helps people settle down because they feel the spirit whether they like it or not, usually, and we were able to leave on a good note.
Later in that tracting session we met a guy that built boats for a living. He showed us a dingy and rowboat and canoe that he had either restored or built. Apparently demand for expensive yet beautiful homemade boats has decreased dramatically, so now he's selling or giving away most of his possessions and going canoeing down the entire length of the Mississippi for five months. I thought it was kind of cool and adventurous. It also reminded me of dad's pursuits lately of building his own dingies for the Young Men's activity.
On Saturday we also helped out with the baptism of an 8-year-old child of record. Doesn't go towards us, but they really did need our help filling the font and doing some other stuff. I gave the grandfather of the child a blessing, because his back was hurt and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stand up for the confirmation, but he was able to after the blessing, and he thanked me profusely for it. I've been giving a lot of blessings lately, it seems....
Pictures! There's a tiny town just outside of Mason City called Portland. Apparently a lot of mail gets sent there that was intended for Oregon. Anyway, the sign looks like something from some Post-Apocalyptic movie placed in Oregon's Capitol.
Also, me and a zone leader and the tall corn, taken not this last week but the one before.
Anyway, that's about all! Talk to you next week!
--
"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

If It Really Is Survival of the Fittest, I Must Be More Out Of Shape Than I Thought

AAAAllright, well, we got our calls from the Assistants this morning.
"Hey Elder Gates, are you ready for your transfer plans? "
"Yeah."
"You might want a pen and paper, this is pretty complicated."
"Ok."
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
"Ok...you and Elder Shelman are staying together..."
"Ok."
"...In Mason City."
I froze, pen in hand. Oooof course. I fell right into that one, alright. I had been thinking all morning that I had messed up far too bad for us to stay in Mason City, but apparently they "Appreciate all the hard work [we] have done." Well, I guess we're not too bad off.
This past week sure has been an interesting one.
On thursday was our last District Meeting of the Transfer, and we went out to a place called Buffalo Wild Wings afterward. I like my wings (not boneless, those are lame, give me the real deal. The joys of working at a pizza place.). There is a challenge at this particular chain called "The Blazin' Challenge," where they give you twelve of their spiciest wings and you have to eat them in 6 minutes. If you can do it, you get your picture on the wall and a free T-shirt. So two other missionaries and I decided to do it. They brought out a paper for us to sign. The other missionaries just signed it right away, but I decided to read what it was I was signing. When I noticed the word "death," I began to get a little apprehensive. But I signed anyway. A shirt's a shirt. So they brought out our wings, and specially made bibs just for us made out of take-out bags, and announced over the sound system our names and that we were doing the blazin challenge. They started the timer, and we were off. I ate my first wing, no problem, but as I continued to go, the world started to get hazy, probably from adrenaline. Two kids came up alongside me and were talking and watching as we ate. One apparently bent down to look into my face, but I was too focused by then. I noticed my left hand was starting to get tingly, but I trudged on. Elder Perez was done by a minute and fifteen seconds, and elder Heywood by about two and a half, but I kept going. My nose started to run and tears filled my eyes, and my mouth and face hurt pretty bad. But I was no quitter. Finally, at five minutes thirty seconds, I finished. I was so proud of myself. I got my picture taken, looking much like a kid after a playground beating. They announced the finished competition, and the restaurant cheered. After coming back from washing off, I looked over at a thirteen year old or so kid sitting near me that was still staring at me. "That was so cool! Congratulations, man!" he said. Yep, I inspired someone that day. I bet mom's proud.
The next day was even more exciting. We went down to Bristow and took a member that lives in a nearby town with us. We took him with so that way our investigators could meet the guy that would be giving them a ride to church. These investigators don't have a car that works so we needed his help with transportation. He also helped a lot in the lesson, and we reset a baptismal date with the mom, who we had set one with before, and with her daughters. So we left the lesson with three baptismal dates!! By Sunday they had all fallen through, as they hadn't come to church. Carol, the mom, had apparently gotten sick, and didn't feel well enough to come. She's been in the hospital a lot, making her disappear off our radars for awhile. But we met with them again yesterday and set up yet another date, letting them choose this time. Now all of the three main lessons are taught, so it's just the commandments now. So be sure to pray for them. We also visited another investigator in that obscenely small town named Jim. Jim wants to be baptized, too, but is just waiting to tell his wife who has anxiety and heart problems and the littlest things seem to set her off. So it's another waiting game for us. We taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he seemed to agree with it and we committed him to do it. Hopefully it'll stick and he'll come to church again. He used to come, but no investigator has come to church since I've been here. I guess I just have terrible luck.
So there are ups and downs all the way around. The weather's been exciting, very hot and humid, the point to which is not usually reached until August. Looking at the heat index, it was 105 degrees yesterday. And then we got to teach a lesson in an air conditioned house with fans that weren't blowing on us. I was sweating pretty bad. I picked up my arm off of my scriptures to find a fairly large pool of sweat there. Yeah, that was gross.
Some things to respond to from last week: Yes, I did see the billboard on Federal, with Obama between Hitler and Lenin. I was meaning to get a picture, not realizing it was going to hit national attention. Crazy stuff. Great thing for Mason City to be known for. Poor people, now it's going to cover up their popularity for the Music Man and Meredith Wilson (raise your hand if you knew who that was. yeah, me neither.). Ooh, by the way, if you do some google searching on Mason City, you'll discover it was once known as Sin City, and that a famous bank robber once robbed the bank here, and each year they have a reenactment, with guns and all. I wouldn't know from my own searches, people just tell us.
Also, about RAGBRAI, it's this week, and does not go through Mason City, but it is in our area. Yesterday they were in Clear Lake, and today they are traveling to Charles City, bypassing Mason. Lots of support vehicles were here last night. I'll send a picture of two we saw. It's apparently a pretty big deal. Too bad it's too far away for us to go watch today.
Well, that's about it!

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Elder Charlie Gates

Missionaries Are Better Than Superheroes

Really, it probably is one of the best realizations of my mission. I was studying Preach My Gospel and found a quote stating that preaching the gospel is the greatest work we can ever be involved in. And it hit me that that means it's greater than curing cancer, figuring out cold fusion, and saving people from psychopathic people with messed up faces, wearing make-up and purple suits. So the analogy grew and grew in my mind. Think about it. We have greater power than any superhero, even the freakishly perfect Superman. We have the power of God delegated to man, known as the priesthood. We have been called by the Ultimately Supreme Being, our Eternal Father, to assist in His great work here on the Earth. Sound analogous to anything? This is greater than knowing since you were young that fighting evil is what you needed to do, like Bruce Wayne. This is even greater power and greater responsibility than that given to Peter Parker, and, like him, is dependent on our confidence. We must also never run from it like he did, but accept it as our calling in life. Much like Clark Kent, we have been set apart from the world, given powers by our Heavenly Parents, and given instruction by our Father in a much more holy place than a crazy ice place up north. Like the Incredibles, many of us have been raised in families where these powers have been present and with whom we may find support. And we must never forget that our power to do the Lord's work is not our own, but is bestowed upon us by an even grander source than just our crazy Kryptonic reaction to a yellow sun. Yeah, that's about all of my analogies. Nerdy enough?

This week, this week, this week...um...what has happened?

Tuesday night we went to a member family's home for dinner. They're an amazing family that is in the adoption process and just waiting and I fell in love with them. They nearly went crazy when it came up that I was adopted, and it was really therapeutic for the wife to talk with me. Really, every missionary has some sort of thing that they bring to a mission that sets them apart (kind of like how every superhero has their own superpower) and that seems to be mine in some instances.

Wednesday was well over a hundred, like in the one hundred tens, with the heat index (humidity and heat combined to tell how hot it really is and not just by temp). Rode our bikes in the heat and a thunderstorm, went to Applebees, and, much like other nights, went to a members home for a little bit when a tornado was supposedly supposed to happen but didn't.

Thursday. Did service for a member that is demolishing a trailer for the scrap metal, scraped more paint at another members home, ate dinner with a family, and that was about it.

Friday. Demoed some more, did some work, had another tornado scare while a member was taking us to get ice cream at Wendy's. Everyone in Wendy's was scared except for him. Instead, we drove up over an overpass to hopefully see the tornado that was 20 some miles away and moving south. But there wasn't a tornado and never was one and we went home disappointed.

Saturday. More service and food with members.

Sunday. Church. Saw a clip from the Pioneer Day Broadcast and found it funny that they had a song from the Music Man at the end, and that that was basically the reason they showed it in Priesthood.

We have a progressing investigator who is reading from the Book of Mormon and coming at us with questions and everything. It's pretty exciting to have someone that is doing something and lives just up the alley from us so I don't think he'll escape us too easily, like others that have disappeared out of existence.

Things are really going well here and I'm excited by how they're going. We're trying to cut back on less necessary service. One member really understands and only asks us to help when he needs the help, so that's good.

That's about it!

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in." D&C 127:2
Your friendly neighborhood missionary,
Elder Charlie Gates