...And Then In Flew Enza

Well.
Yeah.
This week has been mostly uneventful...on the missionary front....
You see, I felt like I had a cold or something last week, and then Tuesday or wednesday it turned into my stomach feeling all nauseated, like something restless had settled in my gut. I didn't think much of it until Friday morning, when the restless something found an escape strategy. Luckily, that escape was not my mouth. After rushing to the toilet, my companion made me call Sister Talbot. She informed me I probably had the flu (you know, that thing that I should have gotten a shot for but never did because I was really busy and forgot and all those other excuses investigators use on us when they tell us they haven't read or prayed? Yeah, that thing....) and probably needed to stay inside and sleep and all the other stuff I needed to do. So most of Friday and Saturday was just getting up in the morning, getting showered, laying on the couch, intermittently running to the restroom, and going to bed. I played some games but Friday and Saturday I didn't feel like sitting up much. Sunday came along, and I felt better, and didn't have to rush to the bathroom once, buuut, well, we were kindly asked by the branch to please leave, so as to not get all of the members with weak immune systems sick. I'm pretty sure I was much better, and really only felt funky because I hadn't eaten much more than three cans of chicken noodle soup over two days, but still. Sunday all I had was a can of Progresso soup, trying to step it up a bit, but that kind of bugged my stomach. I think that was just mostly because I was not used to eating by that point. Being sick on fast Sunday is actually a fairly lucky thing: You're not hungry anyway! So, yeah. Today, I just got restless. I decided that I was going to try solid foods and see what happens. So I ate some eggs and unbuttered toast, without any troubles, and then ate a brownie (NEVER MAKE BROWNIES WHEN YOUR COMPANION CANNOT HAVE DAIRY DUE TO ILLNESS! IT'S JUST PURE EVIL! "And I realized halfway through making them: I don't even like brownies anyway!" Elder Heyborne said, nearly eliciting a punch from me. Gotta love the kid.) and a plate of spaghetti. I was fairly full after the eggs but I just wanted to find out, and find out quick, whether I was still sick or not. Besides feeling full, and having that feeling be a shock to my system, I feel alright. I've definitely lost some weight this weekend, though. No food and excessive amounts of liquids do that to you.

So, yeah, besides sickness, we had a pretty good week. We met with a lady who would be an investigator if it wasn't for the fact that she's a consultant from home to both sides of the coast and is thus on phone calls all the time, making herself really busy. She's had missionaries meet with her before and enjoys hearing them bear their testimonies. She seemed fairly impressed after meeting with us and hearing that we put two years aside, without working, not earning anything, to do this. She originally was just going to tell us to come back in June when all her consulting was done, but she told us instead to try back in a couple weeks.

The snow's all melting now. You know all of those stories about how hard it was for the pioneers to cross Iowa due to the mud and how it took them more time to cross it then the rest of the trip from then on out?
Yeah.
Now I get it.
It's pretty dang ugly out there.
I actually might prefer the colder weather at the moment. It actually legitimitely rained this past week! And it didn't freeze! It was glorious. I miss rain. I never thought I'd say that, but I do. Getting wet in winter is so nice. Uh oh, trunky alarm's going off....

We also had a snowball fight with one of our investigator's kids and a friend of the kids. That really wasn't that spiritual of an occasion, but it was really funny when the friend, who's not a member nor an investigator, said, "It ain't fair, you got Jesus on your side!" That's truer than he knows....

I'm still not hearing any news about contract deals for my writing.... A little source of income would be nice. Oh, on the subject of earning money, for all you high school musical fans out there (I bet those words right there will ensure most people will skip over the rest of this paragraph. I sure would), the kid who says "Is that even legal?" in the first movie (I've heard from a second hand source that was his only line. I wouldn't know, I've never seen it.) actually came out here on his mission the same time as me, just he was speaking spanish. He's even on the posters for the CES broadcasts for this year. Yeah. I'm just THAT close to stardom. I would have put that in here when I first came out, but I didn't know until later. Anyway, I have so little to update on that I even just stuck THAT in there. It was just that exciting of a week.

So, yeah. That's about it. It's getting warmer. I was sick. I've read a LOT out of the Book of Mormon. Investigators are still investigatin. Some less actives are less less active. Members are still...memberin. All in all, life is good. Church is still true. The Iowa Des Moines Mission is still the best. The Book of Mormon and Bible are still true. And I still ramble.

Elder Gates