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
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, September 13, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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
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
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