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