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
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