Mom said in her latest email that she is thinking about forwarding my last email to President Miles because he might be interested in the Marshallese work going on here. If the last email hasn't been sent yet, don't bother, this one will be much more informative. So, last sunday, as I mentioned, we started teaching a lady named Justina, who is living with a member. She knew it was all true before we went over. We've gone with a couple of Marshallese Priests (as in, Priests of our church that are Marshallese. Sometimes when I say this in the district, other missionaries get confused what a Marshallese Priest is), Mike and Ronnie. Mike is a recent convert and Ronnie is preparing to go on a mission as soon as he graduates. Both are incredible young men and priesthood holders. We've taught Justina a few times this week, and she is understanding everything very well so far. I'm learning how to teach very simply in simple words and to annunciate clearly. You never know, I might not even mumble anymore when I get home. Doubt it. She knows she needs to get married before baptism and is planning on getting married very soon. We don't know quite when yet, but the Relief Society will be helping with that. We are also trying to pick back up a Marshallese investigator who had had a baptismal date not that long ago, Eddy. He is sixteen and apparently has still been going to mutual, just not to church. We had heard that it might be that his parents haven't been terribly supportive of him being taught, but I'm texting him now so we hope that he will be taught more here soon. We've also extended soft baptismal invites (when you know this is true, will you...) to two new investigators this week, Mike's aunt and cousin, Ejmi and Lalailyne, respectively. Both have been going to church for about a month. They also seemed to understand what was being taught. The Mike's cousin is 7.5 and her mom is living in Seattle. The way Marshallese families work is that they are very tightknit and a lot of times it just doesn't matter to them if the parents are the ones raising the child or if it is the aunt and/or uncle. We taught those two yesterday and will be seeing them again soon. We also started meeting with another one of Mike and Ronnie's friends, Branton. When we were walking around with Mike in a predominately Marshallese neighborhood, we ran into a lot of the Marshallese youth and Branton. They all surrounded Branton and told us to start teaching him. If only all of the church was this onto missionary work. So, letting Branton know we weren't going to force him to do anything, even to be taught, we invited him to take the lessons and he agreed. He's been to a few activities as well. He's kind of a shy kid but cool, nevertheless. Marshallese people have the best sense of humor. And the youth attack anybody that starts swearing. They know their standards and they are not afraid to stand up for them. We also gained two new referrals yesterday. One is the sister of Justina who was referred to us by a member. The other one was obtained while coming out of an appointment with Justina. It basically was obtained by Mike pointing across the street at a guy and saying "He wants his girlfriend to be taught," and us asking the guy, who is Ronnie's less active brother if this was true. All in all, we'll soon have about 7 Marshallese investigators, with more on the way I'm sure. It's funny, because they are far more solid than any of our nonMarshallese investigators, who all have dropped off the map. Basically, if they end up bringing another set of missionaries here for some reason, Elder Unsicker and I will take all of the Marshallese people and they can have everybody else. I don't know if they will bring other missionaries here, but, if a Marshallese branch is started here soon like the plan is, it may be necessary. I would not mind ending my mission as a Marshallese missionary. Actually, I have some news on finishing my mission. This week the entire district except for Elder Roberts and me went to Des Moines for one of those Leadership Conferences, as they are trying to have everybody that has never gone to one go. I think I mentioned that last week. Anyway, I was stuck in Savanna for two whole days. I never realized just how depressing that area is. But I survived and received some news from Elder Unsicker. He talked to President as we had planned and asked him if we could stay together for a little bit. President responded that that is the plan, to leave us together in Dubuque till the end of my mission. Let's hope so. Great things are going to happen here. Now it's just up to us to prove to God that we can accomplish these great things. Elder Unsicker was also able to obtain from one of his previous areas a Roomba that they had been given while he was there. So now we no longer need to vacuum, just merely set his robotic vacuum named Chloe in the middle of the floor and press on. Yeah, life is good. We're very booked on appointments this week, it's really not allowing time for anything besides teaching, which is exactly how it should be. Oh, and a realization I had before another appointment this past friday with our investigator in Friday who is attempting to drink herself to death is that everything in life is a blessing. Yep, everything. It's up to us to make sure it blesses us or not, but God doesn't allow anything to happen to us unless it will bless us in some way, either by giving us a learning experience or just flat out making our lives better. I don't know if this is new to any of you, i really doubt it is to me, I just haven't realized it in this way before. Sometimes, people have a lot more complicated learning experiences than others, but all in all, we can learn from everyone. I know, you might be thinking I'm oversimplifying it, but I doubt it. So whether it's a stubbed toe, wrecked car, dead cat, accidental deleting of an email, stain on a tie, or whatever, it's a blessing. Or, at least, if you have that mindset that it is, and that you need to make it such, it will be. Anyway, whatever.
--
Love,
The Transcendentally Beautiful Elder Gates
(Doctrine and Covenants 137:2)
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