Yeah, I heard something today about Osama Bin Laden being dead. That's pretty exciting! Those rare times in life when you can celebrate the death of another one of God's Children and not feel guilty are delightful experiences.
I believe it was Thursday night when Elder Unsicker turned to me in the car and asked a question I've heard from many of my companions who assume that my silence is due to some deep pondering:
"What are you thinking, Elder Gates?"
To his dismay, my reply was not the usual "Why is there no squirrel-based superhero?" or "Bunny rabbits sure do make horrible pets." Instead, I responded with a thoughtful "About how much I want to be consecrated."
Silence. Neither Elder Unsicker nor I have been bad missionaries, but we have had some things that we could be better on in order to be the best missionaries we could be. After about a minute, he drilled deeper. "How badly do you want it?"
"Bad."
"How bad?"
"Really bad."
He then began an inner struggle. His lifelong pursuit of doing what he wanted started to give way to his mission-long dream of being consecrated. By the time we arrived back at the house, he had acquiesced. Elder Unsicker is the first companion in a very long time that I knew I could strive to achieve this with once more. So, on Sunday, we began it all with a fast, and we're changing ourselves and giving up everything that we need to. We're sacrificing not only the little things we'd do, or the little laziness that might creep in, but, more importantly, our heart and soul, to the work. I only have 3.5 months left and I want to sprint it. Not my usual way of ending endurance races, as I tend more to say "Bah, I'm tired, when can I get my Sunny-D?" but I know this is how I have to do it.
As for the work this week, it's been incredible. On Wednesday alone, we set 2 baptismal dates, got 2 new investigators, committed both of those investigators to be baptized, had three member presents, and all of them were Marshallese. All in all we have 6 Marshallese investigators now, 5 committed to baptism, 2 with a date, and 1 should have a date as of last night. She, Justina, was going to be meeting with a member of the Relief Society about wedding plans. She apparently wants to get married and then walk right down into the font, so I'm not about to complain. The first lesson we taught on Wednesday was with a new investigator, Mary. Mary is the pregnant girlfriend of a member and knows very little english. That whole lesson had to be translated into Marshallese for her. But she understood well and excepted a baptismal invitation. Her less-active-due-to-work boyfriend did a great job translating, teaching some, and testifying throughout. We then met with Janie, a new investigator as well, and sister of Justina. She, too, has a boyfriend that is a member, but understands english pretty well. She, also, accepted a baptismal invitation. After that we tried to go see a less active with the two Marshallese Priests we had with us, Ronnie and Mike, but that lesson fell through (she's not Marshallese). So, instead, we went to what I think of as my mountain. It's a hilltop park overlooking the city where I go when I really need to pray. There we knelt and prayed about what date we should commit Ejmi and Mailalyne, our next appointments, to be baptized on. We felt that May 14th was the date God wanted them baptized on. So, for that lesson with Ejmi and Mailalyne, we had Ronnie and Mike teach it all with Elder Unsicker's visual aides (I have a whole plan of salvation as well but I had left it at home). They both did a fantastic job explaining everything and, when we asked her how she felt, she said she could feel the Holy Ghost come on her, telling her it was true. So, I confirmed what she felt, as Elder Unsicker and I had been feeling it, too, even though we couldn't understand what was being said, and then informed her of God's plan for her to be baptized on May 14th and asked her how she felt about that. She thought for a minute, and then agreed. Her biggest concern was whether or not her boyfriend that lives elsewhere could get baptized, too, when he arrived and they got married. It was a hard decision, but we agreed to it. Mailalyne, who had been sitting there as well, ended up being 8 and not 7.5 as I had thought, so we invited her to be baptized on that day as well, which she excitedly accepted. As her mother lives in Seattle and is not a member, she falls into our hands for being baptized. We left that appointment exhausted. Although we had driven everywhere that day, we felt as if we had biked from one end of town to the other. We could feel that same sort of exhaustion that has always overcome God's servants after marvelous revelations. We had a short coordination that night with our ward mission leader, and neither of us could hardly believe what all had happened that day and struggled to remember it all as we also fought off complete surrender to our exhaustion. That was a good day. We had other good days through the rest of the week, as we kept teaching our investigators. One, Branton, we thought was going to drop us, but instead just wants a Marshallese Book of Mormon. We're running out. I only have two left, and after I deliver that one to him, only one left. We told our ward mission leader about our dilemma, to which he responded "Well, there's about twenty in the missionary closet at the church." Elder Unsicker and I laughed a little and informed him that we have handed them all out. Anyway, when we went to meet up with Mary for a second lesson, Branton sat in on it. Again, Mike and Ronnie taught it, doing a great job. This time, Steve, Mary's boyfriend, asked a question about baptisms for the dead. Branton also asked for further explanation on the Spirit World and the Three Kingdoms of Glory, which, because he understands english, I was able to explain with the New Testament. After that he seemed more drawn into learning more. We also taught another couple of lessons to Janie, and more to Justina. Justina is already living the Word of Wisdom and paying tithing. She already has a strong testimony in the latter, as Jemity, her boyfriend, has always told her that they would be living it, and when they moved to the states and into their current apartment, the price was dropped from $700 a month to $100 a month, and she knows it was all due to them paying their tithing, and God allowing them to have the money to do so. So, we're not teaching Justina, we're simply checking it all off of the teaching record so we knows she knows it before baptism.
I only bother with the nonMarshallese investigators if they're in Galena.
Well, that's about it! Mother's Day is coming up!! I'll get to talk to yall in Worshington in pertinear a couple three days, yet! Bah, my Iowa-talk is leaving, as I'm switching over to Marshallese talk. During our appointments I speak really slow, pronouncing everything clearly (imagine that, me not mumbling), and so I've realized a lot of times I accidentally pick up the Marshallese accent during the lessons.
We also are working a lot with members, and the members are starting to really love us. We're rebuilding trusts that were lost by former missionaries and building even stronger the trusts we had. God is blessing us so much, he's even sent a member here that wants to take us golfing. I know it's not your thing, dad, but I enjoy it. I just haven't gone on my mission because it's not the cheapest of things, especially when you don't have a set of clubs.
Life is great. I really can't think of anything to complain about, and even if I could, I can't anymore, because I'm become the ideal missionary.
Love you all like a Marshallese teenager loves socks with flip flops! (I didn't even know that was physically possible.)
--
Love,
Elder Gates
"Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing." Bible Dictionary
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