Hello from Yankton, South Dakota!
Yep, that's right, I moved from one extreme corner of the mission to the other. I no longer even touch Iowa in my area, but I did move from one famous river to the next. The Missouri is not as exciting, but it means I get to see Lewis and Clark stuff all over the place. Brings back memories of Washington.... Transfer day was interesting. As always, I'm guessing. The van picked us up in the morning, 945ish, and we arrived in Yankton sometime after 7 that night. A long time to be on a Mormonmobile packed with missionaries. Yankton is an area that has been closed for a transfer and is a lead competitor for the largest area in the mission. Basically, for those who are able to see my mission map, it goes basically from just past a town called Gayville (poor place) to the edge, and way down south into Nebraska and up to the top of the mission. It can take over an hour to drive some places. There were no investigators when we arrived. The area is huge, one of the biggest in the mission, and yet there are only about 30 or so active members of the branch. A HUGE less-active pool. So we end up with all sorts of time tracting and attempting to contact old Potential and Former Investigators. The branch has some interesting quirks about it, but altogether not a bad place to be. The Branch President (I'm getting used to calling my church a branch. I keep saying "Bishop" and "Ward." Also, none of our Iowa jokes work anymore, and I also keep accidentally referring to Muscatine as "Home"....) is extremely helpful and so is the Branch Mission Leader. And the people are really excited to have us here, and we should be having meals about five times a week, something the president and branch mission leader are pushing for so we can get referrals and get to know the members. So we're stoked for that.
And it snowed last night and friday night. Friday night it didn't stick much, but it started while we were tracting, and last night it stuck on the grass pretty well and accumulated a little, but not on the roads. I'll be buying boots soon, but no real need yet. And yeah. It's a bad place to be for the winter. I'm already layering up a bunch.... Elder Nelson says this is a sign of trust from President Talbot, that he knows not only that we can basically restart missionary work here, but that he can be ok with us being hours and hours away from Des Moines. Elder Nelson had already told me that Prez was impressed with me last Zone Conference. Back then I thought it was a good thing....
Some facts about Yankton:
It is the cow capitol of South Dakota.
It is jam-packed with Catholics, as they like to inform us before closing the door....
It is home to a Federal Prison Camp.
It is home to a monastery.
It is home to a Psychiatric Hospital.
It has a population of, I believe, 20,000 or so, according to the sign.
It may just be one of the largest cities in South Dakota....
South Dakota, it seems, is the same state of the Nonexistent North Dakota, a fact brought to my attention by the Maps for South Dakota. You can't buy a map for just South Dakota, you have to get one with North Dakota included.
It's been hard not to get a little frustrated with my situation, as you can probably tell by my thick sarcasm in this email. I'm still working hard and doing fine, but it's not the best of situations, especially since I'm still green and learning. But if there's nothing else I haven't learned from The Elders Nelson, it's that you never stop learning.
Right now I'm actually emailing from the University of South Dakota in a "city" called Vermillion. It's the closest area, and the only other one in our district. They're also fancy because they have a ward building for their branch, while we're stuck with the equivalent of a large relief society room, half a gym, and a few other rooms as a building. Anyway, we're here because tomorrow is Zone Conference, and this time we have a seventy visiting us, Elder Lance B. Wickman. So there are only two zone conferences, one in Iowa City, and one in Des Moines. So we get the awesome opportunity to drive all the way to Des Moines! Woo. Tonight we're staying in a missionary apartment in Sioux City.
Speaking of apartments, we live in an actual one now. (mom, it's right next to the water tower that's west of the monastery. And yes, I would like letters from Brad and Tyler. And Tyler Russell if possible. Troy's the only one who's written me, besides Brad, and Brad only did it once while i was in the MTC.) We had to clean it up a bit when we moved in. It's not a bad apartment, I like it enough, but as all apartments do, it has its quirks.
Life is going well. We're doing all sorts of finding, but that's even going pretty well. We have set up five return appointments already, but one has also already been dropped. You'd think that if you say you want us to come back once you wouldn't say I'm not interested the second time around. But what do I know. Just keeping faith and hope up and I know all will work out. I know the Lord will bless me as I keep working hard.
Love,
Elder Gates
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Three Muscatines' Last Ride
Hey Everybody,
So, as you can tell by the subject of this entry in the log of Elder Gates' travels, the Three Muscatines will be no more as of transfer day, tomorrow. The way things work here is that we don't know that we're being transferred for sure until right before we are, and we don't find out where we're going until we basically get there. That's to hold back on negative rumors and all that. It seems to work, but it kind of causes confusion. For example, let's just say that there is a tri-companionship of two English speakers, one who's being trained, and one that is Spanish. And, to go along with the example, the companionship finds out that something will change a couple days before they know for sure. They think it over and say that the Trainee's official trainer will be transferred, for that is the only thing that would make sense if a transfer were to happen. Instead, tuesday night they get a phone call saying that, sure enough, the Trainer is being transferred and becoming District Leader of his new area, but is also taking his trainee with him, even though his trainee has only been there one transfer, and will be whitewashing (a delicate term which means they will be moved into an area with no companion from the area who had been there the transfer before to update them on everything, and thus have to completely rely on the area book and notes left by the old missionaries). It may surprise you after hearing this farfetched possibility to discover this is exactly what's happening. So tomorrow morning, Papa Nelson and I are headed off to who-knows-where. Mom, go ahead and check my account the next couple days to find out where I bought things from. And it also means today is an awesome packing day. Especially great since i had no clue this would be the case.... We thought I'd be the most likely to stay!
I love Muscatine. I hate that I have to leave. Things are going amazing here. We just started teaching a solid family that Papa Nelson has been trying for 8 weeks to set up a lesson with. We just got our fourth baptismal date with a ten-year-old boy last night, just a few hours before the phone call. We are really a pretty solid companionship in a very solid area. The members are amazing and so willing to help. It's great being right next to the Mississippi. And to smell what smells like burned tuna melts coming from GPC and the smell of catsup from Heinz. Mom and Dad, if you're going to be able to pick me up, we have to stop by Muscatine.
In other news, we did something I wanted to do all transfer, go to Illinois to do work. Our ward goes over there quite a ways, but missionaries have never really gone there to do work. I had always picked out a place called Illinois City to go work in because it looked pretty big from the dot on the map. And so we went this last sunday. It is officially one of the smallest towns I've seen yet, and that's saying something. We nearly tracted the entire town while there, and nothing really came of it in the way of new investigators. But at least we got to go there!
I have pictures I could probably add here, but seeing as how the last time I tried that it all fell apart, I won't try again....
Conference was incredible. I loved being able to go to the ward building where it was broadcast to and watch it. I gained a lot out of it. Just like you, Mom, I saw a big emphasis on following the Spirit, and that has also been our transfer emphasis these last 6 weeks. We had it more as the Spirit being not only our third companion, but our senior companion, from a talk given by, I believe, Jeffrey R. Holland at the MTC. Following the Spirit is essential to missionary work, and is vital to missionary work, or else "Ye shall not teach" (from D&C, and meaning we CANNOT, not should not). I could go over a few different talks that I loved, but that would take awhile and I don't think would be too fruitful. I did love Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. I wish I could have him on doorsteps or in lessons with us. That was powerful. But I suppose that we are blessed to have a member of the Godhead with us in our lessons, and with faith and firm testimonies we can be powerful as well. And we are, and should be, just tools in the Lord's hands to be led by the Spirit. It's a tough but extremely rewarding deal.
I really don't know what else to add in this email. I'm really getting to the point where stuff is all sort of melding together into one big mass of experiences. I guess that's just going to happen more and more the more I'm out here. I guess that means I should work harder on that whole journal writing thing....
I guess that's it. Oh, and Team Fire won our game last weekend. We weren't able to go because of conference, so we had a parent coach for us. Apparently it worked out. And no worries, I'm still in high spirits, I trust God and know He's got things under control, even if they seem pretty hectic to me. The gospel's true, this Church is Christs' true church, and the Book of Mormon's true.
Love,
Elder Gates
So, as you can tell by the subject of this entry in the log of Elder Gates' travels, the Three Muscatines will be no more as of transfer day, tomorrow. The way things work here is that we don't know that we're being transferred for sure until right before we are, and we don't find out where we're going until we basically get there. That's to hold back on negative rumors and all that. It seems to work, but it kind of causes confusion. For example, let's just say that there is a tri-companionship of two English speakers, one who's being trained, and one that is Spanish. And, to go along with the example, the companionship finds out that something will change a couple days before they know for sure. They think it over and say that the Trainee's official trainer will be transferred, for that is the only thing that would make sense if a transfer were to happen. Instead, tuesday night they get a phone call saying that, sure enough, the Trainer is being transferred and becoming District Leader of his new area, but is also taking his trainee with him, even though his trainee has only been there one transfer, and will be whitewashing (a delicate term which means they will be moved into an area with no companion from the area who had been there the transfer before to update them on everything, and thus have to completely rely on the area book and notes left by the old missionaries). It may surprise you after hearing this farfetched possibility to discover this is exactly what's happening. So tomorrow morning, Papa Nelson and I are headed off to who-knows-where. Mom, go ahead and check my account the next couple days to find out where I bought things from. And it also means today is an awesome packing day. Especially great since i had no clue this would be the case.... We thought I'd be the most likely to stay!
I love Muscatine. I hate that I have to leave. Things are going amazing here. We just started teaching a solid family that Papa Nelson has been trying for 8 weeks to set up a lesson with. We just got our fourth baptismal date with a ten-year-old boy last night, just a few hours before the phone call. We are really a pretty solid companionship in a very solid area. The members are amazing and so willing to help. It's great being right next to the Mississippi. And to smell what smells like burned tuna melts coming from GPC and the smell of catsup from Heinz. Mom and Dad, if you're going to be able to pick me up, we have to stop by Muscatine.
In other news, we did something I wanted to do all transfer, go to Illinois to do work. Our ward goes over there quite a ways, but missionaries have never really gone there to do work. I had always picked out a place called Illinois City to go work in because it looked pretty big from the dot on the map. And so we went this last sunday. It is officially one of the smallest towns I've seen yet, and that's saying something. We nearly tracted the entire town while there, and nothing really came of it in the way of new investigators. But at least we got to go there!
I have pictures I could probably add here, but seeing as how the last time I tried that it all fell apart, I won't try again....
Conference was incredible. I loved being able to go to the ward building where it was broadcast to and watch it. I gained a lot out of it. Just like you, Mom, I saw a big emphasis on following the Spirit, and that has also been our transfer emphasis these last 6 weeks. We had it more as the Spirit being not only our third companion, but our senior companion, from a talk given by, I believe, Jeffrey R. Holland at the MTC. Following the Spirit is essential to missionary work, and is vital to missionary work, or else "Ye shall not teach" (from D&C, and meaning we CANNOT, not should not). I could go over a few different talks that I loved, but that would take awhile and I don't think would be too fruitful. I did love Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. I wish I could have him on doorsteps or in lessons with us. That was powerful. But I suppose that we are blessed to have a member of the Godhead with us in our lessons, and with faith and firm testimonies we can be powerful as well. And we are, and should be, just tools in the Lord's hands to be led by the Spirit. It's a tough but extremely rewarding deal.
I really don't know what else to add in this email. I'm really getting to the point where stuff is all sort of melding together into one big mass of experiences. I guess that's just going to happen more and more the more I'm out here. I guess that means I should work harder on that whole journal writing thing....
I guess that's it. Oh, and Team Fire won our game last weekend. We weren't able to go because of conference, so we had a parent coach for us. Apparently it worked out. And no worries, I'm still in high spirits, I trust God and know He's got things under control, even if they seem pretty hectic to me. The gospel's true, this Church is Christs' true church, and the Book of Mormon's true.
Love,
Elder Gates
A letter from Elder Gates
Hello Home!
Ok, so I apologize for this being so late in coming but the server or computer or something there is messed up. So, here is my email...kinda.
Things ae going well here. I really frankly don't have much to update on this week, no huge breaking news or anthing, just some good stories. First, I realized what company that is that you have their binder from. I'll try to get a picture by it. Stewart is a busy road so it could be slightly awkward. But it's cool, MUSCO is a pretty big company. There's a strange amount of big companies in this town that I'm sure, is smaller than Auburn. You have MUSCO, HON (not centered here but lot's of factories), Kent Feeds (that GPC lant I mentioned), a company called Stanley or something, its got stuff in the Middle East, so it must be big. We even have Iowa's richest woman, and the best sunsets according to Mark Twain. Just a little Muscatine pride.
We visited on of our investigators who is getting baptized this week. He's an amazing guy. He knows and understands so much and knows it to be true! It was the first time I'd ever met with him and it was great to see that in an investigator. I may have never taught him, but it really showed me that this work really can pay off evenually.
We also stopped by a couple towns, Columbus Junction and Columbus City, on the way back from district meeting this week to do some Spanish work. While there we had our first dog attack! It's surprising to me this was the first one in my time here, since it seems like nearly every home has at least one dog. It might have been that way back at home, too, but I never noticed it. Anyway, there was a football-sized dog on one doorstep that was yapping around like crazy. When Senor Nelson went up to know on the door, the dog pulled the metal chair it was chained to across the porch and bit into his pant leg. Senor Nelson, scared by the growling football attached to his pants, used the dog's size, and his other foot to his advantage and sent the dog back half-a-foot or so. The dog seemed fine, as it kept barking, but we left quickly.
We also went to an appointment that Senor Nelson had set up earlier in the day when we were on splits with the Elders in Washington. But she wasn't there. So we were about to leave the Columbus Area but decided to go ahead and tract the street she (the person the appointment had been with) lived on, since there had to be some reason why we had gone to that street. That was fruitless and fairly uneventlful, owing in part, to the fact the street was long with few houses; that is until we came back to the house of the lady we had had the meeting with. She was home this time so we came in and Senor Nelson taught her the first lesson. I can usually follow along fairly well if I focus really hard, but apparently I wasn't focusing hard enough (imagine that), for when we went out to the truck to grab her a Book of Mormon, Senor Nelson let me know she had accepted a soft baptismal commitment (when you come to know this to be true, will you....) which is HUGE for a first lesson that almost didn't happen. I can't believe I didn't hear it; "baptismo" is fairly distrinctive. A couple other things went down in the lesson which make her pretty solid.
Also, that couple that I think I updated you on who committed to baptism and marriage set their own dates for these two things, and the date they set for baptism is the same one we had prayed about and had decided to commit them to. Nice little testimony building on prayer.
We also knocked into a modern-day Job of sorts. She had been divorced by the her husband a couple years ago, had had her fiancee call off the wedding that was supposed to happen a couple weeks ago, had surgery and had just barely gotten out of the hospital and her friends had deserted her or something like that. Anyway, all sorts of junk was going wrong for her, and yet here she stood with a smile on her face and faith in God. She rejected our message, but couldn't turn down our offer to mow her lawn for her. She said the Lord would provide and I just pointed out that maybe the Lord was providing through us. She seemed to like that, and referenced the good ol' parable of the guy in the flood who was waiting for God to help him and then turned down people who were trying to help him three different times. So this, but mostly the Elders Nelsons not allowing her to say no, allowed us to go to work. And so us three missionaries in our white shirts, ties, and dress pants and shoes mowed her front lawn for her. We even came back a second time and mowed again so it would look better. By the way, now that I've mowed with both bag and bagless mowers, I now know that bags are MUCH better!
So we went to a place called West Liberty this week, as we usually do at least once a week due to the loads of Spanish work there, and there were car races going on at the track there! I felt home! Sort of. Plus we had amazing El Salvadorian food at a restaurant there. Good stuff, and inexpensive!
The weather is starting to change here. Temperatures definitely feel different here than in Washington or Idaho.
I know this to be Christ's true church restored again through modern-day prophets and am glad to be a part of this great work.
Elder Charlie Gates
Ok, so I apologize for this being so late in coming but the server or computer or something there is messed up. So, here is my email...kinda.
Things ae going well here. I really frankly don't have much to update on this week, no huge breaking news or anthing, just some good stories. First, I realized what company that is that you have their binder from. I'll try to get a picture by it. Stewart is a busy road so it could be slightly awkward. But it's cool, MUSCO is a pretty big company. There's a strange amount of big companies in this town that I'm sure, is smaller than Auburn. You have MUSCO, HON (not centered here but lot's of factories), Kent Feeds (that GPC lant I mentioned), a company called Stanley or something, its got stuff in the Middle East, so it must be big. We even have Iowa's richest woman, and the best sunsets according to Mark Twain. Just a little Muscatine pride.
We visited on of our investigators who is getting baptized this week. He's an amazing guy. He knows and understands so much and knows it to be true! It was the first time I'd ever met with him and it was great to see that in an investigator. I may have never taught him, but it really showed me that this work really can pay off evenually.
We also stopped by a couple towns, Columbus Junction and Columbus City, on the way back from district meeting this week to do some Spanish work. While there we had our first dog attack! It's surprising to me this was the first one in my time here, since it seems like nearly every home has at least one dog. It might have been that way back at home, too, but I never noticed it. Anyway, there was a football-sized dog on one doorstep that was yapping around like crazy. When Senor Nelson went up to know on the door, the dog pulled the metal chair it was chained to across the porch and bit into his pant leg. Senor Nelson, scared by the growling football attached to his pants, used the dog's size, and his other foot to his advantage and sent the dog back half-a-foot or so. The dog seemed fine, as it kept barking, but we left quickly.
We also went to an appointment that Senor Nelson had set up earlier in the day when we were on splits with the Elders in Washington. But she wasn't there. So we were about to leave the Columbus Area but decided to go ahead and tract the street she (the person the appointment had been with) lived on, since there had to be some reason why we had gone to that street. That was fruitless and fairly uneventlful, owing in part, to the fact the street was long with few houses; that is until we came back to the house of the lady we had had the meeting with. She was home this time so we came in and Senor Nelson taught her the first lesson. I can usually follow along fairly well if I focus really hard, but apparently I wasn't focusing hard enough (imagine that), for when we went out to the truck to grab her a Book of Mormon, Senor Nelson let me know she had accepted a soft baptismal commitment (when you come to know this to be true, will you....) which is HUGE for a first lesson that almost didn't happen. I can't believe I didn't hear it; "baptismo" is fairly distrinctive. A couple other things went down in the lesson which make her pretty solid.
Also, that couple that I think I updated you on who committed to baptism and marriage set their own dates for these two things, and the date they set for baptism is the same one we had prayed about and had decided to commit them to. Nice little testimony building on prayer.
We also knocked into a modern-day Job of sorts. She had been divorced by the her husband a couple years ago, had had her fiancee call off the wedding that was supposed to happen a couple weeks ago, had surgery and had just barely gotten out of the hospital and her friends had deserted her or something like that. Anyway, all sorts of junk was going wrong for her, and yet here she stood with a smile on her face and faith in God. She rejected our message, but couldn't turn down our offer to mow her lawn for her. She said the Lord would provide and I just pointed out that maybe the Lord was providing through us. She seemed to like that, and referenced the good ol' parable of the guy in the flood who was waiting for God to help him and then turned down people who were trying to help him three different times. So this, but mostly the Elders Nelsons not allowing her to say no, allowed us to go to work. And so us three missionaries in our white shirts, ties, and dress pants and shoes mowed her front lawn for her. We even came back a second time and mowed again so it would look better. By the way, now that I've mowed with both bag and bagless mowers, I now know that bags are MUCH better!
So we went to a place called West Liberty this week, as we usually do at least once a week due to the loads of Spanish work there, and there were car races going on at the track there! I felt home! Sort of. Plus we had amazing El Salvadorian food at a restaurant there. Good stuff, and inexpensive!
The weather is starting to change here. Temperatures definitely feel different here than in Washington or Idaho.
I know this to be Christ's true church restored again through modern-day prophets and am glad to be a part of this great work.
Elder Charlie Gates
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Three Muscatines and the Voyage to Worshington
Dear Apparent Fans,
Remember that both with the 116 pages lost with the translation of the Book of Mormon and my letter, the part we do have basically sums up what was lost. I just told a little story or two that was lost and took up a good portion of time to write and I didn't feel like reiterating.... I may this email, we'll see.
First I'll address a couple concerns Mom asked me about and go from there.
1) It's not that cramped in the apartment with three elders. It's really a good sized place and is about right for three. The only one that really thinks it's cramped is Sister Chapman, who was kind of "wiggin out" when Senor Nelson first moved in about space and clutter. This only really added to the large amount of stress we were under. Sometimes after a hard day's work or on a P-Day where I just want to relax it's hard to smile and say "Sure, I'd love to scrub all the mold from the corners of the walls of the bathroom (that's been there for long before any of us moved in) right now." But it's a blessing that she lets us live there and she's a well-intentioned good sister.
2) This month we have had more meals with members than most missionaries have in a transfer. When I first got here the meal calendar was barely full, but the last couple weeks it's been jam-packed. Like every day and then some somedays. It's awesome, and the meals are almost always incredible. A lot of times we have to cut them off short because we have so many plans. The other two say that the loads of food means that they love us. I like to take all the credit there.
So, updates on the work: things are going...well. We haven't kill each other or any more dogs yet. (Ok, the story about the dog: back when there were two spanish elders here, they had an investigator with a sick dog, so they did everything they could to help. A veterinarian suggested giving it Peptobismol. So Elder Poulsen and Elder Nelson ran to get some and ran back to the investigators' house to admister it to the dog. They burst in, acting in their best EMS ways, and, ignoring the fatal appearance of the dog, tilted its head back and administered the peptobismol with a syringe into its mouth. When they were finished, they let go of the dogs' head and watched, in horror, as it just limply fell to the side. The investigators are still meeting with us, which is good. Good enough story that for their one sentence update in the zone's newspaper it said "We killed an investigators' dog with Pepto Bismol," while ours was "Elder Gates is as green as the forests of Oregen. Or Washington or wherever he's from." Yep, he spelled Oregon that way, something we don't let him forget.) But yeah, things were less exciting this week. We were dropped by the seventeen-year-old kid that seemed promising, and a lot of appointments with other promising investigators has fallen through. So, to skip over the sad parts, I'll update you on the good.
For one thing, Senor Nelson, having learned from a role play that was done during District Meeting this week that was done solely to help him on this matter, successfully committed a couple to marriage and baptism, which was way cool.
We have a baptismal date! Technically, we've had it for awhile, but can't count it until it's less than three months away, and so now we can count it! He's basically a member, he's even come to lessons, he just is waiting for marriage and a time when family can be in town.
I went on splits this week with a member and taught the first lesson basically by myself! Granted, it was to a member because my appointment with Todd, our Dry Mormon mentioned earlier, fell through, but it was still cool.... Won the love of the members there, I guess. They seemed impressed with me. I don't say it to brag, because I'm as surprised at them being impressed as they were with me.
We also took a trip to Washington, or as Iowans call it, Worshington, for district meeting. It was really good and felt like a miniature Zone Conference, since it was half the zone and nearly as spiritual. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Ranch, an awesome buffet place, and pigged out. Last Monday we ran into a Senior Missionary Couple from Nauvoo here in Muscatine at Wal-Mart because they were going to a place nearby to help out at a festival thing. They gave us $40 for lunch, which we used at pizza ranch. I considered it a blessing. We also went to a swinging bridge on the way back that went over a ravine. It was kind of like the ones that you see in Indiana Jones or whatever, but made out of heavy duty cords so it was safe.
OH! I almost forgot! I keep forgetting to mention that we are volunteer coaches at the Y for a 9-10 year old soccer team. I tell you, I would be awesome on a team like that. I'd be a bad goalie, though. Something's scarier about it being kicked instead of thrown. Anyway, we have won our last two games, the first 2-0 and the second 12-1. We rock. The parents love us, too, even, it seems to some extent, the one that seems like her kid's soccer team is her entire life. One said, after telling us we were great coaches, that she didn't know how we had so much patience with them. You kind of want to say "It's the Holy Ghost, want to learn more?" Probably should have, it didn't seem like a good time.
I'm slightly inundated with the letters from everybody. Those who are still waiting for a letter back, please be patient, I'm trying my best. We're pretty busy out here.
And the humidity here isn't bugging me too bad. It's definitely turning into Fall, which makes it easier, and the humidity is just kind of like some parts of washington, especially in the mountains or near the coast.
Ok, real quick story that was left out of last week's email. So we were tracting in a nearby town and when we knocked on one door, a girl in her twenties came around the corner and got really excited, grabbed her bible, and invited us into her backyard, where she began talkingreallyfastkindoflikethisinreallyjumbledquicksentencesthatdidn'ttietogethertoowell. We tried our best to answer her questions and teach her. It was amazing to watch her as she learned, for she considered herself to have studied religion very well. She got upset when we mentioned that the authority had been lost from the earth, saying she didn't think God would allow so many people to have been lost, so I told her about Christ ministering to people in the next life who had not received the gospel and sending forth missionaries to go and do more and about baptisms for the dead, two things talked about in the New Testament (the latter in...thessalonians? and the former in 1 Peter 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 3, in case you were wondering). This really pacified her, which was cool to watch how her whole demeanor changed.
The gospel's true. This work is of God, and while it may not be easy, is lead by God. I know so, and love being a part of it. Keep strong in the truth.
Love,
Charlie
Remember that both with the 116 pages lost with the translation of the Book of Mormon and my letter, the part we do have basically sums up what was lost. I just told a little story or two that was lost and took up a good portion of time to write and I didn't feel like reiterating.... I may this email, we'll see.
First I'll address a couple concerns Mom asked me about and go from there.
1) It's not that cramped in the apartment with three elders. It's really a good sized place and is about right for three. The only one that really thinks it's cramped is Sister Chapman, who was kind of "wiggin out" when Senor Nelson first moved in about space and clutter. This only really added to the large amount of stress we were under. Sometimes after a hard day's work or on a P-Day where I just want to relax it's hard to smile and say "Sure, I'd love to scrub all the mold from the corners of the walls of the bathroom (that's been there for long before any of us moved in) right now." But it's a blessing that she lets us live there and she's a well-intentioned good sister.
2) This month we have had more meals with members than most missionaries have in a transfer. When I first got here the meal calendar was barely full, but the last couple weeks it's been jam-packed. Like every day and then some somedays. It's awesome, and the meals are almost always incredible. A lot of times we have to cut them off short because we have so many plans. The other two say that the loads of food means that they love us. I like to take all the credit there.
So, updates on the work: things are going...well. We haven't kill each other or any more dogs yet. (Ok, the story about the dog: back when there were two spanish elders here, they had an investigator with a sick dog, so they did everything they could to help. A veterinarian suggested giving it Peptobismol. So Elder Poulsen and Elder Nelson ran to get some and ran back to the investigators' house to admister it to the dog. They burst in, acting in their best EMS ways, and, ignoring the fatal appearance of the dog, tilted its head back and administered the peptobismol with a syringe into its mouth. When they were finished, they let go of the dogs' head and watched, in horror, as it just limply fell to the side. The investigators are still meeting with us, which is good. Good enough story that for their one sentence update in the zone's newspaper it said "We killed an investigators' dog with Pepto Bismol," while ours was "Elder Gates is as green as the forests of Oregen. Or Washington or wherever he's from." Yep, he spelled Oregon that way, something we don't let him forget.) But yeah, things were less exciting this week. We were dropped by the seventeen-year-old kid that seemed promising, and a lot of appointments with other promising investigators has fallen through. So, to skip over the sad parts, I'll update you on the good.
For one thing, Senor Nelson, having learned from a role play that was done during District Meeting this week that was done solely to help him on this matter, successfully committed a couple to marriage and baptism, which was way cool.
We have a baptismal date! Technically, we've had it for awhile, but can't count it until it's less than three months away, and so now we can count it! He's basically a member, he's even come to lessons, he just is waiting for marriage and a time when family can be in town.
I went on splits this week with a member and taught the first lesson basically by myself! Granted, it was to a member because my appointment with Todd, our Dry Mormon mentioned earlier, fell through, but it was still cool.... Won the love of the members there, I guess. They seemed impressed with me. I don't say it to brag, because I'm as surprised at them being impressed as they were with me.
We also took a trip to Washington, or as Iowans call it, Worshington, for district meeting. It was really good and felt like a miniature Zone Conference, since it was half the zone and nearly as spiritual. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Ranch, an awesome buffet place, and pigged out. Last Monday we ran into a Senior Missionary Couple from Nauvoo here in Muscatine at Wal-Mart because they were going to a place nearby to help out at a festival thing. They gave us $40 for lunch, which we used at pizza ranch. I considered it a blessing. We also went to a swinging bridge on the way back that went over a ravine. It was kind of like the ones that you see in Indiana Jones or whatever, but made out of heavy duty cords so it was safe.
OH! I almost forgot! I keep forgetting to mention that we are volunteer coaches at the Y for a 9-10 year old soccer team. I tell you, I would be awesome on a team like that. I'd be a bad goalie, though. Something's scarier about it being kicked instead of thrown. Anyway, we have won our last two games, the first 2-0 and the second 12-1. We rock. The parents love us, too, even, it seems to some extent, the one that seems like her kid's soccer team is her entire life. One said, after telling us we were great coaches, that she didn't know how we had so much patience with them. You kind of want to say "It's the Holy Ghost, want to learn more?" Probably should have, it didn't seem like a good time.
I'm slightly inundated with the letters from everybody. Those who are still waiting for a letter back, please be patient, I'm trying my best. We're pretty busy out here.
And the humidity here isn't bugging me too bad. It's definitely turning into Fall, which makes it easier, and the humidity is just kind of like some parts of washington, especially in the mountains or near the coast.
Ok, real quick story that was left out of last week's email. So we were tracting in a nearby town and when we knocked on one door, a girl in her twenties came around the corner and got really excited, grabbed her bible, and invited us into her backyard, where she began talkingreallyfastkindoflikethisinreallyjumbledquicksentencesthatdidn'ttietogethertoowell. We tried our best to answer her questions and teach her. It was amazing to watch her as she learned, for she considered herself to have studied religion very well. She got upset when we mentioned that the authority had been lost from the earth, saying she didn't think God would allow so many people to have been lost, so I told her about Christ ministering to people in the next life who had not received the gospel and sending forth missionaries to go and do more and about baptisms for the dead, two things talked about in the New Testament (the latter in...thessalonians? and the former in 1 Peter 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 3, in case you were wondering). This really pacified her, which was cool to watch how her whole demeanor changed.
The gospel's true. This work is of God, and while it may not be easy, is lead by God. I know so, and love being a part of it. Keep strong in the truth.
Love,
Charlie
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Three Muscatines and the Internet of Doom
Hello Everybody,
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hello Everyone!
Hello Everybody!
Well, a crazy thing happened this last week that never really happens: I got myself another trainer. I'm now in a threesome with...Elder Nelson. The other one. So I have two Elder Nelsons as companions. Yeah, it's just that confusing. And Elder Nelson II is a spanish speaking missionary. So I'm trying to just learn a little spanish. I might as well since I'm going to be sitting through lessons where I can't understand much. Anyway, a change happened elsewhere so we lost the other spanish speaking elder so he could go train and kept Elder Nelson so we can push forward in the work with the spanish speaking people. So for conveniency and to lose confusion, Elder Nelson, the original, will be Papa Nelson, and the new one will be Senor Nelson. Comprende? Technically, we're not supposed to give nicknames to other missionaries, but how can you not when you have two with the same name? But yeah, we like to refer to ourselves as the Three Muscatines. (No clue if you know this or not, but it's pronounced Muskateen. Just in case.) I also have a firm belief that three people companionships is just an unnatural thing. It can be a lot more fun at times, though.
I guess now would be a good time to apologize for not being able to write yesterday. It was busy, because we were trying to finish moving in Senor Nelson, there was a ward picnic, and we may or may not have gone to the Nauvoo Temple. You see, we took Donald, a recent convert, and "stud" as Senor Nelson likes to call him, to do baptisms for the dead and got it okayed by President Talbot. So we left at 6 in the morning and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Nauvoo. It was so awesome to see my first baptism on my mission!! Even if the person being baptized wasn't who the ordinance was for, it was still way cool. Not to mention it was in one of the most historic temples! And the biggest font in the world. And it's just cool to be baptized for the dead anyway. Afterward we got some fudge from the Fudge Factory and got a couple souvenirs before heading back to the picnic. We never even got to shop yesterday, so we're going after this.
Not much has changed otherwise, it's just been kind of hectic trying to do the work of two separate companionships in one, but we're dealing. We're also pretty sure that there will only be one companionship in Muscatine from now on, for our district has now been absorbed by another and we had to move all of the stuff out of the other apartment. So we're all wondering what will happen next transfer, whether Papa Nelson will go and I'll be finished training with Senor Nelson, or if we'll stay in a threesome or what, because Greenies don't transfer out of their original area until after at least three transfers here.
Other news: Last week, before the Three Muscatines were formed, I went to Iowa City with Papa Nelson because he had District Leader Council. So while he was there, I went with one elder who came out with me, Elder Knapp, and one who has been out only one transfer, Elder Perazzo, and drove to downtown Iowa City (it was weird being in a legitimate city again) and OYMed (open your mouth, meaning to go and talk to random people about the gospel as they are mosying on through their day) people. Now THAT was a good and odd experience. Nobody was really receptive, but it was good to get practice of talking to all sorts of people. I think I prefer small towns or suburbs though. It also gave me a chance to drive! I also stayed in Iowa City that night and got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hall. He's a way cool guy.
I'm getting more used to talking to people, but it's still something I'm getting used to. I can more easily say what I need to, but I'd so much more prefer just sitting back and observing while tracting or OYMing. The ten hours of tracting a week we're supposed to do is helping, though. I can also do much better with lessons now, but only when I'm comfortable, but my comfort area is growing for sure. Or else dissolving completely, who knows. I'm becoming a better and more vocal missinary for sure. I think this is something that all greenies have to go through to a point. I hope.
Little unimportant things: I'm definitely still adjusting to Iowa. It's weird having to talk over the sounds of cicadas. And when Taffee, Sister Chapman's, the sister whose basement we live in, cat, brought a cicada in last night, it made the weirdest noise. Well, they always do, but even weirder in person. What a funky bug. The climate is weird, too. It can get so muggy at times, and this year is a much nicer one than most. And for an idea of what most of Iowa looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. It's the shire, thousands of years in the future.
I believe things are pretty much summed up now. The seventeen-year-old guy is still pushing forward. We talked to his mom and she's really supportive of him coming to church and talking to us, so at least there's no actual pressure on him about staying catholic. He really wants to be baptized, and I really hope things work out with him. He even came to church and mutual and has signed up to do certain things in mutual this next week.
I've really come to realize how satan can get in the way of people doing what they should. Certainly, people live lives and can't do everything we expect of him, but I've seen people fall through a lot on appointments and such, and it's just the way it is I think. Things come up, and get in the way, and it's sad. I also met my first anti, and all it did was increase my faith. He'd be really mad to find out that's what he accomplished. Still don't get why people would try so hard to fight us, but it doesn't get to me as much anymore. Papa Nelson even told me he likes it when people fight him, for it's exactly what people did to the prophets of old, and even the savior. I still think that's crazy to like it, but at least he has a good attitude towards it, and I'm tryin to be the same way.
Remember, the message I've been sent forth to share is true. I know it. I know it will bring so much happiness and peace to everyone who accepts it in their life, because it has in mine, and I've seen it in others. Never forget that it's true. And those who don't know, find out for yourself. Ask God if it is. He'll let you know.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Well, a crazy thing happened this last week that never really happens: I got myself another trainer. I'm now in a threesome with...Elder Nelson. The other one. So I have two Elder Nelsons as companions. Yeah, it's just that confusing. And Elder Nelson II is a spanish speaking missionary. So I'm trying to just learn a little spanish. I might as well since I'm going to be sitting through lessons where I can't understand much. Anyway, a change happened elsewhere so we lost the other spanish speaking elder so he could go train and kept Elder Nelson so we can push forward in the work with the spanish speaking people. So for conveniency and to lose confusion, Elder Nelson, the original, will be Papa Nelson, and the new one will be Senor Nelson. Comprende? Technically, we're not supposed to give nicknames to other missionaries, but how can you not when you have two with the same name? But yeah, we like to refer to ourselves as the Three Muscatines. (No clue if you know this or not, but it's pronounced Muskateen. Just in case.) I also have a firm belief that three people companionships is just an unnatural thing. It can be a lot more fun at times, though.
I guess now would be a good time to apologize for not being able to write yesterday. It was busy, because we were trying to finish moving in Senor Nelson, there was a ward picnic, and we may or may not have gone to the Nauvoo Temple. You see, we took Donald, a recent convert, and "stud" as Senor Nelson likes to call him, to do baptisms for the dead and got it okayed by President Talbot. So we left at 6 in the morning and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Nauvoo. It was so awesome to see my first baptism on my mission!! Even if the person being baptized wasn't who the ordinance was for, it was still way cool. Not to mention it was in one of the most historic temples! And the biggest font in the world. And it's just cool to be baptized for the dead anyway. Afterward we got some fudge from the Fudge Factory and got a couple souvenirs before heading back to the picnic. We never even got to shop yesterday, so we're going after this.
Not much has changed otherwise, it's just been kind of hectic trying to do the work of two separate companionships in one, but we're dealing. We're also pretty sure that there will only be one companionship in Muscatine from now on, for our district has now been absorbed by another and we had to move all of the stuff out of the other apartment. So we're all wondering what will happen next transfer, whether Papa Nelson will go and I'll be finished training with Senor Nelson, or if we'll stay in a threesome or what, because Greenies don't transfer out of their original area until after at least three transfers here.
Other news: Last week, before the Three Muscatines were formed, I went to Iowa City with Papa Nelson because he had District Leader Council. So while he was there, I went with one elder who came out with me, Elder Knapp, and one who has been out only one transfer, Elder Perazzo, and drove to downtown Iowa City (it was weird being in a legitimate city again) and OYMed (open your mouth, meaning to go and talk to random people about the gospel as they are mosying on through their day) people. Now THAT was a good and odd experience. Nobody was really receptive, but it was good to get practice of talking to all sorts of people. I think I prefer small towns or suburbs though. It also gave me a chance to drive! I also stayed in Iowa City that night and got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hall. He's a way cool guy.
I'm getting more used to talking to people, but it's still something I'm getting used to. I can more easily say what I need to, but I'd so much more prefer just sitting back and observing while tracting or OYMing. The ten hours of tracting a week we're supposed to do is helping, though. I can also do much better with lessons now, but only when I'm comfortable, but my comfort area is growing for sure. Or else dissolving completely, who knows. I'm becoming a better and more vocal missinary for sure. I think this is something that all greenies have to go through to a point. I hope.
Little unimportant things: I'm definitely still adjusting to Iowa. It's weird having to talk over the sounds of cicadas. And when Taffee, Sister Chapman's, the sister whose basement we live in, cat, brought a cicada in last night, it made the weirdest noise. Well, they always do, but even weirder in person. What a funky bug. The climate is weird, too. It can get so muggy at times, and this year is a much nicer one than most. And for an idea of what most of Iowa looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. It's the shire, thousands of years in the future.
I believe things are pretty much summed up now. The seventeen-year-old guy is still pushing forward. We talked to his mom and she's really supportive of him coming to church and talking to us, so at least there's no actual pressure on him about staying catholic. He really wants to be baptized, and I really hope things work out with him. He even came to church and mutual and has signed up to do certain things in mutual this next week.
I've really come to realize how satan can get in the way of people doing what they should. Certainly, people live lives and can't do everything we expect of him, but I've seen people fall through a lot on appointments and such, and it's just the way it is I think. Things come up, and get in the way, and it's sad. I also met my first anti, and all it did was increase my faith. He'd be really mad to find out that's what he accomplished. Still don't get why people would try so hard to fight us, but it doesn't get to me as much anymore. Papa Nelson even told me he likes it when people fight him, for it's exactly what people did to the prophets of old, and even the savior. I still think that's crazy to like it, but at least he has a good attitude towards it, and I'm tryin to be the same way.
Remember, the message I've been sent forth to share is true. I know it. I know it will bring so much happiness and peace to everyone who accepts it in their life, because it has in mine, and I've seen it in others. Never forget that it's true. And those who don't know, find out for yourself. Ask God if it is. He'll let you know.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
First MTC Now Muscatine
Hello Everybody!
What a crazy week and a half it's been! I'm now in Muscatine, Iowa, right on the banks of the Mississippi. It's a town that SORT OF kind of reminds me of Auburn, in a way, kind of small, spread out, but has an even smaller town feel, kinda like if Auburn's downtown took up all of Auburn, and has hills like crazy. At least compared to the rest of Iowa. Which made it great that we have a car share with the other two elders in the area and not just to ourselves. My thighs will be massive by the time I'm home....
Anyway, for the trip out here, we woke up at about 2:30 am Wednesday morning and had to meet out front at 4. I got up early to finish packing and all that kind of stuff. Our flight left at 7ish and I had a chance to call home before then. The flight was nice enough, I got to watch the ground go by and saw the Grand Canyon for the first time from above. We arrived in Phoenix (I know, out of the way, but not as much as Atlanta. Some elders here had to go through there to get here) and had an hour layover till we left again. On that flight, we got onto the smallest plane I've ever been on, basically a flying cigarette, and sat by an elderly woman. I was tired and knew I should probably share a message but was far too tired to start off a conversation on religion. So she started it for me. 79-year-old Penny started first by asking me if I'd ever seen a sitting Saint (I believe it was Francis. I really don't know. I'm sure I will understand them all by the time I go home, though....) and I told her I hadn't. She then started just talking and asked me to tell her what we believed in. I seriously wondered for a second if she was LDS and was just trying to test my knowledge, but I started in anyway. It was an awesome discussion, she said that the things I said all made sense, such as that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were all separate beings, and other stuff too that I could prove from the Bible (I couldn't quite tell if the spirit was there. I'm sure it was, but that little jet that was four seats wide was so loud I could barely tell) and wanted to go tell all of her family about it, but wouldn't accept any pamphlets from me, and only took pass along cards for bookmarks. I even asked her to pray about it, but I think she's more focused on praying for me because she loved me so much. She admired what I did, and didn't want to offend me, but had been Lutheran all her life. I've found out quickly out here that no matter how much some people can feel it's true, they still are too closely tied to their religion to really consider it. It's truly sad....
Anyway, we were met at the airport by the president, and got all of our stuff. I started feeling sick, most likely from the fact I had not had anything to eat or drink all day. We went to eat at McDonalds and then went to the mission home to drop stuff off, and then went tracting. I still felt gross but did my best to start off door approaches. The Assistant I was with took it farther. I started to realize that people would generally decline it very nicely, which i suppose is nicer than outright rejecting what I have to share. Later that night I finally got rid of the illness, but not till after nearly sleeping through being taught important information, groggily going through a great interview with the president, and shoving down a delicious dinner that I wish I could have enjoyed more. I love President and Sister Talbot a lot.
The next day we got our assignments and companions. I am with Elder Nelson. He's a really good missionary, hardworking and yet fun. I'm his first trainee, or son as they refer to them here, and he's used it to pull pranks on me. Like when I first read off who my comp would be to the group of Trainers who were not wearing nametags, he had another elder stand up. He also switched his nametag with the other Elder Nelson in our district (our district comprises two companionships, one English, one Spanish, both for the same ward that covers about as much area as Auburn and Kent Stakes combined) and convinced me that I was gonna be stuck in a spanish speaking area. He also tried pushing the beds together to convince me there was only one, but I knew the rule against that in the white handbook already. Also, when I was out tracting for the first time, he pulled another trick on me. We were tracting out in the south end of town, an area usually just taken by the Spanish Elders, and knocked into a family that, only after saying a few things to, invited us in. That alone was sort of intimidating, but then the daughters were sort of rude. We started answering the questions of this sort of large family, and Elder Nelson had me answer quite a bit. I let him answer the gay one, though, which he did very poorly. After about fifteen minutes or longer, the dad went into the back and then brought out two framed pictures: one of Jesus, the one that has him in red and staring straight forward that nearly all LDS people have in their home, and one of the Mexico City Temple, where apparently he had been married years before. And that is how I met the Gerrido family in the ward and came to hate my companion. He's district leader, and while he's pulled pranks on me, a really cool guy. We play a lot of chess in our free time, during lunch and such, and works hard. He also calls me Pops, from God's Army. Apparently I remind him of that character, even though he's my pops.
The work here in Iowa is going strong. We've gone down about 40 or 60 missionaries (I thought the president said 60 but Elder Nelson said 40...either way a lot) in the last year or so, but the baptisms have doubled. As I flew into Des Moines, the smallest airport I have ever been in, the ground was covered by low hanging clouds which sadly obstructed my view of where I would live for two years. So I jokingly thought to myself about how the field was white, all ready to harvest. I guess I was right. Elder Nelson and I have a goal for four baptisms this transfer, two nearly are for sure, one's possible, and one more we put down just to see if it'd pop out of the woodwork. Success apparently bumps up when there's a new elder around.
The weather here has been a lot like WA, cool and wet. Friday it opened up and is sunny, but still fairly cool and humid. Cicadas, locusts, and crickets can be constantly heard making a raucous, which is new to me. We live in the basement of a widowed sister in the ward. How we can live with a single sister is beyond us but whatever, we stay fairly separate other than in the kitchen or if she needs to do laundry. Elder Nelson calls our apartment the Batcave, which, for once, is not a good thing. It's a nice enough apartment for a couple 19/20 year old guys, but is no Hilton.
If there's anything else to talk about it'd probably be a 17-year-old guy we've been talking to and gave a church tour to today. None of the missionaries have really taught a full lesson to yet, but he said he wants to be baptized. I just sat there in awe mostly as that lesson was taking place. He says, however, that he is the last male in the bloodline and his grandpa was a strong catholic and he feels an obligation to stay catholic, even if he never goes nor has any other connection to it. I'm hoping he recognizes and follows the answer to his prayer on the matter.
I also would like to mention that I will have an opportunity to go the the Nauvoo and Winter Quarters temple at least once each, which is pretty dang exciting. Also, we are allowed to listen to any music which invites the spirit, so mom, send out all the motab ya got, and any other cds you think would bring the spirit. Elder Nelson has a cd player, but I'm gonna buy a small one of my own. I also bought a comforter and pillow for a pretty good price at Wal-Mart. Email time is not monitored on here, so send emails, but everyone, send letters!!! I need mail!! Oh, and send me my priesthood line of authority, I don't know if I'd ever really need to whip it out, because it'd probably just end up being contentious, but I think it'd be way helpful.
Everyone here is very religious, which is good, but can get in the way. I love the people here and respect them. OH, and I saw what is apparently the oldest church west of the mississippi. Barely made that one. It was surrounded by clouds of bats. Nearly all of the streets here are by name which is so disconcerting. Also, no mountains to tell the compass points, and the streets bend with the river, so sometimes they go north south east west, and sometimes they're slanted. And it's the home of a Heinz factory and another factory that does stuff with corn (imagine that) that is on the far side of the river and sends out smells sometimes (thus a loving name that floats around, Muscaletrine, or Muscastench, I like the first one better).
Oh! And if Tyler Russell is going to the Accra, Ghana mission, that mission presidents' daughter is in my ward. Just had dinner with them last night (dinners here are amazing. I had barbecue on saturday that changed my life).
I think that's everything. I could ramble on forever but I should probably go. We gotta shop and play some Settlers of Catan.
Pray for me to build up more courage, but more importantly, pray for the people of Muscatine and especially the investigators. I love this work, and I love all of the people I'm trying to serve, and I love all of you. The gospel's as true as it's ever been.
-Elder Charlie (still trying to drop that first name thing) Gates
What a crazy week and a half it's been! I'm now in Muscatine, Iowa, right on the banks of the Mississippi. It's a town that SORT OF kind of reminds me of Auburn, in a way, kind of small, spread out, but has an even smaller town feel, kinda like if Auburn's downtown took up all of Auburn, and has hills like crazy. At least compared to the rest of Iowa. Which made it great that we have a car share with the other two elders in the area and not just to ourselves. My thighs will be massive by the time I'm home....
Anyway, for the trip out here, we woke up at about 2:30 am Wednesday morning and had to meet out front at 4. I got up early to finish packing and all that kind of stuff. Our flight left at 7ish and I had a chance to call home before then. The flight was nice enough, I got to watch the ground go by and saw the Grand Canyon for the first time from above. We arrived in Phoenix (I know, out of the way, but not as much as Atlanta. Some elders here had to go through there to get here) and had an hour layover till we left again. On that flight, we got onto the smallest plane I've ever been on, basically a flying cigarette, and sat by an elderly woman. I was tired and knew I should probably share a message but was far too tired to start off a conversation on religion. So she started it for me. 79-year-old Penny started first by asking me if I'd ever seen a sitting Saint (I believe it was Francis. I really don't know. I'm sure I will understand them all by the time I go home, though....) and I told her I hadn't. She then started just talking and asked me to tell her what we believed in. I seriously wondered for a second if she was LDS and was just trying to test my knowledge, but I started in anyway. It was an awesome discussion, she said that the things I said all made sense, such as that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were all separate beings, and other stuff too that I could prove from the Bible (I couldn't quite tell if the spirit was there. I'm sure it was, but that little jet that was four seats wide was so loud I could barely tell) and wanted to go tell all of her family about it, but wouldn't accept any pamphlets from me, and only took pass along cards for bookmarks. I even asked her to pray about it, but I think she's more focused on praying for me because she loved me so much. She admired what I did, and didn't want to offend me, but had been Lutheran all her life. I've found out quickly out here that no matter how much some people can feel it's true, they still are too closely tied to their religion to really consider it. It's truly sad....
Anyway, we were met at the airport by the president, and got all of our stuff. I started feeling sick, most likely from the fact I had not had anything to eat or drink all day. We went to eat at McDonalds and then went to the mission home to drop stuff off, and then went tracting. I still felt gross but did my best to start off door approaches. The Assistant I was with took it farther. I started to realize that people would generally decline it very nicely, which i suppose is nicer than outright rejecting what I have to share. Later that night I finally got rid of the illness, but not till after nearly sleeping through being taught important information, groggily going through a great interview with the president, and shoving down a delicious dinner that I wish I could have enjoyed more. I love President and Sister Talbot a lot.
The next day we got our assignments and companions. I am with Elder Nelson. He's a really good missionary, hardworking and yet fun. I'm his first trainee, or son as they refer to them here, and he's used it to pull pranks on me. Like when I first read off who my comp would be to the group of Trainers who were not wearing nametags, he had another elder stand up. He also switched his nametag with the other Elder Nelson in our district (our district comprises two companionships, one English, one Spanish, both for the same ward that covers about as much area as Auburn and Kent Stakes combined) and convinced me that I was gonna be stuck in a spanish speaking area. He also tried pushing the beds together to convince me there was only one, but I knew the rule against that in the white handbook already. Also, when I was out tracting for the first time, he pulled another trick on me. We were tracting out in the south end of town, an area usually just taken by the Spanish Elders, and knocked into a family that, only after saying a few things to, invited us in. That alone was sort of intimidating, but then the daughters were sort of rude. We started answering the questions of this sort of large family, and Elder Nelson had me answer quite a bit. I let him answer the gay one, though, which he did very poorly. After about fifteen minutes or longer, the dad went into the back and then brought out two framed pictures: one of Jesus, the one that has him in red and staring straight forward that nearly all LDS people have in their home, and one of the Mexico City Temple, where apparently he had been married years before. And that is how I met the Gerrido family in the ward and came to hate my companion. He's district leader, and while he's pulled pranks on me, a really cool guy. We play a lot of chess in our free time, during lunch and such, and works hard. He also calls me Pops, from God's Army. Apparently I remind him of that character, even though he's my pops.
The work here in Iowa is going strong. We've gone down about 40 or 60 missionaries (I thought the president said 60 but Elder Nelson said 40...either way a lot) in the last year or so, but the baptisms have doubled. As I flew into Des Moines, the smallest airport I have ever been in, the ground was covered by low hanging clouds which sadly obstructed my view of where I would live for two years. So I jokingly thought to myself about how the field was white, all ready to harvest. I guess I was right. Elder Nelson and I have a goal for four baptisms this transfer, two nearly are for sure, one's possible, and one more we put down just to see if it'd pop out of the woodwork. Success apparently bumps up when there's a new elder around.
The weather here has been a lot like WA, cool and wet. Friday it opened up and is sunny, but still fairly cool and humid. Cicadas, locusts, and crickets can be constantly heard making a raucous, which is new to me. We live in the basement of a widowed sister in the ward. How we can live with a single sister is beyond us but whatever, we stay fairly separate other than in the kitchen or if she needs to do laundry. Elder Nelson calls our apartment the Batcave, which, for once, is not a good thing. It's a nice enough apartment for a couple 19/20 year old guys, but is no Hilton.
If there's anything else to talk about it'd probably be a 17-year-old guy we've been talking to and gave a church tour to today. None of the missionaries have really taught a full lesson to yet, but he said he wants to be baptized. I just sat there in awe mostly as that lesson was taking place. He says, however, that he is the last male in the bloodline and his grandpa was a strong catholic and he feels an obligation to stay catholic, even if he never goes nor has any other connection to it. I'm hoping he recognizes and follows the answer to his prayer on the matter.
I also would like to mention that I will have an opportunity to go the the Nauvoo and Winter Quarters temple at least once each, which is pretty dang exciting. Also, we are allowed to listen to any music which invites the spirit, so mom, send out all the motab ya got, and any other cds you think would bring the spirit. Elder Nelson has a cd player, but I'm gonna buy a small one of my own. I also bought a comforter and pillow for a pretty good price at Wal-Mart. Email time is not monitored on here, so send emails, but everyone, send letters!!! I need mail!! Oh, and send me my priesthood line of authority, I don't know if I'd ever really need to whip it out, because it'd probably just end up being contentious, but I think it'd be way helpful.
Everyone here is very religious, which is good, but can get in the way. I love the people here and respect them. OH, and I saw what is apparently the oldest church west of the mississippi. Barely made that one. It was surrounded by clouds of bats. Nearly all of the streets here are by name which is so disconcerting. Also, no mountains to tell the compass points, and the streets bend with the river, so sometimes they go north south east west, and sometimes they're slanted. And it's the home of a Heinz factory and another factory that does stuff with corn (imagine that) that is on the far side of the river and sends out smells sometimes (thus a loving name that floats around, Muscaletrine, or Muscastench, I like the first one better).
Oh! And if Tyler Russell is going to the Accra, Ghana mission, that mission presidents' daughter is in my ward. Just had dinner with them last night (dinners here are amazing. I had barbecue on saturday that changed my life).
I think that's everything. I could ramble on forever but I should probably go. We gotta shop and play some Settlers of Catan.
Pray for me to build up more courage, but more importantly, pray for the people of Muscatine and especially the investigators. I love this work, and I love all of the people I'm trying to serve, and I love all of you. The gospel's as true as it's ever been.
-Elder Charlie (still trying to drop that first name thing) Gates
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