Aloha My Familia,
Well, I'm feeling much better this week, no more sicknesses. That's always good. I think Elder Heyborne's getting sick, but he won't listen to me. He follows the fake it till you make it strategy. It's good...but I don't think it works the same for illnesses. And yes, Transfers are next week. This transfer has flown by. Both Elder Heyborne and I hope nothing gets switched up here in Knoxville...but we'll do whatever the Lord wants and all that junk.
This last week we went on exchanges down to Centerville. With the way things are right now with the missionary from Centerville being in a companionship with the missionaries in Oskaloosa (please look at a map to get a reference on the distance there) we both went with him down there instead of splitting up like usual. It was fun and all but Centerville is a very interesting town. It has the largest town square in the nation (or so they claim. I was expecting bigger. Major disappointment. Not to be a terrible tourism rep or anything...), but it has the look of a fairly impoverished little community. They also (I don't know if I've told you this before, but if so, bear with me because I'm telling it again) have an interesting church down there. It's a barn that was converted into a bar and used as the church too for awhile before the bar closed and was officially the church. For some reason it always smells like Arby's there and it makes me really want a roast beef sandwich. Oohhh...Arby's.... They have it here but I haven't gone yet.
AAAaaanyway, the weather has gotten a lot warmer very quickly. It's actually kind of scary how quickly. Yesterday we went to a member's home to get him prepped to teach the new member lessons to one of our Recent Converts and we sat outside in the sun as we met with him. It was way comfortable and I even watched as a sunburn formed on his forehead. It even rained this week. I used to hate rain like I hated dogs (now I tolerate them...mostly. Still just stinking, slobbering firballs who won't just leave me alone. It's like they sense that I don't want to be bothered and so they try their best to get me to love them. Or maybe it's because I'm nice to them once and all of a sudden I'm their best friends. I especially hate big dogs that think they're small. Yeah, doberman, I REALLY want to be tackled to the ground right now, that's just GREAT! And yelling a dog's name at them only sometimes works. I need a dog that is way chill like a cat. Cats are great. I pet them and even as I do that some will just walk away. THAT'S a pet for ya. One that will give me privacy. Anyway, sorry bout that). But now I like the rain. It's nice to just get drenched. Out here, though, there's this thing called wind. I don't the wind. It takes cold and makes it frigid, and takes rain and makes it no fun. Kind of like how the kid that poops in the pool takes a fun thing (the pool) and makes it no fun for everyone else. And that's the conditions of the day this week that we had set apart to walk around town and talk to everyone we saw. Yeah. We met 8 people in our walking (probably because people were smarter than us and decided to just drive everywhere and stay warm). The next day, however, it was very sunny and warm, and a day that we hadn't left much room for walking around. Such is our luck. The mud's still around. Lots of flooding has been happening elsewhere. Muds usually don't stick around too long, I think, but I think this year will be especially bad. Please refer to stories of pioneers crossing plains.
But that's about it for this email. Wow. That was a downer if you don't understand my humor. Things here are going very well. Our main focus was getting the new member lessons set up for our three recent converts. We pretty much have that all lined up, one home teacher just has a terrible work schedule. We picked up a new investigator, but like many of our others, he has stuff coming up to hold him back. His stuff is surgery while one had family visiting, one has a freakishly busy work schedule, and one is just busy. So, besides that new investigator, we didn't get a chance to really meet with any of our main investigators and have a sit down lesson. We did mostly a lot of meeting with members, actives, less actives, and recent converts this week. We have some very solid recent converts here which is exactly the way I like it. We've been trying to meet with one less active who contacted us for help to change his life around, but after the first time meeting with him he's just gotten drunker and drunker. And his house is not a good teaching environment. His friends have been kind of cool, though, one even said he'd like to come to church sometime. Hope that works out. It's sad to see somebody in such a bad spot in their lives. We just hope he allows us to help him out.
So, yeah, now I think I'm done. Hope all is well back at home! No worries, I'm happy, I just have a weird sense of humor, as you all know. And it doesn't help my companion has the same kind of humor. But it sure makes life more hilarious for the two of us!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
...And Then In Flew Enza
Well.
Yeah.
This week has been mostly uneventful...on the missionary front....
You see, I felt like I had a cold or something last week, and then Tuesday or wednesday it turned into my stomach feeling all nauseated, like something restless had settled in my gut. I didn't think much of it until Friday morning, when the restless something found an escape strategy. Luckily, that escape was not my mouth. After rushing to the toilet, my companion made me call Sister Talbot. She informed me I probably had the flu (you know, that thing that I should have gotten a shot for but never did because I was really busy and forgot and all those other excuses investigators use on us when they tell us they haven't read or prayed? Yeah, that thing....) and probably needed to stay inside and sleep and all the other stuff I needed to do. So most of Friday and Saturday was just getting up in the morning, getting showered, laying on the couch, intermittently running to the restroom, and going to bed. I played some games but Friday and Saturday I didn't feel like sitting up much. Sunday came along, and I felt better, and didn't have to rush to the bathroom once, buuut, well, we were kindly asked by the branch to please leave, so as to not get all of the members with weak immune systems sick. I'm pretty sure I was much better, and really only felt funky because I hadn't eaten much more than three cans of chicken noodle soup over two days, but still. Sunday all I had was a can of Progresso soup, trying to step it up a bit, but that kind of bugged my stomach. I think that was just mostly because I was not used to eating by that point. Being sick on fast Sunday is actually a fairly lucky thing: You're not hungry anyway! So, yeah. Today, I just got restless. I decided that I was going to try solid foods and see what happens. So I ate some eggs and unbuttered toast, without any troubles, and then ate a brownie (NEVER MAKE BROWNIES WHEN YOUR COMPANION CANNOT HAVE DAIRY DUE TO ILLNESS! IT'S JUST PURE EVIL! "And I realized halfway through making them: I don't even like brownies anyway!" Elder Heyborne said, nearly eliciting a punch from me. Gotta love the kid.) and a plate of spaghetti. I was fairly full after the eggs but I just wanted to find out, and find out quick, whether I was still sick or not. Besides feeling full, and having that feeling be a shock to my system, I feel alright. I've definitely lost some weight this weekend, though. No food and excessive amounts of liquids do that to you.
So, yeah, besides sickness, we had a pretty good week. We met with a lady who would be an investigator if it wasn't for the fact that she's a consultant from home to both sides of the coast and is thus on phone calls all the time, making herself really busy. She's had missionaries meet with her before and enjoys hearing them bear their testimonies. She seemed fairly impressed after meeting with us and hearing that we put two years aside, without working, not earning anything, to do this. She originally was just going to tell us to come back in June when all her consulting was done, but she told us instead to try back in a couple weeks.
The snow's all melting now. You know all of those stories about how hard it was for the pioneers to cross Iowa due to the mud and how it took them more time to cross it then the rest of the trip from then on out?
Yeah.
Now I get it.
It's pretty dang ugly out there.
I actually might prefer the colder weather at the moment. It actually legitimitely rained this past week! And it didn't freeze! It was glorious. I miss rain. I never thought I'd say that, but I do. Getting wet in winter is so nice. Uh oh, trunky alarm's going off....
We also had a snowball fight with one of our investigator's kids and a friend of the kids. That really wasn't that spiritual of an occasion, but it was really funny when the friend, who's not a member nor an investigator, said, "It ain't fair, you got Jesus on your side!" That's truer than he knows....
I'm still not hearing any news about contract deals for my writing.... A little source of income would be nice. Oh, on the subject of earning money, for all you high school musical fans out there (I bet those words right there will ensure most people will skip over the rest of this paragraph. I sure would), the kid who says "Is that even legal?" in the first movie (I've heard from a second hand source that was his only line. I wouldn't know, I've never seen it.) actually came out here on his mission the same time as me, just he was speaking spanish. He's even on the posters for the CES broadcasts for this year. Yeah. I'm just THAT close to stardom. I would have put that in here when I first came out, but I didn't know until later. Anyway, I have so little to update on that I even just stuck THAT in there. It was just that exciting of a week.
So, yeah. That's about it. It's getting warmer. I was sick. I've read a LOT out of the Book of Mormon. Investigators are still investigatin. Some less actives are less less active. Members are still...memberin. All in all, life is good. Church is still true. The Iowa Des Moines Mission is still the best. The Book of Mormon and Bible are still true. And I still ramble.
Elder Gates
Yeah.
This week has been mostly uneventful...on the missionary front....
You see, I felt like I had a cold or something last week, and then Tuesday or wednesday it turned into my stomach feeling all nauseated, like something restless had settled in my gut. I didn't think much of it until Friday morning, when the restless something found an escape strategy. Luckily, that escape was not my mouth. After rushing to the toilet, my companion made me call Sister Talbot. She informed me I probably had the flu (you know, that thing that I should have gotten a shot for but never did because I was really busy and forgot and all those other excuses investigators use on us when they tell us they haven't read or prayed? Yeah, that thing....) and probably needed to stay inside and sleep and all the other stuff I needed to do. So most of Friday and Saturday was just getting up in the morning, getting showered, laying on the couch, intermittently running to the restroom, and going to bed. I played some games but Friday and Saturday I didn't feel like sitting up much. Sunday came along, and I felt better, and didn't have to rush to the bathroom once, buuut, well, we were kindly asked by the branch to please leave, so as to not get all of the members with weak immune systems sick. I'm pretty sure I was much better, and really only felt funky because I hadn't eaten much more than three cans of chicken noodle soup over two days, but still. Sunday all I had was a can of Progresso soup, trying to step it up a bit, but that kind of bugged my stomach. I think that was just mostly because I was not used to eating by that point. Being sick on fast Sunday is actually a fairly lucky thing: You're not hungry anyway! So, yeah. Today, I just got restless. I decided that I was going to try solid foods and see what happens. So I ate some eggs and unbuttered toast, without any troubles, and then ate a brownie (NEVER MAKE BROWNIES WHEN YOUR COMPANION CANNOT HAVE DAIRY DUE TO ILLNESS! IT'S JUST PURE EVIL! "And I realized halfway through making them: I don't even like brownies anyway!" Elder Heyborne said, nearly eliciting a punch from me. Gotta love the kid.) and a plate of spaghetti. I was fairly full after the eggs but I just wanted to find out, and find out quick, whether I was still sick or not. Besides feeling full, and having that feeling be a shock to my system, I feel alright. I've definitely lost some weight this weekend, though. No food and excessive amounts of liquids do that to you.
So, yeah, besides sickness, we had a pretty good week. We met with a lady who would be an investigator if it wasn't for the fact that she's a consultant from home to both sides of the coast and is thus on phone calls all the time, making herself really busy. She's had missionaries meet with her before and enjoys hearing them bear their testimonies. She seemed fairly impressed after meeting with us and hearing that we put two years aside, without working, not earning anything, to do this. She originally was just going to tell us to come back in June when all her consulting was done, but she told us instead to try back in a couple weeks.
The snow's all melting now. You know all of those stories about how hard it was for the pioneers to cross Iowa due to the mud and how it took them more time to cross it then the rest of the trip from then on out?
Yeah.
Now I get it.
It's pretty dang ugly out there.
I actually might prefer the colder weather at the moment. It actually legitimitely rained this past week! And it didn't freeze! It was glorious. I miss rain. I never thought I'd say that, but I do. Getting wet in winter is so nice. Uh oh, trunky alarm's going off....
We also had a snowball fight with one of our investigator's kids and a friend of the kids. That really wasn't that spiritual of an occasion, but it was really funny when the friend, who's not a member nor an investigator, said, "It ain't fair, you got Jesus on your side!" That's truer than he knows....
I'm still not hearing any news about contract deals for my writing.... A little source of income would be nice. Oh, on the subject of earning money, for all you high school musical fans out there (I bet those words right there will ensure most people will skip over the rest of this paragraph. I sure would), the kid who says "Is that even legal?" in the first movie (I've heard from a second hand source that was his only line. I wouldn't know, I've never seen it.) actually came out here on his mission the same time as me, just he was speaking spanish. He's even on the posters for the CES broadcasts for this year. Yeah. I'm just THAT close to stardom. I would have put that in here when I first came out, but I didn't know until later. Anyway, I have so little to update on that I even just stuck THAT in there. It was just that exciting of a week.
So, yeah. That's about it. It's getting warmer. I was sick. I've read a LOT out of the Book of Mormon. Investigators are still investigatin. Some less actives are less less active. Members are still...memberin. All in all, life is good. Church is still true. The Iowa Des Moines Mission is still the best. The Book of Mormon and Bible are still true. And I still ramble.
Elder Gates
Monday, March 1, 2010
Baptism by Fiery Water?
So apparently people have been commenting positively on my literary style in my weekly emails home. At least, Mom says they do. If this is the case, please start sending these into Mormon Times or something. I might as well make some money off of this. My apartment could use an air conditioner with the current heat wave of 32 degrees, and my increased body mass due to the good Iowa cooking and my inability to eat just "a couple three spoonfuls, yet," as a true Iowan would say.
I know it's bad to look at other people's computer screens, but this guy sitting in front of me is going to every dumb ad that says you can win something. I was wondering who actually clicked on those things.... There's also a guy watching a preacher on his computer and intermittently saying "Amen." You know you're in Iowa when....
Anyway, Cris Arnold was baptized this weekend!!! It took a lot of work to get it all ready, and nothing seemed to go right. She wanted people to give talks that were confused about what to say so we had to teach them and kind of point out to them to not worry about it (that person got sick anyway so it didn't really matter after all). The brother who usually fills up the font wasn't going to be able to so we did instead, and it took a lot less time than we thought it would and ended up with a problem we have never had before: water that was TOO hot. Then I've been sick the last few days with a funky cough and nearly choked on my own throat during my talk on baptism. And she had to be put under a couple times because she just didn't bend her legs at first. I guess things didn't go quite as wrong as they have in the past or could have gone wrong, but still, baptisms can get pretty stressful to plan for and get ready. She also asked Elder Heyborne to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was his first time doing it. Kind of scared him but he did a good job. He's a lot like me, which is nice, because I can actually understand my companion, but It also makes me annoyed by things I know I do....
Beyond that, the work's just been pressing forward as usual! We spent a good chunk of one day driving around looking for less actives that I'd never met that lived out in the country. That was fun.
Oh, and Ray Rayburn got the priesthood yesterday! And Jacob should be getting it next week! That's exciting. We're hoping to be able to get them excited about some family history work and to the temple here soon. I really hope I'll be able to go with them, and Cris, for that.
Elder Heyborne and I have been working on talking to everybody we come in contact with. We even make ourselves do 5 pushups at night for every person we miss. Which is good...but bad at the same time. Like one time, Elder Heyborne started talking to one guy that was walking down the street but started to stop, so I picked up the conversation and took it as far as I could. Elder Heyborne later pointed out to me that the guy had a vodka in his jacket. I don't know why I attract drunk and high people.... Also, another time, as we were tracting at night, we started to walk down an alley because E.H. thought there was a few houses down there. On our way back out of the alleyway, we saw some lady across the street walking her dog. Not wanting to do pushups, Elder Heyborne yelled across the street "Hello! We're Missionaries!..." Apparently two guys dressed in black walking out of an alley and yelling after you is a scary experience. Luckily the lady did nothing other than start walking even faster and yelling back "No thank you!" I also loved the atheist who, as soon as he told us he was an atheist, had his door fall over onto him. He just seemed to ignore it leaning against him and it just made everything more awkward.
Well, I really don't have much more to add. At least, not that I can think of. Oh, there's also apparently a movie out now called "Dear John." Elder Heyborne and I want a picture by the poster by the theater down on the square.
That's all, folks,
Elder Gates
I know it's bad to look at other people's computer screens, but this guy sitting in front of me is going to every dumb ad that says you can win something. I was wondering who actually clicked on those things.... There's also a guy watching a preacher on his computer and intermittently saying "Amen." You know you're in Iowa when....
Anyway, Cris Arnold was baptized this weekend!!! It took a lot of work to get it all ready, and nothing seemed to go right. She wanted people to give talks that were confused about what to say so we had to teach them and kind of point out to them to not worry about it (that person got sick anyway so it didn't really matter after all). The brother who usually fills up the font wasn't going to be able to so we did instead, and it took a lot less time than we thought it would and ended up with a problem we have never had before: water that was TOO hot. Then I've been sick the last few days with a funky cough and nearly choked on my own throat during my talk on baptism. And she had to be put under a couple times because she just didn't bend her legs at first. I guess things didn't go quite as wrong as they have in the past or could have gone wrong, but still, baptisms can get pretty stressful to plan for and get ready. She also asked Elder Heyborne to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was his first time doing it. Kind of scared him but he did a good job. He's a lot like me, which is nice, because I can actually understand my companion, but It also makes me annoyed by things I know I do....
Beyond that, the work's just been pressing forward as usual! We spent a good chunk of one day driving around looking for less actives that I'd never met that lived out in the country. That was fun.
Oh, and Ray Rayburn got the priesthood yesterday! And Jacob should be getting it next week! That's exciting. We're hoping to be able to get them excited about some family history work and to the temple here soon. I really hope I'll be able to go with them, and Cris, for that.
Elder Heyborne and I have been working on talking to everybody we come in contact with. We even make ourselves do 5 pushups at night for every person we miss. Which is good...but bad at the same time. Like one time, Elder Heyborne started talking to one guy that was walking down the street but started to stop, so I picked up the conversation and took it as far as I could. Elder Heyborne later pointed out to me that the guy had a vodka in his jacket. I don't know why I attract drunk and high people.... Also, another time, as we were tracting at night, we started to walk down an alley because E.H. thought there was a few houses down there. On our way back out of the alleyway, we saw some lady across the street walking her dog. Not wanting to do pushups, Elder Heyborne yelled across the street "Hello! We're Missionaries!..." Apparently two guys dressed in black walking out of an alley and yelling after you is a scary experience. Luckily the lady did nothing other than start walking even faster and yelling back "No thank you!" I also loved the atheist who, as soon as he told us he was an atheist, had his door fall over onto him. He just seemed to ignore it leaning against him and it just made everything more awkward.
Well, I really don't have much more to add. At least, not that I can think of. Oh, there's also apparently a movie out now called "Dear John." Elder Heyborne and I want a picture by the poster by the theater down on the square.
That's all, folks,
Elder Gates
Monday, February 22, 2010
Elder Gates vs. The Snowstorm
Here's a little bio on my future mission president and his wife. Apparently was in the church news and was forwarded onto us by President Talbot:
Laurle Z. and Dirk O. Jergensen
Dirk Orme Jergensen, 59, and Laurie Zwick Jergensen, six children, Lake Poway Ward, Poway California Stake. Brother Jergensen serves as a temple ordinance worker and a Church Service Missionary for LDS Social Services and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, bishop, ward Young Men president, gospel doctrine teacher and missionary in the New Mexico-Arizona Mission. Founder/general manager, Omnicare of San Diego. Born in Rexburg, Idaho, to Orme M. and Ludeen Waldram Jergensen.
Sister Jergensen serves as a temple ordinance worker and a Church Service Missionary for LDS Social Services and is a former stake Relief Society president, counselor in stake Young Women and Primary presidencies, ward Young Women president and counselor, ward Primary president, counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency and ward Primary teacher. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to William Evert Zwick Jr. and Audrey McDonough Zwick.
So my comp just got some pictures from home that he's showing me. They mean something to him....
Anyway, I'm starting to see how people run out of things to say in their emails home. The work here is going great. Elder Heyborne and I are on the same page about how the work needs to go and that helps a ton. We may not have the highest numbers, but there's a lot of necessary work to be done that doesn't necessarily equate into huge numbers right away.
We had zone conference this week, which was awesome. The problem arose, however, while we were in zone conference. Some more stinkin snow decided to weasel its way into our weather and added up to a bunch of snow on the roads by the time we were headed home. This was my first time driving in a snowstorm for that long, so that was fun. It's only about forty-five minutes or so to the Des Moines Stake Center (usually) so it's not TOO far. It's not Yankton or Muscatine, that's for sure.
An elder in our district has been having some serious health problems and may go home. I hope this isn't the case, but it looks like it might be. We'll find out today. I'm thinking, thought, that if he does go home I may end up in another threesome companionship.
Cris is still on for baptism this coming saturday! She's really stoked for it. And our other progressing investigator is recognizing its truthfulness, and is wanting to start family home evenings with her kids and wants them there for the lessons, which is awesome. It was my first time teaching someone how to have family home evenings.
I think that's it. Snow's still coming. Usually it melts not long after coming down, only sticking around for awhile, but in this case it just won't leave. Snowblowers (I never really knew what that was until I got here. They're like lawnmowers for your snow! I always imagined them looking like leafblowers....) are having a hard time throwing the snow over the mounds that are already there. Sooo, that's fun. Woo.
Oh, and a little thing I've forgotten to tell you for a long time, when I went to Nauvoo in my first area, we had the privilege of having the Temple President speak to our small group. I know, random and a small tidbit, but still cool.
As I told Dad, but figured I might as well stick it in writing where Mom and Cari and whoever else you show the FPEO section to can see easily: President Talbot said in my interview with him that he really trusts me, and even if the numbers aren't high, he knows I'm doing what needs to be done here. He trusts me that I know what needs to be done here. He thanked me for the missionary I am and everything. I didn't know how to react to being bombarded by so many compliments.... That was a pretty humbling situation.
I love you all
Elder Gates
Laurle Z. and Dirk O. Jergensen
Dirk Orme Jergensen, 59, and Laurie Zwick Jergensen, six children, Lake Poway Ward, Poway California Stake. Brother Jergensen serves as a temple ordinance worker and a Church Service Missionary for LDS Social Services and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, bishop, ward Young Men president, gospel doctrine teacher and missionary in the New Mexico-Arizona Mission. Founder/general manager, Omnicare of San Diego. Born in Rexburg, Idaho, to Orme M. and Ludeen Waldram Jergensen.
Sister Jergensen serves as a temple ordinance worker and a Church Service Missionary for LDS Social Services and is a former stake Relief Society president, counselor in stake Young Women and Primary presidencies, ward Young Women president and counselor, ward Primary president, counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency and ward Primary teacher. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to William Evert Zwick Jr. and Audrey McDonough Zwick.
So my comp just got some pictures from home that he's showing me. They mean something to him....
Anyway, I'm starting to see how people run out of things to say in their emails home. The work here is going great. Elder Heyborne and I are on the same page about how the work needs to go and that helps a ton. We may not have the highest numbers, but there's a lot of necessary work to be done that doesn't necessarily equate into huge numbers right away.
We had zone conference this week, which was awesome. The problem arose, however, while we were in zone conference. Some more stinkin snow decided to weasel its way into our weather and added up to a bunch of snow on the roads by the time we were headed home. This was my first time driving in a snowstorm for that long, so that was fun. It's only about forty-five minutes or so to the Des Moines Stake Center (usually) so it's not TOO far. It's not Yankton or Muscatine, that's for sure.
An elder in our district has been having some serious health problems and may go home. I hope this isn't the case, but it looks like it might be. We'll find out today. I'm thinking, thought, that if he does go home I may end up in another threesome companionship.
Cris is still on for baptism this coming saturday! She's really stoked for it. And our other progressing investigator is recognizing its truthfulness, and is wanting to start family home evenings with her kids and wants them there for the lessons, which is awesome. It was my first time teaching someone how to have family home evenings.
I think that's it. Snow's still coming. Usually it melts not long after coming down, only sticking around for awhile, but in this case it just won't leave. Snowblowers (I never really knew what that was until I got here. They're like lawnmowers for your snow! I always imagined them looking like leafblowers....) are having a hard time throwing the snow over the mounds that are already there. Sooo, that's fun. Woo.
Oh, and a little thing I've forgotten to tell you for a long time, when I went to Nauvoo in my first area, we had the privilege of having the Temple President speak to our small group. I know, random and a small tidbit, but still cool.
As I told Dad, but figured I might as well stick it in writing where Mom and Cari and whoever else you show the FPEO section to can see easily: President Talbot said in my interview with him that he really trusts me, and even if the numbers aren't high, he knows I'm doing what needs to be done here. He trusts me that I know what needs to be done here. He thanked me for the missionary I am and everything. I didn't know how to react to being bombarded by so many compliments.... That was a pretty humbling situation.
I love you all
Elder Gates
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Blessings of Blessings
Hello!
So I now have a new companion, Elder Heyborne from Vermont (we're keeping them Utahns out of here). He's a way cool guy and we get along very well. He's one transfer younger than me, so we've got some very young blood here in Knoxville. And before you start getting all excited for me being senior, let me just point out that it is, in my opinion, a simple numbers game: when you have groups of 10 or more missionaries coming out, and most groups before me are all just 3 or so or else all zone leaders, it kind of evens out where younger missionaries end up having to go senior and train. Elder Knapp, who came out with me, is training right now, and went senior a transfer before me. So, yeah, it just works out where I would be senior. Maybe there's more to it, but that's just how I see it. Either way, being senior includes more responsibility. I think it's just hit me how callings, even in the mission, should neither be desired nor saught after. Yeah, I'm good keeping this as my highest rank for a long time. But, with that whole numbers game, I'll probably be called to more stuff, unless I completely mess up.
Besides that, there's not much to report on. Really. It's kind of been a normal few days around here. Last week Elder Havice was all drugged up, so we didn't get out much before transfers. He was on 800 milligrams of ibuprofen 3 times a day to help with some foot problem and apparently it got him pretty messed up. So I spent half of last week sitting around the apartment. If you want a sure way to feel depressed on a mission, sit around and do nothing.
Yesterday we gave a blessing to both of our progressing investigators. One had fallen down pretty hard and the other was just plain old sick. The second one was the same investigator who had had a sick child we had blessed. It was pretty cool to get the chance to bless both of them, and afterwards she was crying and said it was cool. She wants us to come over this week when her children are there, which is a first, so it would be really cool if they started investigating as well. Our Branch President gave the one to our other investigator, the one that has a baptismal date, and that was good, too. She slipped this past week and smoked a cigarette her friend had offered her and drank some coffee. I contribute it wholly to us not visiting her more this past week.
It just keeps snowing here. I'm ready for spring.
Elder Gates
So I now have a new companion, Elder Heyborne from Vermont (we're keeping them Utahns out of here). He's a way cool guy and we get along very well. He's one transfer younger than me, so we've got some very young blood here in Knoxville. And before you start getting all excited for me being senior, let me just point out that it is, in my opinion, a simple numbers game: when you have groups of 10 or more missionaries coming out, and most groups before me are all just 3 or so or else all zone leaders, it kind of evens out where younger missionaries end up having to go senior and train. Elder Knapp, who came out with me, is training right now, and went senior a transfer before me. So, yeah, it just works out where I would be senior. Maybe there's more to it, but that's just how I see it. Either way, being senior includes more responsibility. I think it's just hit me how callings, even in the mission, should neither be desired nor saught after. Yeah, I'm good keeping this as my highest rank for a long time. But, with that whole numbers game, I'll probably be called to more stuff, unless I completely mess up.
Besides that, there's not much to report on. Really. It's kind of been a normal few days around here. Last week Elder Havice was all drugged up, so we didn't get out much before transfers. He was on 800 milligrams of ibuprofen 3 times a day to help with some foot problem and apparently it got him pretty messed up. So I spent half of last week sitting around the apartment. If you want a sure way to feel depressed on a mission, sit around and do nothing.
Yesterday we gave a blessing to both of our progressing investigators. One had fallen down pretty hard and the other was just plain old sick. The second one was the same investigator who had had a sick child we had blessed. It was pretty cool to get the chance to bless both of them, and afterwards she was crying and said it was cool. She wants us to come over this week when her children are there, which is a first, so it would be really cool if they started investigating as well. Our Branch President gave the one to our other investigator, the one that has a baptismal date, and that was good, too. She slipped this past week and smoked a cigarette her friend had offered her and drank some coffee. I contribute it wholly to us not visiting her more this past week.
It just keeps snowing here. I'm ready for spring.
Elder Gates
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Google Doesn't Do A Subject Space??
That's my subject.
Anyway.
Nope, I'm not getting transferred! Congrats to Elder Sodenkamp, though, at getting Zone Leader! I'm getting bumped up to Senior Companion. Which, if nothing else, means I get to drive!! That's the big thing. It will probably be to an elder that will just be one transfer younger than me. So...we'll definitely be relying upon the Spirit to guid this area! So, as any normal transfer P-Day would be, we get to do all sorts of running around and crap.
But this is an amazing area right now! We just saw the baptism of Jacob on Saturday!! He's a great kid and will go far. He really has gone through a lot just to get to this point and be baptized and seeing it finally happen for him was amazing. I nearly cried. He truly was glowing. And then on sunday we had the best fast and testimony meeting of my life, when he and Brother Rayburn stood up and bore their testimonies. Nearly cried again. Got pretty teary-eyed. The spirit was so strong and being able to feel the strength behind their testimonies, even though they were simple, was amazing.
We also have a new baptismal date! It's a lady named Cris. She actually has had a date before, but now seems right on track for it. She has given up her Tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, everything. Even chocolate because it causes her to do the other stuff! Pretty crazy. It's been a lot of fun carrying that stuff around and flushing it down the toilet. I'll try to include some of my favorite pictures from flushing it all. It's good to destroy the stuff and have them see it destroyed so they know it's gone for good. Still, never thought the first time I'd walk around all day with tobacco in my backpack or have open alcohol in my home would be when I came on my mission. But Yeah, her baptismal date is set for the 27th, and more baptismal dates are on the way soon, I'm sure! We've got some great investigators. One is a woman I think I've mentioned before who investigated the church about ten years ago. She called us up this past week to ask us to pray for her child who was sick and I, not willing to pass up the opportunity, asked if we could give her child a blessing. She agreed after I explained it and we got the opportunity to bless her! It was way cool. She's progressing a lot. She wanted to come to church this past sunday but was really sick.... She's reading and praying still, which is great, and she's just...better. You can see the change in people when they start reading the Book of Mormon. It's nearly palpable. I LOVE it.
It's been snowing more. Yay. This is an especially bad winter for here. Woo. It's not as cold as Rexburg was, but with the humidity it's made worse and the fact that here I cannot just go inside all day or just go outside when I absolutely have to. But yeah, more snow means an even higher amount of junk to trudge through and even more runoff in the spring. There will be massive flooding this spring, I know it. Does anybody remember the massive flooding that happened here in Cedar Rapids a couple years ago? It caused equivolant, if not more, damage, money-wise, than Katrina. But it didn't hit the news as much. Hmmm....
Anyway, that's it really for this week's update!
-Elder Gates
Anyway.
Nope, I'm not getting transferred! Congrats to Elder Sodenkamp, though, at getting Zone Leader! I'm getting bumped up to Senior Companion. Which, if nothing else, means I get to drive!! That's the big thing. It will probably be to an elder that will just be one transfer younger than me. So...we'll definitely be relying upon the Spirit to guid this area! So, as any normal transfer P-Day would be, we get to do all sorts of running around and crap.
But this is an amazing area right now! We just saw the baptism of Jacob on Saturday!! He's a great kid and will go far. He really has gone through a lot just to get to this point and be baptized and seeing it finally happen for him was amazing. I nearly cried. He truly was glowing. And then on sunday we had the best fast and testimony meeting of my life, when he and Brother Rayburn stood up and bore their testimonies. Nearly cried again. Got pretty teary-eyed. The spirit was so strong and being able to feel the strength behind their testimonies, even though they were simple, was amazing.
We also have a new baptismal date! It's a lady named Cris. She actually has had a date before, but now seems right on track for it. She has given up her Tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, everything. Even chocolate because it causes her to do the other stuff! Pretty crazy. It's been a lot of fun carrying that stuff around and flushing it down the toilet. I'll try to include some of my favorite pictures from flushing it all. It's good to destroy the stuff and have them see it destroyed so they know it's gone for good. Still, never thought the first time I'd walk around all day with tobacco in my backpack or have open alcohol in my home would be when I came on my mission. But Yeah, her baptismal date is set for the 27th, and more baptismal dates are on the way soon, I'm sure! We've got some great investigators. One is a woman I think I've mentioned before who investigated the church about ten years ago. She called us up this past week to ask us to pray for her child who was sick and I, not willing to pass up the opportunity, asked if we could give her child a blessing. She agreed after I explained it and we got the opportunity to bless her! It was way cool. She's progressing a lot. She wanted to come to church this past sunday but was really sick.... She's reading and praying still, which is great, and she's just...better. You can see the change in people when they start reading the Book of Mormon. It's nearly palpable. I LOVE it.
It's been snowing more. Yay. This is an especially bad winter for here. Woo. It's not as cold as Rexburg was, but with the humidity it's made worse and the fact that here I cannot just go inside all day or just go outside when I absolutely have to. But yeah, more snow means an even higher amount of junk to trudge through and even more runoff in the spring. There will be massive flooding this spring, I know it. Does anybody remember the massive flooding that happened here in Cedar Rapids a couple years ago? It caused equivolant, if not more, damage, money-wise, than Katrina. But it didn't hit the news as much. Hmmm....
Anyway, that's it really for this week's update!
-Elder Gates
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
6 Months: I Like It, I Love It, I Want Some More of It
The second part of that title is exactly what our recent convert said about the gospel. I love that man.
This week has been better in weather. But it seemed much worse. We ran out of miles on the car for the month and so we walked most of the week. We spent all day saturday walking. I think the Casey's and Kum and Go got sick of us using them for the restroom or snacks. We just got tired. At one point I just gave up and laid down on Ray's porch (he was not home) to just relax my back. It felt so good, even if it looked awkward.
Jacob is still on for baptism. He's taught us both the restoration and the Plan of Salvation for the most part, with us just asking questions to kickstart his memory. He's even resolving his own concerns and everything. He's a great guy. He's having people fly in for the baptism and has requested Elder Bright, the missionary who left just before I came in, to baptize him, so we had to figure out how to get him down here for this coming saturday. The branch doesn't really even know what to do with two baptisms right in a row, and more dates sure to be set here soon. But they're an amazing branch so they'll do great. They fellowship like CRAZY and it's perfect. One investigator who we're teaching now explained her experience of going there (and this was even ten years ago) a lot like how Glenn Beck explained his first time going to church. But it's the members' responsibility to be the friends to the people, because they'll be around much longer than us missionaries, so it's good they're doing that here. We've even been seeing a major boom in Less Actives coming back to church, which is AWESOME. The boom, I believe, has little too do with us, beyond just the fact that hardworking missionaries in an area do loads for the area anyway. And I'm not claiming to be hardworking myself, that's just what a member told us we were yesterday in PEC. So that's always good. You also know it's a good sign that members like you when they start teasing you (which they do a lot of here).
We had District Meeting here in Knoxville this week so we had it in our branch building. Well, I had gotten letters that morning so I took them with me there to read before and after the meeting. But, I made the mistake of leaving one of them behind. My branch president found it on the pulpit sunday morning and, seeing it was from a girl, found me in the hall where I was greeting people and continued to threaten to have me read it aloud. I tried a few times to grab it from him, but it doesn't really help that he's in the National Guard Reserves, so the only way I would have gotten it back would have been by tackling him and using the unfair tactics I've learned from water polo to get it back. Finally, when he saw I was thoroughly embarassed, he handed it over. TOTALLY seems like something Dad would do. Which is why it's good Dad granted me with the sense of humor to think that was hilarious and not just embarrassing.
We also had exchanges this week and I ended up staying here and going to Pella with our District Leader. We had a whole line of stuff arranged and after the first two appointments fell through I admit, I lost some hope on our second to last one (the last one being jacob, and I knew that couldn't fall through). So when we got carried away talking to some Baptist Missionaries (way cool thing I noticed. They never once bore their testimony on what they were saying. This girl was going to school for three years and knew all sorts of interpretation of scripture but could not just say I know this to be true because I've asked God and received a confirming witness, as we can. The spirit is always so strong with testimony, and people don't know what to do with that. They're always just based on knowledge and suppositions.) and ran into another appointment's timeslot, I just allowed it to. Well, the appointment that we only ended up having about ten minutes for was with this guy who had seemed sort of interested when we first met with him and taught him a first lesson. And in this second appointment, he went on about how he's been to church before because his now deceased wife was LDS and has read 60 pages or so out of the Book of Mormon and considers it scripture and accepted a soft baptismal commitment...yeah, he was way cool. Even tried to reschedule work so he could come to church. Well, I guess we see what happens when I assume.
Things are going well here. Just working hard as always. This is the last monday Prep-Day of the transfer, so I'll talk to you in a week and a half!
Elder Gates
This week has been better in weather. But it seemed much worse. We ran out of miles on the car for the month and so we walked most of the week. We spent all day saturday walking. I think the Casey's and Kum and Go got sick of us using them for the restroom or snacks. We just got tired. At one point I just gave up and laid down on Ray's porch (he was not home) to just relax my back. It felt so good, even if it looked awkward.
Jacob is still on for baptism. He's taught us both the restoration and the Plan of Salvation for the most part, with us just asking questions to kickstart his memory. He's even resolving his own concerns and everything. He's a great guy. He's having people fly in for the baptism and has requested Elder Bright, the missionary who left just before I came in, to baptize him, so we had to figure out how to get him down here for this coming saturday. The branch doesn't really even know what to do with two baptisms right in a row, and more dates sure to be set here soon. But they're an amazing branch so they'll do great. They fellowship like CRAZY and it's perfect. One investigator who we're teaching now explained her experience of going there (and this was even ten years ago) a lot like how Glenn Beck explained his first time going to church. But it's the members' responsibility to be the friends to the people, because they'll be around much longer than us missionaries, so it's good they're doing that here. We've even been seeing a major boom in Less Actives coming back to church, which is AWESOME. The boom, I believe, has little too do with us, beyond just the fact that hardworking missionaries in an area do loads for the area anyway. And I'm not claiming to be hardworking myself, that's just what a member told us we were yesterday in PEC. So that's always good. You also know it's a good sign that members like you when they start teasing you (which they do a lot of here).
We had District Meeting here in Knoxville this week so we had it in our branch building. Well, I had gotten letters that morning so I took them with me there to read before and after the meeting. But, I made the mistake of leaving one of them behind. My branch president found it on the pulpit sunday morning and, seeing it was from a girl, found me in the hall where I was greeting people and continued to threaten to have me read it aloud. I tried a few times to grab it from him, but it doesn't really help that he's in the National Guard Reserves, so the only way I would have gotten it back would have been by tackling him and using the unfair tactics I've learned from water polo to get it back. Finally, when he saw I was thoroughly embarassed, he handed it over. TOTALLY seems like something Dad would do. Which is why it's good Dad granted me with the sense of humor to think that was hilarious and not just embarrassing.
We also had exchanges this week and I ended up staying here and going to Pella with our District Leader. We had a whole line of stuff arranged and after the first two appointments fell through I admit, I lost some hope on our second to last one (the last one being jacob, and I knew that couldn't fall through). So when we got carried away talking to some Baptist Missionaries (way cool thing I noticed. They never once bore their testimony on what they were saying. This girl was going to school for three years and knew all sorts of interpretation of scripture but could not just say I know this to be true because I've asked God and received a confirming witness, as we can. The spirit is always so strong with testimony, and people don't know what to do with that. They're always just based on knowledge and suppositions.) and ran into another appointment's timeslot, I just allowed it to. Well, the appointment that we only ended up having about ten minutes for was with this guy who had seemed sort of interested when we first met with him and taught him a first lesson. And in this second appointment, he went on about how he's been to church before because his now deceased wife was LDS and has read 60 pages or so out of the Book of Mormon and considers it scripture and accepted a soft baptismal commitment...yeah, he was way cool. Even tried to reschedule work so he could come to church. Well, I guess we see what happens when I assume.
Things are going well here. Just working hard as always. This is the last monday Prep-Day of the transfer, so I'll talk to you in a week and a half!
Elder Gates
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