Temple Week

So! Another thing I love about this mission is how good they are about giving us a heads up. Like asking us to fast Saturday night as we're going to sleep. Or telling us on Sunday that tomorrow isn't pday and that we'll be going to the temple on Wednesday. If they get any more behind nothings going to get accomplished.

I wish I'd gotten enough of a heads up to let you know. This was my last time to possibly see grandma and grandpa. oh well. I only have 8 months left anyways.

 

Well we had a good time at the temple this morning. This was my 5th time as a missionary. It's also dumb because some missionaries have been over a dozen times and others (like me) get jipped. Oh well. Anyways. This past week was the first week of my third transfer with Elder Whiting. We worked a little harder and are planning on continuing to slowly increase our efforts. We went tracting Saturday morning and after tracting both sides of a street for an hour we only had one contact. Haha. Most of the time here it's like that. As long as no one gets mad at me I enjoy it though. That's probably the hardest thing with missionary work for me: I hate when people are upset at me or if I'm the cause or source of their discomfort. I'd tract 8 hours a day if every door was at least semi polite. Too bad there are so many rude people in the world today.

 

Lets see... had some more moves this past week. There were 4 or 5 but we just helped with 2 of them. Usually we help when there aren't many others that can. Like if someone is moving during the day, most people work or have school. But usually there is plenty of help if they move on the weekend. Theres one family that has asked us for help 3 times. We helped them move all their tvs and some other things... and the next time we moved a bunch of stuff with the elders quorum... and then they asked for help again to basically pack up and haul out everything else. If that wasn't bad enough, they just asked us for yet more help with unpacking/organizing some of their stuff. Kind of that awkward "dude, you've asked for WAY too much help" point. They're less active and old though so they actually need the help. They're slightly crazy too. yikes.

 

Mom, I don't think you spoil my younger siblings. I know you do :) HA! it's obvious how you feel about me when you give me a suitcase for graduation. Why don't you just tell me to "get packing" while you're at it. sniff sniff. hahaha :) actually you gave me the suitcase for my birthday (along with some white shirts and other things). So. I don't remember what I got for graduation. oh well. It's in the past anyways. c'est la vie :)

 

What else is going on... there are a bunch of greenies in the zone now. 5. One is brand new, 3 have been out 3 months and one is almost not a greenie; he's been out almost 5 months.

Being two thirds of the way done and telling people (when they ask which is WAY too often) that I've been out 16 months is starting to make me feel old. 8 months really isn't a lot of time. It's still a long time, but I realized that since I haven't trained a new missionary OR been a zone leader, I won't have the opportunity to do both with only 5 more transfers. Pretty much all zone leaders in the mission are a zone leader for at least 4 transfers if not longer. That's not a big deal to me since zone leaders have a ton of stuff on their plate and I HATE mission leader drama. It just makes me realize I don't have a ton of time left. I think President dubbed me as a "clean up" missionary anyways - he always puts me with companions that are struggling with something. But that's alright with me.

 

Our mission has a goal to try and reach before the mission splits and this is basically the last week to find people that can get baptized before the split so we're going to be focusing on contacting for the rest of the week.

 

The church is true. The gospel changes lives. We have modern day liahonas in our lives that work according to our faith. Its up to us to exercise that faith and use the many tools to keep us on the path to eternal life that our Father in Heaven has given us.

I love you guys!

Elder Nelson Browning