Last Wednesday, we went to see V.
afterwards. She wasn't home, so we were volunteered by the Sisters to go do
some service for this senior lady that needed some weeds and roots pulled out
of her garden. We showed up, and at first, she said,"Oh great. They
brought the guys with them." The Sisters had explained that this lady
didn't want us to do ANY preaching in ANY way, and that we were just there to
help her weed. She told us that she was sick, so she would show us what to do,
and then she'd stay inside. So, that's what we did. I snagged some tools, and
we went at it. Turns out that there was a bunch of spruce trees growing there,
and the roots had fanned out under the dirt like a carpet, and as we pulled up
more and more, there were just more and more roots underneath those. We had
pulled out a larger root, and set it by the trashcans that we were using, and
then E., turned to go get something, and tripped
over the root. We dropped our tools and ran over to help her up. She hadn't
hurt herself in any way, and thanked us for helping her up. She ended up
staying outside with us the whole time we were there, and kept commenting on
how amazing it was that we were actually getting the roots out. She told us all
about her acting career as a director of plays and theatrical productions, and
how she had retired because she can't see in the dark, and kept getting hit by
the moving scenery during the shows. She told us about how she'd worked with
Steven Spielburg and George Lucas. I was pretty excited about that, and she
talked about some of the things that she'd done with them. After we left, we
went and got some dinner, and went to see L., one of Elder N.'s new
investigators. We sat down, and started off pretty shaky. I had the
preconception that we were teaching the restoration, and Elder N. was going
off on a completely different tangent than what I was prepared for. I kept
getting the feeling to teach the restoration, and let both Elder V. and
Elder N. know. We went right into it, and as we taught, L.'s 2 year old
daughter kept fussing and fussing, and wreaking havoc, but the Spirit was still
really strong. She payed close attention when we taught about the Book of
Mormon. We then went to try some less actives, but they weren't home.
Thursday, Elder N. went to a
special Mission Leadership Council with Elder H. and President
D. from the missionary department. So Elder V. and I had the day to
ourselves. We started off by going to Wal-Mart to look at bike tubes for Elder
V.'s bike, and then went to see some less-actives. None were home, so we
went and did our mormon.org time. We then walked around the
library to try and find a guy that wanted to be taught there, but couldn't find
him anywhere. So we walked back to the apartment, and biked over to the J's.
They weren't home, and we continued on to see the C.'s. We sat and talked
about how they were doing, and about whether or not Hno. C could make it
to church this Sunday. We
then went to see some other less-actives, and called it a night.
Friday, we had breakfast with the
R.'s, and we showed Hno. R. how to give his wife a blessing, since she
was sick with something that was affecting her inner ear, and she was feeling
dizzy. We went from there to service with some less-active members, and trimmed
up their big pine tree. We then had district meeting, which was focused on the
things taught at the MLC, and from what I hear, President D. has a
pretty great sense of humor, so I kinda felt jealous that I didn't get to go.
But oh well. Maybe it wasn't intended for me to be there anyway. We then did a
couple of practices, and went back to the apartment for dinner. After dinner,
we got Elder V.'s bike tire fixed, and got rolling again. We then went
looking to find V. at home, and as we rolled into the parking lot on our
bikes, a guy called out for us to come talk to him. His name was J., and he
told us that he's been feeling much angrier than normal. He said that about a
year ago was when he started noticing that he kept getting angrier and angrier.
He said that it felt like something was always there trying to make him
irritated, and was trying to tear him down. We told him about Satan, and what
he does to try and make us miserable, and from there, I told him about how I
take care of my anger through reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We felt
the Spirit really strongly, and after we said a prayer with him and gave him a
Book of Mormon, he thanked us for helping him to calm down. We tried to get his
information to give to the English Elders, but he's presently homeless. So we
continued on to see if we could find some less actives at home, and found the
V.'s home. In fact, the whole family was there, which is pretty rare. All
three were sick, and Hno's hand was starting to hurt a lot from the lack of
circulation due to the dialysis that he goes through. We gave all three of them
blessings of health, and went home for the night.
 |
| Elder Crook at Mission Trails park clean-up |
Saturday, we went and helped to
clean the chapel for a bit, and as we cleaned, more people showed up, so we
were able to go to the next service project for the day. We were sent to help
out at Mission Trails park, and the park rangers took us out into the woods and
had us take out a bunch of wood and lumber and garbage that had piled up in the
riverbeds. We got a conveyor belt system set up, and handed the pieces down the
line. Some of the logs were pretty heavy, but it was pretty fun as we got
things going. I got ants all over me as they were hiding inside the decaying
wood, so when we finished and went home, I had some nice little buddies that I
had to wash out of my hair. After we got cleaned up, we went to try and find a
referral from M. L., a guy who lives in our area. So we tried to find
him, but couldn't. We went back to the apartment and did our weekly planning,
and I was so flippin' tired. We got it all taken care of, after a lot of
sidetracking, and went to see the C.'s for dinner. They made
ham/cheese/tomato sandwiches and bought a Little Caesar's Pizza. We set up a
lesson for a family home evening with them, and went off to coordination. The
branch mission leader cancelled last second, and we talked about what was
needed. We then went and tried to find some investigators at home.
Sunday, the Sisters had been asked to
give the gospel principles class as the teacher simply didn't want to do it,
and they tried to dump it on me. I taught last week's, so I suggested that they
take it since they have never done it since I've been here. They complained and
said that they had an investigator coming, so to fix the problem, Elder N.
volunteered to teach the class. He was stressed out of his mind, and was
struggling to form his thoughts as to what he should teach. So I helped him out
by giving him some pointers and giving him options to choose from. We then had Sacrament meeting, and we split up to sit with several members and people that
were sitting alone. Elder N. then taught the gospel principles class, and
did a really good job. We then had Elder's quorum, and had a great lesson by a
member that recently moved in. We then, (to our delight and dismay), that there
were four families that wanted to feed us that night. How that happened, I have
no idea. We ended up having to cancel three of them, and went to eat with the
O.'s, who we had scheduled dinner with in advance. After dinner, we came back
and visited the O., who have been a bit less-active because of the fact
that the wife can't speak English and they've been in an English ward for the
last few years. So we stopped by and shared a message with them, and read from
the Book of Mormon with them and their kids. One of their sons kept piling all
of the toys that he could find on top of Elder V. until he was completely
buried. We then called it a night.
Yesterday morning was stressful after
we got the call from President S. Elder N. spent the whole time
packing up all of his stuff, calling people, and stressing out. He had no time
to visit any members to say goodbye since he was leaving with President at
2:30. We went to a luncheon thrown by the members for the missionaries, and he
said goodbye to all of the missionaries. We then went and finished up the
packing, and he got shipped out with President to the valley. We went and did
some service for a less-active member by digging an 18-inch deep trench from
their kitchen water outlet in their front yard over to the water main that they
needed to connect to. We got it done in about an hour, and bounced over to
dinner with the G.'s. We then went and had a family home evening with the
C.'s, and shared a message about service and the blessings that we
receive, and that others receive through our service. It was a really good
family home evening, and we called it a night.
And that's just about the whole
flippin' cake for the week. All of the members for some reason just love to
remind me about how little time I have left, and the other missionaries are
more trunky than I am. Elder V. is the new district leader, and the sisters
are the only ones in our district, so we make the joke that now, instead of
district meetings, they'll be district "datings", because that's pretty
much what it'll look like to anyone else. Ugh. I want some Elders in the
district. I hate it when it's just sisters. Oh well. I guess that's what
happens when the mission runs out of missionaries.
Have a great week! But don't have too
much fun without me.
-Love, Elder Crook
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