Hey Mom!
This week:
The Kanab of Washington,
torching the greenies, transfers, Elder Allen, endless sagebrush, and
"NOTHING'S WORKING!" moments
Dad told me that you
guys looked up Ephrata on Google Earth, and your comparison of it to Kanab is
pretty much spot on. As a matter of fact, that was exactly what I was thinking
when I saw the town for the first time. Or then again, when I drove into town
for the first time because in all honesty there is no way in heck I would've
seen it from anywhere.
But before any of that
occurred, Elder Vejnar and I got to go "fear bust" the new
missionaries on Tuesday. In short, we got to take them tracting. I took a
certain Elder Schoole with me. I kind of chuckled when I first met him, because
he looked exactly like Mr. Shimko from Palo. Except he had hair. Anyway, that
was unfortunately unfortunate. Any door that opened to us was quickly closed
before we could invite anyone to do anything.
Funny, I feel like
whenever we go tracting there's always one of two people sick enough to not let
us in. Hm. Must be plague season.
Anyway, transfers were a
bit of an escapade. For one, I had to consolidate some extra material into a
few of the packages I saved that you guys sent me. They made for bulky carry
on's. But I was able to travel to the zone with a few sisters and two elders
named Criddle and Cornelison. The former's from Vegas, even was the vice wing
commander in the AFJROTC at Bonanza I think it was. The later is actually a
two-transfer missionary, so I related well with him.
So after we got to
Ephrata, I met my new comp, Elder Allen and he's been out 3 months. In fact,
Elder Beatty fear-busted him. He's a big guy from West Jordan Utah, and he's a
pretty cool guy too! If I'm honest, he kind of has that North-Utah bubble
floating around him. But we've been able to get along great. the ward up here
is fantastic from what we see! Everyone has at least a good respect for
member-missionary work, so hopefully we can get to utilize that to really push
the area. The ward has had 12 convert baptisms in the last 8 months, so we are
onto a fantastic start! We house with the ZL's and they do exercise at the
church every morning at 5:30, so I've been able to get back into the swing of
things again.
Another thing I learned
about Ephrata is that it's not exactly.....pretty. With regards to scenery on a
normal day. As you have probably read in my week-in-words, the best way I can
describe the land is...sagebrush. SAGEBRUSH. AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE. With
some dry, desert hills on the other side. Nuts, I was really hoping that I'd be
put in a more scenic part of the mission, but oh well. Beauty is only skin deep
right?
Specifically, the past
few days have been rough for us. Thanks to experiences in staff, the mission,
and life, I can say I'm kind of used to the days where quite literally nothing
goes according to plan. For Elder Allen it was a first, and it hit him kind of
hard as well. Still, we carried on, didn't see too much success, and I can't
necessarily say that we accomplished much of anything except a couple dozen
street contacts and some service done for some members. Effort was always
effort!
Anyway, I'll end with a
fun story. One of the things that really got to us is when we went to get gas.
We share a car with another pair of elders. For some reason we couldn't get the
pump to actually start working after going through the payment process. Well,
long story short, we had the store staff show us that you had to actually
manually begin the flow by lifting the little lip that the bottom of the pump
handle rests on. Who would've known? Learn something new about gas stations
everyday.
Well, that's really all
I can say right now. My work experience is off to a slow start this week, but
I'm certain that we'll be able to really see it pick up with the way the ward
is. I was asked to bear my testimony during sacrament meeting yesterday, so at
least they care. They also pronounced my name it "Can-it" over the
pulpit, which was a new one for me. Still, appreciate all the prayers you guys
give me. I hope the best for you Mom! Remember that I love you, and the Lord
loves all of us!
Love you,
Michael
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