December 2nd, 2013
Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,
It sounds like you had a good Dead Bird Day (a reference to what Seth's grandfather called Thanksgiving). I had a fun day, going from one members house to my landlord to an investigator. It was a lot of fun and a lot of food. By the third meal, I had a very small portion, because I knew my stomach was not that hungry. And I had deep fried turkey, which is a lot crunchier and juicier than regular turkey.
And wow Mom! I saw a picture of you, thanks to the courtesy of Joy! You look different! I had noticed it with the other picture. (His mother has a short, different style haircut) I was happy that Joy sent me pictures of the family and Bria helped out on that as well (especially with a picture of my dog). I hope you got my letter. I know I sent it out late, but it should arrive soon, hopefully. I will definitely keep an eye out for the packages. (We sent him a package for his birthday that should arrive a couple days early.)
It sounds like you had fun with Bria! That must have been really exciting to see her! I am glad that you were able to help Grandma with her puzzles. Those were a lot of fun and I loved doing puzzles with Grandma.
It has been a good week. Things are definitely looking up, even though this week looks the same as last week. We were able to have a good amount of investigators come to church and they are progressing. I am really excited for these people and I hope they continue to progress. We had a major crunch on our miles(missionaries are given an allowance on their mileage); we had to walk a couple of days to preserve what extra miles we had left.
And our car does not seem to get a break either. So, we have additional scratches on our car; this time of our own make. We just got done with potluck and everybody left. My companion and I were the last ones to leave the member's house. I got a call from the ward mission leader and I was focused on the call, what he was saying. As I was doing this, my companion, who I was not paying attention to, started backing up. Next thing I knew, the car was right in view and I started to tell him to stop.
He cannot see me, because I do not have any light on me and I am wearing black (coat, pants, shoes, beanie). Well, there was a small stone wall with slate that the car went over and scratched the car. My companion rolled down the window as I was talking to the leader. I said, "I told you to stop!" He replied, "I cannot see you unless you are behind me!" The poor mission leader said, "Well, I will talk to so and so and I, uh, will call you back." We told the member, which he did not seem too upset about the wall, just wanted to laugh at us. As we left and started to talk to someone else, the "maintenance required" light came on. Our car cannot get a break.But, like I said with Thanksgiving, I had fun. The one member's house was a lot of fun; we played 20 Questions, only different. My companion knew me too well to figure out what I was thinking. (Javert, from Les Miserables). Then, with our landlord and his family, it was real nice. And the investigator was fun. We were able to gain another new investigator by teaching the Plan of Salvation. Plus, the investigator shot off fireworks! Nobody, thankfully, called the cops.
And the Lord works in mysterious ways. The investigator where we went to Thanksgiving finally came to church here. I hope he enjoyed it. He has been investigating for a few years now and it took him to go to Arizona and be stranded there. Why? Because, he went to church there and received assistance from the bishop there and bishop here spoke highly of the investigator. The only bad part of his Arizona trip is that he got in a car accident and the airbag shattered his radius bone. His arm will not be the same, but I know a great scripture that can help (the investigator is pretty depressed about his arm)!
Are you sending this to my siblings?
All is well!
Love,
Elder S. Todd
P.P.S Also, someone made deviled eggs and they did not add paprika, but pickle relish. I started laughing, because I thought of Grandma and her deviled eggs.
