Where Am I? How Did I Get Here? Where Am I Going?

Monday, July 7, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

That is quite a bit of updates of what is going on. Well, it sounds like everything is extremely busy in some shape or form. I am happy to hear that the missionary work is moving forward in Lemoore. It has been a crazy week for us in different ways. I am happy to hear how Mom is doing. Glad things are going well for her. Keep it up! I feel bad for my poor dog. The Fourth of July always is a killer for her. Thank you for taking care of her thus far, especially to you Mom. I am glad that she is still alive.

Like I said, it has been a crazy week. We are moving forward in the work; well, at least, we are trying to get it to go forward. Monday, we stayed home and cleaned our apartment during P-Day. We had the funds to buy cleaner and we cleaned the bathroom and other places. I cleaned our vents that looked horrible. We learned that we need to get a filter for our air conditioner. And more recent, I have been putting pictures on the walls. I had another special nightmare on Sunday (refer back to White Oak). 

Tuesday, we knew that we were going to have problems getting around. We no longer have a GPS and we have maps at the apartment. The problem with our maps is that we cannot take them with us and they are hard to use for they have been plastered with maps. We decided to take some time to go to a gas station to get a map. After all, that is where maps of an area would be, right? NO. Not at all. We went to different gas stations and to CVS. Nobody had maps. We went to a bookstore; it had maps of everywhere, but Petersburg and Colonial Heights. We decided to go to the government for help. Well, we had no idea where city hall was, so we went to the courthouse. The courthouse led to city hall where we finally got a map for Colonial Heights. All in time for lunch. Well, seeing as we had one-fourth of our area, we ventured into Petersburg to obtain a map. We went to the library, then to city hall. Petersburg's City Hall did not have a map. They told us to go to the visitor center for a map. We parked near it, not realizing we were near it, and wandered around for a while, trying to find visitor's center. Finally, we went up to someone and asked. We went to it, where we were able to obtain a map. The people were highly excited to see us; they, unfortunately, do not get many people, it seems. We tried seeing a few people afterwards, but nobody was home. We headed to the Petersburg Apartment to pick up something for somebody. I decided to rummage around, seeing what was in the apartment. And, lo, I found maps. And they cover all of our area. It was a bit of a frustrating find, albeit good.

Wednesday, we had district meeting. Our district consists of us and another set of missionaries. We tried a few people in Petersburg, but realized we needed something in Colonial Heights. We got that and worked in Colonial Heights for the time until dinner. We went to the church in hopes of a missionary coordination meeting, but there was not coordination meeting. Instead, we were enlisted to help with somebody's Eagle Court of Honor. 

Thursday, we had interviews. It was a bit funny. I had a nightmare where I had interviews with President and I got sent home for no reason. And I woke up that morning, it was my year mark and I realized I had interviews. So, it was an interesting nightmare to wake up from. I received my package that day. Thank you. It was fun and interesting. I loved the tie. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a fun interview. And we had fun at a member's house. These are the members that love to feed us. I am grateful for that. I got to know them a bit. The husband also likes the show Sherlock. He told me the third season was awesome. He also likes Avatar as well. My companion has seen some episodes of Avatar, which I was thoroughly sad about, but also glad that he too knows and likes it. 

 This is my friend Denice from Lemoore. She is receiving training at the Mexico City Missionary Training Center. She will come back to the states to serve in the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission.  She is a convert herself. She knew me from High School. Her mother is also a recent convert. So why give up 18 months of your life to do this. We do it because of the pure love of Christ and His saving grace. We also know that this church is true because of our testimonies through the Holy Spirit.

Friday, we were not invited anywhere. So, we worked. We worked during the day, trying to find less actives. Partially successful. We ate dinner at home and worked on the ward roster, also known as Project 2. I am trying to sort out the people in our area to different quadrants to make it easier to know where people are when we are in that area, instead of guessing. When it came to night, we turned off the lights and we used the glowsticks. Sad enough, there were hardly any fireworks at all that night. Nor the next. Nor any time before and after.  The glowsticks are and were great. The blue one was a light to itself. In fact, it woke me up at midnight seeing as it was so bright. I chucked it out of our room and did not fall asleep until two.

Saturday, we did more work, trying to contact people. Then, we had to clean the church. We were assigned that day. After cleaning, we headed over to the Petersburg apartment to get a drink. We were both exhausted. Sunday, we had church. We tried seeing some people and then headed home to work on the roster. I, feeling a bit tired, took a nap, hence I had one of those nightmares that I had once in White Oak. After waking up from that, I began decorating the house with pictures from the Ensign. Then, we had dinner with the members that often feed us and our investigator who is being baptized (now on 25th). We had a great time. We taught lesson 5, which was a first for me and first time teaching a lesson with my current companion. With the help of the members, it went smoothly. We went over the baptismal interview questions.

It has been one crazy week. I am happy that we are going forward, trying to be organized in our actions. I am happy that we are involved with the ward. I am happy that we are making efforts. I know that the Lord is aware of our actions.

All is well! We will go forward and onward!

Love,

Elder S. Todd