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| Elder Todd's dog Carly with Sister Gomez a missionary serving in Lemoore, CA. |
July 14, 2014
Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,
I loved the pictures. Thank you for sending them. And I am glad my dog is cheering people up. She may be skittsh, but she is love-able. I am glad to hear about Rita. It is always good to share in one another's success. I have heard some good news yesterday. A person who I found and taught in Woodbridge is still learning and has a solid testimony. That was great to hear. I have not heard anything about our special investigator in Powhatan and I am still trying to get permission to write to her. I failed to do it during interviews.
To answer your question about the apartments, I do not foresee as such. There are a good amount of empty apartments in the mission. President Wilson, with good intentions, is trying to keep the missionaries as far apart as possible. If at possible, he does not want two or three sets of missionaries living together. That means more apartments. Certain areas have recently closed, such as White Oak for Elders (I was a bit sad). President also wants to open more areas, which means more apartments. The mission is already over budget with apartments. I know that Powhatan has an empty apartment, possibly White Oak and other areas in Fredericksburg have one or more, and here there is an empty apartment. There may be an influx of missionaries that are soon coming in; I do not know.
Bear with me that this may be short. I lost my planner and I have no idea where. It could have slid out somewhere unbeknownst to me. And thus, now I am relying on my memory.
Monday, we had P-Day. Shopping took a while. It seemed as though everybody was there. And everybody brought there families with them. With driving, Elder Avison, who is the driver, yells at the people. It is rather humorous.
Tuesday, we had lunch with a less active due to illness. He is the one who has raccoons chattering in his chimney. Those raccoons are getting bigger and it is a rather curious thing to wonder if the mother will toss her babies down the chimney into his house. That has happened before to him. He fed us a wonderful meal of fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and green beans. He gave us spice cake as well. It was delicious. And then he gave us some of it to take home. Now, I am beginning to figure out the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. You see, we had nothing in our refrigerator and hardly anyone signed up this past week (partially due to us forgetting the meal calendar the previous Sunday). Yet, we were able to take home leftovers from that, somebody who did sign up gave us a lot of food, and we raided a wedding reception (more on that story). So, essentially, we have enough food to last us a while. And we have other leftovers. There is a lot of food; we have an abundance of it. Somehow we started with nothing but bread, cheese, and meat. Now, we have a lot of other things. God has been blessing us.
Wednesday, our investigator who is being baptized had her interview. Then, I went on exchanges down in Lawrenceville, where I became the designated driver. We saw all kinds of people and attempted to see others. I met a lady who had four kids under the age of six, some of them adopted. She was feeling depressed that day and told us that she decided to not have any more kids. I met one of their investigators who is going through a lot, but she is making it through. As much as I did not want to be on exchanges, I am glad I was. I needed a break, because I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I had a lot on my mind since Sunday after that nightmare and there were a lot of things that needed to be done. And sometimes it does feel that I am doing it alone. As I have discovered time and time again, God is watching out and knows my situation. Hence the exchange. Meanwhile, over here in the Appomattox ward, my companion and our district leader tracted. They found some nice potentials and a person who was waiting for the missionaries to come back. I am excited to work with them. And my companion and our district leader went to missionary correlation. Our ward mission leader was at it again. They talked about missionary work for about five seconds and then, the ward mission leader got excited about the gospel. Thus, he went off on a tangent about the Creation again and gave questions to the district leader to try to figure out, giving him two weeks to come up with an answer for them. The district leader has yet to figure it out. I know the answers, because the ward mission leader told us the previous time of correlation. Yesterday, I met a ward missionary; she approached me. She asked about correlation and I explained that it just depends on the ward mission leader showing up. Perhaps if that person shows up, maybe, just maybe, things can be centered.
Thursday, I finished the ward roster. I was so happy. I figured our where mostly everyone lived, which should make life a bit easier on us. We saw a recent convert and watched a video with him. He responds quite well to videos.
Friday was an absolute off-day. We were going to help somebody move, but we needed a ride to spare miles. Our ride was supposed to show up at ten. Well, he did not show up until one. We were with two youth; one youth put in a little more effort than the other. We had no clue what we were supposed to move, but we were expected to do something. It was a bit frustrating. We got home at about 4:30, showered and changed. Someone had invited us to a wedding reception for their daughter. I was tired and so was my companion. He knew the family a lot more than I did. So, I relented and we went to the wedding reception. It was all in the idea of supporting the family. Albeit, it was the oddest thing I ever went to see. We show up at 6, when it was supposed to start, and we were the first people there. The first person we meet is the groom, who did not know we were showing up. It was awkward. There were plenty of non-members there as well.
Saturday, we tried to see certain people. All of it failed, except one. He is a less active who we are now working to return to church. And we planned after dinner, because we had yet to do that.
Sunday, we had church. It was centered on temples and families. Well, our investigator who is being baptized soon went up to the temple yesterday. Some member and her daughter invited her to come and visit. Well, our investigator had a wonderful time. She was invited by the bishop to come bear her testimony of the temple. She did an excellent job of bearing her testimony. She wants to serve a mission. It was awesome. After church, we saw a few people.So, yes, things are moving ahead. There have been off days and down days, but there also has been up days. Progress is taking time, but I like time. Time is a friend, not an enemy. I know I am at the right place and at the right time. I know that, because Satan is trying to throw a lot of things at me. I am not giving up. I do not care how tired I am. I do not care what happens as long as I am doing the right thing and as long as I am obedient and hearken to the word of the Lord.
All is well! I would say I do not need anything, but I know it has been nearly a year and the count is coming close. I need Aller-tec and perhaps some more nasal spray. Thanks!
Love,
Elder S. Todd
