Secrets to Finding Your Purpose In Life

June 8, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

I am not sure where to begin. It has been a good week as well as a bruise battering week. "Everything I grow dies!" I sort of feel like that, only with transportation and such. If you are reading this, it is with the most rested assurance that I am alive. Diligence means never giving up.

So, to begin, I would like to say, what a week it has been.

Monday, as I was emailing, I decided to go ahead and look at the shipbikes.com to see what I need to do. Hence why, I decided I needed tools. One to measure the box as well as to take apart some pieces of the bikes. During my usual Wal-Mart trip, I found none of my tools that I needed nor did I find any in my price range. I did ask around for tools, but nothing came out of that. No need to be alarmed though. I have to say that today the bike will most likely be sent off. I just need to go to the bike shop and ask for their help in taking apart the bike. Then, I will go to the Staunton library, print out the necessary information, and go to Fed-Ex. But, this past Monday, I realized that and had to delay the action until today. That night, we had dinner with a wonderful member family; they decided to enlist us also for a service project. It was helping another family (the ones who loved the trio, who also still love us) with moving furniture.

Tuesday, we took a youth to visit our progressing investigator who is on date.
The poor kid... He is undecided on the mission and there has been a lot of pressure on him to suggest to him to go. (We need missionaries that are willing to serve. The best way to promote missionary work is to let the youth spend time with the missionaries. Youth need support not pressure.) Regardless, we took him to our progressing investigator. We had a wonderful, powerful lesson with her. It helped her out. After dropping him off, we went to the doctor for Elder Day. He has a wart on his foot; thank goodness for separate showers. He had to later pick up acid to put on his foot. We went to another wonderful dinner; saw our less active who is usually in pain. He has been so happy since he has come to church and it has been great to see. 

Wednesday, we checked up on some potentials. Then, we left to go to the zone meeting, where the iPads were given.

Because this is my last month, I do not receive an iPad, not even a loaner. As a companionship, we have one device. It may be easy to feel jipped. I honestly could care less; it is a device that will enhance our teaching and it will be easier to have one. I am happy to use my "Skittle Scriptures," or whatever name missionaries and people have called it. I am happy to have that more than anything. After dinner, we checked up on the people who are at the health center. We checked up on the person who, slightly, reminds of my brother. We encouraged him to continue to grow spiritually personally.

Thursday, we planned. Then, we thought we had a lesson with our progressing investigator, but it was actually Friday. The other person we were going to see-- our single mother-- cancelled on us.

So, we checked up on the returning young couple and helped them to set goals on going to the temple. We picked up some food from another member. We checked up on this one family who had just recently gone through some difficulties as well as some good times. It was good to see that they were doing well. 

Friday, we had that lesson with our progressing investigator. We have been answering her questions and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. We prepared her for fast and testimony meeting; I even said, "Yeah, people may cry." (And surprisingly, few did.) We had dinner that night with the bishop. Then, we saw our family who bounce back and forth with church attendance. We talked with their son, our investigator, and figured out the best way we could help him. It was good, but it was the last time that we would see him or his family. They moved, which they told us, though they never told us when. That was a surprise to us.

Saturday, the day of hectic work. We did the progress record; we decided to go see the health center people after lunch, which we did. We had dinner, then we were like, "Let's go find!" Yeah, yeah, like that was going to happen. So, after we got done with dinner, we received a call from the ward mission leader, who is vacationing and thought he would be back on Sunday. Understandably, he decided to stay one more day. He was going to call somebody to give a ride to the health center people. He wanted us to check up on one of them to be sure that she was coming. So, we decided to do so. 

And now, for a short rant on transportation and myself. "Everything I grow DIES!" Yeah, I feel like that is analogous to my feelings on transportation. Let me go through a short review of everything. The car back at home, I hit my sister's car that was parked. The car in Fredericksburg, it had to be serviced, then it got rear ended (as a hit and run while we were having lunch). The bike in Woodbridge, not functioning properly, because I did not know how to use it properly. The car in Powhatan and Appomattox needed the usual maintenance. The car in Tappahannock, not only did it need the usual maintenance, we ran over a car radio antenna that pierced our tire. The car in Gayton had low tire pressure, went to fill it up, metal caps had rusted on it the tube things. We had to replace the tires. If you want, you could add my legs to this: herniated disc. When I received that, I could not walk properly, I had to hobble. So, you see, I have transportation issues. Whenever I go into an area, the car needs to get the usual maintenance or something happens to the car. Or something happens to me and transportation.

By this point, you are wondering, "Oh no, what now." I thought back in May: "You know, I probably will not ever need to get this car serviced." Wrong. When we arrived to the health center, I started to park; nearly got done, when I heard this SCRAPE! Thinking I went over the curb, I backed up. SCRAAAAPE! "Oh no, that does not sound good." The plastic underneath the car in the front had bent down. I called Elder Sopp (sent pictures of what occurred to him today) and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, we went to a member's house to borrow duct tape. We "MacGyver"-ed (use Google to see the TV show reference) the car; we duct taped the plastic back up and have been driving since. But, we will have to take care of that soon. Sorry; I try really, really hard to be a good driver (though some of these things happen when I am not the driver), but life comes at you fast.

After that, we checked up on the people we needed to see. Most importantly, while we were waiting or in the area, we did go finding and took advantage of finding opportunities.

Sunday, we studied, went to church early, only to drive back to pick up our meal calendar. Unfortunately, we ended up a bit late. We went finding after church. We had an awesome meal. We contacted a few people after that.

This week has had its good and bad. Nonetheless, we are going forward. The ward is definitely opening up to us. They are starting to like us. We feel that this is what we are meant to do, other than our progressing investigator. This will open doors in the future.

Admist the bad, there is good. The Lord is looking after us, opening doors, leading us where to go, revealing what we need to say. His hand is in this work. The work is and will go forward.

All is well. Tout va bien! Alles wohl!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

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