How to Overcome Challenges in Life

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. -Alma 7:11

Monday, June 15, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

With my bike, I was able to send it off. Yet, I was not able to do it Monday, but on another date. Long story on that. Now you know that, you can actually expect it. It should come tomorrow. It has left Salt Lake on Sunday. When I return home, I have plans to clean the bike. It is mostly clean, but it could use cleaning. 

Dan the Man was quite happy to hear that Moroni is alive; he still references from time to time silver plates and Moroni. Still have no clue on that. There was one day this past week that I found interesting with him. He was actually coherent; more talkative, different pitch of voice, etc.

It has been a good, long week.

Monday, after the usual chores, I headed to the bike shop for help in shipping my bike. The bike shop was closed; it had dawned on me that I got the box on Tuesday. I had not realized fully that it would not be open on Monday. I would have done it Tuesday, but Tuesday already was a busy day. We had scheduled an estimate for the car among other activities for Tuesday. I took care of dry cleaning. That night, we tried to stop by a few people that we had not seen in a while.

Tuesday, we had district meeting. I gave a training on effective study. We had lunch, then we headed back to our apartment. The gospel principles teacher and her husband showed up to take us over to a lesson with our progressing investigator where we talked about the Word of Wisdom. The gospel principles teacher shared her own conversion story and even told when the elders who taught her talked about the Word of Wisdom. They had been fasting for the lesson, but she had stopped smoking before they even taught her. Our progressing investigator decided to live the Word of Wisdom; she even bought apples and oranges to more fully live it.

After the lesson, we headed over to the dealership to assess the damage to the car. Luckily, we had picked up some screws when our mishap occurred. Most of the shield could be reattached. However, some of it was torn to some degree, so it has to be fixed. All of it is under a certain amount, so I do not have to complete an incident report. I thank God for that. From there, we had dinner with the elders quorum president and his wife. Elder Day, for the first time in his life, had watermelon. Everybody was surprised that he had not eaten watermelon. He enjoyed it. Now, he has to try Jell-O.

We were in the area, so we went to talk to a member family to help confirm dinner plans for the next day. They invited us to a family activity; we went finding around their area and got gas. They needed us to be judges for their children's cooking. It was good. We were able to help build member relationships and meet less active members. It was a plus for us. We also talked to the youth who is deciding to go on a mission; he does not feel pressure (my companion wanted to talk to him about it).

Wednesday, we studied. We had lunch and then, began the process of sending my bike off. It took a few hours, because it took a lot of packing and figuring things out. The person at the bike shop definitely helped out. Once I got the pedals off, as well as the handle bars off, the bike could mostly fit. I had to also take off the rear tire, just because of its difference. The bike shop weighed it. From there, I went to the library and went on the website given to me. I know you gave me addresses to Fed-Ex, but those were drop off boxes. The site required that I go to an official drop off location or something to that nature. Well, it was either the one in Staunton or the one in Fishersville. Although we were going to FIshersville that night, our miles have been reduced yet again, which makes us in the need of maintaining miles. I decided to go to the one in Staunton, full knowing it is attached to a gas station. Creepy place, but look on the plus side, we saved miles and it is on its way, still weighing 40 pounds.

We checked up on the young couple who is returning to church. The husband was not home; but the wife was with their child. We followed up on our last invitation. Then, we saw our progressing investigator, who now has a Book of Mormon. We had to order a large print, because she could not read the small print. It was a great spiritual experience for her. We shared two videos from Easter; we also shared a scripture from Alma. From there, we had dinner with the member family and we went to mutual to help with the missionary night the priests were having. They taught us while we were the investigators. They are definitely learning and it is good to see their enthusiasm.

And that night, I found the most creepiest bug in my entire life.

Out of all that I have personally seen and witnessed in Virginia, it won the award. Of course, it had to be in my bathroom. I saw it, walked out of the bathroom, and told Elder Day to go and take care of it. He did so, not realizing how big the monster was. Most ugly, thing in my life.

Thursday, we planned. We had another lesson with our progressing investigator; this lesson is a major hurdle. We taught the principle and gave her a priesthood blessing. It was very comforting to her.

From there, we... well, Elder Day helped on the farm. He was lifting hay bales, so that bishop would be able to feed his farm animals and not break his foot again. I just sweated, because it was hot. Then, we had dinner with the new young couple, who loved the trio and love us too. It was really, really fun. Then, we checked up on the man who is dealing a lot with pain and such. He is falling back into old habits; we realize there is not much that we can do, but what the ward can do. We plan to keep on visiting him, but he definitely needs the ward's support.

Friday, we went back to the bishop's house, thinking there was more hay to take care of. Instead, we helped his wife move things out of their barn. I had a blast doing that. One, I got to kick objects from a second story onto the ground. Some things had wheels, others not so much. Two, his wife is hilarious, just by her comments. Once we finished, we finished weekly planning. We had dinner with the recent convert man who was baptized the week Elder Day and I got here. It was a nice visit, but they were slightly in a hurry. They were going to Kentucky to pick up their cousins. After dinner, we had a prompting to check up on the people in the health center. We found one of them moved; we had no idea where she was. So, we checked up on Dan, who was quite coherent. He was unhappy with the place, plans on leaving, and such. He was talking about the people he was going to sue and such. I was quite amazed how coherent he was. He also gave me a cookie and Elder Day a soda.

Saturday, we completed our progress record. We checked up on our single mother investigator; nothing. We went out and did some finding. We cannot help but feel our own finding efforts are finding. We run into people who met with missionaries and are not interested. The areas we are finding are areas that have been tracted many times, because it is the areas that we can reach. It is imperative for us to work with members, because it is the way that things are going to go forward in Staunton.

Looking at our wall of names of people baptized, for nearly a year, the people that have been baptized were through member referrals or member influence. We had dinner that night with the ward mission leader and then, we began the search for the one person who moved from the health center. We had an idea and followed through with it. We went to this one nursing home near the hospital and ended up talking to the receptionist for nearly an hour. There is some potential there, so we will have to follow up. We gave her a Book of Mormon and several pass along cards. We talked about, somewhat, the Book of Mormon and modern day revelation. She found it interesting. We then found the place where the member was, which is in the bottom of the hospital. She was so happy that we found her; once we walked in, she was like, "My soul brothers are here!" We talked to her for a while about things going on and what she has been up to other than moving. She is happy to be there, because, to her, the food is nutritious among other things. She was quite happy.

Sunday, we had productive Church meetings;
I am waiting to see the actions that will happen.

I believe, as well as Elder Day, that the members' perspective on missionaries and us are changing, hopefully for the better. We were able to lay down ideas and take up action. We gave the sacrament to that member in the hospital. We later returned to give somebody a blessing. We usually go to the hospital every so many weeks; looks like we are going to be making rounds there. From that, we tried to visit people, but came up empty.

Things are starting to go forward. I foresee a lot of things coming to pass.

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

I Deliberately Sneezed! - éternuer - niesen - чхати - nyse - עֲטִישָׁה - чихать

An LDS missionary, somewhere in Virginia, deliberately sneezes.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Let me begin with my back situation. I go to the doctor and I am in the room immediately. He comes in and asks me the story of what is wrong with back, what happened, etc. I told him what has occurred since July and about how sneezing made it worse. 

Now get this, he asked me, "You just randomly sneezed?" 

Sarcastic Answer: "No, doctor, I deliberately sneezed." 

(Do not worry, I said yes and not the sarcastic answer.) After getting my story, he walks over to me-- mind you, I am on that bench, bed thing and my legs are at 90 degrees-- and straightens my leg to 180 degrees. Then, he asked me where it hurts, which, of course, my leg and back were on fire at that point. I am also sure he could tell that I was in pain when my eyes nearly bulged out from him straightening my leg. (And if I was not in pain at that point, then I sure was and there after.) Once discovering that, he tells me he will be right back. 

Time passes and he comes back in with another doctor. My diagnosis? Herniated disc. Tomorrow, I get to go back to the hospital and get an MRI that will show where my herniated disc is and if I actually have one. Once confirmed, I get to consider treatment options. Do not worry or panic. The doctor is good, despite the silly questions and inflicting pain. It is me. I still do not like doctors and I have my reasons for that.

That is good about my driver's license. (His renewal can be done online.) I remember last time, I believe, before I left we did try to extend it. They just said that I would have to wait. At least we have made progress in that regard. 

It sounds like my dog is who she is and trying to make friends. Keep an eye on her, please, as I know you have been doing.

My week was good. On Monday, we Met the Mormons ("Meet the Mormons" showing in theaters but privately shown to missionaries.) before I came to email. With that movie, we are not allowed to be near theaters or watch it in theaters. For us missionaries, they still wanted us to see it, to talk about it with members. It is a good little film that shows 6 actual members living the gospel standards. Some break the ideas that people have of Mormons. Some show how we benefit those around us. I definitely liked it. Our lunch appointment that day turned into a dinner appointment. We also finished with combing through the potential records. The potential records are officially divided and we have started going through our list. No success so far.

Tuesday, we had some cleaning to do and we tackled a closet and organized it. We also tried seeing one of our less actives, but it did not turn out. We tried contacting a few other people, but it did not turn out, except for one. One person answered the door (a less active) and she did not let us in, but did tell us what days are best for her and her non-member husband. After that, we both agreed it would be great for us to try that house again. She had potential; the Spirit was strong about that. Normally, I do not get that feeling. We stopped by a few people after our dinner appointment; one of them who is the returning member who has overcome health issues.

Wednesday, we had our district meeting. The ward mission leader took us; he was fighting falling asleep. So was I. I did not sleep good that night. I have been able to fight falling asleep in cars, but I have been more and more exhausted lately and I am reverting back to sleeping while as a passenger. My companion was in the back seat while the two of us in the front were falling asleep. On the way back to Petersburg, we had correlation. When the assistant ward mission leader took us out for dinner, we went to see people instead of heading to the church. One person was not happy at all in seeing us, because we did not call ahead and he was eating dinner. All of the people we tried to see were not answering their doors. Finally, I decided, based on a prompting, that we go see the returning member who has overcome health issues. It turned out to be a good visit.

Thursday, we had interviews with the mission president. It was the usual interview. I agree that we should not overly abandon tracting Colonial Heights and surrounding areas, but I am still adamant in storming Dinwiddie. I have a strong feeling about it. (The thing is, my companion likes finding potentials; it is his favorite form of tracting. I am working around that.) We tried to see people after the interviews and lunch. Then, I had my doctor's appointment.

Friday, we planned and went over the potentials. We tried discussing things. We tried to see some more less actives. Not much happened on Friday. Neither on Saturday. There was a child of record baptism and we were in charge of filling the font. Filling the font took 5 hours, as per usual. (It takes five hours, because people want the water warm and we have a energy efficient water heater, which means water heating takes a while.)

Sunday, we had church. A less active who is permanently stuck here made it to church once again. Hopefully, she can keep at it. We tried finding more potentials and had some success of at least meeting them. Then, we had dinner over at the family (or as I feel bad in calling them as I did, the family who feeds us a lot). Dad's bestest friend (a recent convert who shares on Facebook a love of soccer, Southern manners and the topic of the "rapture") was there and we taught her about tithing.

Columbus Day, the library and post office was closed. The schools were open, which was different. We cleaned and rested. I made my companion a grilled cheese and a milkshake. I put seasoned salt and basil on the bread. Well, I oversalted it and cooking it got rid of the seasoned part of the salt. So, it was a bit salty. Then, I slightly burnt one side of the bread, which he scraped off. I gave him potato chips, which are overly salty. Dinner, needless to say, was salty. He was so cautious of eating it, because he did not watch me cook it and previous experiences with companions and them cooking meals for him have turned not for the best for him. (I guess it does not help that I have scared him a lot, but he scares easily). After dinner, we headed to the church, where we received info about a returning member. We tried another recent convert and his wife. He was awake, but she was not. We helped him with obtaining a LDS account on lds.org. He ordered scriptures.

Those calls are this weekend. I am not guessing this time. I have no idea what is going to happen. For all I know, I could be gone. My companion sure thinks I am gone. When members have been asking about transfers, he tells them when they are and that I am mostly likely gone (or "he's [referring to me] gone and I am staying"). He is even acting like I am leaving. I am going to hold off on making guesses.

All is well!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

P.S. Really, Sweets? (Reference to the TV show "Bones.") That is sad. Either you were going to tell me or eventually somebody was going to tell me. Also, do not worry about feeling out of the loop. I feel out of the loop most of the time. Not sure if that makes you feel better, but just know that I also know what it is like. And so does Somebody else.