Just Keep On Moving
Monday, May 4, 2015
Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,
The ipads are coming, the ipads are coming... and I am not really caring about that. Yes, the news has been broken that at last our mission will have ipads, but seeing as I am going home soon, I do not get to keep one. With this news, it means that we are going to have meetings... lots and lots of meetings.
We have a place to Skype; we, three, are working out the times. Elder Day's time it seems will be 3:15 to 4:15 our time. Elder Hansen will be at 7. So, I am most likely in the middle. I will talk to the people that allowed us to come over; most likely it will be about 4:25 when I Skype you.
Again, expect a large package.
I asked Sister Hendricksen about my back and after the mission. She said that when I get home, I will have a much better bed (and to have a good bed in general), so I will be feeling a lot better. Plus, I will not be sitting as much when I get home, so my back will not be under so much pressure.
I will have to keep on with my stretches. If I ever need physical therapy, then I should look into something called TENS (or something like that), which is pretty much electrodes to the back to break the pain. I should not look into surgery, unless it is drastic.
This week... well, we had a lot of meetings (or so it seems) and I had a cold. It started out as a cold and sore throat; I beat the sore throat through much Vitamin C and lemonade. Why did I not take medicine? Well, as I discovered, medicine expires. I took a Nyquil Nighttime and I took a sinus daytime (not at the same time, obviously). Then, I looked at the box and oh, Nyquil expired in September and sinus expired last month. By the end of the week, I was getting better. Though, my mucus turned to liquid and would gush out when I bowed my head. In turn, it would cause me to sneeze much. Too much. My back was crying uncle from it. Thank goodness, I found some Benadryl, which stopped it completely. I am much, much better, though I am recovering from sneezing. My back is sore, not injured further.
Our mileage suffered (missionaries are allotted a certain number of miles per month as vehicles are swapped out over time) along with much of the zone; and also much of North America and South America.
Other than that, it was a good week.
Monday, we went out and did some finding.
Tuesday, we went out with the truck driver member, who takes us out to see less actives that we cannot access. Thank goodness. We were able to talk to the one less active, who we started going over the lessons with (the one who wanted to help build up his testimony again). He lives with his brother now, which is good, except his brother lives far, far way, but in our area. His brother requested that we come by and bless his home. We did so, though he was not present for it. We returned afterwards, took care of some business, and had dinner. We taught the student of Ms. Mary; or at least continued to help her as she is on the gospel path. She worried that she got me sick, because she got sick before I did. A lot of people have been sick lately, so it is expected that I would get sick.
Wednesday, due to meetings and service, we decided to have an early session of weekly planning. Afterwards, we stopped by the elderly man, whose daughter we helped out a few weeks ago. Again, he is prepared and this time, he became a new investigator. He asked a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation and other things of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were able to answer his questions and he was satisfied. He likes us to come by and to have these discussions. It is one step forward. After this lesson, we headed home to change before performing service, which was mulching, again.
Well, we got a text from the other recent convert asking if we were having a lesson in a short bit. We said no, then she flipped on us, because she had sent a text to us and that sort of thing. Well, that is our phone. We were having phone problems, because we had no record of such text or record of any texts from her in general (though we sent a text to her in the past). We were able to get that resolved with her and made her content once more. The Spanish elders needed a third male, so I went with them to a lesson. Unfortunately, their lesson cancelled.
Thursday, we had a lesson with a less active at the church. He is the man who we received from the assistants to the president and we met at the church when I and Elder Day first got here. I had to blow my nose a few times, but it was a good lesson. He knew what he needed to do in order to get back in step. Then, we had day one out of three of meetings. It was a zone workshop, so it was our zone only. Elder Short is not part of our zone, but the neighboring zone. The zone workshop was good.
We were able to discuss a new way to use the pamphlets and to introduce the Book of Mormon. After this meeting, we had dinner with a member. We talked to our African American lady in the health center and our somewhat unbalanced man. The man just had surgery for his cancer. He is doing much better... though he was talking about a Merona Manning and his silver plates that he buried that we will not see, but do follow the small lights to get there??? We were able to help another less active family, who do know what they need to be doing and what their goal needs to be.
Friday, we had a zone meeting and day two of three of meetings. We will have day three tomorrow (Tuesday) and I will see Elder Short, then fulfilling my quest of hugging Elder Short for his sister. After the meeting, we took care of our progress record. We did some finding and also saw again our drama student of Ms. Mary.
Saturday, we did service for a member, whom we had given a blessing. She needed a few things moved onto a truck for an auction. I cleaned chairs, because she understood back pains. We had a lesson with our lady who is progressing and has a child. She has a desire to be baptized, though she understands what things are preventing her. We attempted to help her to see what she needs to do, but the lesson was not all together. We will have to help her to understand some things.
Sunday, we had church. It was stressful getting people rides, which is usually stressful. But, there was some miscommunication and people were missed. We plan on doing better.
Our befuddled man came to church, though we lost him twice. Once, because we did not have the gospel principles class and nobody told us that we were not having gospel principles. One of the Spanish elders and I went looking for him and eventually found him in the gospel doctrine class where everybody was. Then, during priesthood, we lost him, but he had gone to the restroom, unknowingly to us. Later that day, we contacted people and did some finding.
It was a fun week. I am excited for what this week holds.
All is well!
Love,
Elder S. Todd
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,
Well, there are rules with the good news of going to the temple.( For interested individuals, a rabbi tours the inside of a Mormon temple: http://www.jewishaz.com/community/what-i-learned-from-visiting-the-new-mormon-temple/article_fab9f51c-82db-11e3-b97b-001a4bcf6878.html )
The rules:
"Missionaries are able to attend the temple under the following circumstances:
1- The endowment or sealing of a new or returning member when the missionary had a substantial role in the conversion. Only one companionship may attend, if invited by the member.
2- An end-of-mission visit with the mission president and his wife.
Missionaries who qualify above must also meet these standards:
1- Be able to depart and return on the same day and be back serving in their area by 6:00 p.m. No more than two hours one-way travel time is recommended.
2- Travel with a member and not use a mission vehicle.
3- Attend on their preparation day or switch their preparation day to accommodate the temple schedule.
4- Receive advance approval from the mission president."
So, it is a bit difficult, but at least some day I will go. Some day. But, still, despite the rules, I am excited.
The drought is bad (in California). That does not sound good at all. The weather seems, to put it metaphorically, bipolar. In the same way, Virginia is like that. One week it is warm, or at least the humidity makes it feel warm. Then, it goes cold by the next week. Take for example, this week it was warm. Last week, we had some days that were a bit chilly. Now, it is going way cold into the single digits with snow. It should snow by 11 this morning. I am waiting.
And yes, I am using the gears( read his previous letter home below). It still takes a while for me to get up the hills. I am exercising. Yeah, it will take me a while. But, it is going a bit quicker. I still am learning the area. It is quite simple. I have it nearly down.
With this ward (congregation), we have an excellent ward mission leader, who wants us to communicate more effectively with the congregation as well as with him. I am trying to help out. I am trying to be on top of things. Some things I cannot worry about; there are things I can do.
Everyone (two sets of male missionaries) in the same house belongs to the same congregation. No sister missionaries in this congregation. All are biking, which I do not mind. There are pros and cons to both a car or a bike. One thing I do not have to worry about is miles which are restricted on cars, thankfully.
This week was a bit slow in the sense of work. I am working hard and I am knocking on doors a lot. I have seen people who are mildly interested, atheists, those who think I do not know anything, and those who like to point out their NO SOLICITORS sign. Yes, people are very much interesting. I do my best to change my approach at each door and to testify always. As I once put it, I like F.A.T door approaches: "Make your approaches FLOW, ADAPT to the situation, and TESTIFY always." It works for me and I try to look around me to enlighten myself about what this person might be like or if it is a family or whatever. Hey, what I am doing is planting a seed. It is what it is.
The members here are very nice. I try to help them out, hopefully they will realize our efforts and what we are doing. It feels as though it is a political game sometimes, trying to demonstrate that we are doing work with or without their help.
Oh, and yesterday, I sent letters of the same kind to family. (Some I am still working on.) Well, actually, I just put some in the mailbox and forgot that it was a federal holiday. So, some time, you will receive a letter.
I hope this week goes well. Things will be worked out. Always be obedient.
All is well.
Love,
Elder S. Todd
P.S. I have been locking the door and turning off the lights, much to the dismay and frustration of my companion. But, yes the Following! On Christmas, with the Hairs (the place where I was able to communicate with you), after my communication calls, Sister Hair brought up "The Following" and how Brother Hair got into it somewhat. I was a bit excited, because it has a good story-line as you know. She could see my emotions and said, "Wow, I have never seen you so excited." Then, a person who is a potential told of us when he moved here to Woodbridge that the Lorraina Bobbitt incident (if that is how spell her name) had just occurred. After hearing that and away from the potential investigator, I turned around to my companion and said, "Wow, there is so much history here!" And I told him about Lorraina Bobbitt and others that I know were around here. To which, he replied, "I do not know how you find it fascinating."
Yes, I know I am abnormal in that sense. What honestly interests me is the question of why. What is the motivation. Then, there is the question of justice. Please understand that , because I am not crazy at all (we, as his parents do). I just like good revealing stories and criminal justice.
And I am always excited for the missionary work.
(Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have a sense of humor. Even the person we call the prophet or president of our church shares his humor so the following is an inside joke for my LDS readers playing on "the army of Helaman):
