July 21, 2014
Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,
(Seth's mother and father took a trip to Salt Lake City where his sister lives. His mother attended a retreat with about 240 other mothers of missionaries. Together they spent time with his sister who works at Olympic Park in Park city, Utah.) It sounds like you had a lot of fun. I imagine it was a lot of fun hearing about
 |
| Salt Lake City LDS Temple |
I am glad to hear the dogs are doing well. My week was up and then utterly crashed down in a spiral. I found my planner Monday night, which was good. I am glad to have found it. Not much really happened on Monday, anyways.
Tuesday, I had a little fun. To our surprise, we had district meeting on Tuesday. As I was getting ready for it, I remembered we had something in our cupboard. A few weeks earlier, I found some dog treats in our little downstairs closet. It was a surprise and having no clue what to do with them, I put them in the cupboard. Well, Tuesday, I put them in a plastic bag; they are meat looking treats and do not look too edible. My companion was quite aware of what I was doing. The treats smelled like what they are supposed to (dog treats), which would have given it away. So, I put some chicken spice on them and the spice was so strong that it removed the odor of dog treats. We go to district meeting and our district leader and companion show up. I told them about this California delicacy called Mexican Meat Nuggets that I received in my Hump Day package. (Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?) Now, they did not have a funny reaction, but to my surprise, they were willing. Once I told them about this delicacy, they willingly ate it. It took no goading or extra persuasion. The district leader ate it first and I quickly burst into laughter that I ran out. His companion followed after the district leader and later complained that he could still taste them. I did tell them what it was that they actually ate. The district leader told me it was not the first time he ate dog treats.
 |
| The Mormon Tabernacle Choir |
The rest of the Tuesday was spent driving to go see people. We had received a few weeks ago a referral for a lady who wanted a German Book of Mormon. We received the referral, but no Book of Mormon (however, with the referral, we did receive a German, "The Family: A Proclamation"). My companion ordered the book and we got it on Monday.
Tuesday, we were driving to her house. On the way there, a bird flew into our car; no blood, just a plume of feathers. We knocked on her door and she let us in. She did not say much, but she was in pain due to a recent dental procedure. We were not able to talk much. One more note, our phone speaks to us in Spanish (it reads the words), it meows at us when we receive a text, and it moans at us to get up in the morning. While we were there, somebody sent a text, so our phone meowed at us. The lady was surprised, because she thought her cat just meowed. We had to briefly explain. Later that Tuesday, we had dinner at a member's with our investigator who is being baptized. It poured (rained) in sheets while we were there and the power threatened to go out. It was a really good time.
 |
| Seth's sister |
Wednesday, I was a feeling a bit sore from working out on Tuesday. I pushed through it and worked on some more. It hurt a lot more afterward. Well, correlation did not happen due to our ward mission leader being at work. He called on Tuesday, because he wanted to hear from our district leader, whom he previously challenged. We received dinner, which ended up giving me a stomach ache. It was the beginning of the end.
Thursday, I woke up, extremely sore from previous brilliance of working out when sore. It hurt to move the entire day that occasionally my muscle would tense up a bit. My throat was also sore and I began to take ill. And my stomach was fine for a while. I was so exhausted from doing little things. I took three naps that day, because I was that exhausted. Our dinner that night gave me a lot of cough drops and Vitamin C supplements. They said I looked terrible. When I got home, I crashed. I drank water a lot in an attempt to relieve my muscles from their burden.
Friday, still sick, no longer sore (just a little), and my stomach clear. We helped somebody move and it was simple. We did not finish that day. We had lunch with those people and they gave us bread, Kraft American Cheese (aka the infamous fake, plastic cheese)(It is just Seth's way of describing processed cheese where we buy the real California cheese.), and some meat. (Cheese, when bitten into, should blend with the other layers of cheese, but rather, it should still be recognizable layer different from the other layers of cheese. Also, cheese should be compliment, not the only thing you taste.) A member later took us out to eat at some Mexican restaurant. I do miss good Mexican food and this was somewhat close to it. I enjoyed it.
Saturday, I still had a sore throat and it hurt to swallow. The Target Daytime stuff gratefully numbed my throat. We finished the move, which consisted of moving furniture and them still packing along the way. And then, something sad happened. My watch got snagged on one of the couches that I had to move. Thankfully, it did not break like I thought it probably should have. No, rather one of the pins for the links fell out, so the watch fell off my wrist. I am currently watch-less and I occassionaly stare at my wrist before I realize there is no watch. I will have to go to Target and have them fix it. It should be an easy fix. The watch, to begin with, was really loose, but still stayed on my wrist. In theory, if they reduce the size of the watch by one set of links, they could use one of those pins to fix the watch and I would have a watch again. (Yes, my watch has been loose this entire time. I tried going to Wal-mart, the blessed place I shop cheaply, to shorten it, but they refused to do it, only because I bought it at Target. I had to put it on my left hand, so President would not get his fingers stuck in my watch. It happened one time apparently.) The rest of Saturday we spent partially on hunting down a baptismal suit for Alexis. We found one, but have yet to obtain it.
We moved out of Petersburg. So, yes, we are officially in Colonial Heights. They closed the apartment in Petersburg. Elder Medsker made that official. Sunday, we had church, had lunch, and got a free haircut from a member. It was a blessing for the both of us. My companion has not been sleeping all too well. So, we got home about six and had some dinner. He crashed for about three hours before going to bed around 10. We have not been doing too well. However, I have the feeling that this week will actually be better and we will actually move forward. Perhaps this past four weeks was a test and trial of patience. I feel that now is the right time and now is the time to go forward. In fact, we have been blessed with a P-day where we actually have nothing other than a couple of chores to do plus laundry. Things will go forward this week. I am feeling less sick. My throat is no longer sore, although I have an annoying cough that spurs when something "tickles" it.
All is well!
Love, Elder S. Todd
