Hola mis amigos.
Like the title to the email says, I have already been away from home for four months. I really can't believe that. The time is going by way too fast. I got to the MTC thinking that two years would be forever, but I blink and I'm a sixth of the way through. Man, time is so unforgiving sometimes. Well, that's enough of my time spiel.
I've got the wonderful news that we have a baptism date at last. We've been working with an awesome investigator from our now-defunct English classes, and we challenged her to be baptized. She said she still has to learn, but we know that she'll be ready when the time comes. I'm really very excited for this. We also got a new investigator who has a ton of questions about life. He has been going through some really tough times in his life, and we think that the Gospel is just what he needs, especially since he has the question of which church would be the best for him. We're going to keep working with him, and see if we can get his questions answered.
As for me, I've got a cool story. On Sunday night, my companion was outside doing jump rope, and we say a preying mantis walking by. We caught it, and stuck it in an empty pretzel jar. His name is Max, and he's awesome. Yesterday, we put a moth and a pill bug in the jar, and when we came back, only the wings and the pill bug's shell were left. I even got video of when he caught the moth in his scythes. It was cool. Maybe you'll get to see it when I said my SD card back. But, I've still got a ton of pictures that need to be taken, so we'll see.
Well, that's my update. I hope all is well with all of you, and I look forward to more great weeks here in the SF Mission.
Les amo
Elder Shepherd
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
One more week gone, three more investigators
Hey everyone,
So conference this weekend was awesome. I actually found it easier to listen in on it this time than I ever had in the past. Let's face it, if you are able to sit in on over four hours of class in the MTC every day, you are able to withstand practically anything. That, however, didn't stop me from getting a little heavy-eyed. I tried so hard not to fall asleep, but sometimes, the body does what the body does. I didn't fall all the way asleep though. And I did get some great messages out of the apostles and First Presidency. It really was awesome, and hopefully I won't fall asleep, I mean, shut my eyes the next conference.
As for the area, we have just finished our English classes, and two of the regular students asked us to keep teaching them privately. Naturally, we're going to be teaching them English, but we're also using it as prime time to teach them the gospel. One of them had actually come in contact with missionaries before, and had a Book of Mormon. It was from forever ago, though, so we don't know whether she got dropped or not. We'll find out. As for the third, we were passing by a street one night, and she was out playing soccer with her son. We passed by, said hi, and found out she was actually being evicted from her house. She was housing a few friends, and they had agreed to pay their portion of the rent. But, she woke up one morning, and they were gone, and she couldn't pay, so she got evicted. We helped her move the next day, with the help of an awesome member, and she actually called us this morning to ask if we could stop by. If you ask me, that sounds pretty golden. I'm hoping that we pass by her soon and teach her more. As for our other investigators, it's becoming really hard to keep in contact with them, especially since Elder Houghton's bike got stolen. We've been forced to going on foot, which slows us down tremendously. We're just going to have to be a bit more careful with our planning. We're thinking about buying Razor Scooters, because they are cheap, you can take them into the house with you, and they're faster than walking. The other companionship in my apartment actually already have scooters, so we're thinking of copying them. But, we'll see. I still have my bike, so I may not have to buy one.
That's about it for things going on around here. We are still working, and loving it. I really think that the mission is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's definitely the hardest thing ever, but it's the most rewarding ever. Well, that's my opus.
Elder Shepherd.
So conference this weekend was awesome. I actually found it easier to listen in on it this time than I ever had in the past. Let's face it, if you are able to sit in on over four hours of class in the MTC every day, you are able to withstand practically anything. That, however, didn't stop me from getting a little heavy-eyed. I tried so hard not to fall asleep, but sometimes, the body does what the body does. I didn't fall all the way asleep though. And I did get some great messages out of the apostles and First Presidency. It really was awesome, and hopefully I won't fall asleep, I mean, shut my eyes the next conference.
As for the area, we have just finished our English classes, and two of the regular students asked us to keep teaching them privately. Naturally, we're going to be teaching them English, but we're also using it as prime time to teach them the gospel. One of them had actually come in contact with missionaries before, and had a Book of Mormon. It was from forever ago, though, so we don't know whether she got dropped or not. We'll find out. As for the third, we were passing by a street one night, and she was out playing soccer with her son. We passed by, said hi, and found out she was actually being evicted from her house. She was housing a few friends, and they had agreed to pay their portion of the rent. But, she woke up one morning, and they were gone, and she couldn't pay, so she got evicted. We helped her move the next day, with the help of an awesome member, and she actually called us this morning to ask if we could stop by. If you ask me, that sounds pretty golden. I'm hoping that we pass by her soon and teach her more. As for our other investigators, it's becoming really hard to keep in contact with them, especially since Elder Houghton's bike got stolen. We've been forced to going on foot, which slows us down tremendously. We're just going to have to be a bit more careful with our planning. We're thinking about buying Razor Scooters, because they are cheap, you can take them into the house with you, and they're faster than walking. The other companionship in my apartment actually already have scooters, so we're thinking of copying them. But, we'll see. I still have my bike, so I may not have to buy one.
That's about it for things going on around here. We are still working, and loving it. I really think that the mission is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's definitely the hardest thing ever, but it's the most rewarding ever. Well, that's my opus.
Elder Shepherd.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A new week, a new transfer, a-nother bike stolen
So yeah
This is the beginning of the second week of the transfer. Where has the time been going? Things go by way too fast out here. But, I'll tell a little bit about what's happened out here. Which would be nothing. We're still working hard towards getting some of our investigators to baptism, but haven't been having much luck. Their schedules fluctuate so much that it's so hard to keep track of where everyone is at one time. So, things have mostly been the same for the past few weeks. But, I love the work I'm doing, so that's all that matters, right? As for the bike, it actually happened this morning. We had locked our bikes up to a pole for a lesson, and we knocked on the investigators door, hoping to get in. But, they didn't answer, and so we left. We were at the door for maybe 3 minutes, we came back, and Elder Houghton's bike was gone. He is not too happy with that. Thankfully, my bike was still there, which I'm really happy for. If it had been stolen, I don't know what I'd have done. But, the lock was stolen with it. I don't know why, considering how they had to break the lock to do it. But, these people are real weirdies sometimes, so I can't blame them. But, I'm still doing fine, and all is still well.
Elder Shepherd
This is the beginning of the second week of the transfer. Where has the time been going? Things go by way too fast out here. But, I'll tell a little bit about what's happened out here. Which would be nothing. We're still working hard towards getting some of our investigators to baptism, but haven't been having much luck. Their schedules fluctuate so much that it's so hard to keep track of where everyone is at one time. So, things have mostly been the same for the past few weeks. But, I love the work I'm doing, so that's all that matters, right? As for the bike, it actually happened this morning. We had locked our bikes up to a pole for a lesson, and we knocked on the investigators door, hoping to get in. But, they didn't answer, and so we left. We were at the door for maybe 3 minutes, we came back, and Elder Houghton's bike was gone. He is not too happy with that. Thankfully, my bike was still there, which I'm really happy for. If it had been stolen, I don't know what I'd have done. But, the lock was stolen with it. I don't know why, considering how they had to break the lock to do it. But, these people are real weirdies sometimes, so I can't blame them. But, I'm still doing fine, and all is still well.
Elder Shepherd
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
One transfer down, 15 more to go.
Just for the record, I'm not going to begin every new transfer email with that line. I'm only doing it to show that I'm no longer in my first transfer. For those who may not know, a transfer is a six-week period that you serve in your proselyting area. At the end of six weeks, you are either transferred to a new area, given a leadership calling, or simply stay in your area. I'm staying in my area, so my address is going to be the same until Nov. 1st, at least.
As far as the work goes, not too much has been going on. I will say, though, that we got ourselves in a very interesting lesson with some people who claimed to have Christ in their lives, but not organized religion. Seriously? If there's no organization, it's chaos. Anyone remember what happened in Lord of the Flies, perchance? Ah, whatever. I don't care too much. They said that if it's not in the Bible, they won't believe it. We could've shown them verses in the Bible that say that there was other scripture to come forth, but they wouldn't have believed us anyway. We dropped them like a hot potato, unfortunately. It really kills me when some people think that the Gospel is seriously not important enough for them to listen to. It bugs me, but people aren't forced to change, so life goes on.
I really don't have anything else to comment on, so I'll catch you all later.
As far as the work goes, not too much has been going on. I will say, though, that we got ourselves in a very interesting lesson with some people who claimed to have Christ in their lives, but not organized religion. Seriously? If there's no organization, it's chaos. Anyone remember what happened in Lord of the Flies, perchance? Ah, whatever. I don't care too much. They said that if it's not in the Bible, they won't believe it. We could've shown them verses in the Bible that say that there was other scripture to come forth, but they wouldn't have believed us anyway. We dropped them like a hot potato, unfortunately. It really kills me when some people think that the Gospel is seriously not important enough for them to listen to. It bugs me, but people aren't forced to change, so life goes on.
I really don't have anything else to comment on, so I'll catch you all later.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
A new week, some new investigators.
Hey everyone
So this week has been way too fast. I barely blinked last week at email time, and now I'm sitting here in the library, writing out another email. The time goes by way too fast. But, I'll give the quick rundown of what is going on here in Van Nuys.
Like the title said, we've been finding a lot, and got some great new investigators. One of them is the Escriba family. They were contacted about a year ago by missionaries, and they were forgotten or something. It's really solid teaching them. They've accepted a Book of Mormon, and we're going to check on them tonight to see whether they have been doing their family reading, and teach them a lesson. However, with new investigators, comes some dropped ones. We have not been able to get in contact with Tony for a while, and so we've dropped her. I feel really bad about that. We're trying desperately to get in contact with Rosi's full family, but she's usually working. I hate jobs, now. Always interrupting the work. But, we haven't dropped them yet, so we're working on them. Also, yesterday, on P-Day, after 6:00 and we were out tracting, we taught 2 lessons. That's actually really good for a P-Day. We're hoping that something good comes out of those lessons.
That's basically it for the people, now for experiences, directly form my journal. On Thursday, we knocked a door, and the woman living there was being taught by two Jehovah's Witnesses. We joined the conversation, but didn't get to teach anything. They were on the soapbox, and we just sat back. From what Elder Houghton told me, they were teaching a good majority of the same doctrine we believe in, other than God is Jehovah, Jesus is just a prophet, and only 144,000 people will be redeemed in the Kindgom of Heaven. It was wierd, because we wanted to talk, but didn't get the chance. We did learn, though, not to teach like them. One of the women hogged the entire lesson, and read it entirely from a scripted JW book. It was funny, almost. But it was mostly boring. Great lesson for our teaching later on. On friday we had Zone Conference. I wasn't really listening that much :) , but I did get some good parts out of it. Thank heavens we had that though, because when we came back, our bikes were stolen. Yeah, that sucks. But all is good now. One of the soon-to-be-departing missionaries gave me his bike, and we are good. (Mom, Dad, don't you dare send me money to buy a new bike) Then, on Saturday, Elder McElderry woke up, and told us something wierd that happened while he was asleep. He was talking in his sleep, and Elder Ball said, "First, you said, 'No tiene nada!' (You don't have anything!), then, he growled, and said, 'Shiver me timbers!'" I laughed SO HARD at that. Ahh, the funny things that happen in a mission. Also, our black widow spider has made an egg sack. Everyone is getting pretty tense about that. We taped the lid shut, but Elder Houghton wants it burned. I kinda want to see it hatch. But, I don't know. We'll probably burn it.
That's about it for what's been happening out here, and I look forward to writing more next week. Talk to all of you later.
Elder Shepherd
So this week has been way too fast. I barely blinked last week at email time, and now I'm sitting here in the library, writing out another email. The time goes by way too fast. But, I'll give the quick rundown of what is going on here in Van Nuys.
Like the title said, we've been finding a lot, and got some great new investigators. One of them is the Escriba family. They were contacted about a year ago by missionaries, and they were forgotten or something. It's really solid teaching them. They've accepted a Book of Mormon, and we're going to check on them tonight to see whether they have been doing their family reading, and teach them a lesson. However, with new investigators, comes some dropped ones. We have not been able to get in contact with Tony for a while, and so we've dropped her. I feel really bad about that. We're trying desperately to get in contact with Rosi's full family, but she's usually working. I hate jobs, now. Always interrupting the work. But, we haven't dropped them yet, so we're working on them. Also, yesterday, on P-Day, after 6:00 and we were out tracting, we taught 2 lessons. That's actually really good for a P-Day. We're hoping that something good comes out of those lessons.
That's basically it for the people, now for experiences, directly form my journal. On Thursday, we knocked a door, and the woman living there was being taught by two Jehovah's Witnesses. We joined the conversation, but didn't get to teach anything. They were on the soapbox, and we just sat back. From what Elder Houghton told me, they were teaching a good majority of the same doctrine we believe in, other than God is Jehovah, Jesus is just a prophet, and only 144,000 people will be redeemed in the Kindgom of Heaven. It was wierd, because we wanted to talk, but didn't get the chance. We did learn, though, not to teach like them. One of the women hogged the entire lesson, and read it entirely from a scripted JW book. It was funny, almost. But it was mostly boring. Great lesson for our teaching later on. On friday we had Zone Conference. I wasn't really listening that much :) , but I did get some good parts out of it. Thank heavens we had that though, because when we came back, our bikes were stolen. Yeah, that sucks. But all is good now. One of the soon-to-be-departing missionaries gave me his bike, and we are good. (Mom, Dad, don't you dare send me money to buy a new bike) Then, on Saturday, Elder McElderry woke up, and told us something wierd that happened while he was asleep. He was talking in his sleep, and Elder Ball said, "First, you said, 'No tiene nada!' (You don't have anything!), then, he growled, and said, 'Shiver me timbers!'" I laughed SO HARD at that. Ahh, the funny things that happen in a mission. Also, our black widow spider has made an egg sack. Everyone is getting pretty tense about that. We taped the lid shut, but Elder Houghton wants it burned. I kinda want to see it hatch. But, I don't know. We'll probably burn it.
That's about it for what's been happening out here, and I look forward to writing more next week. Talk to all of you later.
Elder Shepherd
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Letter to home on 9/7
Hey everyone.
I'm trying something new this week. I'm going to give a quick report of what has happened this past week, and send that to all of you. I'm not sure what it'll result, but I'm going to give it a quick go.
As for what has happened this past week, we've really been going at it. We found a new family to teach. The father is Jorge, and he lives with his two children, and possibly his mother. We've taught them the first lesson, and plan to continue to teach them more. They sound really solid. He has a lot of questions about the church, and agreed with us when we showed him the Restoration movie, saying, "Yeah, it's kinda like Joseph Smith said. How can we know which church is true if there are so many?" I'm getting really excited for them.
We also found another family that was contacted about a year ago, started taking the lessons, the missionaries were transferred out, and the new ones never got in contact with them. We ran into them again with a tract, and we're going to be teaching them again. They said that they've been reading the BoM together ever since we came back, and so I'm getting really excited.
Also, our other family, Rosi and them. We haven't been able to get a solid appointment in where all of them can be together at the same time. We taught their son and daughter last night, but we didn't cover a ton. Because, well, they're 12 and 17. Not too much that we can work with there. But, we'll continue to stop by, and teach them more. I'm hoping for a good breakthrough with them soon.
Our other investigator, Tony, we haven't been able to see her recently. She works late-night shifts, and sleeps a majority of the day, and so she's really hard to get in touch with. We haven't talked to her for a while, and I'm itching to get back and teach her more. It's so odd to me that the mission can do this much to me, but it's cool.
That's basically the gist of what's happened. Yesterday, for P-day, though, we went to the Burbank Town Center, which is a huge indoor/outdoor mall. That was fun, and while we were there, I bought a game of Settlers of Catan. I miss playing that game, and so it'll be fun to be able to play it on P-Days. I'm trying to remember some event that happened this past week, but I can't really think of it at this point. If I remember it, I'll include it in next week's email. But, until next time, talk to y'alls later. (My trainer is from Texas, and he's been using that word a while. It's creeping into my head. :S)
I'm trying something new this week. I'm going to give a quick report of what has happened this past week, and send that to all of you. I'm not sure what it'll result, but I'm going to give it a quick go.
As for what has happened this past week, we've really been going at it. We found a new family to teach. The father is Jorge, and he lives with his two children, and possibly his mother. We've taught them the first lesson, and plan to continue to teach them more. They sound really solid. He has a lot of questions about the church, and agreed with us when we showed him the Restoration movie, saying, "Yeah, it's kinda like Joseph Smith said. How can we know which church is true if there are so many?" I'm getting really excited for them.
We also found another family that was contacted about a year ago, started taking the lessons, the missionaries were transferred out, and the new ones never got in contact with them. We ran into them again with a tract, and we're going to be teaching them again. They said that they've been reading the BoM together ever since we came back, and so I'm getting really excited.
Also, our other family, Rosi and them. We haven't been able to get a solid appointment in where all of them can be together at the same time. We taught their son and daughter last night, but we didn't cover a ton. Because, well, they're 12 and 17. Not too much that we can work with there. But, we'll continue to stop by, and teach them more. I'm hoping for a good breakthrough with them soon.
Our other investigator, Tony, we haven't been able to see her recently. She works late-night shifts, and sleeps a majority of the day, and so she's really hard to get in touch with. We haven't talked to her for a while, and I'm itching to get back and teach her more. It's so odd to me that the mission can do this much to me, but it's cool.
That's basically the gist of what's happened. Yesterday, for P-day, though, we went to the Burbank Town Center, which is a huge indoor/outdoor mall. That was fun, and while we were there, I bought a game of Settlers of Catan. I miss playing that game, and so it'll be fun to be able to play it on P-Days. I'm trying to remember some event that happened this past week, but I can't really think of it at this point. If I remember it, I'll include it in next week's email. But, until next time, talk to y'alls later. (My trainer is from Texas, and he's been using that word a while. It's creeping into my head. :S)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Andy, Ferrari & Susan
Hey All!
First off, Details have been a bit sparse from me concerning the field, so I'll try and cover everything I can remember. When I got here, I was taken directly from the airport to the mission home. It's a nice house about a half hour from here. While there, I met President and Sister Martin. They are both pretty cool. Sister Martin has a funny running joke among everyone about eating fiber. Just to say I am, I've bought double fiber bread. Won't she be proud? I've never been so regular before. (TMI, yo se) We went through (boring) orientations, and I met my companion/trainer, Elder Houghton. Later that day, we came back to the apartment, had dinner, and went to English classes. Those were very fun, and still are. That's pretty much it for my first day.
Now, about Elder Houghton. He's from Dallas, Texas. He grew up a Mormon, but attended a Jewish private school. He has a strong testimony, and a strong work ethic. He's been pushing me out of my comfort zone to train me, and although I'll hate him in the moment, it's all for my benefit, so he and I are cool. He's become one of my best friends, and I know I'll keep in contact with him after the mish. Also, we have two other elders living in our apartment. One is Elder Ball, and the other is Elder McElderry. Elder Ball actually lives in Farmington, and we went to Farmington Jr. and Viewmont together. He remembers me from Jr. High, but I didn't :P He acts a bit immaturely, but he's a hard worker. Elder McElderry is from Arkansas. I don't know a lot about him, but he's an excellent card magician. He knows tons of card tricks, and performs them to us routinely. I know what you're thinking "52 card decks aren't supposed to be owned by Elders." President Martin has no problem with it, so it's okay. He has a trick where he tells you to fan out an invisible deck of cards, pick out a card invisibly, "turn" it face up amongst the face down cards, put them back in the invisible box, and give it to him. You tell him your card, and he takes the invisible box, turns it visible (by turning up the box of cards he hides in his hand), pulls out the cards, fans them out face up, and notices one card face down among the pack, and oh my gosh, it's the card you "Picked" and "turned upside down." I have no idea how he does it, but it's freaky! And cool. I'll video it sometime, and send it to you guys. That's basically it for the Elders I live with.
Now for the apartment, and it's funny little quirks. It's a nice little apartment complex, and our apartment is actually pretty big. I don't want to guess in case I'm wrong. When you walk in, the kitchen is on the left, and the never-used table on the right. Just past those to the right is Elder Ball & McElderry's room and bathroom. To the left is the main living room. It's got two sofas, a weight set, a desk and a supplies cabinet. Left of that is our room. We clearly got the master bedroom because our bathroom is bigger, and the bedroom, and we have a huge walk-in closet. So I'm happy about that. Now some unique things... On the table is a bottle/pretzel jar that live black widow spiders in it. (With a lid on of course) There were originally 3 in it, and their names were Andy, Ferrari, and Susan. We caught a 4th one recently, and, because it's so huge, we names it Viagra, LOL! Anyways, we woke up one morning, and Viagra was eating Susan. So yeah, it's now Andy Ferrari and Viagra. So yeah, he's a little monster. Also, there was a hamster named James Lively here. Since he was escaping from his box a lot, and we didn't want or have time to take care of him, we gave him to another companionship. Also, my room's window is broken. I don't know how, but it is. It kinda sucks, but life goes on. That's basically my apartment in a nutshell.
My daily schedule is usually different every day, so I can't give a solid outline for what I do, but here it is. We wake up at 6:30pm, have breakfast, and just get ready for the day. At 8-11, studies. After that we go work. We usually return home around 1 or 2 for lunch. Then, we work some more until dinner around 6-7. Then, at 7:20, we go to the church for English classes. We've been doing them Monday thru Friday, and they're free. We're hoping to get them switched to investigator status soon, but I'm not seeing much progress with that. But, my comp says it's the right thing, so I can wait. Also I don't know who said I'd have a on of referrals, and that I wouldn't be tracting a whole lot, but we've got O referrals, and whenever we don't have appointments (Which usually they fall through, anyway) we're tracting. Not the vision I had, but it's ok. Just another day in paradise. Oh by the way, the members feed us every so often. A popular dish of theirs is called mole (pronounced mo-lay) DON'T EAT IT! It's their crappy spin-off of barbecue chicken. The sauce tastes like burnt chocolate mixed with some incredibly bitter food. It's terrible. But since we don't want to offend them, we eat it all, say it was awesome, and get out before they notice we start gagging. Also, we had dinner with a family last night (awesome members, BTW) and after I had eaten, I thought that the meat they used was odd in taste. Then, my companion leaned over, and said in a whisper, "Who did that DOG meat taste?" I acted calmly, and said, "I thought it tasted weird." So yes, I've eaten a puppy :'( I don't know IF it was a puppy, but it was dog! So that's my basic schedule.
As far as memorable experiences, here's three. First, on my second night here, we were leaving from dinner, and a priest walks by. Not knowing that fact, my comp goes up to contact him. Then, we get into a 10-minute bash about stuff Joseph Smith "prophesied" about that he said never came to pass, telling that all prophecies from prophets in the Bible came to pass. That's not true, but those guys never listen.
Second, we passed a minister on the street, started a contact, he said he didn't agree with points in the Book of Mormon. and how Joseph Smith told the saints to leave out west. About the Book of Mormon, Elder Houghton tried to get him to say what he didn't agree with, and he kept saying "It's personal." He just didn't have anything to say on that matter. As for the immigration, Elder Houghten explained that if they hadn't, they'd have been killed. He tried to re butt, but his argument was a shot. The last is the funniest! I started a contact with this guy passing by, while Elder Houghton was talking with someone else. He kept telling me to stop going around confusing people. After about 5 minutes, Elder Houghton joins in and I was very happy to give him the reins. I'd have probably been destroyed if I did it all alone. Anyway, this guy was saying how everyone gets the chance to hear the Gospel, or Christ, as he put it. Elder Houghton, who's actually been to Africa and Asia, said that there are tons of people who die over there without even knowing, "what a Christ is," and he tried to say that they never got the chance in this life. He tried to explain the Spirit World, but this guy wouldn't let us talk. He simply said, "No, No, they had their chance." We asked how. First, he said that since their parents had the chance, but rejected it, their children had the chance through them. What?? Then, he said that people went over to preach Christ to them. Elder Houghton reaffirmed the above point, and he just kept saying no. After about 15minutes of mostly him saying no, he said "Be quiet, Be quiet. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ." We shut up, all right. It was all we could do to keep from laughing. He said something, Elder Houghton tried to follow up, but we both saw he was a lost cause, and left him. The first thing I said was, "When he gets to the Spirit World, his reaction I would pay money to see." Ah, good times.
Well, Love all of dang y'all.
Elder Shepherd
First off, Details have been a bit sparse from me concerning the field, so I'll try and cover everything I can remember. When I got here, I was taken directly from the airport to the mission home. It's a nice house about a half hour from here. While there, I met President and Sister Martin. They are both pretty cool. Sister Martin has a funny running joke among everyone about eating fiber. Just to say I am, I've bought double fiber bread. Won't she be proud? I've never been so regular before. (TMI, yo se) We went through (boring) orientations, and I met my companion/trainer, Elder Houghton. Later that day, we came back to the apartment, had dinner, and went to English classes. Those were very fun, and still are. That's pretty much it for my first day.
Now, about Elder Houghton. He's from Dallas, Texas. He grew up a Mormon, but attended a Jewish private school. He has a strong testimony, and a strong work ethic. He's been pushing me out of my comfort zone to train me, and although I'll hate him in the moment, it's all for my benefit, so he and I are cool. He's become one of my best friends, and I know I'll keep in contact with him after the mish. Also, we have two other elders living in our apartment. One is Elder Ball, and the other is Elder McElderry. Elder Ball actually lives in Farmington, and we went to Farmington Jr. and Viewmont together. He remembers me from Jr. High, but I didn't :P He acts a bit immaturely, but he's a hard worker. Elder McElderry is from Arkansas. I don't know a lot about him, but he's an excellent card magician. He knows tons of card tricks, and performs them to us routinely. I know what you're thinking "52 card decks aren't supposed to be owned by Elders." President Martin has no problem with it, so it's okay. He has a trick where he tells you to fan out an invisible deck of cards, pick out a card invisibly, "turn" it face up amongst the face down cards, put them back in the invisible box, and give it to him. You tell him your card, and he takes the invisible box, turns it visible (by turning up the box of cards he hides in his hand), pulls out the cards, fans them out face up, and notices one card face down among the pack, and oh my gosh, it's the card you "Picked" and "turned upside down." I have no idea how he does it, but it's freaky! And cool. I'll video it sometime, and send it to you guys. That's basically it for the Elders I live with.
Now for the apartment, and it's funny little quirks. It's a nice little apartment complex, and our apartment is actually pretty big. I don't want to guess in case I'm wrong. When you walk in, the kitchen is on the left, and the never-used table on the right. Just past those to the right is Elder Ball & McElderry's room and bathroom. To the left is the main living room. It's got two sofas, a weight set, a desk and a supplies cabinet. Left of that is our room. We clearly got the master bedroom because our bathroom is bigger, and the bedroom, and we have a huge walk-in closet. So I'm happy about that. Now some unique things... On the table is a bottle/pretzel jar that live black widow spiders in it. (With a lid on of course) There were originally 3 in it, and their names were Andy, Ferrari, and Susan. We caught a 4th one recently, and, because it's so huge, we names it Viagra, LOL! Anyways, we woke up one morning, and Viagra was eating Susan. So yeah, it's now Andy Ferrari and Viagra. So yeah, he's a little monster. Also, there was a hamster named James Lively here. Since he was escaping from his box a lot, and we didn't want or have time to take care of him, we gave him to another companionship. Also, my room's window is broken. I don't know how, but it is. It kinda sucks, but life goes on. That's basically my apartment in a nutshell.
My daily schedule is usually different every day, so I can't give a solid outline for what I do, but here it is. We wake up at 6:30pm, have breakfast, and just get ready for the day. At 8-11, studies. After that we go work. We usually return home around 1 or 2 for lunch. Then, we work some more until dinner around 6-7. Then, at 7:20, we go to the church for English classes. We've been doing them Monday thru Friday, and they're free. We're hoping to get them switched to investigator status soon, but I'm not seeing much progress with that. But, my comp says it's the right thing, so I can wait. Also I don't know who said I'd have a on of referrals, and that I wouldn't be tracting a whole lot, but we've got O referrals, and whenever we don't have appointments (Which usually they fall through, anyway) we're tracting. Not the vision I had, but it's ok. Just another day in paradise. Oh by the way, the members feed us every so often. A popular dish of theirs is called mole (pronounced mo-lay) DON'T EAT IT! It's their crappy spin-off of barbecue chicken. The sauce tastes like burnt chocolate mixed with some incredibly bitter food. It's terrible. But since we don't want to offend them, we eat it all, say it was awesome, and get out before they notice we start gagging. Also, we had dinner with a family last night (awesome members, BTW) and after I had eaten, I thought that the meat they used was odd in taste. Then, my companion leaned over, and said in a whisper, "Who did that DOG meat taste?" I acted calmly, and said, "I thought it tasted weird." So yes, I've eaten a puppy :'( I don't know IF it was a puppy, but it was dog! So that's my basic schedule.
As far as memorable experiences, here's three. First, on my second night here, we were leaving from dinner, and a priest walks by. Not knowing that fact, my comp goes up to contact him. Then, we get into a 10-minute bash about stuff Joseph Smith "prophesied" about that he said never came to pass, telling that all prophecies from prophets in the Bible came to pass. That's not true, but those guys never listen.
Second, we passed a minister on the street, started a contact, he said he didn't agree with points in the Book of Mormon. and how Joseph Smith told the saints to leave out west. About the Book of Mormon, Elder Houghton tried to get him to say what he didn't agree with, and he kept saying "It's personal." He just didn't have anything to say on that matter. As for the immigration, Elder Houghten explained that if they hadn't, they'd have been killed. He tried to re butt, but his argument was a shot. The last is the funniest! I started a contact with this guy passing by, while Elder Houghton was talking with someone else. He kept telling me to stop going around confusing people. After about 5 minutes, Elder Houghton joins in and I was very happy to give him the reins. I'd have probably been destroyed if I did it all alone. Anyway, this guy was saying how everyone gets the chance to hear the Gospel, or Christ, as he put it. Elder Houghton, who's actually been to Africa and Asia, said that there are tons of people who die over there without even knowing, "what a Christ is," and he tried to say that they never got the chance in this life. He tried to explain the Spirit World, but this guy wouldn't let us talk. He simply said, "No, No, they had their chance." We asked how. First, he said that since their parents had the chance, but rejected it, their children had the chance through them. What?? Then, he said that people went over to preach Christ to them. Elder Houghton reaffirmed the above point, and he just kept saying no. After about 15minutes of mostly him saying no, he said "Be quiet, Be quiet. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ." We shut up, all right. It was all we could do to keep from laughing. He said something, Elder Houghton tried to follow up, but we both saw he was a lost cause, and left him. The first thing I said was, "When he gets to the Spirit World, his reaction I would pay money to see." Ah, good times.
Well, Love all of dang y'all.
Elder Shepherd
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