April 14, 2014

Hey Guys! So yeah mom if you can send a little extra so I can get some different soaps and detergents and such that would be cool. The mission doctor got me a prescription that should just get rid of it completely and also a cream to put on it twice a day. It's just really weird cause I've never dealt with this before. But it's cool I guess. I got a letter as well this past week from Alec too. It's funny cause he said he used to hate my advice cause he thought it was hypocritical cause it was when I was struggling and I only gave him the advice so he wouldn't have to go through the same stuff I did! haha But he's grateful for it now which I'm glad. Everyone is on a different path and a different time table that only the Lord is aware of.

So this past week was alright. Actually it was pretty good cause I learned things that have helped me a ton. Now the missionary work aspect isn't all that different here to be honest. It's kinda in the same cycle over and over again. Except for Dwayne. He is so sweet! But I'll tap into that in a bit.

So after conference I learned things that I needed to hear. And throughout the past week I've been trying to apply them a little more. THAT and I got a letter from Beecher which was exactly what I needed to hear cause it added to the other thoughts I've been having and then we had a Zone Meeting that helped a ton. So main focus through all of it was Gratitude. Bottom line. Which I always knew but like I think I mentioned before I've been trying to think of ways to finally break out of my "perfectionist" type cycle where I muster up the courage to give it my absolute best, fall short in one or two points, and then fall. and Fall hard! then repeat the cycle. and just get burnt out on trying and then just stay miserable and failing to enjoy the little moments that can pass by but have an incredible impact on our lives. So that's what I've focused on more and more, Even though this area is a little more difficult and isn't sprouting "immediate" results. I do know deep down that I am still doing the necessary parts of missionary work. I gotta keep reminding myself of what you said mom. Where in Westland, when I was struggling I was able to feel successful because of the efforts of some other missionary. And me and who I was and my personality were needed and saved for that specific time. Now it's my turn to pay it forward. I've grown more, understand more. Yes I'm still human and can be discouraged and disappointed because it is very hard sometimes to find so many people who are not ready at this moment to accept the gospel fully. We actually got dropped by Thayle and Everett Sunday morning while trying to get them to come to church. They're some of the nicest people I've met here and they say they "Know" that this isn't right for them. and right now it probably isn't. Thayle will prolly be the one who starts to give it another shot later down the road. She even said. Right now they're in the process of gaining a strong faith in God, Which is amazing btw, and also she said that if the Mormon road was something God told her to hop on later down the road she'd do it. So it was good that they said that. We baked a cake for them and all this other stuff to gain their trust (which it worked and they love having us come over even still haha) so we'll keep in touch with them. Like I said. Just Sowing the ground. haha

So along with working on being more grateful (which has worked a ton) Beecher thanks for the words of President Hinkley "The trick is learning to thank the Lord for allowing us to have the ride" after talking about how life is like a train full of loud noises and smoke and just not all that enjoyable but every once in a while you'll get beautiful skies and vistas to look at. And how important it is to thank the Lord for ALL of it. And that's how I feel my mission has been. Pretty rough. Full of trials. Some pretty far out there, but am now starting to make my nightly prayers just straight gratitude. And it was really quite amazing at what happened. I just felt better. Better about my situation. Closer to God and my testimony is just becoming more and more clear amongst all the cloudiness and smoke that life can bring. That was something they asked us to do in Zone Meeting and it was really cool. Sister Nilsen also came up with the "Desire Cycle" which is cool cause you can work this backwards when you're lacking desire. Lemme see if I can get this to work all legit like.. So at the top you have DESIRE, which leads to POWER and AUTHORITY, which helps us to become more CHRISTLIKE full of CHARITY or that PURE LOVE that leads us to be better and ultimately TRUST in GOD and we use that trust by our AGENCY or CHOICES and then our OBEDIENCE and SACRIFICE to that choice and the FAITH (which is a Gift of God) leads us to a stronger TESTIMONY of JESUS CHRIST which then increases our DESIRE. and they cycle repeats getting tighter and tighter the more we work on it everything becomes more firm and steadfast and in the center of all the is Christ. And Charity. which "Leadeth men to do good" so it's more like a Spiral than a cycle. but hopefully that makes sense. So if your lacking desire. work the cycle backwards and figure out what isn't quite where it should be. like if your lacking the Desire. check your testimony and the way your living in accordance with that. etc etc. It's pretty freakin awesome if you ask me. haha. 

So Dwayne is doing pretty well. We didn't get a chance to quite sit down with him but we've kept in contact. We don't know what happened yesterday cause we tried calling and knocking on his door a bunch. He played Basketball with our ward and balled a little too hard and ended up hurting his back. But He told us he was gonna take today or some day and read the whole Book Of Mormon. Which was cool. And also Whitney Stetlar. A Less-Active member who's avoided church for years. (kinda like Calvin actually) but she'll feed the missionaries cause she feels bad for us. She's moving here shortly but has had a lot of sweet little tender mercies that have softened her heart and she randomly showed up to church yesterday! and then gets up and bears a testimony! I about crapped a brick!! haha I was in serious shock. It was pretty sweet. We also had a funny experience while I was on exchanges with E. Blalock and we were teaching a lesson with John Mack (A recent convert who had to wait two years to get dunked) He was tearing through the bible and "Street Talked" a couple times which was pretty freaking funny actually. But yeah. Other than that not much has happened. I was able to get this supplement from a member that has seriously helped out with sleep... the past two days I actually wake up feeling like I slept a little bit. And the first night I woke up at 2:30am and couldn't fall back asleep till 4:30. and I still felt rested somewhat! haha nuts right? I also had a pretty cool study on Moroni and the stud he was. (Ties in with the breaking of my cycle) So that was cool. So E. McC has most of the pictures cause I kept forgetting my camera but I'll try and get some soon to everyone. PS. Guess what our mission is doing here soon with the Book Of Mormon Play coming to town? A massive Social Media Split where all these pics of us and what we really do as missionaries throughout our whole mission will hit viral on all different social media sites. That's gonna be pretty tight! K love and miss you all. Mom I don't want a ton of Candy. I'm on 6 months to Sexy and I haven't done to well with the first month hahaha. But Whatever you wanna send please send :) Gum would be much appreciated. If they have Costco size packs for 5 gum RPM mint kind that would be sick. if not Polar Ice is cool too. K Love and miss you all!!! Thanks for the emails!

 Aussie Football!! 

So we just got done playing Aussie football in the mud and rain. SO much fun!! here are some pics from that! So sweet. And hopefully you got the message from mike! K Love ya!!