I’m going to try a new system of writing weeklies, which is to do a 1 sentence summary of the number, then go into further detail. Starting off the bat is…
#10: No more member dinners! So, the area authority came and met with all the mission presidents in the west coast, and talked about how he made a change that drastically increased the rate of baptisms. That change being No More Member dinners. The reasoning behind that is; the times that we usually are eating dinner, 5-7 is also the time that everyone else is home, eating dinner as well. So instead of chilling with members, talking about their dogs or whatever, we will be finding people while they are home. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I’m trust the Lord and his servants.
#9: Going to be making our own dinners now! So our new dinner plans are to start at 4-5, and after that go out and start finding! We are going to need some recipes, I think they are going to get traded around the mission like Pokemon cards. This’ll be good, I can learn how to cook a little better, and find out what I like, what is easy to make, and most importantly, what produces the least dishes!! My only concern with cooking however, is that we have no oven, or counter-space, or real shelving, or cabinets. I can show you our entire kitchen situation in 2 pictures (see below) It’ll be a hard adjustment, but a good one, if anything it’ll be a good learning experience for being in a crappy apartment for college, or something else like that that will surely come along in life.
#8: We met a lady in the Fred Meyer parking lot who needed a prayer, that was really cool We were walking back to the car after buying our food, and this lady pulled up in her mini-van, and asked us if we were missionaries. We said yes, and asked what we could do for her. Her family was going through plenty of hard times, and she really needed a prayer. So we prayed with her, while she was still sitting in her car, and we were holding bags of groceries. I hope she’s doing well.
#7: Interviews! (I could be training!) During interviews, President Orton implied that I could be training sometime soon. I really hope I do get to train, but I really can’t do it in Merlin. This place is just waaay to hard to train somebody in. It’s hard just getting up in the morning, knowing that we can’t just go out and randomly tract a street. This area needs a little bit more planning, and planning we have done. Elder Sant and I created a system of rating streets based off how long they are, how many gated driveways it has, how many houses are on it, etc. So we are going to be spending some time each day just going around, and rating the streets, because information begats Revelation. (We are writing all this info down in a binder for the next elders to benefit from)
#6: Zone Conference is this week Zone conference is this week, (right before Thanksgiving!) and I hope that we are going to find out more information about the whole dinner change.
#5: Exchanges with Cave Junction We had exchanges with Cave Junction, which was fun, I got to hang out with Elder Haws, and he got a break from his companion, who is always going 100% Elder Haws and I talked a lot about music, Dungeons & Dragons, and video games while we were driving in between contacts.
#4: Winter is here, and it hates us So, winter has come, and we can tell. Because our apartment is really a retro-fitted garage, we have no real form of central heating, or any heating at all, besides a space heater that we didn’t realize we had until last night. What doesn’t help is that our water heater doesn’t heat up the water fast enough for us to take hot showers, so we have no real relief besides pajama pants, and sweatshirts. BRRRRR
#3: Everyone is playing Settlers of Catan For some reason, that is the game that the whole Grants Pass zone just adores! I can understand, it’s a fun game, and I am going to be playing in a minute as soon as I’m finished with my emails! (Development cards are the best)
#2: Emily is a chosen one! Emily is a mother of 4 who had met with missionaries in the past, but was pressured out of it by her mother who wished that she would stay Catholic. (Even though Emily’s mom isn’t religious at all!) We met with her in a younger families home, while their kids played. We taught her the restoration, and she really liked it! It all made sense to her, and answered her question of “Where are all the prophets that were in the Old Testament? Why would God take them away?” So that was awesome!! She came to church and even though we were talking about some weird things in Gospel Principals (How we can become like our Heavenly Father, this is a Missionaries NIGHTMARE! Everyone takes this the wrong way, and thinks we’re nuts) Emily loved coming to church, and so did her kids! We have another lesson with her on Tuesday, and we can’t wait!
#1: We Painted a member’s house for service, and there was no accidents! Clothes are clean! That’s the reason that I sent this email so late, we were painting a member’s home Opal Silk. However, nobody really got any paint on their clothes, and it came out really well, even though we had to bail a little early to go shopping and do emails and stuff.
I’d like to do a really in-depth scripture/spiritual thought, but I really want to play Settlers, so I.O.U; one in-depth scripture though, instead, how about this? Ponder Daniel 3, and how it can play a role in your week until I can give a better scripture thought.I love you all! The work is hard, and changing, but this life was never meant to be easy, it was meant to be hard. From hard things we grow the most.
-Elder Berky
p.s. I just heard about Stan Lee. RIP, the world just lost a fantastic man, and a brilliant, creative mind. Excelsior!