Well, I don't remember much about this week, so if its a little scatter brained or short, sorry.
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| Elder Baskin Robbins |
Tuesday was temple day. We went to the temple in the morning. We had 7 dying missionaries give their "final testimonies" that day (There are like 23 missionaries dying this transfer). Elder Carpenter talked about how around his year mark, he felt Preach My Gospel book lied when it said you will experience more joy than ever before. He talked about how he looked back on his mission up until that point, and realized how many good memories he had. I feel like that's true, like I feel closer to people I've known for 6 weeks than some friends I had all through high school. but at the same time, my mission has had a fair share of disappointment. I know the whole "ups and downs" but I really hope God isn't planning on backloading the mission. Elder Roskelley talked about how he made the decision to be happy one day. He makes it sound like he just flipped a switch, and was just happy because he wanted to be. Like, I guess I can be happy with my current level, but the fact that I know better is out there makes that hard. After temple day we went and ate at an American buffet place, and had some decent tacos (crappy compared to Mexico I'm sure). They also had a chocolate fountain and some half decent food, so that was pretty fun. After we hit up some bowling alley with the Zone Leaders, and a couple other elders. Bowling here is pretty cheap. We paid 6 dollars for three games plus shoes... super fun. I bowled a 112 the first game, and never got close again. Bowling for me is weird. One throw will go straight, the next will go straight to the gutter. Oh well, it was fun still. After that, we walked around for a couple hours of jundo.
Wednesday we had district meeting. We went through page 10 of Preach My Gospel on "how to be a successful missionary". By Preach My Gospel standards, I feel like I'm failing right now. Whether it is that page or "nothing happens in missionary work until you teach". I struggle that God does have something planned for me. My mind just takes things and twists them to make perfect sense, but it's depressing sometimes. After that and walking around in the blazing sun some more, we had another English class. I'm so bored with the English classes. Nobody there cares about the gospel, only free English. People there have been coming for years, and have heard the same things again and again, and still don't seem to care.
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| Elders Mortensen and Ridge |
Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Ridge. He is a transfer below me, so we knew each other from the MTC. So I was the senior companion for a day. Fun, yet stressful. Me and Elder Ridge studied, made some awesome breakfast burritos for lunch, then jundoed... I felt like I understood a lot more, probably because I forced myself to since I was the senior companion. It was pretty cool, I felt like I understood a lot of what was going on, not that much did go on. Elder Ridge was fun to talk with. I guess I'm not the only one who struggled with my MTC companionship. We talked about the MTC, transfer calls, what/where we want to go. Later we headed over to the office to do pass-off for Elder Ridge. I sat there and talked with the office elders and the APs for a while while he was in there. That was pretty fun, nice break from just walking around. We ate dinner and called it a night.
Friday we studied, ate chicken and pizza with our ward mission leader, then did weekly planning. I like those meals. We come, we eat, we leave. He isn't one for sitting around and shooting the breeze. We are usually out of there in less than an hour. Pretty good chicken, too. The best is their cream mustard chicken... super delicious. I love chicken here..... the pizza is weird though. Weekly planning seems pointless when you don't have anybody to talk about. It's just kind of awkward sitting around, going through the list in Preach My Gospel. Baptisms, baptism dates, progressing investigators, coming to church, ward members, etc. All that hinges on the fact of having investigators, which is obviously in short supply around here. Later, since it was the 31st, we went to Baskin Robbins and downed a half gallon of ice cream... so good, yet so fattening. I highly recommend it though. It was pretty fun. Later we got cancelled on some more, and walked around for a couple more hours.
Saturday all we did was jundo, English class, and get cancelled on. That night didn't help. Transfer calls came in: "Elder Roskelley, you are going to your house. Elder Mortensen you will stay. You will find out more Wednesday" . That was it. They didn't tell me who my new companion was going to be. Elder Ridge didn't want to leave, but he's getting sent out to Choon Chun, where I have been wanting to go. Elder Hansen is leaving Nokbeon after one transfer to go out to the coast, most likely with Elder Brantley. Five of the 8 missionaries are leaving this area, yet I'm staying. Still trying to figure out why I am still here. I'm not even sure if I'm going move houses, or if I'm still in the 2-man house. Two man houses work when no other missionaries are around in the area. Whenever we see the others, it's like we only get highlights. Sort of like social media, we only see the awesome things, the miracles that happen for the other teams. So for me it's frustrating seeing nothing.
Sunday was church and walking around. I'm trying to swallow my pride and keep some positivity, but it's hard, especially when ward members seem to brush me off as I try to talk to them. They brush me off, kinda half push me off to the side, and just to go talk with Elder Carpenter, or Elder Bean. It really doesn't help my desire to serve them. So yeah, that's my current state right now.
Love you all, hopefully next week will be better,
Elder Mortensen
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