When we first got to our apartment that night, it was really hard for me. We are right in the middle of the ghetto. After I got settled, I was writing in my journal when on the other side of the wall I heard our neighbor dealing drugs. It kinda freaked me out but I tried to just block it out. A couple hours later, like 8 cop cars showed up and busted them. It was kinda sweet.
We have 1 REAL investigator, whatever that means. Her name is Malicia and we were able to meet with her this week. It was mostly just a "get to know you" type meeting rather than a lesson but it went really well. She is nice and I'm excited about teaching her.
We raked leaves for the Donat's, an elderly couple in the ward. They reminded me so much of Grandma and Grandpa Davis. It was great to be able to help them and it reminded me of raking leaves with Grandma Betty.
Church yesterday was so much fun. There are so many nice people in this ward and I really enjoyed myself. I love the members here already. They were very helpful to Elder Prusse and I and are so willing to help. I'm sorry that this email is so dry. I'll try to put more spice in the others but I'm just not used to having so much to talk about. I love you all and pray for you always. Have a great week.
What a week! I guess for starters, I’ll break the news that I’m leaving Trumbull. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But just like the OC, Prison Break and LOST, all good things must come to an end. I’m going to Central Hartford. It will be a big change to go from the wealthy countryside to the inner-city, but I’m excited for the change and the opportunity to hopefully interact with more people every day. My companion will be Elder Prusse, who shared my room in the MTC and we’ll be sharing the apartment with 2 Spanish-speaking Elders. Here’s the new address:
Elder Cody Jardine
288 Park St Apt 2W
Hartford, CT 06106
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was great. Being with the English’s nearly made up for not being at home. We had tons of fun and lots of great food and virtually no arguments. That morning, we played a Turkey Bowl game with our ward and the other missionaries in our district. It was way fun and I made a touchdown and a couple interceptions. Not to brag or anything.
That’s all, folks. Hopefully I won’t get stabbed in the streets of Hartford between now and next week so I can tell you all about my continuing adventures! Have a blessed week. Thanks for everything. I love you all!
This week I will be hitting my 6 month mark! CRAZY! If you haven’t sent your packages and congratulatory letters yet, don’t worry. You still have a couple of days to send them to make sure I get them in time.
What’s that smell in the air? NEW INVESTIGATORS, of course! Well, technically, we don’t have any new investigators YET. But we do have some great potential. There is a girl that has been coming to church for about a month with her friend, Kylie English (who we’re eating with for Thanksgiving) named Nina and yesterday at church, we explained the priesthood and Sister English is going to set up a dinner with the family to introduce everyone. There is also Sarah Gonzalez. We have had problems getting a hold of her family but hopefully soon we will be able to teach her.
Julian’s baptism is postponed til further notice. With his mom, we decided we just need to keep teaching him and take it slow so we’ll see how that goes.
Sorry this one is so short but I am pretty sure that’s all I’ve got. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy those red velvet cupcakes you’ll be eating in honor of my six-month mark! Love you all!
Saturday was designated in our mission as a “finding day”, a day to focus all of our efforts on contacting and tracting and doing other things to find new investigators. However, since we don’t really have any investigators and no appointments during the day, it wasn’t very different for Elder Thomas and I. However, during some tracting, we did have a neat experience. We knocked on a door and the man who answered immediately invited us in. He was very nice and offered us water and some food. We made small talk for a while and were eventually able to place a Book of Mormon with him. His name was John and he seemed fairly interested so we will definitely be following up on him.
Last night, we had a missionary fireside at the church that went really well. Bart Oats, former NFL player and three-time Super Bowl champion, came and spoke. It was really interesting. There were quite a few non-members there and we were able to talk to lots of people about the Church and give away a few Books of Mormon. Unfortunately, I think everyone we talked to came from outside our mission boundaries but we were still able to plant a lot of seeds.
That is all for this week and if there is anything else, I can’t think of it. I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for everything! Much love!!
This past week has been pretty much the same as all the other ones before. We did some tracting and less-active stop-bys. Daylight savings is going to screw some things up not that it is getting dark at 4 PM. People don’t tent to answer the door when it is “night time”. Also, we had an ice storm this morning so winter is coming and I’m not excited about it.
On Thursday we had Zone Conference which was good. It is always nice to have a spiritual boost like that. However, we arrived about an hour late because we went to the wrong church. Apparently they sent out a text message telling us to go to a different church but we never got it so we spent the morning driving around western Connecticut.
We taught Julian again this week but had to move his baptism back to the 20th because the family wasn’t ready for this weekend and they have guests coming to town next weekend. It wasn’t the best news, but we will be able to teach him more and make sure he is completely ready to be baptized.
Yesterday, Sister Gonzalez and Sarah came to church. Sarah said she liked it but it was “different” and her mom thinks she was a bit shell-shocked. Hopefully they’ll keep coming and we can teach Sarah soon.
That is the gist of what has happened to me the past seven days. Please keep us and all other missionaries in your prayers! I love you all and hope it is a good week for you! Talk to you soon!
Happy Halloween! Was yours as good as mine? I highly doubt it because you probably didn’t win the award for BEST DECORATED VEHICLE at the Trumbull 1st Ward Trunk-or-Treat. That’s right. Our Books of Mormon and Joseph Smith pamphlets really pulled in the votes and our stacks of pass-along cards definitely sealed the deal. We won a shiny orange certificate and a mummy doll. My joy was most definitely full. For actual Halloween, we weren’t allowed to proselyte after 6 PM so after an awesome dinner appointment with purple mashed potatoes and blue apple cider served in chemistry beakers, we went back to the church and just hung out with our district for the rest of the night.
This next part may not make sense. It is a complex story, so bear with me as I try to explain. We got a call this week from a woman who is not a member of the church but has a friend from California who is. The friend is named Sylvia and she only speaks French. She is in Connecticut right now and somehow she got a hold of our number for her friend to call us and try to get her a ride to the church. MEANWHILE, we saw Guy (our investigator that we thought had moved) at the post office. He told us his sister was staying with them, that she was a member, and that she needed a ride to church. Do you see where this is going? Sylvia is Guy’s sister. They aren’t moving until the end of the month and yesterday Sylvia and Linda (Guy’s teenage daughter) came to church. It was really neat and I think we will start teaching Linda soon and then turn the family over to the other missionaries once they move. Please pray for that situation to work out and that there will be someone who can translate for the missionaries when they move!
Last week we went to meet an inactive family in the ward, the Gonzalez’s, and sat and talked to them for a while. The parents are both converts but they attend another church. A couple days later, we got a call from a lady in our ward who is Sister Gonzalez’s visiting teacher. She told us that Sister Gonzalez wanted us to teach the lessons to their 12 year old daughter, Sarah, who hasn’t been baptized and they want her to be able to make a choice of what church she wants to attend. I guess she went to a fireside last week and loved it so that is good news for us! Please pray that we will be able to meet with her and that her heart will be soft!
Well that is all I have for this week. Julian’s baptism is coming up on Saturday if we can teach him what he still needs to know and if he passes his interview! Thanks for all the support you’re sending my way! I love you all!
So, tomorrow is my five month mark. Time has passed so fast and I feel like not that much has happened. Every week I say that there is “nothing new”. Sadly, for the most part, the same goes for this week but I’ll give the rundown anyway.
On Wednesday, we went to Young Women in Excellence in hopes of talking to Emily’s parents. We were able to shoot the breeze with her dad for about ten minutes and it went really well. I think they are starting to warm up to the idea of Emily getting baptized so please continue to pray for them.
Thursday night, we went to the English’s for dinner, one of my favorite families in the ward and helped them put a desk together. They are feeding us on Thanksgiving and I’m way excited for it. Sister English’s family is Greek and Orthodox Catholic so there is lots of drama promised.
Friday night, we taught Julian about Repentance and Baptism and finalized a baptismal date for November 6 so hopefully we’ll get him sufficiently prepared by then.
That is all that has happened this week. I hope you are all doing well! Have a good week.
That’s right. Who, you might ask. I’ll give you some hints: This person is a boy. He is nine years old. Do you know who it is yet? His name is Julian.
This week, we taught him a great lesson on faith and the importance of relying on Jesus Christ. He was able to understand and relate the reading assignment we left him from the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and we were able to teach at his level to help him understand. At the end, we committed him to be baptized on the 30th of this month. However, that date is probably going to be changed because the primary in our ward is doing a trunk or treat that day. It is so exciting to see someone progress toward baptism. I’ve already seen Julian’s understanding grow and know that he will continue to learn more.
Other than Julian, we are in a drought. Things with Emily are the same as they have always been and other than her we have NO other investigators. We have tried not to tract this week which has forced us to be a little more creative with our finding, but no more successful. We have gone by lots of former investigators and old potential investigators but no one is interested.
Last week for P-day, we took the train up to New Haven and went to Yale with our district. It wasn’t bad but it isn’t something I’m dying to do again. First of all, when we got there, nobody had a plan or knew what we were doing so we just walked in a gigantic circle. I don’t think I have ever had to use a bathroom so badly in my life as I did then. We went into a Dunkin Donuts with a sign that said, “Bathroom for customers only” and the door locked. I asked the clerk, “Can I please use the bathroom? I PROMISE I’ll buy something”. Then she told me it was out of order. Then we went to Sub Way. They had a sign on their bathroom too but theirs said, “Out of order”. We made our way over to the bookstore and the clerk there told me that they didn’t have a bathroom but there was one next door at Educated Burger. I made my way over there and climbed the stairs to their bathroom. I stepped inside and it was literally smaller than airplane bathrooms, and dirtier. But at this point I had to remind myself that beggars can’t be choosers and thus ended my bathroom pilgrimage.
We went to the bookstore and I had hopes of getting a few souvenirs. However, a children’s hoodie was 50 bucks. No. Thank you. So, even though it was hard, I walked away purchase-free. Then we went to a pizza joint for a late lunch and jumped the train back home.
That’s all that is new with me. I love all of you and thank you for your support. Let me know how you are!
What an amazing week this has been! Our key-indicators (numbers we keep track of and report like lessons taught and Books of Mormon given away) have been a record low; all zero’s except the three lessons we taught this week. However, we have worked so hard and enjoyed the Spirit very much this week.
General Conference was amazing! There has been no experience thus far in my mission that has come with such a spiritual high. The announcement of the temple in Hartford brought indescribable feelings of elation. There were only a few people in the chaple with us watching when the announcement was made, but the joy and tears and Spirit there was electric.
Prior to Conference, I wanted to understand my purpose more. As I mentioned earlier, our numbers had been slipping and our pool of investigators has dropped to two people (Emily and Julian). I started to experience discouragement, telling myself that any baboon could stand in my shoes and accomplish the same thing. However, my prayers for a greater understanding and resolve were answered in the priesthood session. Elder Nelson was the opening speaker. He stepped to the pulpit and asked all full-time missionaries to stand, wherever in the world they may be. I stood and he took a moment to offer praise and thanks for the valiant men serving missions. It mad me realize that I am not in this alone; that I am one member of a massive army, moving the word of God forth. It was a great feeling. I’m getting emotional all over again just thinking about it.
Between sessions yesterday, we went to lunch at a Spanish members house with the Spanish Elders and had TOSTADAS!! Before yesterday, I didn’t even know what those were but it brought a smile to my face as I thought of my surrogate brother being chased around by the girl screaming, “Eli, want a tostada?”
This week, as you could probably tell by the numbers, was full of tracting and trying to find people to teach. We still have a few potentials and people we need to follow up with so please pray that Elder Thomas and I can start teaching some of these people.
Today, we are taking the train up to New Haven and going to Yale (Not Harvard…). It should be a neat experience and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Maybe I’ll love it so much that I’ll decide to go there. You never know. Haha.
I hope you are all doing well. Remember how much I love each of you and think about you all. Have a great week!
This week, we had a pretty fun experience. We were able to teach early morning seminary on Friday on D&C sections 4 & 5. It went really well and it was so cool for me to see the dedication of the students. I wish I would have taken more advantage of seminary and seeing these 30 kids wake up at 5 in the morning to partake of the gospel.
Elder Thomas and I are doing tons of tracting and trying to find people to teach. We are making some progress with Julian and Emily is moving along great, as always, but we want to be teaching so bad! Luckily our ward is great and are also looking for missionary opportunities.
There isn’t much else to say. Just please pray for Elder Thomas and myself and for the people out here. Remember, missions are a hard thing. Letters make them better. Thanks for everything. I love you all very much and think about you constantly! Have a splendored week.
I guess I have two weeks to cover since the library was closed for Labor Day last week and since a lot has happened lately, I’ll just jump right into it.
Elder Berthelson has gone home to his family. This makes me a little bit sad and a lot jealous but there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. His name is Elder Thomas. He’s my new companion (also from West Jordan but he never knew Elder Berthelson). So far, we are getting along great and having tons of fun together. He has been out one transfer more than me so we are both fairly green but I am learning a lot from him.
Before Elder Berthelson left, he woke me up one night to tell me he heard water running upstairs. I was annoyed at first, until I realized that same water was starting to run down the wall of our living room. We tried to wake our landlords to no avail so we called 911. Some police officers and firemen showed up and ripped our ceiling down. It was a huge mess and a pain for quite a few days but they have finally started to fix it.
I don’t know if I have said much or anything about our French investigators but they are moving out of our area soon. I had mixed emotions about it. They are such golden people and I want the missionaries to still have contact with them, but on the other hand, we never really “taught” them because of the language barrier. Hopefully there will be a French speaker in their new ward.
Yesterday we went with our friend Brother Bailey to deliver invitations to all the less-actives in the ward for the upcoming Stake Conference. We were able to meet a lady that we have been trying to get a hold of for a long time named Tatiana. She was way nice and said she’d have us over for dinner sometime. Hopefully, we can get her back to church and possibly teach her husband.
Julian, our nine-year old investigator, hasn’t been able to meet with us lately. We had an appointment set up for Friday but that morning his mom went to the hospital. She was having some chest pains and ended up having a miscarriage. It was very sad. Prayers for their family would sure be appreciated!
I love to hear from all of you and find out what is new and how you are doing. I love all of you very much and know that I have such a huge and awesome circle of support. Thanks for the love and thanks for the letters!
Call up the Undertaker and order some flowers because you’re gonna die when you hear this; some things actually happened this past week!
So for starters, on Monday night, we had to come back to the library to look for Elder Berthelson’s planner that he left here and when we were leaving, I managed to get in a small fender bender with a car in the parking lot. It turned out to be not a bad situation at all, which was very lucky. I’m not too happy about it and definitely not proud. But I thought I would just let you all know. And for those of you who have lost track, this accident brings us up to number six.
On a happier note, we got a new investigator this week! He is a nine-year-old boy in our ward who hasn’t yet been baptized and needs to have the missionary lessons before he can get baptized. We had an appointment set up for Friday evening but had to cancel because our dinner appointment ran late and it turned out to be the parents anniversary so we decided it would probably be best to just reschedule. I’m excited about teaching him but I think it might be a little difficult simplifying the gospel for a young kid but we will surely see!
Church yesterday was the craziest thing I may have ever experienced in a house of God. First of all, President Pehrson decided to surprise us by showing up at our ward. Due to the location of the church, right off Main Street and the 2,000 plus motorcycle rally for fallen officers going down that street, traffic was backed up for a while and most people were late coming to church so we started about 45 minutes late.
It was also a missionary farewell; the old kind of farewell where the WHOLE family speaks. At the end of Sacrament, the bishop said that we would be canceling Sunday school and going straight to third hour and that we would also be ending church about 20 minutes early. No complaints there from me, I just thought it was weird.
When I talked to President Pehrson yesterday, he told me that I would be staying in Trumbull for a while which made me very happy. I am really loving this ward and this area and I’m making so many friends here. Like the Sisam’s, a really cool young family that we got close to this week. They fed us one day and invited us to come back on Saturday to do some service for their neighbor. It was a lot of fun and they are a BLAST to be around.
Overall, things are going really well for me. Every day brings new challenges and blessings and as I work my hardest and take things one day at a time, I know that I am doing what I need to be. I have a full day of letter writing planned so if you haven’t heard from me in a while, I will get to it soon. I promise. Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers!
What a week! Nothing really new…again. Surprise! We have just been doing lots of work with the members in our ward and stuff. The big news of the week (drum roll, please) is that we were able to have lunch with Emily’s family yesterday. It was really nice and her mom said that she would like us to come back. I think we are making some real headway there so please keep praying for her and her family! Other than that, nothing new. But think of it this way, no news is good news. For instance, I did NOT get shot at this week. If I did, you would for sure be hearing about it.
I said this week that something good must be on the horizon because el Diablo is working very hard to get me discouraged. I have been missing home quite a lot and haven’t seen our efforts yield great fruit lately. I am reminded that it is easy to get discouraged. It is easy to complain and it is easy to give up. However, the easy thing to do and the right thing to do are hardly ever the same thing to do (according to President Pehrson). It takes determination to press on in the face of adversity. It takes humility to accept the circumstances you have been dealt and to then adapt them to meet your needs, and it takes courage to do the same thing everyday, having FAITH that one day, the same thing will yield a better result.
As I said, I know that great things await me as I press forward with faith. Although this week was rough, I really am doing well. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere other than here and it is so easy to see the ways that my family and myself are being blessed. Thanks for the prayers. Please keep it up. I love you all!
I know you hear this a lot from me, but I’m being completely serious when I say that NOTHING new happened this week. Elder Berthelson was down with a virus for a good chunk of our time and so we didn’t spend a great chunk of time out in the streets (which was a refreshing change of pace). It did make me realize, however, that without finding, there is no teaching. We didn’t have a bad week by any means, just slow and lazy, I guess you could say.
We were able to meet with our investigator, Gloria with a guy in our ward. It went well but we are a little nervous that she won’t keep commitments. We are going to have to teach her the importance of every commitment we leave her (like how important it is to read, pray, and come to church). Right now, she just doesn’t see the importance of it and the blessings she can receive from them.
Emily didn’t make it to church yesterday. She was at her aunt’s in Massachusetts. Her family also rescheduled dinner on us for next week when Emily’s boyfriend from Colorado will be in town. Things still seem to be going well there though. Their family is going to have dinner with our Ward Mission Leader’s family and I guess they are planning on talking baptism. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
I just want everyone out there to know how much I love you. Thanks for your support and your letters and everything else! I can’t imagine life without amazing people like you in it! Take care!
Let’s start with the bad. Exchanges were this week and our District Leader, Elder MacLennen came to Trumbull with me. We had a lot of fun and I think he is such an awesome Elder. Anyway, we knocked on this door and a lady there was incredibly rude. She told us to “get lost” along with more “hot sauce” words. It was hard to take but… Life goes on.
Next, we went to stop by a woman in the ward who was baptized 25 years ago and has never been to church. She talked to us for a minute and said, “my husband is on his way home and he hates Mormons. I’ll tell you when I see his car and you can make a quick getaway”. We didn’t think too much of it until he pulled in the driveway, jumped out of his minivan and started screaming at us. “Get the Hell out and don’t ever come back!” Once would have gotten the point across but he seemed to think it necessary to repeat these spiteful words until our car was far enough away that the only thing I could hear was my heart about to pound its way out of my chest.
On a lighter note, Things seem to have taken a turn for the better for our friend, Emily. She bore her testimony last Sunday about how badly she wants to get baptized and even though she can’t right now, she knows that someday she will be able to. It was very powerful. We fasted for her yesterday and when her mom came to pick her up from church, we got to talk to her for a few minutes. She was very friendly and invited us to dinner this week. Hopefully this will help with her situation! Please pray for her!
Yesterday I taught Gospel Principles and Prayer. It went really well and I actually enjoyed teaching. More of the same old same old again. We didn’t get to teach Kim this week and she didn’t come to church which was hard but hopefully we will get with her soon.
I hope you are all doing well and most of those letters I promised will be going out today so be sure to check your mail boxes! I love all of you and thank you for your love and support!
As of late, things have been pretty uneventful day-to-day. We have done lots of tracting and stop-by’s (surprise, surprise) and promoting the 21-Day Plan we started in church a couple weeks ago.
The 21-Day Plan is a promise from Elder Ballard that if we make a list of our friends or people we know that we’d like to share the gospel with and offer two prayers for these people a day for 21 consecutive days, someone on our list or someone we know but didn’t put on the list will accept an invitation to be taught by the missionaries. We presented it to the ward and most people are doing it. We are already seeing the blessings.
On Sunday the 18th, some members in our ward (The Bailey’s) brought their neighbor Kim to church with them. She said she enjoyed the service and later in the week Sister Bailey called us and said that Kim wanted us to teach her. We taught her in the Bailey’s home on Friday night and it went really well. We taught her the Restoration and she had a lot of great questions. She committed to coming to church, reading from the Book of Mormon, and to getting baptized when she discovers the gospel is true. She wasn’t able to make it to church this week. She realized Saturday night that she had already made plans. However, she promised to be there next week and she already read the assignment we gave her. I can’t wait to teach her again!
That same Sunday, I taught Elder’s Quorum. By myself. It went so great! The lesson was on the Priesthood and I felt like, all things considered, it was a great lesson.
We have taught a few lessons this week to recent-converts and less-active members. It is a great way to practice teaching. One thing we have been doing that I like is finding conference talks that we think can help certain people and read them as part of our lesson. It is a great way to invite the spirit and to plan a lesson.
Last night there was an Inter-Faith Musical/Fireside at the church that we went to. It was really good! Quite a few of the numbers were performed by missionaries so President and Sister Pehrson were there so it was good to see them.
Well, that hits the highlights. I hope everyone is doing well! For those of you who have recently experienced a change in address, please let me know how I can get a hold of you now! For everyone else, don’t forget how much I would LOVE to hear from you! I love you all!
So as you know, I woke up last Tuesday with some pretty heavy flu-like symptoms. After we went to the library and did our weekly emails, we went back to our apartment and I got straight to bed. We had to cancel dinner appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday and that made me feel really bad but I really didn’t want to get anyone else sick.
When I finally woke up from my days of rest on Thursday, we went straight to Zone Conference. It was so good. We just had some training from the zone leaders, the office elders, the assistants and from President Pehrson. I really love him. It was such a boost and really picked me up after being sick and being down in the dumps about missionary work.
At Zone Conference, they announced the new way they are going to schedule things. They used to hold Zone Conference every month. Now, it will only be quarterly. Same with interviews. I was kinda sad but everyone says it will be better that way because President’s schedule will be more flexible and he can spend more one-on-one time with missionaries, which should be nice.
After Zone Conference on Thursday night, we went to a part-member family’s house for pizza and a lesson. We watched the Restoration DVD and bore some good testimonies. Elder Berthelson is such a stud. The lesson went really well and the spirit was definitely there.
Friday, Friday, Friday… Friday was a very … emotional… day. We got a call in the morning from some other elders in our district who asked us to help someone move. We went over there and nothing was ready. The house was a mess and it was a very hard task to accomplish. I have never seen so much STUFF in all my life! That night we stopped by a less-active member and got her to commit to reading from the Book of Mormon so that was good. We had a really neat discussion with her about the Bible and then we finished the night off with some tracting.
On Saturday we honestly spent the majority of the day writing our talks for Sacrament meeting on Sunday. We went to stop by a less-active who wasn’t home but his wife was very nice. After that, we went and got our haircuts at the Bailey’s house (a super nice young family in the ward). Then we just came home and went to bed.
Sunday was a good day. We were hoping Guy and Solange (Our French investigators) would be at church, but by the time the Sacrament was over, they were nowhere to be seen. There was a talk followed by a rest hymn and then I got up to speak. Shortly after I started, they walked in. I got so excited to see them my whole voice changed. My talk went pretty well. Considering the time and resources I had, I was pretty proud of it.
All in all, I would write this off as a good week. One thing that got me really excited was a bunch of gossip that has been going through the mission. Because our mission is so small (about 70 missionaries) there is speculation that when President Pehrson goes home next year, our mission will be dissolved and split up and added to the New York New York North mission and the Massachusetts Boston mission. I keep having visions of being in NYC or Boston and it gets me really excited! Whatever way it all turns out though will be for the best. For now, I’m just content right here in Trumbull! I love you all and thank you for all of your love and support!
It’s true, you know. There really is no place like home. That is something I think one cannot fully appreciate until they have not only left his or her home but also been severed from phone lines and the ability to pick up and call loved ones to feel that instant connection to home. This week, as Elder Berthelson would confirm, I have had a hard time not being able to call. Every time something awesome happens or I just need to share news or I want to have a breakdown on someone’s doorstep, my instinct is to reach in my pocket and tell my mom or someone about it. No dice out here. At least 15 times a day I can be heard pleading, “Can I call my mom?” “No”, is the cold and constant reply.
It’s not that I’m homesick. I’m just used to sharing everything with my family and that is not possible.
All things considered, this has been a really good week. We finally got a hold of Douglas which was so awesome. He is golden and excited to learn more. He is already reading the Book of Mormon and we haven’t even taught him yet. He said his cousin just died and his grandma is very sick so he wants us to come back after the holiday. It should go well. We did a lot of finding this week and found quite a few potential investigators.
On Monday night and Tuesday, we did exchanges. I went with Elder Rodgers, the District leader to Bridgeport. He is in a Spanish area and we had so much fun. I learned a lot from him and had a cool experience. We were out tracting/street-contacting and saw these two ladies sitting in their driveway. We talked to them for a while and they told us to come back in the morning. We did and left them with a DVD, a Book of Mormon, and a reading assignment which they committed to do. We taught them a lesson and it was so good. I got a picture with them so I will send that eventually when I have enough pictures to develop. I haven’t been taking as many as I probably should.
It is so hot here! Humidity is of the Devil! Just thought I should throw that in.
We are getting fed quite a bit which is good. The members in this ward are AMAZING! I really love this ward. Elder Berthelson gives me the impression that it won’t be like this everywhere and that makes me sad.
So this week has been okay but pretty uneventful. By this time next week, however, (hopefully) we will have a whole bunch of new investigators to talk about! I hope all of you are doing well and that the sun is shining wherever you are! Let me know if you have any questions for me. All my love!
"And I said to myself, 'Where would people never notice a town full of robots? ...CONNECTICUT!'"
That's a line from "The Stepford Wives". Except the robots here are not perfectly beautiful women who tend house and dote on their husbands all day, they are people who are "all set" in their church and "all set" in their ways.
This week has been kinda tough; definitely not what I expected for my first week. However, I have been able to see great blessings already and I know I'm doing what is right. Let me give you the rundown.
Let me set the scene. Monday. 4 AM. BEEP BEEP BEEP! (That’s what an alarm sounds like) We got up, finished packing, got ready, and jumped on a bus to the airport. As soon as we got there, we checked our bags and then got to call home. I called Mom’s cell and talked to her and Grandma for a while. I did pretty well until Tyson got on the phone and I broke down. After I got to talk with them for a while, I called Melanie. The nice voice that was suppose to tell me I had 270 minutes remaining on my phone card informed me there were only seven. I was so good to talk to her until the same nasty lady said there was one minute left. Before twenty seconds had passed, the call was ending and the last thing I heard was Melanie crying, “I love you” into the phone. That was really hard.
As we approached Chicago for our layover, the clouds were really thick. The only thing I could see out the window was a blanket of white and the blue sky. Then I noticed the top few levels of the Sears Tower poking up out of the clouds. It looked so cool. I tried to get a picture but it didn’t turn out.
The clouds were just as thick landing in Hartford. As we came down over the winding rivers and fields of green, I felt like I was descending upon a home I left long ago. It was so gorgeous and I was filled with such an intense happiness. We met President and Sister Pehrson at the airport and went to their home for dinner and a testimony meeting. We all spent the night there and when we got up the next morning (Tuesday) we headed to the church for some training and meeting our companions.
My companion is Elder Berthelson (it rhymes with ‘Turtle-son’) from West Jordan, Utah. He goes home in September and has been doing a really good job of training me. So on Tuesday night, we were on our way to our apartment and were going to stop by someone they tracted into last week. We stopped at his house and were hoping to have a lesson but they were just sitting down to dinner so we said we’d come back in the morning. This man is named Douglas and we have gone by his house EVERY DAY this week but he is never home.
So we went to the apartment and got settled in then hit the hay. Wednesday we tracted the street Douglas lives on. We found an Israeli man who was a little over energetic and told us he’d read from the Book of Mormon if we’d look up his religion online. Unfortunately, that is not a church-approved website. Then we did service at a food bank; just boxing food and throwing out what we thought was bad. That was hard because there wasn’t a single thing I looked at that I would have considered as “not bad”. We did a lot of tracting that day and had NO success. Even Elder Berthelson said it was not a good day. That night, we helped a family move. It was good to meet with some members. They were super nice! While we were at their house, I took a picture of a table that Grandma wants but she can’t have because it’s in North Carolina now.
Thursday was district meeting which was really good. We talked about desires and then went to the mall for lunch and some browsing. It was very nice to be in a mall again and was the moment I felt most at home in the last month. Then we went to meet Sister Riccio. What an amazing woman! She was so much fun to hang out with and reminded me of Sarah Grether, for those of you that know her. We talked about her daughter who is at BYU-I and struggling so I told her to invite my friends to help her out. By the way, major thanks to everyone who did that! Sister Riccio told me on Sunday that it meant so much to her! After Sister Riccio, I’ll give you on guess what we did. Drum roll, please…. TRACTING!
Friday was a pretty uneventful day until we had a lesson with a recent convert named Cathy and her husband Roger. We talked about faith and it went really well. Next week we are just meeting with Roger who is convinced he has no faith. That will be interesting.
Saturday was a really good day. We did some tracting and such in the day time and went to a baptism for two eight-year-olds where I gave a talk on faith that was so good; most people thought I’d been on my mission for a year. Then, after the baptism, we went to the ward mission leader’s house for his wife’s surprise birthday. It was a really nice party and the first chance I had to see the Connecticut I had expected: “The Stepford Wives” version.
Sunday was perfect. We didn’t have any meetings because it was Father’s Day so we just went to church at 1:30 and the ward here is so amazing! People have to travel quite a ways to get to church (five towns make up our ward) so people truly are from ALL walks of life and everyone is so accepting of one another. It is humbling to be in a place where the gospel is true no matter what you have or who you’re with. After church, we had hamburgers at the Nelson’s. They were really good. Afterward, we decided to street-contact and ran into a guy in our ward named Brother Steinke. He is a police officer and has to supervise road construction. He taught the lesson in Elder’s quorum and it was so amazing! It was about Peter denying Christ three times. It was so good and it made me want to study Peter. Someone pointed out that Christ had twelve disciples in the boat when he walked on water and eleven stayed in the boat but Peter had the faith to go to Him. Also, he wasn’t the fastest runner, but he was the first one in Christ’s empty tomb. It was a very spiritual day and was just what I needed to get this week started on the right foot.
I hope all is well with all of you! I love each and every one of you so much! I’m doing well but keep praying for me and know that I am doing the same for all of you! Sorry this was so long. I’ll keep it shorter next time.
