Elder Garrett Brothers' Mission Blog: Week 9 Journal: Adolescence, Doubts, and Mindsets

Following is Garrett's email from his ninth week of his mission. He was not transferred this week, so he'll be in Evanston for at least another 6 weeks. His email address is garrett.brothers@myldsmail.net, and his mailing address for letters and packages is:

Elder Garrett Brothers

242 Laredo Rd, Apt. 10

Evanston, WY 82930
Week 9 Journal

August 29th, 2016:

Whooooo! P-day! And Nerf wars! I have a few people I haven't sent letters back to yet--time is limited, free time is ever fleeting--but I’ve emailed most who have emailed me.

The back of my iPad Lifeproof case is clear, so I've been looking for things to put on the back of it. I was looking for some spiritual and some fun things. So today I was pleased to find out about the Sticker Bus, a bus that sells stickers (it’s sort of like an ice cream truck). However, they're all expensive, too large, and cater to a different audience (lots of guns and stuff).

I got my hair cut by an investigator in the Spanish branch for free. We've been trying to set up a lesson with him but he's had customers every time. By scheduling haircuts with him, we were able to have a reserved time to teach him.

August 30th, 2016:

P-day is over, and we’re back into it. I tried making meatballs today but they didn't turn out so well, and I overcooked the linguini at the same time. I'll just stick to the crock pot.

Winter is chilling out on the front porch of Evanston's house. You know he's there, you can feel his presence, but he hasn't decided to come in yet.

In my last email, autocorrect ruined my Dutch! I said "Ik ben een man," but it was changed to "If ben even man." *sigh*

August 31st, 2016:

These past few days have been nice. We've been busy. I know what's going on. I feel more effective and confident. It's really nice out here. The members are friendly and helpful while even the rudest people at least say goodbye before they quickly shut the door.

September 1st, 2016:

I fixed chicken stroganoff in the slow cooker today. I was going to take a picture but we have a companionship over and we ate it all :P.

~Later~

We just had a zone conference today. I wrote a lot in my study journal. It was really good.

Also, I got my care package with the nice pen from Bro. Bywater and my driving cap that I bought in London! Yay! My old pen was running out of ink and this one is well made.

I passed my driving test! I'm going to be able to drive soon. Only took a transfer :P.

We have a long car ride so I'm going to teach myself how to perform operations in different bases, especially base 2 and 8, for binary and quantum computing. I may try base 16 for hexadecimal, too.

September 2nd, 2016:

I finally got my Tiwi card today, which means I'm officially allowed to drive!

Whoah! Cool thing today. We had 4 lessons scheduled for the day. In between appointments, we did a lot of finding. As we drove by a house, I saw a woman on the back porch. She had one hand holding the phone, the other hand holding the elbow of the arm holding the phone in a typical "worry" pose. I got a prompting to stop by that house. We stopped by after visiting the first person we were scheduled to visit. As we were pulling up, a young man and his friend entered into the house. When we knocked, he answered the door. His name is Patrick, and he had not met with missionaries nor had much contact with the LDS church. He was not part of an organized religion, but prayed and believed in Jesus Christ & God. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and he showed genuine interest. We set up a return appointment for this Friday. As we talked to Patrick, we asked if there was anyone he thought could use help in the area. He guided us to Steve. Steve is a Vietnam vet. He's a Baptist and had met with the missionaries before. However we invited Steve to pray and read. It was neat to be receptive to the promptings of the spirit and be able to speak with people who were searching for gospel knowledge.

~Later~

Elder Owen was making some phone calls, but just before someone picked up he breathed in suddenly and ingested his mint. It took him a little while to talk. It was the zone leaders he was calling, so we all laughed about it.

Also, while we were doing daily planning Elder Owen and I had a small miracle. We were both hungry so I opened a bag of Chex mix. Now, understand that Chex mix carries a large amount of childhood nostalgia for me. I told Elder Owen about my weird Chex Mix eating rituals [eating the corners off the squares first, eating the four-circle breadstick pieces last by biting off each segment individually, etc.] Anyway, as it turns out Elder Owen only loves the "Chex" part (the little square things) and I only love the "Mix" part (everything else), so we were both able to enjoy Chex Mix without the strange semi-obligation to not cherry-pick favorite parts and leave/not eat the rest. So, uh, anyway... If Elder Owen and I stay here after this transfer, I would love a large bag of Chex Mix.

September 3rd, 2016:

Elder Owen's getting over a migraine. He got it during personal study. I hope he gets better soon. I've never had migraines, but I know they suck.

~Later~

Elder Owen got his migraine at 8:30 or so. It's now 1:30 and he’s still incapacitated. Migraines suck.

I'm going to study general conference talks now.

~Later~

We had 7 lessons scheduled today, which is a ton. They all cancelled. It was good for the afternoon, because Elder Owen was not good enough to go out until 4:00.

Having me driving is weird. It has adjusted our dynamic. Anyway I'm glad I could drive today because Elder Owen was still struggling with his migraine.

By the way, I LOVE my cap, pen, and jacket.

I got emails from Elders Funn and Shepherd. I'm going to send out my journals to them.

Dogs are awesome.

I still didn't get info on transfers, so I don't know if I'm staying or not.

September 4th, 2016:

We got the news regarding the upcoming transfers. Elder Owen is leaving! So are Sister Simpson, Elder West, & Elder Richardson. Dang.

I'm going to miss Elder Owen, though. I will now have to teach/guide another missionary though the area. On the upside, we took ~2 hours tonight to organize our Areabook, which is something I’ve wanted to do. Everything is finally neat! I feel so much more prepared for it now that our Areabook is sorted.

Fast Sunday today. Fasting is hard at times. Today I got somewhat "hangry" – irritable due to hunger – which was in part why the Gospel Principles lesson we had today bothered me. The main reason why I was irritated was a lot of people saying stuff in class that was scientifically wrong, and they were judging those who choose to not believe based on that erroneous understanding of science. The other part of the lesson that bothered me was how a question asked how the beauty of the Earth testified to the existence of God. Maybe that’s true for others, but it doesn't resonate with me. When we see a falcon in flight, it’s fair to think about what great force brought it into existence. But looking at it scientifically, consider how it took millions of years to develop from the first traces of single cellular life to the fowl today. That passage of time and the processes of natural selection is a great force. In my view, that great force could have been wielded by God, but it does not require that it was wielded by God. While others may and will think differently, for an official church lesson to preclude some ways of thinking--not mindsets or beliefs--really bothers me. I know there was no malicious or even deep intent in that one innocent question, but it is an example that illustrates the issue I've still been having.

I've wondered--often--what types of thinking would be allowed in heaven. For me, at least, faith is an active choice when knowing both right and wrong, so I have to not only give the principle of charity to the gospel but also "not gospel." This is not to say I have to go on an anti-mission or something crazy like that, but that I have to recognize that my doubts show a very equal possibility and consider them as such if I am to choose fairly. I say "equal" possibility because the question of religion is not a probabistic event, so it refers not to odds or likelihood as much as it means "opposite."

September 5th, 2016: Adolescence, Doubts, and Mindsets

I wish to clarify my last entry. Both things I shared are examples of an issue I sometimes encounter in the LDS church. My sister Chelsea encountered it in the form of some at BYU who felt she was morally wrong for wanting to be a working mother; my sister Kirsten encountered it in the form of people she felt not only put on a false, happy, all-is-well appearance but judged anyone who dared show their issues or struggles in following the gospel*; my brother Spencer probably also encountered it in his adolescence, but I haven't talked to him much about it. It drove Kirsten away from the church, it may have chased Spencer away, it almost pushed Chelsea away, and it now challenges me.

*Before I go on, I wish to remind everyone that the mind's perception of oneself tends to reflect on others, which is to say that most of the people were probably genuinely happy and nonjudgmental, but still she felt this. I will address it shortly.

The issue I discuss is one's mindset. It can be expressed in many ways: the biggest is when one is trying to improve and being open about it, he or she is very perceptive to anything that may be perceived as negative. Another, which both Chelsea and I have encountered, is when one believes they are okay or right in their feelings or actions but others feel differently.

In either instance, negative feelings accomplish nothing. One who is earnestly seeking to improve needs encouragement, while one who believes they are right needs to be approached carefully, as either you or they are right (and both groups believe they are right). Love is the way to healing.

I do not have time to continue right now, nor can I concentrate. I will address this in greater detail in later journal entries.

Today for breakfast a member gave us tickets to a Labor Day all-you-can-eat pancake event. We got to see the zone leaders there so I said goodbye to Elder West.

There was a spider in the tub this morning. I thought they were gone...

Photos!