Following is Garrett's email from his 16th week of his
mission. His email address is garrett.brothers@myldsmail.net.
October 17th, 2016:
Today (Monday)
we drove down to Salt Lake City a day early for transfers, because my companion
is going home. Usually we drive down on Tuesdays
if someone is getting transferred, but if a companion is leaving or is/was/will
be a zone leader or assistant to the president, we drive down on Monday. We stayed at an old apartment overnight. I
was temporarily with Elder Bartley, a very new missionary with a similar
situation (companion going, he's staying and not getting a new companion until
Tuesday). The Zone Leaders were with us, too.
We learned today that our area (Evanston
South) is being divided, and so is the Evanston North area! Evanston will
now be its own missionary district. It also will be merged into the Summit
Zone. For now we’re calling it the Evanston/Summit Zone, but the name is
subject to change.
October 18th, 2016:
I now have a new companion. His name is
Elder Trincado, and he is from Chile. He was born in the church, but his
parents were converts. He doesn't talk much, unless we're teaching.
He's starting his fifth transfer and I’m starting my third, so he's a little
ahead of me, but he spent only one and a half transfers in the United States so
far, as he was vista waiting before.
Our area is split in half; we cover
Yellow Creek, 7th, & 8th wards & the Bear River Branch. They also
now included the Needles Branch, but we have no records of anyone in there so I
don't know...
So I'm still speaking Spanish! Which
is great. I do want to become more fluent--I'd say at this point I could
be thrown into a Spanish-only group and someone could think I'm just thoughtful
and careful with words.
The sisters' apartment isn't finished, so
they're staying in Lyman, an hour drive away. Brother Sellers is
sprinting to finish it, but as for now they drive to Evanston Every day to do
their work! [The previous owners had puppies that weren't well trained,
so while it's clean, Brother Sellers doesn't want anyone to be in an apartment
with stained carpet.]
Also, the second set of elders is staying
in our apartment, at least for now. Or they will be...
October 19th, 2016:
...Aaaaaand the stress is back! Yay!
Both our nightly plannings have gone far overtime, and I think that's been my
fault...I still want to do PMG-perfect planning, but it takes so much time.
Also Elder Trincado and I disagree on many things, so then I want to stop and
talk about it with him, which takes time too...
I feel like I'm too focused on myself, as
I've said before, but it's too easy for me to focus on what doesn't happen or
get done or go well, and then I look to myself to improve and change that.
I just don't know what to accept as a natural limitation and what I could have
actually done better.
Anyway, I feel like I'm just surviving at
this point. I don't want to put it that way, but it may be. I just
don't want to start looking forward to bed time, to p-day, to the end...I want
to enjoy this. But I also want to do my best and improve. It's
dangerous, though, as it would be too easy to start moping and slip into
depression/anxiety or some other bad state.
Also, the other companionship of elders stayed with the Zone
Leaders tonight.
October 20th, 2016:
I worked on it today. It's amazing how
much actually doing missionary work works. It helps me avoid the feeling
of being ground down...
...aaand the other companionship of elders are back with us now!
October 21, 2016:
I got the
package from my dad! The Dunn's (senior missionaries in
Lyman) brought up the care package because they were in the mission home when
it arrived. My Dad sent me a
flash drive and a wireless hard drive! And iPod with missionary-appropriate
music, as well as some speakers! And Pocky! And an absentee ballot! And a
wind-up fish (?) [Note from Dad: It’s because you are “fishers of men”.] THANK
YOU for the care package! The music is awesome! I ended up giving
the other elders in our apartment a box of 6 Pocky packs earlier this week, as
I only have one stick a day and there are 20 to a pack. The six packs (or
120 sticks) that I gave to them are already gone.
Dad, I saw your comments with the absentee ballot about the
presidential candidates. This is my first election, so are they really more
vile than usual? Well, I guess I'm not surprised. Evanston is definitely
Trump country, because people hope he will help bring back the fossil fuel
industries, which really affects Wyoming. Anyway, I still haven't had time to
address the voting ballot, but I'm doing that soon (I hope).
We helped finish up the sisters'
apartment today. They move in tomorrow. Along with moving their stuff in,
apartment out, as we don't have room and Evanston doesn't bike.
October 22, 2016:
Weekly planning! Elder Trincado and
I disagree about a lot! He wants to blast through the steps, I want to go
through each sentence, etc... Not fun but I need to learn to compromise and
listen.
We had a lesson right after we did our
planning. Marshall's a kid who wants to get baptized. His dad really brought
the spirit into our discussion. We were reading the story of the stripling
warriors and then Josh, the dad, shared about how he used to carry a
breast-pocket Bible when he served in the army. One day, he found a bullet
lodged in the pages. The book had stopped the bullet. After he shared the
story, the feeling in the house was indescribable.
Also, the zone leaders offered me a cow
heart & liver. They called me up and asked if I had any good crockpot
recipes for it. When they brought it over, it was still warm & fresh in a
white plastic bag. ... it's now in our freezer.
October 23, 2016:
I felt the spirit today during sacrament
meeting. I had brushed my head with my hand and it reminded me of my mom
brushing my head when I was a kid. It felt really nice, but right afterward I
thought about how the mission was the first part of my adult life and how mom
wouldn't be around forever, nor would dad, or anyone else. I was simultaneously
glad for the faith I had already developed and sad for my imperfect police and
discipleship. I did not feel bad for thinking of myself, though, which was
interesting.
My relationship with my companion has
been better today. It's a roller coaster!
I found waking to be therapeutic. I don't
know why. Eating what I bake is pretty good therapy, too.
Elder Taylor cut his own hair today
before bed, but he messed up. I came upstairs after showering and discovered
Elder Bade trying to fix it while Elder Trincado watched.
Marshall wasn't at church today, so he
can't get baptized on November 5th. It's weird so many people don't
have control over their schedules Evanston. Often having people get to church is
one of the hardest things because they have to work! The economy isn't
great in Wyoming–they mainly depended on oil, natural gas, or coal (which has had
demand cut as a result of government regulations), so people have to take any
job they can.
The upsides of Evanston is how nice the
people are — the worst we will get is a frigidly cold shoulder, but no one
shouting at us or throwing stuff – how slow the streets are compared to Salt
Lake, and the very involved members. So all in all I love it.
Additional thoughts:
Last month our district made a commitment to read emails
only on p-days. We decided to try that to avoid being distracted by thinking
about home. Although it was a district commitment, it was individual in nature,
with the goal to be less distracted. However, I found that I'm more
distracted knowing I probably have a few emails from home and will have to read
them all on p-day. So what I've done is turned off notifications for the
emails that are not from the mission office, but I'll let myself check emails
if I have time during the week. That seems to be a good balance.
I'm reading through the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel
every day. If you read Preach My Gospel, it will answer a lot of
questions about what we missionaries do in a day. I'm increasing in my
Gospel knowledge, but am focusing on reinforcing the basics than learning deep
doctrinal things. I've only read Lectures on Faith so far and
it's really helped me understand what faith is. I haven't had a lot of time to
read other books, but I will when I have time on p-days.
I’ve started wearing my waterproof boots since it’s getting
colder up here. The boots are really nice. I've also been using my
heavier layered coat. I also found some trench coats that other missionaries
left behind, so I've been rotating depending on how cold it is. I'm sure
when it really gets deep into winter, I'll need everything. At once.
</s>
Love you!
No time for pictures this week....
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