Elder Garrett Brothers' Mission Blog: Week 17: Life and death

Following is Garrett's email from his 17th week of his mission. His email address is garrett.brothers@myldsmail.net.

Week 17 Journal

October 24th, 2016:

We played volleyball for p-day. There were 8 missionaries at emailing today. Also I had an episode of what Sister Balling (our mission nurse) suspects is acid reflux...not fun. I'm going to bed now.

October 25th, 2016:

I was really tired today. It's from the acid reflux.

Elder Trincado and I's relationship wasn't great today, but as we talked at the end of the day I found he was joking with me at times. The problem is he isn't skillful enough in English and I'm not skillful enough in people for his sarcasm/humor to carry across... ~.~

I felt like I mostly failed today. Most of the things we planned for didn't happen, most of the things we did were unplanned, I wasn't as disciplined as I could have been, etc. I've really had to learn how to take my dad's advice to heart fast. He told me that if I ignored stress like he taught me to ignore the cold, it would go away. It's not ignoring the problems, just the stress. Anyway it's me fighting to turn my high-standards/high-criticism/high-improvement self perspective back up again. Right now it's hurting me, but it's okay as I'm also stubbornly hopeful for all things, including future me.

October 26, 2016:

We visited a family today. We testified of the power/assurance of eternal families and the spirit was super strong.

October 27th, 2016:

Good days. We had weekly planning for three hours and didn't quite finish but got pretty far. We visited a care center and gave a member who just recently moved in a blessing of comfort & counsel and the spirit was super strong. She told us afterwards that we had made her day. Both these days have been pretty good!

We got assigned a topic for zone conference: Mosiah 3:19. I really love this topic--consecration--and I could go on for a while about it but I don’t have time.

I've found, thanks to dinners from members & crockpot economics, that I have a bit of money. I'm going to try to expand my recipes I can cook, especially since one of the North Stake elders staying with us can't have gluten. By the way, if anyone knows a way to make gluten-free cream of chicken soup, please let me know as it's central to many crockpot recipes.

October 28th, 2016:

Zone conference! It was about consecrating oneself as a missionary, but I just kept hearing the theme of loving God...anyway today I noticed some huge spiritual growth I've had since the start of my mission and it's really cool. I wish I could give it to others more effectively but it's so personal in nature--you have to earn it...

One of our investigators had his dad kill himself today. I'm writing this journal two days later, so I'm pretty calm about it now, but it was stunning to learn when it happened. The dad and mom had been fighting soon before the dad committed suicide. We had tried to set up meetings with the parents many times but had not been able to teach them. What a tragedy.

October 29th, 2016:

We've given a lot of blessings to members and it's good to use the priesthood in such a way. Today we gave a blessing to an elderly woman. I think she’s 96 years old. She was in a lot of pain. Being closer to death recently--as the events of late--has made me think a lot about God and the frailty of mortal existence.

Also today was trunk-or-treat. I didn't think to bring a coat and only had my earmuffs in the car. Elder Trincado didn't wear his coat to try to force himself to adjust to the Wyoming weather. It was very cold. Most families left early, which was kind of surprising. The most original costume was a kid wearing what looked like a cut-up mud colored loofa around grey sweatshirts and sweatpants. He wore a poop emoji hat. He was a fart cloud!

By the way, emojis & TMNT are oddly popular here. No idea why.

October 30th, 2016:

The temple dedication for the Star Valley Temple was today! We never got to go to Star Valley but we could see the broadcast in the Stake Center. It was my first dedication. I didn't know what to expect; it was pretty interesting. Elder Bednar presided. But we had no investigators at church because it was for members only. Oh well.

We gave a blessing to another member today. She's a single mom with a number of kids. Her extended family is in the same neighborhood, so the kids trade off who stays where. She has a lot of challenges in her life. Among other things, she has been getting migraines and has been very stressed out lately. One colorful thing is that she’s a New England Patriots fan and when she talks about football with some of her neighbors, she holds nothing back. It just reminded me of Spencer, who vigorously cheers for the Broncos and can’t stand the Patriots.

Further notes:

I'm done being trained, so I no longer have an extra study hour to work on missionary skills. I still have Spanish language study, so that's good.

My dad asked about whether my mission has junior and senior companions, and how it’s decided who is the junior companion, and who is the senior companionship. I’m still the junior companion, because I have not been out that long. Some missionaries don’t have designated senior and junior companions, especially if both have previously been senior companions. Deciding whether someone is no longer a junior companion is based mostly the amount of time the two missionaries have been out. Even though I am the junior companion, I don't notice much of a difference right now. Partially it's because I've been in the area for 2 transfers before this one, so I know the area more. Also, Elder Trincado has only 3 more months of experience overall, so it’s not much of a difference.

Photos: I saw Logan when he came out of the MTC!