Garrett’s sent his journal today (Wednesday April 27) with
this note: “Sorry, I guess I accidentally sent this to myself! I got
permission to send this today. Here you go!”
Week 42 Journal
April 17th, 2017 (Monday):
Today was rushed. We had a
hiking activity, but we needed to be there by 1:00 pm to meet up with everyone.
At shopping, I got very few food items--Cereal and yogurt, as we have many
leftovers--but I also picked up a cheap boomerang on impulse because I wanted
to learn how to throw one. Unfortunately, I didn't know boomerangs
are "left-handed" or "right-handed" (I’m a lefty, and most
boomerangs are for rightys). I still could work out the principles
of throwing it, though. Then we did emailing, and didn't have enough time
before the hike to get our cleaning done. It's funny how I measure how packed
our p-day was by whether we get all our cleaning done.
In the afternoon, our District hiked from
near the top of Emigration Canyon Road west to Perkin's Peak. It’s a pyramid-shaped
mountain on the ridge between Emigration Canyon and Parley’s Canyon and is
about 7500 feet in elevation. It's more than an eight miles round trip, four or
more hours, and not beginner friendly. There were shrubs at the end were
I got scraped up. I got sunburned, and had two cramps near the end of the hike.
The first one was very gradual in the inside front of my thigh. I stopped,
rested, and prayed, and the cramp went away. The second cramp was sudden and in
both legs on the back of my calves. That was more of a pain because
my legs had seized up unexpectedly and hurt badly. I paused, prayed
again, and the cramps went away. Both times, the cramps dissipated faster than
when I had them on other times before my mission and I didn’t pray about it. At
least it didn't feel like such a long and agonizing time. Prayer is
a cool thing.
Now, I'm convinced that belief has two
components to it. My recovery could be scientifically explained as a
"mind over matter" incident or as a manifestation of God's power. My
point is, however, that the effect was real.
A few Sundays ago I heard a talk with the
following quote:
“Let's just say for a minute,
hypothetical, that our religion is all wrong. That even though there
are so many strong-willed, intelligent and intellectual people in its pews and
in its ranks, assume that we have all been duped, and the greatest hoax in the
history of mankind has been pulled off by a man from New York. Even
if that was true, the life that the gospel it provides me, and has provided for
my family, along with even the slightest hope of what it potentially offers me,
is better than anything else out there in the world. True happiness
can never be offered by man.”
I’m unfazed by attacks of
"evidence," "facts," and "reasoning," on the
church or its leaders. Even if the attack is based upon facts (X church leader said
or did Y thing). So what? I’m unfazed because of this assurance I've
developed through prayer. All that being said, I know the gospel is true.
So yes, prayer is a pretty cool thing.
*****
On our way home from the hike, we dropped
by the Bierman's to see Joseph, but he was not there. His host family
offered us an impromptu dinner, which we gladly accepted. Following
which, we took Elders Evans, Vernon, and Sulzen back to their apartment, then
went home, showered, changed, then went out to teach a young man going on a
mission in five months. He already had talked to so many relatives and friends
so he didn't have a lot of questions for us, however.
April 18th, 2017 (Tuesday):
We woke up feeling the after-effects of
the hike. In particular, Elder Gudmundsen’s knee was hurting and his allergies were
acting up. We eventually got to studies, headed to our Stake meeting
at 11:00, had lunch and studies, helped someone pack for a move, and finished
studies by dinner.
A funny thing happened regarding dinner:
each week, a different ward in our stake is asked to feed us dinner on Sunday,
and Tuesday through Friday. Last Wednesday, our ward mission leader
texted us a schedule with no one signed up for this Tuesday (today) and Friday. The
next day--last Thursday--he sent us an updated schedule for Wednesday onward
(someone signed up for Friday), so we figured no one signed up for this night. At
4:30 pm, the ward mission leader texted us to find out why we had not confirmed
tonight’s DA (dinner appointment). The family had had called him. We
soon figured out that our phone had not received the first part of the updated
schedule. We let the sisters know we would not be joining them for
dinner, and we headed over to the DA. While it all worked out, our
ward mission leader might be mad at us because he doesn't yet know about the
technological glitch.
We slipped in a correlation meeting for a
different ward before English class started. It forced us to be
brief, but that may have been a good thing because we were to the point. English
class was good, but when we dropped by the stake center we found a lot of young
women sitting and talking on the stage in the gym instead of the expected
basketball night with investigators. Eventually we synced and headed
home.
Some things I've learned from Elder Gudmundsen
include:
Caring less about what other people think.
I've been good at caring about what God thinks, but I really should only care
if God cares. God wants me to care about what my parents, friends, and
people I meet think, so I should care about that. But when I start
worrying about what other people think and think things are "bad"
when God would actually be fine with it, I don't do myself good.
In submitting to authority and the rules, we
should definitely submit to the rules and proper authorities over us. But
there will be times we must make our own choices to accomplish a job we've been
asked to accomplish.
I've chided other missionaries because I thought
they weren't being considerate of others. This relates to not caring about what
people think. I was trying to draw a line between being polite and caring too
much about judgment. Realizing that I just need to listen to what God
cares about helped not only me in what actions I would do, but also what
actions I would consider okay for others.
I also chided Elder Gudmundsen because I thought
he wasn't thinking of his purpose. For example, we need to look for opportunities
to teach people that result from service and on occasion I didn't think he had
done that the way I thought was appropriate.
Closely related to that, I should be more
trusting and take a less extreme route in judgment. Sometimes I skip to
an assumption when I shouldn't. Remember to beware of pride, and be
mindful.
April 19th, 2017 (Wednesday):
Wait, it's Wednesday already? Have you
ever tried to swim to the bottom of a pool but kept floating up? That's
like me, trying to not go through "time warps." Where does the week
go?
We changed our study order again, this
time with much better results. We offered service to a few people
and emailed Brother Wheeler the dinner calendar. We then finished
studies, lunch, and worked on the Wasatch Hills' prospective elders list until
dinner, when we were supposed to eat with some of the prospective elders. There
wasn't a man at dinner, but fortunately a young man from the neighborhood was
able to join us on short notice.
Elder Gudmundsen wasn't feeling his
best--spiritually--as he is dealing with some things. Keeping it at
that, the only thing we did was hold a lesson at 8:30. Elder
Gudmundsen was able to square his shoulders and do the work, for which we're
both glad. The lesson went really well. We taught Corey, who
previously had only met with Elder Bach because his prior lessons were while I
was on exchanges. In any case, we talked about his career path and
moved into his feelings on church. It was a very comfortable
environment for Corey, and I believe it helped Elder Gudmundsen.
April 20th, 2017 (Thursday):
4/20. Hahaha I remember what I was doing
exactly one year ago. I was watching a Minecraft livestream where
some people pranked the guy I was watching by turning his tower into a giant
bong. Wow. Time flies.
Elder Gudmundsen was out for the count
today. His head hurt. We did nothing from 10:00-4:45. He
talked to Dr. Jackson about it. Elder Gudmundsen napped and I
cleaned, caught up on my cards, made lunch for the both of us, and so on. I'm
learning patience. It was nice to catch up in a way. Our house is
very clean now.
By the way, I'm almost out of notecards! I
still have stamps, pocky, and breath-mints. Also, as I was tidying
Elder Gudmundsen's things I found a wood cube that looks just like Snafooz. That
brought back a lot of memories.
I haven't been doing meditation daily,
but I've been pretty good at being mindful. I should get to that.
At dinner, I tried a wasabi-ginger burger
at a restaurant. The wasabi and ginger were pretty mild, though.
We were going to have two meetings, but
the zone leaders had to go to the hospital so we had to give another set of
elders a ride. I don't really know the elder who had the emergency,
but I hope he'll be okay.
As a side note, we got an unreasonable
amount of bread (30 loaves) secondhand from a bakery. We'll pass out
the loaves tomorrow.
The other ward mission leader cancelled
meeting, so we did weekly planning for the night. Elder Gudmundsen
had a hard time, though. He's going through the thick of allergies
right now, so really I can just try to support him.
April 21st, 2017 (Friday):
I fell asleep again at around 7:30 am and
woke up at 9:00 am. Oops! We then had a weird hour where we didn't
do anything from 10-11 am, because Elder Gudmundsen also got up late and was
getting ready. So it wasn't our finest morning.
Our day made up for it. We got
kolaches (imagine a pasty but in the shape of a large dumpling. Elder
Gudmundsen has them in Michigan) for lunch, using a coupon we got from a
Smith's receipt. They are pretty good, especially from the Jupiter
Doughnut Factory-style bakery right next to the meetinghouse we go to for
district meetings. The bakery makes batches in the morning and
usually sell out by noon, at which point they close.
District meeting was on feeling the
Spirit and the importance of the Spirit in missionary work. While I
don't think I learned anything groundbreaking, I hadn't studied that chapter in
a while and a review was helpful. Plus, district meeting is a time
to receive revelation, so I should focus on it in my area this week.
After that we went on exchanges. Based
on district meeting, we (Elder McKee–our district leader–and I) talked about
being prayerful. Or, rather, Elder McKee taught me about it. Prayerfulness
is relying upon Christ to guide one’s efforts and for the strength or ability
to do what is asked. Specific prayers can encourage more specific
answers, so part of applying prayerfulness is to go into an activity with a
specific purpose in mind and a prayer in heart for guidance.
Also, Elder McKee helped me realize being
accountable can/should be a positive time or recognizing the efforts I have put
forward and may include asking God to make my efforts enough to bless another
person. I had really only looked at it as seeing what I still had to
do to accomplish goals, and in that sense I had missed the other half.
Another thing I learned: peeled potato +
cheese grater = hash browns. I didn't ever think of that.
We had quite the lesson with a woman I've
seen before on exchanges to this area. She talked about her feelings
that God didn't love her, she couldn't be forgiven, that she had been
abandoned, and so on. It was powerful on both sides--a lot of light
and a lot of darkness. We had an 18 year old priest with us who is
just about to turn in his mission papers; I think it was good for him.
The rest of the night was at the stake
high councilor over missionary work's house. The other elders have
set up a class in their stake around the missionary lessons; they coordinated
the whole time.
April 22nd, 2017 (Saturday):
We finished exchanges at around lunchtime. Before
that, we finished studies and did a lot of service. First was helping
the member who works for Skull candy in his yard. Second was helping
out Highland High School with a service day under the sponsored slogan "Comcast
cares." We got to visit "the H rock" (a giant rock
with an H painted on it located above Foothill Drive around 1700 South) and
weed around it. It's the high school's version of "Y
mountain" or "U mountain".
I felt like we wasted time at the service
event, however. While I'm very glad we have things to do and the
service itself wasn't a waste of time, we spent a lot of time doing nothing. The
service was divided into many groups doing different things, and we finished at
different times then were told to wait for everyone else to finish their things.
After everyone was done, they served pizza in the cafeteria. Once we
gathered, we realized about half of the missionaries in the mission were at the
event, and it became an impromptu reunion. Everyone talked for a long time.
I probably wouldn't have minded as much
if our dinner wasn't half an hour away. By the time we finished the
exchange report (describing what we learned on exchanges) and got to our
apartment to change, we were behind schedule. It was almost
laughable that we discovered we lost the key to our apartment. A
frantic search later and we found the key by the other elders' apartment.
We got to dinner late, but it all worked
out. I write about what happened but I’m not still bothered about it. I was bothered
at the time, but I've learned to move on well enough.
The father of the family who had us over
for dinner owns a video game store. He gave me a lot of good advice
and an idea of how it would be to run one. I now realize that I don't know
if a game store would work out; basically, there is a very small profit margin
on games because companies will sell them to dealers for $45-$50 (retail $60)
and gamers now don't buy from stores as much as download at home. Consoles
depend on how many you can buy--bulk does well--so little stores can't compete. His
store is focused on other things like magic and Pokémon trading card games out
of necessity because he can’t make enough money just on video games.
After dinner, we returned to have a
lesson with Abraham and Jack on part of the plan of salvation. It
went well. Afterwards, we played basketball for about fifteen
minutes. I had been watching the clock and hoped we would leave
right at 8:50. Abraham accidentally elbowed me in the face right at
8:50, at which point I told Elder Gudmundsen that we needed to go. Elder
Gudmundsen protested, wanting to finish the game, but I told him that I didn't
want to argue this. I think Abraham thought I was mad at him when
really I was frustrated at Elder Gudmundsen. It wasn't good for me
to react the way I did. I'm trying to be a better companion, and
unfortunately this isn't it for this week.
I have sorted out everything for Mr. Mac. They
are very flexible, so I'll be able to go next Monday and *finally* get all my
clothes tailored! Yay.
April 23rd, 2017 (Sunday):
We had a very late start today. Elder
Gudmundsen is fighting his allergies every day now, it seems. While
he was down, I worked more on a homemade scripture case for one of the people
we're teaching.
We went to the Emigration Canyon ward for
sacrament; their service had good talks and a beautiful musical number that two
senior sisters had played last night at a funeral.
We ventured to the Chinese ward for
second and third hour. There's a young man there who we know
struggles with his testimony, so we're going to try to help as we can. Directly
following the third hour was a correlation meeting; it was supposed to be with
all the ward missionaries in the Chinese ward but none of them could make it so
it was just like any other week for us.
Our dinner was with the Fredricks. Brother
Fredrick is the ward mission leader for the Indian Hills ward. He has 10 siblings
who all live within a ten mile radius. Their parents are converts
and have a total of 65 grandkids. Everyone is active in the church. The
dinner was one grandson's homecoming and most of the Fredricks extended family was
there (not to mention a good number of the maternal side of the family!). It
was like going to heaven. Everyone knew each other and everyone had
the "Mormon glow."
We stayed too long at dinner--a half hour
too long. I talked to Elder Gudmundsen about it and we ended up
talking for a while. He extended the conversation and talked more
than he normally does, which was great. From it, I'm going to try
to:
1.
Accept that it is not my job to make
my companion understand. I can only make sure he heard what I said
and leave it at that.
2.
Accept that my companion will do
what he will do. I have to be kind and forgiving, especially because
I sometimes perceive faults when there are none.
3.
Be mindful. When I act
without thinking, I (along with most people) usually act out of pride.
After that, it was 8:30. It
takes 10 minutes to drive to our English stake, so we weren't sure if we should
go out. Just then, Brother Wheeler called and asked us to email him
the dinner calendars, so we walked to a nearby church building to send it out.
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