Week 41: A good week of zeros

April 10th, 2017 (Monday):

This p-day was great!  We went grocery shopping at Smith's, Dan's, and Walmart.  We went emailing, too.

We searched for and found the racquetball courts that we had seen a few days ago.  The elders who cover that area were going to see if any members who live there have access to those courts and would want to play racquetball.

Our district activity was going to the Hogle Zoo, but Elder Gudmundsen was broke and didn't want to go.  We found out later that a member had passes for everyone.  We played frolf (frisbee golf) instead.  Josh (one of the people we’d been teaching) gave us four disks and Elder Gudmundsen bought three.  I got to keep the fourth.  I enjoyed playing Frisbee.

I made a great dinner, with help.  We had Elders Evans, Vernon, and Sulzen over.  I was going to make a roast, but we ended up having a BBQ beef sandwiches with a mash on the side. The veggies absorbed pretty much all the water, so we mashed them all together. Here is a picture of us after we ate:

April 11th, 2017 (Tuesday):

Our morning went by fast: studies, a stake meeting, lunch at Brother Wheeler's, helping our landlord trim a hedge, visiting two widows in the Monument Park ward (who didn't need any service but were happy to see us), finishing biographies for the sisters and meal calendars for the stake.

At dinner, we ate with the family with a daughter who is a really good piano player.  She told Sister Simpson the music that likes, which included classical and video game music.  In her stack of textbooks was an AP statistics book.  During dinner she said that she loved video games, especially the Legend of Zelda.  I was conscious of how many similarities we shared, and felt a bit confused at "why can I not speak words clearly right now?!?!?!" I can better understand what Elder Gudmundsen meant when he said that sometimes he can get "distracted" around someone of the opposite sex.

I can imagine Kirsten is laughing pretty hard right now.

After dinner, we visited a third widow.  As luck would have it, today was her husband's birthday.  We shared the Easter video on how Jesus's Resurrection gives us peace.  It was perfect.

Following that, we went to English class and helped Sister Paul out with the kids again.  Little Chinese kids are adorable.  Sister Paul gave us some extra sidewalk chalk, too, which is nice and will help when working with the kids.

April 12th, 2017 (Wednesday):

We tried out a new study order: finishing companionship study at 11:00, going to visit people, and coming back for lunch and language study.  I don't think it worked too well, but it was a nice change of pace.

In companionship study, we reviewed our study journals.  It was an interesting trip into the past.  A mission can be so long and so short.

We did some yardwork for Sister Paul, tried to contact a less-active priest in the canyon, had dinner, met with a bishop, posted our biographies in the stake's buildings, and had a correlation meeting.  Pretty normal day.

April 13th, 2017 (Thursday):

We gave a blessing to a college student today.  She was a very interesting person; as a kid, she wanted to be many things, so being unable to be all the jobs she wanted she decided to become a journalist and report on all those things. We then had companionship study with the zone leaders.

We found a new weekly planning spot.  There's a tiny park in our stake with a shady riverbank.  

We made some good plans, even though we didn't finish.

After dinner, we listened to a voicemail from Mary, a less-active member with whom we've had two great lessons.  She has concerns over how much we use the Book of Mormon compared to the Bible.  She wants to stop meeting with us for now.

Earlier this week, there was an elder who sent an email to everyone in our mission about how strict we are with obedience.  Elder Gudmundsen trained him.  We heard from the sisters that he's being moved to another mission, so maybe that was his way of saying goodbye.

We took a breather at the Paul's, then finished the night with planning.

April 14th, 2017 (Friday):

We ran in Sugarhouse park for exercise.  I ran, Elder Gudmundsen basically biked circles around me.  It was a good change of pace for exercise, but there was a weird car that kept pace with us.  It probably was our imaginations.  Even still, I'm perfectly okay with not finding out what would have happened if we didn't avoid him.

We made stir fry before district meeting. It was amazing, , While it was faster to prepare than our other fancy lunches from our first transfer, it still took too much time.  Eggplant is a cool vegetable, by the way.

At district meeting, we reported all zeros.  No one baptized, no one on date, no investigators at church, and no new investigators.  I knew it had been a good week as far as our efforts went; we had Josh (a less active member) at church and a lot of our "free" proselyting time was taken up by meetings. Other time was taken up by Elder Gudmundsen's headaches (from his allergies).  But still, I felt really "empty" after reporting.  I entered a really weird emotional stake that I want to puzzle out.  I’d like to be teaching more and baptizing more.

Elder Gudmundsen and I argued a bit over the way things were going. I want to work on being a better support to Elder Gudmundsen.  that's not to say I'm a bad support, but I still want to be better.

Elder Gudmundsen

After dinner, we had a joint lesson with some other elders with a Chinese family of three.  However, they wanted to be taught in English and attend the English ward, so they didn't become our investigators.

We checked in with a new senior living place [the Ridge] where an investigator of ours was staying.  We found he had moved, so we will send our records over to his new ward.

April 15th, 2017 (Saturday):

Elder Gudmundsen woke up with a headache, which sounds like the worst way to start a day.  We ended up not getting out of the apartment until 2 pm. We finished weekly planning; even though it's Saturday, we've gotten better at being brief.  That being said, there's room to improve our planning efficiency.

We later had a bi-weekly meeting with a ward mission leader. It was our first "slow" meeting because didn't have much to report, but it was still good that we touched bases.

Driving took most of the rest of the day.  Dinner was with a high councilor in Lehi, followed by contacting a person somewhere between here and there.  We finished the night by visiting a priest who has his papers in for a mission.

Several times we’ve had dinner with members in the Chinese ward who deliberately gave us very "American" food.  It’s like they don't want to risk making something we wouldn't like, so they go to things like pizza, burgers, or spaghetti.  I would never think of things like that – I’d just prepare food that I liked and offer it – and it just shows how deep a change in cultures can affect someone.

April 16th, 2017 (Sunday):

Easter!  We got going and attended several sacrament meetings, and they all had a heavy emphasis on music, which was a nice change of pace. We took some leftovers and ate lunch at the Chinese ward between meeting blocks.  Speaking of which, Abraham and Jack attended the Chinese ward this week.  Yay! We'll have to see where they end up.  They are moving back to China for the summer soon.

There was a really wonderful priest’s quorum class.  The teacher talked about grace and giving others forgiveness, using one of the last songs from Hamilton as an example.

Our Easter dinner was with the sisters and a really nice family.  The food was similar to my family's traditional Easter dinner.  They have a son out on a mission.  It was a good time.  They gave each of us a high quality thermos water bottle.

We left at 6:30. We went to the church to sync and use the bathroom, but Elder Gudmundsen got a pressing headache in his temples.  He called Sister Balling (as he does for his headaches generally; this one wasn't super painful), so we only went to a lesson with Jack and Abraham for the rest of the night. It was a good lesson.  They both realized they had a lot to think about when it comes to the gospel, which is what we were hoping to show them.