Hey Everyone!
This has been a really slow week. We had a few appointments, but we have been snowed in for the the majority of the week. This past week we met with Anatole and Sister D. and then we had tons of fun in the snow! Then rest of the time we were snowed in or checked on people. This past Friday we went over to visit with Sister D. She has been less active for quite a few years now and we have been trying to work with her to help her come back. Her health is going down hill and one of the senior couples said she has the beginning stages of dementia. Well we lost contact with her. We tried calling her and dropping by but no one would come to the door and her phone service was shut off. Well we finally dropped by Thursday and she said she wasn't decent. We told her we could come back the next day if she wanted and she told us that it was up to us. That was our first bad sign.
We went back the next day and she let us in, but we could tell she was not happy. We were sitting there trying to get her to talk and she was hardly answering us. We asked how her day was and all she said was alright. Then we made the comment about her heat being back on, because it was off for a while, and all she said was yup.
Also any time she answered us, she had a tone of voice like she didn't want to talk to us. Since she wasn't answering us I asked if we could share a spiritual thought with her. She stared at me for a good minute with a look as if to say "Really? You're asking me that right now?" And then rolled her eyes and said no she didn't want us to
and continued watching TV. I told her I didn't mean to offend her if I did and that I was just asking because I thought it could spiritually uplift her. She was very cranky and said some not very nice things to us. However, we worked it all out and did some more service for her.
Then the lesson with Anatole was awesome! The last time we met with him we read Alma 32, but we didn't finish it. So we left him with the commitment of finishing it before we came back. Well we went back and he had read the rest of the chapter! We asked him what the chapter was saying and he relayed back to us about how it's relating faith to a
seed and how if we don't nourish it it won't grow and so on. It was way awesome! We discussed a little more about what the chapter was saying and how he could apply it to his life.
After that, we taught him about the Ten Commandments! We asked him if he knew what the Ten Commandments were, like generally and not what each one was, and he understood they were "rules" given to us by God to help us grow our faith. Which is true! So we just explained a little more as to how we got them. Then we went through the actual Ten Commandments. Because he has a hard time reading in English, he had a little bit harder time understanding what some of the stuff meant. We explained where needed and he understood and it was awesome!!!
As I mentioned earlier, we had a few snow days! The Missionaries are all supposed to stay home when there is a big snowfall to avoid weather related accidents. Well we had a lot of fun! The first snow day we went and tackled each other into the snow and white washed each other! Then later, Elder Crandall and Elder Squire (an Elder in the Spanish program) grabbed their bikes took them off jumps and skidded around in the snow. Elder Squire biffed it pretty hard I guess. He was acting all manly about it. Haha! It was pretty funny. I asked him if it hurt and he was like "Nah,
it was super fun!". Then like twenty minutes later Crandall asked him to go back out with the bikes and Squire told him no because he got hurt last time and didn't want to get hurt again. Ha! I just laughed so hard. I called him out on how he said it didn't hurt and he was like "Ok, it did hurt! I just had to act manly for you guys!". It was too funny.
Then this past snow day we went to a park nearby and went sledding!! It was so fun! We kinda moved a round a few times to find just the right spot. We never really did find a good spot, so we broke out into a snowball fight that lasted at least a 1/2 hour! It was super awesome! I was on exchanges with one of our ZL's (he and I were companions that day). We were like ninjas, dodging all the snowballs, one right after the other. Then when we retaliated, we would nail the others. Ha! It was sick! The rest of the time we stayed inside and tried to be productive as we could. :)
So about the iPads and Facebook... This past Tuesday, we got an email saying that two general authorities were going to visit the mission and give us some instruction on some things. Then Wednesday afternoonish, I got a call from Elder Squire and he tells me that he was told by other missionaries, who heard from president directly, that when the general authorities come that they will be getting rid of our old iPads and then giving us new ones! The reason they are doing this is because they are finally ACTUALLY unavailing the iPads to the world of missionaries. I guess in the church when they release new stuff the old has to be done away. I know all of the US is getting them and I think parts of Europe will be also. Then on top of that he said that they will be taking away Facebook for a few months. The reasons behind this change is that they want the missionaries to be retrained to use online proselytizing because new instructions are coming out for it. President Cooke also said that people are spending way too much time on Facebook, so he's taking it away to show how much we need it, or something like that.
Thursday President Cooke and confirmed that with us as well. Then Friday when I was on exchanges with one of the ZL's, he explained further that anyone going home within a transfer isn't getting either back. The ZL also said that we won't be getting the new iPads the same day as the meeting tomorrow. They will be there before transfers though. So I'll be iPad-less for a few days. Ha! That's ok though :).
Sadly to say, we have never been able to get in contact with Kenneth. We have called him and dropped by multiple times and he just never answers and/or is home. Needless to say we had to drop him. Also, Amy has fallen off the face of the earth. We can't get a hold of her at all. We would stop by, but she asked us to not drop the house where she is a nanny because she could loose her job. We will just have to wait and see if she turns up or not.
Well this has been our week! It was pretty slow, but super fun! Hopefully we have another great last week-and-a-half before I go home!
I love you all and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gold
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