Wednesday, March 24, 2010

24 March 2010

Hey, How are you guys?

Yeah I got the package, thanks so much. It was exciting, and the train was a surprise, but I liked that too.

Its been a hectic week. The members we live with are getting divorced, so its just her and us in the house now. Shes an older lady so we're allowed to stay there still, but its sad. The guy would be very hard to live with though. She prayed about it and the stake president did when she told him and they both received the answer that she needs to move on and put him in the Lords hands and hope it will work out. There's a lot to it more than I ever would want to know. it's always sad to see, but once its over I think she'll be a lot happier. When she served him with the paperwork he moved to the cabin, took all his guns out of the house and he went and bought his own PO Box, so he was pretty quick to agree. We do have a PO Box key now tho, and it is still box 1622 for us.

Yesterday was zone conference. We got there at around 8 for interviews with president, and during the interview he said, now elders i am going to excuse you at 1230 so you can beat the storm. I'm thinking not again more snow. We drove back to our area at 1230 after grabbing a few things at a wal mart in the city. lol And on the highway most of it was clear, but out of nowhere on the passes you'd have a 5 mile stretch where it was dumping snow so hard that you could barely see. It wasn't snowing when we got back, but bc of the roads we didn't get back until 330. We ate dinner and made a few visits, and then at around 7 it was coming down so bad we went home because we didn't wanna get stuck in town. We got 14 inches last night, and the guy we have lunch appointments with on wednesday got 18 and he high-centered his suburban and his driveway. He's waiting for a tow truck to pull him out. hahah. It looks like its lightly snowing again.

Other than that we have just been trying to visit less actives and stuff and do tracting in more places outside of town. I was kind of disturbed at interviews, because the mission president plans on leaving the area open until winter straight now. Which will happen no matter what because we get a new mission president on July 2 I think and he'll just read the note. Things are so slow here right now. Hopefully all the hikers and rafters will pick things up in the summer. But I'm hoping I'm gone after this transfer. I love the area, but I've had enough.

Hey thanks for getting those retainers done. I think my teeth have shifted a bit, but not too bad, so hopefully they'll correct that. Thanks for the subway card too. I'll have to get there in the next few days while everything's a 5 dollar footlong still so I can get a chicken bacon ranch for 5. Those are the best. John got a new car? That's awesome. I wish I could just keep the car I've been driving forever. hahaha

I don't know what to tell you, other than that my life has been pretty boring. I want to see green outside, I miss CA in this time of year. I hate snow! Oh well though. I think that's about it. :)

Love ya,
Tom

17 March 2010

Its supposed to hit 50s today, and its been in the 40s monday and tuesday.
So much better than sunday, but we have another storm coming in on Friday!
Bleh... I absolutely detest snow!

I got a mail letter from Eliza yesterday, sounds like she's having a good
time. Hey did I totally miss the st patricks day thing. I don't think anyone
celebrates it here.

So the baptism was amazing! I will have to get pictures printed sometime
this week. We had stake conference on Sunday and no one ended up going from
our branch. So bc of stake conference the Branch President insisted on a
waterside confirmation. i didn't want to get into a church policy battle, it
didn't seem the time or place, so I did it. I got chewed out by mission
leadership, but that's their job, and when they call, unless you want
something you make sure your doing something to distract you and don't hold
the phone up to your ear and just uh-huh, ok, sorry periodically. hahaha
Then it doesn't get to you. But it was an awesome experience. He loved it.

I did make a phone call to the mission president and told him our situation
bc we haven't had many dinner appointments, this week we only have two and no
one has yet signed up for next week. We are getting super low on money, so
he is giving us each an extra 30 dollars for this month. We can manage off
that.

I'm not sure what else you need to know. We are out and about working, but
either ppl are couped up in their houses or have a place to be and don't
tend to talk much. Besides I think they see me and realize we've already
talked... at least twice. haha

I don't know, its a good idea to invite people to conference, but we've had
investigators that have come drop off the radar, so I don't know how true
what that Elder told you is. Are the missionaries there for real people, or
are they the holier than thou nose in air type. A mission is a great thing,
just some missionaries bother me. Oh well tho.

I haven't had corned beef or cabbage since I left home. I guess I probably
won't until a year from now. Oh well though. I think that game meat has that
beat any day if its cooked right and fed off of alfalfa. That's the good
stuff right there. If you hunt antelope off of an area with that type of
feed and cook it right that right there is good eatin'.

Other than that just trying to keep sane. I love it up here, but I do need
to get to the city again. Where there are people all over and things to do
on your day off. I just want to go back down into an area with bikes and
keep fit and happy. I wish there weren't so much snow on the mountains too,
that would be fun.

One thing I started doing was setting up a wall of pictures of friends that
still keep in touch, family, a picture of Jesus and of the Redlands Temple.
It has helped me so much. When I come in at night and feel like I can't do
this again, I look up at all the faces of those people who love and support
me and I am calmed. I look at the temple, I haven't been able to go in a
temple since November, and that is an ultimate goal. I want to be in the
temple at least twice a month when I come home, and I want to be worthy of
that. So looking up at all that makes me smile even when things get rough
and it helps me move on and keep going and just grit my teeth instead of
saying whats on my mind, which in most of these cases would be a bad idea.

i think a mission is really for teaching people to cope with adversity and
not as much on spreading the word, because if the members were talking to
friends on a simple matter of fact level about the gospel they could study
the material in Preach My Gospel and learn basics, and if they heeded the
warnings of what not to talk about in there and followed the K.I.S.S.
principle (keep it simple stupid) then it wouldn't be as necessary. But that's
an ideal world, and probably will never happen. So the missionary program
causes people to learn to be men and deal with stress and cope with people
(because dealing with people isn't always a good idea). But those are just
my random thoughts, take them as a grain of salt.

I also love living with the family we live with. They are there for us every
step of the way, and not involved so much in the cliques in the branch. It
feels like home every time we enter that house. It is a great place to be.

I want to let you know that I have found out that Christ lives more so at
this time in my life than ever. He walks with me, he knows the desires of my
heart and helps me everyday. I know where I stand, and I'm trying harder
everyday. I love the book of mormon, and I have especially loved the
writings of Paul lately. He is a great guy, because he just speaks the truth
and doesn't leave too many questions in my head anyway. I love you guys and I
realize that I was a very lucky kid to be raised in a loving home, and in a
more hardened area. It was a blessing to be able to see the people who have
less than I do and see how different of my friends followed different paths.
It was good, because it made me see what I didn't want to do. I really am
excited to come back at the end of this year and see where life takes me.
But until then I just gotta keep working, because that makes the days go by
quick and sometimes gives you things to laugh at.

I hope all is well there and I miss you all. Take care and thanks for all
the love and support.

Love,
Tom

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

10 March 2010

So this is going to be a short letter. Thomas' baptism is at noon, and we decided to come email real quick in case we don't get a chance later, and while the water heaters heat again.

I am staying in Buena Vista for a third transfer. Proof that God does love us. hahaha Its been a rough day though. We're way behind schedule because we got a foot and a half of snow last night and we live in the middle of nowhere so it took a while for the plows to get there. and once they did we had to dig a bit to make sure we could make it out around our car. They were plowing the church parking lot as we left

I'm liking this diet thing. I was 211 in January and i weighed myself yesterday at our lunch appointment and I'm down to 197. So that's some good news. Idk if that's too healthy, but I feel so much better, and a little bit of energy is going a lot farther.

We are hoping we can find some success here this transfer. I'm so happy to be able to be in such a beautiful place.

We have stake conference on Sunday. We either have 70 miles to a broadcast or 120 to the real thing, so I'm going to try and find us a ride, otherwise we might just not go to church this week. It'll be fun though!

I'm way ready for summer. You don't even know. when you convince yourself that 40 degrees is warm, there's something totally wrong with you. It makes me appreciate CA so much seeing CO winters. But if you even skied or snowboarded the resorts out here would be an absolute paradise.

We moved Thomas in with the people he works with that are his main fellowshippers last week. That should be a great thing. They all need the support of other members, hopefully this is the next best thing, right?

I'm talking about the Holy Ghost at the baptism since he doesn't know too many people in the branch.

Well, I gotta go now, finish filling the font! Hopefully we can come back later but if not, just know, I'm alright, and I get to stay in one of the most beautiful places in the country (even if it is real cold, its still beautiful).

Love,
Tom

Friday, March 5, 2010

3 March 2010

I am driving a 2010 Pontiac Vibe AWD, which is the same car as a toyota matrix, so yes it was made by toyota, it just has all the GM bells and whistles too.

Wow, the whole missionaries not having dinners, they need to stop whining, lately we've been getting about 3 nights a week with meals. It has been a bit more expensive, and yes I've had to tap into personal funds a bit, but its better than bringing it up at church and offending members. Not a good idea.

Our week has not been as eventful as the last one. We have done some tracting, and as to be expected out here, we've had a few people answer the door with a pistol in hand. People out here are kind of funny, it always makes me laugh. A lady showed us her rifle she keeps behind the door, and made us handle it. Being responsible I went to throw the bolt open and make sure the chamber was empty, and as I was doing this I asked if it was loaded. The answer was, "of course its loaded. Do I look like an idiot son? Let me ask you a question. When you aren't driving your car do you empty the gas tank? That would be stupid, so why would I have an unloaded gun."

Other than that we have been asked to visit some less-actives. One of which I've been the only missionary able to get in, because they want nothing to do with the church, but I found out they're from Redlands, CA, so I am able to go over there and small talk and then edge a gospel message in sideways and invite them to go to church. We'll see what we can do. Transfers are next Thursday, next Wednesday we are baptizing Thomas. We have another investigator on date for the 28th, so I'm hoping I get another six weeks here. It is the place to be. I don't want to leave. The people here are so nice, and usually very respectful. This is the only place on my mission where I have ran into so many nice preachers. There is an interesting thing about here though. Very religious people as a whole. This town of 2000 has 18 churches. Unbelievable ain't it.

Well we got a great day planned out. We are having lunch with a member, then playing some basketball. yeah! Its been in the 50s the past couple days too. Colorado really is a gorgeous place when the weather is tolerable. If I were up here in the summer tho, I wouldn't want to work at all. I'd want to be hiking all day every day. it is so beautiful out here we are totally surrounded by mountains.

Tomorrow we take our car to a dealership in Silverthorne and get the accelerator changed out. But we have a district meeting 10 miles away, so we arranged where we drop off the car right before the meeting, and then our district leader drives us over to the meeting. Then since hes closer to Silverthorne, right after the meeting he'll drop off his car, and we'll take off whenever we can. Which is kind of nice, because that makes going to district meeting reimbursable.

Well, I really don't know what else to tell you. y'all take care, and we'll talk to you next week, and let you know whats going on with transfers.

Love ya,
Tom

PS I was bummed, we were visiting someone who was watching the USA CANADA hockey match, and we got there right when we scored to take it into an OT period, so I caught some glimpses out of the corner of my eye, and really wanted USA to pull it off