24 February 2015

Okey dokey, so this will probably be another really long one, so prepare yourselves! haha So last Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I had told Elder Keck that morning that I wanted him out of bed and done with showering and stuff by 9:00 so we could start our day at the time we're supposed to... And he did it!! haha I was pretty surprised when he got up to take his shower at like 8:30 instead 9:15 like usual, but he did it! Then we did our comp. study like we were supposed to! Then Rosemary Elders came in for district meeting. Then around 1:30 ish when we finished, we came back and did language and 12 week, which wasn't TOO too bad even though I didn't really want to. I basically just translated a page out of the Liahona, which took LITERALLY an hour, but it was a pretty cool story about this lady who wanted to take a picture of temple square with untouched snow but there was one trail leading to the temple from the women who were on their way to work that morning, and how they were so diligent even though it was still pouring snow and windy. A little later we had dinner with this family who had three older boys and two little girls who were flippin adorable!! And they were all really well behaved and listened to our message pretty attentively and it was super nice. On Wednesday I got him to get up at 9 again!! We also did all our normal studies like we're supposed to do (i.e. personal, companionship, language, 12 week)!! I'm pretty sure that if I just keep being persistent, he'll start doing it on his own :) We did some more stop-bys but with no success. Dinner was good and we had homemade perogies, which are really hard and time consuming and DELICIOUS!!! They said they ONLY make them for very special occasions or Christmas because that's just how much of a pain they are to make, so I guess we're pretty special! haha Also, something Keck told me at some point was that for his last transfer, he'll probably just make his comp do everything, so if I'm his comp., there'll be a bit of a problem there... Thursday was pretty lame since we had to weekly plan. After we finished though, while we were doing some stop-bys, we had another companionship inventory, and I told him about how I really don't like his laziness and we came out to work, not to be lazy piles (a pile is kinda short of "pile of crap", or just a lazy missionary). Also how I don't like how much he calls other missionaries and texts them for unimportant reasons and I never know what's going on when he texts or someone texts him, and he said that's totally understandable. So now basically every time he calls someone, he puts it on speaker, and I also have the phone most of the time, which is pretty nice!! Then he told me I should work on being more humble... He didn't do a very good job explaining what exactly he meant by that. But he basically just used my example with Elder Mackey. IDK if I told y'all about him, but a couple weeks ago, there was an Elder who, with Elder Keck and another missionary, were talking about where we were going for lunch after Zone Conference, and I was kinda off to the side, and didn't really hear, and I said, "Where are we going? I didn't hear." And he just turns to me and goes, "I know, we weren't talking to you.." Like ok dude, what the freak ever. Then a week later or so, they were messing around on Facebook and chatting with some girls in the MTC on thhe Mormon.org chat thing (not supposed to do either of those), and I had sorta seen them doing it earlier, and was just like whatever. Then like a few hours later I came back and they were still doing it, and I came to the computer and just like leaned in with them and was checking it out, and he exes out of everything and closes it all up, and I'm like, "I already saw everything earlier. I know and don't really care." And he just goes, "ok, so, go away." Like bro, I have never said anything to you ever. Why are you like that..? Anyways, Elder Keck told me how I shouldn't be so prideful and think that it's his problem or whoevers problem and not mine if they act like that, and I should try to be kinder and more Christlike, and try to be less obnoxious or whatever. Because I talk a lot or make it sorta known when I talk, like I wasn't to be the center of attention. I'm just an outgoing person, and I don't like being quiet and sitting in the background. I like participating and be present. But yeah, I re-explained how I won't actually start anything with someone like that as long as he isn't going out of his way to bother me. Then he also said how from what he discussed with another missionary, there's only like 4 people in the zone who like me: both the zone leaders and this other companionship (one of them used to be Assistant to the President). And I told him how if those are the only people who like me, the people who are in authority and someone who used to be AP, then I must be doing something right, and maybe other people need to stop being so judgmental and rude. But whatever, never in my life have I had any enemies or people who legitimately didn't like me, so I'm not changing now that there are a couple missionaries who don't like me very much. Friday was actually productive! Elder Keck didn't really feel too good, so he made me decide what to do. I wanted to go tracting (since we don't have any really investigators). We placed several BOMs and one person seemed actually genuinely interested! She was very appreciative when we gave it to her and explained how it's a lot like the bible, and we went through the pictures in the beginning, and she seemed totally intrigued the whole time, and when we asked if she would read it and we could come back in like a week, she said "oh yeah, sure, definitely." Like PLEASE be interested!!! haha Saturday Morning we tried to get a hold of Alaina and she never picked up. then at like 1:15 she called and said they all slept in and we could come around 2:00 to help her out (we had asked the other day). When we got there, the task was to help her clean up her basement. that place was a DUMP!! She has five kids, so they all trash the place basically (sounds all too familiar haha). But yeah, that was pretty nasty and super messy and took a while, but we got it done and will come back another time to talk and have a little lesson with them! OH!! and her 5 year old son LOVES spider-man, which is funny and I told her about how my little brother loves spider-man too haha. So Sunday was another frustrating day in the sector of laziness. On our way back from Bassano from teaching Elizabeth after church, Elder Keck said we were gonna do more personal studies because he hadn't done them that morning (even though I had). When I saw him in the morning, he was just sitting there eating his stupid breakfast bar, doing nothing... So when we got back around 3:45 in the afternoon, he went and laid on his bed, got under the covers with the phone, and started reading... LLLAAAAAZZZZZYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Like yeah I know you're not breaking any rules, but you're SOOO flippin lazy!!! So I got to write in my journal a bit about it (a pretty funny entry actually haha) and read some more. But once we finally got out.... no success. A few nice rejections, but nothing. We placed one BOM to this lady who seemed pretty interested, but that's it. One guy actually answered the door in nothing but a red pair of boxer briefs and a T-shirt and goes, "oh hey guys, just making love to my wife." I didn't think he was serious, and when we asked if he was interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ, he turns inside and yells, "Hey honey, you want to talk about Jesus? *turns back immediately* nope, bye guys" and slams the door... I honestly think he just took his pants off before answering the door so he could say that hahaha. Yesterday was actually quite successful I think!! We placed I think six BOMs and several of them seemed actually genuinely interested! The first lady said her husband was Mormon but hadn't gone to church in a while. We later heard that he was raised LDS but hadn't gone for a while. She was very nice and said to come by in the evenings if we wanted to catch him and we could talk to both of them and see if we could get them back out. Then a couple doors down was another super nice lady who we gave one to and said for us to come back. A few more doors down was this lady who was about to leave with her kid and we told her how through the Book of Mormon and the bible, someone can come closer to God and and build their testimony in him/ She took it quite appreciatively and said she would definitely read it and we could talk about it later. Then one guy, when we approached the door, I saw a little sign in his house that said "prayer", and then he didn't seem to interested when we first started, then I introduced him the BOM and said how by using it and the bible, you can use it's teachings and message and it can help guide our lives and make us happier and bring us closer to God. Then he kinda got this look on his face, took it, and goes, "ok, you come back later.." haha so I think that was kinda his way of challenging us like "ok, we'll see if it brings me closer" haha. So yeah, I'm really glad we did this much tracting. It was pretty scary sometimes, but we survived, and I'm really thinking we'll pick up at LEAST one new investigator!! A lot of the people who took them were genuinely appreciative and very nice, so hopefully one of them at least will look through the BOM and keep some bit of interest, that way we can help them to feel the spirit and really come closer to God. I love this gospel and I'm so thankful I have this chance to serve The Lord and can't wait to help someone change their life for the better. I love all you guys and can't wait to get more letters!! I'll try and get some stamps to send you guys some, but I heard they're like $1.50 up here! Yikes!! But thank you all for all the support and I love hearing from you guys. Until next week! Love, Elder Windham