Week 25

This week has been crazy. I had my first exchange with the district leader where I actually left the area! The whole 6 months I've been out I've slept in the same bed every night. Normally you go on exchanges 2 times every transfer period (6 weeks). We got lunch at this place called 1000 degree Neapolitan pizza. It's basically a MOD pizza and they have a 5.99 deal on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So after lunch on Thursday we were biking home and I was struck by a vehicle (I think a comedian said that in a skit but I don't remember who, someone look it up for me and "return and report"). I was going down a hill and a car creeped into the crosswalk as I entered it and I hit the front end of their car, rolled on and hit the windshield and bounced into the street on the other side. I hit my head pretty hard and my back crunched the windshield pretty good and they have a few dings in the car but it's mostly all good. I rolled around in the street for about 5 seconds wondering if I was okay and got up. I just had some holes in my shirt and backpack and a really sore neck. I filled out a police report and was on my way. Walked my wobbly wheeled bike home. The front wheel was a taco and the fork was bent back so I have to replace it, about 250 bucks for the cheapest parts you can buy, which I did... 

I went to the ER and they wheeled me around everywhere. This was on exchanges so I was with my district leader. I kept telling the people pushing me that I was promised an ice cream sandwich. I would say "see what you can do for me" referring to the ice cream sandwich when they left. I never got my frozen treat. One of these days I'm gonna get the bill and I'm going to complain that I didn't even get my complimentary ice cream sandwich! I paid top dollar for that 5 hour x ray CT scan and hospital bed stay. I deserved better.

Shamoon should be getting baptized this week, he is the 13 year old from the Pakistani family. He is so ready and finally came to all 3 hours of church. He wore a grey t shirt and bright blue jeans and flip flops. That was after I told him not to wear that outfit, but oh well... He loved church. My ward mission leader won a trip to Chile so he won't be able to help this week, going to be stressful pulling this all together! 

We might have to do a guy's laundry this week. Gary is an army vet with throat cancer. He is super racist and really sick but believes God gives him everything he needs (also the reason he doesn't pray, but that's another story). He has a hard time going up stairs n stuff so we always take his trash out and get his Ensure shakes out of his truck and bring them to him. Now we are doing his laundry I guess, but he has a good heart and needs the help. Maybe he will buy us lunch or something. 

Trying to get along with my companion still. There isn't much common ground. He always has a song stuck in his head, it's not even an exaggeration, he is always singing or humming or whistling a song. I could whistle a tune once and it will get stuck in his head and I won't hear the end of it for a day or two. He is a human jukebox/broken record. I'm trying to get along with him, and I have made a Ton of progress with him, but it's still a long journey. I think he would benefit from having another companion and seeing the differences in other companionship. Not sure he fully trusts my way of doing the work so there is a lot of friction, I'm sure he will struggle with that most of his mission. 

Still recovering from the accident, but I'm good. Stiff but can still play basketball on p day... The work continues and the biking up hills never ends. 

Hope you all have a great week, love you all!! 

Dueces, 

RIP harambe

Calvin

Week 24

I've had to be patient today... brother Terry gave us eclipse glasses and my comp walked up to some strange guy and said want to look at the sun with my glasses? He gave the glasses to him and now he doesn't have a pair. He said it's alright elder Grant, I can use yours! Now I'm the selfish one because he didn't have the huevos to tell him he wanted his glasses back.

On the way home we were starving so we grabbed some pizza. I was already irritated about the glasses when a lady begged me for a slice of pizza and I told her no. Elder Savage gave me this look of disappointment and disapproval for being selfish. I told her if she gave me her pack of cigarettes she could have a slice. I gave her the slice and she didn't fork over the stogies. I'm trying my best to be patient but I've never been so close to snapping.

This week was super hard, but I can also see how one day I will look back and see the growth that happened during this hard time. I'm trying to do my best at being patient and diligent. Training is not easy... I had an exchange with the zone leader, that was probably the highlight of the week. He said his experience with training was similar and that he understood what was happening, it was a relief. We also biked up superman hill in the rain, it was super hard. He was wiped out and physically drained afterwards. I told him that we had two more hills just as big the rest of the night and he looked at me with disbelief and horror. He slept well that night. He gave me some good tips on training and communicating with my trainee elder Savage. Since then we have had a better companionship and I've been less irritated and stressed. It's hard because I want the area to succeed but I need to focus more on elder savage, I think. It's a weird concept, but without a unified companionship there can not be any success in the area. 

This week we had interviews with President Huntsman, he is so awesome I love him. I've sent some super irritated emails explaining my view of the struggle and expressing the effort I am trying to put in to make this a successful companionship. In the interview he expressed to me how proud he was of me and how great I'm doing. He said he thought I was doing a great job even when I don't realize it. He shared the story of abinadi and how he never saw success. He was a prophet who never saw one convert and died at the stake probably feeling like a failure, yet he was probably the most influential prophet in the book of Mormon. Without him alma would have never heard the gospel and the rest of the book of Mormon wouldn't have happened. He expressed to me that elder savage is learning from me more than I know and that even though i don't see success the blessings will come. I think elder savage and I are way different, mainly because he grew up in the utah bubble and we have no common ground to talk about anything. I think we are put through this trial of not seeing as much success possibly because he was expecting to see miracles left and right because of his perfect obedience and dedication. He feels lost and confused because he doesn't see any results from his efforts. I'm trying to teach him to just love the people, period. If all you do for two years is view people and talk to people like you have something to learn from them, and loving them all you can you are fulfilling your job. 

I'm excited for next week. I'm hoping to have more patience and also to talk to way more people. We are working on stopping while we ride to talk to strangers, it brings a lot of joy for me because it makes me feel like I am uplifting at least one person at a time. Seeing people smile and making connections with people is the best, it's awesome learning to communicate with people you don't know and have totally different cultures. I love asking people to explain their cultures and backgrounds to me. 

Not many pics this week. I will try and be better this week and take a bunch for you all!

-Calvin

Week 23

I'm hoping this week goes by quickly, last week definitely did. I got to go to the temple twice and go to a sealing one time. A recent convert got sealed to her husband who died 25 years ago to the day. What a cool experience. My bishop looked at me and said the work you do is just the beginning. All the seeds you cast eventually grow into this crowning ordinance of the gospel. The spirit there was so much different than other ordinances, it was awesome.

I'm going to try and nap a whole bunch this P day. We gotta clean too because we didn't clean last week. Today will be super chill, I'm excited to sleep and lounge around.

Probably not going to bother with a weekly email. It's all pretty much the same stuff. I'm seeing the same people and stuff. You could probably share this email if You wanted to. 

I included a video of the rain here, it pours cats and dogs. It's so hard you can't see out your window with the wipers on full blast. I much prefer the Seattle rain, I miss the weather back home.

 Also, I complained to Elder Savage that he made small pancakes, cause I make them large, so he made them all different small sizes. He did it just to annoy me and it made me so mad. He doesn't know how to make pancakes.

Week 22

This week was rough. It's super tough being a trainer honestly, I feel like I'm pulling more weight as I'm used to and I don't feel like I'm as spiritual or as good a missionary as my previous senior companions. It's weird relying on the knowledge I have as a senior companion because I am such a new missionary. I've felt like I haven't had as much success as a missionary these past few weeks and I haven't been in tune with the spirit as I should. I've been a tad irritated with my companion as well. Because he is so young (turned 18 this march) I feel like he is a dog jumping you at the wrong time all the time. He has energy and makes stupid jokes that literally aren't funny at times where I'm thinking or being serious. Sometimes I just look at him and say "why do you do the things that you do"? I don't want this to be a complaining email so I'll just say, this week has been a struggle!!! 

Today we got to go to the temple, which was super awesome. I was just thinking to myself and asking, "why has this week been so hard? What am I doing wrong?" And as I read mosiah 24:15-16 I just felt the spirit as I saw the word cheerfully and patiently. The words brought comfort to me and screamed to my soul that I need to be patient. Like my companion before said is that sometimes the mission is like a slingshot. We are pulled and stretched until we think we are going to snap, then we are held there for a moment, and when the tension is unbearable we suddenly soar. I'm patiently awaiting the time where I will be set loose and can fly. It was a good P day and a really good temple trip.

This week at church I turned to Donna and told her it was her turn to bear her testimony. She just said okay basically and went up to the stand. I was so surprised, especially that I just asked her! I randomly thought it and just asked her without thinking, almost as if it were a joke. Im glad I asked her though. She said the best part was when she sat back down and I told her it was awesome. That was the most comforting part of going up there was what I said when she sat back down. 

Because two weeks ago it was so rainy I think that's what caused me to be sick this week. I had a cough, stuffy nose and was super low energy all week. Instead of taking a day off and resting I just went out to work, I'm not sure which option was better, or which was right. Either way, I was sick this week and it was terrible, I was sick all week and super tired!!! Some mornings I couldn't even think as I read the book of Mormon or PMG. 

One night for dinner Celia was supposed to feed us. We waited for the pizza guy to come for an hour, and we finally just said we had to go to our next appointment empty handed. Apparently the order was never put in the system. I was pretty hungry that night. I made some pretty dank mashed potatoes. It took so long to boil we couldn't eat them, but we took them to Paul's for lunch and it surprisingly fed 5 guys. Best part of the meal by far if I might say so. I'll be making more soon. I'm so glad we bought potatoes the other week.

Shout out to Eric Tidball, most of you probably won't understand this, but I bought a whole bunch of sparkling waters and am drinking them in the shower. I need to think of a good name for it, but cherries are a good pairing for the sparkling water. 

Lastly we met with Ian....... wow, what a gentleman. He basically told us he was the prophet, and God told everyone in the world that he was the messenger, and that Jesus told him to do acid and Molly and other "chemicals" in order to receive answers so he can spread the message. The message is world peace. Period. I'm not sure how he is going to accomplish this, but he is literally prepare to die for it he said many times. He wants to spread life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, because "they are trying to take away his liberty". I told him it's probably because he is using acid and Molly and meth, but that's obviously besides the point. I asked Ian why I or anyone I know knew he was the messenger, and he just disregarded it all and said God told everyone he was the only prophet, and even though everyone before him has failed, he will do it somehow, because he is going to die trying. He said he did acid earlier that day. Our ward mission leader said maybe he is on to something...  I don't think so, it's a method we have never tried before. Ian said it's a leap of faith to believe in him. Let's send the world mind altering drugs and give them life liberty and happiness right? 

Love you all, send me pictures.

RIP Harambe