Week 14

This week has been more of a struggle than other weeks. Maybe it's because I am stressed about transfers or something. I have found it difficult to be selfless. I knew that I would have to be selfless like Christ to be a good missionary, but as I am only a few months in I am finding it daunting to keep this up for 20 and a half more months! It's hard to believe that Christ did this his whole life perfectly. What a stud... I am excited to see my new companion Elder Judkins. Word on the street is that he is a very good missionary. I thought my trainer was very obedient, but he is telling me that this new guy is even more so. Oh boy. I've heard nothing but awesome stuff. One thing that really helped me this week was a letter that my good friend Alex Stout wrote me. I read it as I was looking to read a pick me up, to get me stoked for missionary work. He said that 99% obedience brings many blessings but 100% obedience brings miracles. This stood out to me as I was struggling to be selfless continually. He shared Matthew 10:39 which says, "he that finder his life shall lose it:and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it". This helped me realize that giving 70% of myself or 80% isn't going to do me much good. Yeah it will bring blessings, but why not give him everything I have? I tell people all the time, "you can't put a crumb on the throne of God without  receiving a whole loaf of bread back." How can I ask them to go put everything on the line and be baptized and rely on Christ if I am not willing to give all of myself for his work. It is a big task, and it's not easy, but as I lean on him more I have seen the increase in blessings. Get ready to hear about some miracles soon.

I may have forgotten to let you all know, but we had a baptism 2 weeks ago... elder Norton and I baptized the car. He said he had only heard of baptizing a car being a myth so he wanted to turn it into legend and make history. Since we came back from splits, and another elder was logged into the GPS system who is going home in a few weeks, we took it to triple digits on the freeway. Baptism. We drive a racecar. It may look like a corolla, but wait until you look under the hood. 😉

Met with lots of people this week. We normally have about 20 lessons a week. We have 30ish investigators, which is a lot. We had a good lesson with the Kuipo family. They're from Cameroon. It's hard explaining the difference between the trinity and the godhead because Christ was so perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. He is often referred to as our God in the scriptures. Brother Kuipo asks "was he the son of God or was he God himself?" It is hard for him to accept that the godhead is 3 personages who are perfectly one in purpose. I think it's hard for me or anyone for that matter to comprehend what perfect really means. There was a good talk this Sunday about how God is perfect because he has a perfect knowledge and understanding of the gospel. When Christ said "be perfect" he knew we couldn't be perfect as the Father was perfect because we do not have a good enough comprehension of the gospel. We must be perfect according to our knowledge of the gospel and our understanding of it. We must also seek to gain more understanding. One of my challenges is to get our investigator Donna Head to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She is so ready  but doesn't see it. She loves the bible but is hard for her to accept the Book of Mormon. She reads what we tell her to, takes notes, and draws parallels to the bible! She just doesn't recognize the spirit telling her it's true, or hasn't had that experience yet. I'm trying to figure out how I can get her stoked and feasting on the words of Christ which are in the Book of mormon!!

                                                           

Love you all. Please send me updates!! I'm out of the loop, so send pictures and emails. Don't be a stranger!

Week 13

I hit my three month mark this week, time has been flying by. We have been doing a lot of teaching and finding. We have found about 5 very potential investigators and one new investigator. We did a bunch of "sports finding". We go in our church clothes to a basketball court and just ask if we can play. I wasn't too good at basketball when I left but I sure hope to be good when I come home. 

Today we played some beach volleyball, for some reason everyone takes their shirts off while we play. It's super funny to hear Kenny say how there is not enough ladies around to see his guns. We were talking about one of the serves as a "cannon" and Kenny asked us to stop talking about his body like that. He is such a character. As we were playing we met a new guy who wanted to play. Every time we play sports in public we find someone to teach. We got his number and plan on meeting him soon. 

This Sunday there was a guy who walked into church who was wearing a dirty white tee, and tan O'Neill shorts and worn down Jordan shoes. He was obviously investigating. It was fast and testimony meeting so he went up to speak. He was so touched by the spirit there and you could see his desire to repent and to access the healing power of Christ's atonement. I bore my testimony and talked about my experience with atonement and as I was speaking he looked to Elder Norton and asked what that word atonement means. We definitely told him after sacrament meeting. He stayed for all three hours. He had to take a smoke break in between each meeting though. We are seeing him this next week. We had a total of 9 investigators at church. We could have easily had 12 but some people were sick. The Lord has been trusting us quite a bit. We teach many lessons every week. 

I'm glad it hasn't been too hot. It's been very hot, don't get me wrong, but I'm glad I haven't gotten heat stroke yet. The humidity here sucks. I can't wait till after August when it starts to cool down again, I miss wearing coats.

A huge thank you to Todd for taking Elder Norton and I to Ruth's Chris Steak House.   He spent 100 dollars each!! The total was 300 dollars. The steak was the best I've ever had in my life!! We had a good view of the Reagan airport and the capital building, haha, it was super nice.

Miss you all, email me if you have time. Send pictures!

Calvin

Week 12

This week went by super fast, but the weekend slowed down, so it kind of felt like there were two weeks in one. We played some beach volleyball at Bancroft park in Arlington, we went shirtless and some other people even joined our game! I'm super sun burned now though. 

We talked to August again this week, that was a trip. We asked him how he gained his faith and he went on about how one time he was possessed and how the devil controls people through numbers and frequencies and vibrations. He literally made up numbers and added them to get devilish numbers like 11 and 666. He said it was sacred geometry. He is a nut.

We met with Linda  too, she said she is a prophet. She said she spent 100,000 dollars on studying Christianity and knows almost nothing about the Bible. She said she is a priest and has the priesthood to baptize her baby in her bathtub, she really did it. We met her at a coffee house and we only got water. We waited for like 25 minutes for her so we taught people about the word of wisdom. She is also a nut.

We met with a few people who said they have seen aliens or space ships before. They are from South America, different areas, but they all said they have seen flying saucers on different occasions. One guy was convinced that Christ and Joseph Smith may have been aliens, and that angels are really just aliens trying to get us to believe something. 

I got to eat some food from Ghana this week, it was so cool. It was called Fufu. I called it multiple times sarcastically "poopoo". They didn't think it was very funny. It was made from plantains in a powder form and they put it in boiling water and it makes a dough like ball. They put the big ball in the bowl and fill it with spicy soup with beef. You just dip your hand right into the dough and eat with your hands. It was barbaric but super fun. Very very spicy, it burned my lips a ton. Elder Norton got it on his nose so he was hurting pretty bad, it's hard not to get it all over your face when you're eating dough and meat with your hands. It was a good time eating poo poo from Ghana.

I'm starting to get used to missionary work. I'm getting fed really well, too well I think, I need to start dieting. The members always want to stuff you! It's nice but bad for me. I'm glad I get to see so many people because the more I tell people what I believe the stronger my testimony gets. There are many times where I tell people what I believe, and it's awesome to see people progress and be more happy because of the gospel. God really does bless us when we choose to follow him. It was cool to watch the hour long Joseph Smith movie with Donna, I feel like it's been forever since I have sat down and watched a movie.

Since Kian stole my favorite hat I got a new Seahawks bucket hat. They threw in a lanyard for no extra charge. 

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Calvin

Week 11

I don't have very much time to write an email today.  We used most of our pday to help a member out.

On Monday night last week we organized a soccer game with some investigators and some guy dropped in to play with us. Halfway through he came up to me shaking his head and said, man I'm pretty drunk. So that was funny to watch him get more and more drunk throughout the night. This Wednesday we are going to another park to play basketball and soccer. 

Earlier this week we went to this community center to check out basketball courts and stuff and we found this guy named Bernard. He asked us a bunch of questions about the Bible like he was quizzing us as we played a couple games of pool. I'm excited to play more Ooltewah with him.  It seems like an awesome way to teach lessons and super fun.

Week 10

Hey everyone,

This week feels like it flew by, probably because the weather was cold and rainy and I loved it. It could also be because we had a ton of lessons this week.

We tried to meet with this guy who lives in a tall building, but he wasn't home so the front desk didn't let us up to his apartment. He said we had to leave, so we went to the back door. We went to the roof of the ghetto building because it's the last tall building before you see DC so we got some cool pictures on the roof. You can see the air force memorial, the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial that was lit up, all in order from right to left in the picture. 

Our week was really good and we had eight investigators that came to church. My comp said he has never had that many in his mission. It was the Masih family of 6 and then Kenny and Donna. We also got a less active named Anna to church. It was her first time in about 40 years I think. It was great to see her get all dressed up to return. We will probably have her speak to the Spanish elders and ward because she is from El Salvador. 

On Sunday night we were tracting and knocking on doors. One of the doors we knocked on was having a party. The guy that opened the door said it was part of his culture to give something good during the week to people who visit, so he gave us some of the treats they had out in Gheorghe home. I'm assuming he gave us the bad stuff because when we left I popped one in my mouth and next thing I knew it was in the dirt. I spat that thing out real quick! I looked at my companion and said "these things taste exactly how they smell... gross". They were like these honey paste sushi roll desserts, I got a picture of them. It was so nice oh him to be kind and give us a treat but I would have given them out as a prank because they tasted so rank. 

Tonight we have a soccer game that we are organizing. An investigator from Bolivia wants to play soccer so we told him we would get a bunch of people together to play.  Hopefully it's a good turn out. I also found 40 bucks in the parking lot the other day so I'm going to find something cool to spend in on. 

I got to mow an 89 year old ladies lawn today. We did it in an hour and it takes her over a day to do it so she was very glad. I felt bad for not taking her money she wanted us to have, she is from France.

Sunday evening, 6 my time 3 back home I got to Skype my family for mother's day, that was probably the highlight of my week. It was cool to be able to see everyone and see that Bane still recognizes my voice and whistle. I'm not sure he sees the screen very well.

Shout out to William Patrick and Sydney for reading my emails. I was happy to hear from uncle Derek because he was in the area for a day. I hope I can hear from you guys or get some pictures!

Hope to hear from you all soon, remember to send some pictures of what you've been up to recently! Miss you all tons!

Calvin 

Week 9

So this week was pretty cool. We have 7 new investigators and 3 on date for baptism! We got to eat dinner at several members houses, we got to keep the car for this transfer, and the weather has been so nice! The weather has been rainy and cold or sunny and cold, either way I'm happy because it's been in the 60s and that's perfect. We got some Thai food from members for dinner and one member even took us out to Olive Garden!

The first Saturday of every transfer we do a "car fast".  For the whole day we don't use the car, it sucks!!!  Luckily a member who is also an awesome missionary named Paul goes out with us on Saturdays and drives us everywhere. The only time we had to walk was from our apartment to his condo, which is about an hour walk. On our walk we met a guy named Sadiq.  Sadiq is from Pakistan and has been living here for 3 years. He has 3 sons and a daughter from 5 to 17 years old and they are all awesome! He said he talked to some missionaries in Pakistan and they gave him a Book of Mormon. He said we could come over and talk to him about Jesus Christ, so when we went to his house later, we had an awesome lesson. I thought we might teach him and one other person, but they all came in the family room to listen to our lesson! They all payed attention and participated, and they all agreed with what was taught. At the end I asked if they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and they all shook their head yes. They are excited to come to church this Sunday, hopefully we can baptize them all, this family is so prepared. Meeting Sadiq was truly a divine appointment.

We also got to meet up with August again this week. He is the barber where we get weird looks when we walk into his shop. When we were talking with him we invited him to read Alma 32.  He said when he was in jail, he had a vision that this would happen, he had seen the exact page we showed him. Seems legit. He is a super cool guy, he just says some weird stuff. He was convinced that revelations from the Bible were coming true. For example, he figured out by himself that celebrities have a secret society where if you want to climb up the popularity rank you go to a party and dress up a specific way.  You could imagine I was very confused and just shook my head like I was agreeing with him and wanted to get back to talking about the Book of Mormon. Very odd, but August is still a cool guy. 

There is a corner in one of the neighborhoods where a lot of people BBQ or play horseshoes. There is a pharmacy that Elder Norton calls  "the cona" (the corner). We found a car decked out with cowboys stickers, it's pretty funny.

One day when we were walking we met a guy who wanted to call himself Bob. He didn't trust us with his real name. He asked us if we wanted some tree.......when Elder Norton gave a confused look he asked if we knew what tree was, I just told him "we don't smoke dah ganja mon" and then started to teach him, he wasn't too interested. He didn't want to give up things that made him happy in this life (drugs) if he was probably going to be happier in the next life either way. I don't quite understand why you wouldn't want divine happiness here and now, instead of waiting. Satan has a powerful grip on people's hearts, people like to wear chains and they don't even know it.

I'm glad I get to receive your emails during the week, I love getting pictures and notes about how you are all doing. If you're ever bored send me an email and some pictures. 

Love you all so much,

Calvin

Week 8

There are a ton of things that happen every week and it feels like we are super busy every day!  We met a barber named August. He is a really big guy that only cuts black hair.  The whole place is decked out with Redskins pictures and gear!  August is super cool, super humble and willing to listen, he always appreciates us stopping by the barber shop even though all the other guys in there give us a stare because we don't really fit in. hahaha.

It is getting so hot here and I hate it. The heat and humidity is awful and it's not even summer yet. I can't wait for summer to be over.  It was so hot today especially while we were playing sports! I don't think I ever felt so drained... it was humid and hot and miserable..... we played soccer and basketball. There is this hoop that is for shorter kids and it's super easy to dunk on so we played a game of basketball with no rules. By the end I felt like I had no energy and wanted to pass out, and I certainly got sunburned.

Paul is a super good guy, he is so devoted to the gospel. He goes out with us to lessons all the time. He is basically a missionary every Saturday. He is also a super good musician.  I'll try and send you a video of a mother's day song that he sang for us, I want to ask him if I can record it and send it to you, it's super good. He also makes the best Pineapple vanilla pie.

I met a non active member from El Salvador whose name is Anna . She said she hasn't gone to church in like 40 years. We met with her in her home and she made us a huge snack platter, it was so nice of her. She started to cry when she said she wants to come to church again. I helped her set up her tablet to WiFi and download the gospel library app to read scriptures.Transfers happened and I'm still with Elder Norton in the Arlington area. So I'll be here for another 6 weeks.

Hope you are all doing well, I will write you all more next week hopefully.

Calvin