I've officially survived my first thanksgiving
out in the field! I've decided that holidays are very weird as a missionary.
All the other holidays so far haven't been too bad, but we were told not to
tract or find on Thursday, but it was also made clear that it wasn't a day off.
The solution? Service. It was hard to find though. Half the people are out of
town, and the other half were preparing for family to arrive. It made for a day
of riding bikes around and asking if we could help. In total, we helped one guy
rake leaves.
That night, for dinner, we went to
the T's house. J T was a missionary who served in D.C. South, and actually
served here in Vienna for two weeks before his family moved in, and they
banished him to Woodbridge for the rest of his mission. So, he's home now, and
Sister T thought we'd all love it if we went there for dinner. It was way fun
talking about missions and sharing with him and his family as they told stories
from his time in the field. It was great, and there was a lot to be thankful
for.
J has been great, too, for
missionary work. We took him on an exchange with us the other day, and when
plans A, B, and C all fell through, he started throwing out ideas of things to
do as Elder M and I were making new plans! That HARDLY ever happens with
members !! haha. It was great to have a member who totally knew what work was
like in this area and already knew who was here in the area.
Mom, thanks for the package. I love
the sweaters! And we're looking forward to Eggs Benedict this week. I was just
thinking the other day that I wanted some, and then I suddenly had hollandaise
sauce!!! haha. It was great :) Thanks. So, that package that I was supposed to
send last week? I got it packaged, but we never made it to the post office.
It's out of our area, so we need a ride to get there, and we didn't have one
this week that had any time to spare for a post-office stop. So, I'll be
sending that today :) btw, there are some "apostate" things I found
at thrift stores (a couple books and a cd) all very cheap, etc. I did not
partake of the apostateness, just in case worries arise...
So, I've decided we have a
doppleganger ward. We have guys in our ward who look exactly like Mitt Romney,
Jeffrey R. Holland, and Zac Effron! It's pretty crazy. Our district leader was
having fun with it the other day: "Man, it's a bummer Romney wasn't
elected, that would have been so great! Go visit D.C. with the look-alike dude,
walking around, four of us in a square around him all in suits and shades. We
get phone cords and hang them over our ears just for good measure and go
trompin up and down capitol hill. We would have so much fun! Walk into
McDonalds, be all like: 'hey, get me a cheeseburger and make it free, I'm with
Mitt!" haha. It was funny.
So, big news of the week: I'm getting
old! Tuesday, I was sent in to the eye doctor because my long-distance vision
is failing. Apparently, I've grown near-sighted! haha. So, in order to keep my
driving privileges, I need some glasses. I think it's some conspiracy about me
not acting mature enough, so they thought glasses would help make me look
mature at least... something like that... Who knows? Anyways, Tuesday I had an
appointment, then I went Shopping around at a few different stores for glasses
Wednesday with Elder Olson, one of our Senior missionaries, then ordered them
that evening, and I go pick them up tomorrow! Sounds like fun, huh? Well,
should be exciting at least, I'll be able to see road signs before I'm AT them
:P
The work in Vienna is hopping! Elder M and I are so excited!!! Neither
of us has ever seen a teaching pool this big or this promising! So many people
are open to the gospel right now, it's great! We're getting to teach almost as
many lessons per day that I'm used to per week! It's absolutely amazing, and I
feel so blessed to be a part of it :)
Vienna itself, I have found is VERY
diverse. In my time here, I've seen some of the smallest homes I've ever seen,
and I've seen some of the biggest buildings that can still be called homes (and
some too big for that title, though they serve as a home for SOMEONE). It's
crazy! Just a short bike ride is the only thing that makes a difference between
the two.
So, two cute stories real quick.
First one: There's this great family in the ward who signed up to have us for
dinner twice this last week. The first night though, they had to cancel because
their little daughter, Ellie was sick. Ellie is a very sweet girl who looks up
to the missionaries a lot. My first Sunday here, I ended up handing out
programs with her, and found a good friend in her (I always feel comfortable
among children, go figure... more my maturity level...haha). Anyways, she
wasn't feeling well, so when we were riding around on Thanksgiving, we stopped
by to see how she was doing. They were off with family, so we left a note on
the door that we wrote on a mormon.org card. Her mom told us yesterday that she's been carrying that note around since. Sure enough,
last night when we were there for dinner, there it was on the dinner table at
her spot, not a little worn from being carried around for a few days. I always
love making people's day like that. :)
Story the second: We were visiting a
member family to ask them the revelation question. One little girl asked me:
"Do you have any kids?" After a little laugh, I explained to her that
I didn't. I asked her how she would feel if her husband were to go on a mission
leaving her and her kids, and she said that "he better not." haha. I
told her that I didn't want to do that to my wife, and so I didn't get married
before I came out on my mission so I wouldn't make her sad. She then thinks for
a second, and says: "Well, when you get home, you should have ten kids!
You'll be a great dad." I laughed again and told her that ten is a lot,
and that I'd have to talk to my wife, too. She just said: "Nope. Ten.
Kids."
Well, that's about it for the week.
This week looks like it'll be crazy busy! Lots of stuff planned. Please keep us
in your prayers.
-Elder Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment