Week 35 - "Indiana? Indiana. Let it go."

Hello, everyone!

So I've been transferred to a new area and am serving with a new companion, Elder McVey. He was actually the missionary I replaced when I went to Worthington, my first area, to be trained by Elder Thomas. It's fun for us to be able to share experiences and people we knew from Worthington. Most of what we talk/joke about involves us calling those people to ask them for help or running into them on the street because, as it turns out, Riverside, my new area, shares a border with Worthington. The other day I walked past the very spot where Elder Thomas and I found out we were being doubled out and found out where we were going. That was a little surreal. I may have talked in my first few transfers about "Little Provo," which was a section of apartments in Worthington that housed A LOT of members. We're, like, just south of that. It's so close--we could walk a couple hundred yards past our border and see some of the people from the Worthington Ward. But we're not going to. That's the reason for the subject line. It's something Henry Jones says in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I can almost reach out and touch the "Holy Grail" of awesome members from my past area, but I have to choose not to.

Speaking of Little Provo, we have our own Little Provo here in Riverside, and it's right next to our apartment. So that's pretty great. When we were walking from our apartment the other day, a man opened his door and was like, "Elders! If you're not in a hurry, come in! We''d like to meet you!" He and his wife, it turns out, are from Sandy, Utah, and know my brother-in-law, Jared. We were able to sort of swap stories a little and get to know each other. I guess that's my sign from the Lord that I'm supposed to be in Riverside now. I appreciate those little crumbs I've been getting along this journey. They remind me that I'm being looked after, which is a thing I forget sometimes.

Elder McVey, my new companion, is a fun guy. He's able to make the work enjoyable and interesting. He's pretty relaxed and chill, which is good--it sets me at ease a little bit. Riverside is an interesting area--it's sort of like I'm back in Worthington again. That's a good thing and a bad thing--I don't feel like I need to be as cautious and watchful when it comes to crime and the like, so that takes a burden of stress off my shoulders, but I also feel like I'm reverting to a lot of attitudes about finding people that were less prevalent when I was in Warren. I felt like it was pretty easy to find people to teach in Warren--people were pretty open and receptive to the message. In Worthington it felt more difficult--I think I have this idea that in richer, more middle-class areas the people aren't really interested in what we have to offer. I've started to think it's because they basically have what they want--the car, the job, the house: they're living the American dream--and that true happiness they're looking for seems within reach, if they can just get that one more thing, so they disregard what we offer. People in poorer areas tend to be looking for anything to help them, so they're at least willing to give our message a chance. That attitude I have about richer people is a dangerous one as a missionary because it means that when I get into a rich neighborhood (like most of the ones in this area), I'm not going to think it's worth talking to the people I see and offering them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'll assume they're just going to say no to it, and I won't offer it at all. That brings me to the next thing I want to talk about this week, which is my belief window.

So if any of you haven't listened to "The Belief Window" by Hyrum Smith (not Joseph Smith, Jr.'s brother--a different Hyrum Smith), basically it's a talk that this member of the church gives where he talks about how behavior is dictated by our beliefs and our behavior attempts, successfully or unsuccessfully, to meet our needs to live, to love and be loved, to feel important and/or to experience variety. When one of our beliefs leads to behavior that does not meet our needs, we have bad principles--bad beliefs on our "belief window" (he draws out a model, and that's what he calls the space on which our beliefs are written). I've been spending some time when I can to write down the many thoughts and beliefs that are causing my behavior as a missionary. I have a difficult time talking with every person I meet, for instance, and I'm beginning to discover why. I think the long and short of it is that I'm a people-pleaser and don't like making people upset, and I don't like feeling like people don't like me. It's something I'm going to need to work to get over. I'm feeling hopeful, though, that I'll be able to get over it. I feel kind of dumb that it's not something I've been able to master yet, but I guess growth comes over time.

What else is there to talk about? I got to see Elder Anderson at transfers--that was fun. By my calculations, this may be Elder Thomas' last transfer in the mission, so that's exciting for him. We met two people in the last two days who weren't members but appreciated what we were doing as missionaries. That's pretty cool. It seems like the ward is ready to let us just jump in and help where they need us to, and that's exciting.

I'm not really sure what else there is to say. I like the new location, I like my new companion, and things are looking pretty good for the future. I'm hopeful.

Elder Davis