Hello, all!
If any of my MTC district is receiving this, just FYI, because my mom wanted me to do something unique with my emails I'm making a movie quote the subject header for each of my emails home. This week's is from What About Bob?
This week has been a real whirlwind. It started with my departure from the MTC Wednesday morning. We who were going to Ohio left behind the rest of our district early in the morning, around 4:45 a.m. They helped us tow our luggage to the travel office, and then we said goodbye and got on the bus. :'( The bus took us to the FrontRunner, which took us to a Trax train, which took us to the airport. When we got to Terminal 2, I watched Sister Tua'one drop her bags and start running: Her family had come all the way from Texas with her sister who had arrived home from her mission to New York after Sister Tua'one entered the MTC. Instead of having to wait three years to see her, she got to see her right then, and her family got to see her off. It was awesome to see.
Throughout the day we met people who had a relationship with the Columbus Ohio Mission somehow. We met a man on the FrontRunner who served in that mission and a man who had lived in Ohio (I think), Elder De Haan and I met a woman in the airport who had served in Texas San Antonio (where the rest of our travel group that morning was going) and knew people in her MTC district who had served in Columbus, and at our gate we met a sister who had just come home from our mission. They sat us all together on the planes, so I didn't really have any missionary opportunities, but I was able to write in my journal a little. Someone was watching Mission Impossible: Fallout on one of the TV screens in my view on the first flight, and it was hard to look away.
When we were boarding our connecting flight in Atlanta, my ticket prompted the scanning machine to spit out a seat reassignment for our travel leader, Sister Cameron, but because I just assumed that that was because the tickets were all printed sort of under her name or something, I just thought it was for me (as far as I know, it was my name on the ticket). So I was sitting on the plane, and then one of the sisters realized I was sitting in what was supposed to be Sister Cameron's seat, and she was like, "Oh! You need to go out back to the gate! Sister Cameron is stuck out there! You need to let them know!" So I sort of slipped upstream towards the gate and started walking up the hallway toward the ticket agent when she rounded the corner and shouted, "Gabriel!" and I was like, "Yeah!" and she was like, "Boy, I'm gonna WHUP you! Why you gotta scare that nice girl like that?!" It caught me off-guard. I was like, "I'm sorry! I didn't realize!" Anyway, everything turned out OK, but I thought it was an experience everyone might laugh at.
When we got into the Columbus airport and came out of our gate, we all congregated and I looked to our right and saw the first attached photo. I took it as a sign (D&C 4:4).
We met Sister and President Stratford near baggage claim. They gathered us all together, took a photo, and then took us out to the pickup area, where the APs eventually came with a van (known as "The Beast") towing a trailer and another van. The AP driving the van is Elder Hepler, and he's 6'9". I don't think I'll ever get used to his height. I saw him that day and the next, and it still threw me off a little every time I stood next to him. We got to the mission home, had dinner, had our interview with the president and did some training, and then hit the hay. The next morning we got up early to leave at 6 for Kirtland. We were taken on a tour of the temple by a member of the Community of Christ and accompanied by a church scholar named Paul Anderson who told us that D&C 137 was received as Joseph was giving a blessing to his father on the third floor of the temple, in the offices, which he took us to. He also talked to us about the appearances in the Kirtland Temple, and pointed out that when Moses appeared to Joseph and Oliver he restored the keys of the Gathering of Israel--the keys of missionary work. That was really cool. Then he asked if one of us would lead us in "The Spirit of God." I volunteered and stood on the third step up on the left side and led all of us in the hymn. (Mom, I tried to do some fancy stuff, but kind of failed--it was a bit embarrassing.)
Then we went to a church, met our companions and found out the areas we were serving in. My companion is Elder Thomas, and we're serving in Worthington. On the van ride there we got to know each other a little, and he got really excited for our companionship.
I only have about 13 minutes left, so I'm just going to have to give you the highlights. Elder Thomas has an attitude about missionary work that has been really helpful to me, and we're both committed to keeping the rules, I am especially now, at the end of our first week of serving together. We were told in the MTC that "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles." I felt like that was a little trite and maybe meant more to encourage obedience to solve problems for leaders and not actually intended to bring miracles, but we've experienced miracles every day this week, if you ask me. Here they are:
Day 1 (starting with the first full day): After one of our appointments fell through, as we were walking away, we ran into a kid named Ebenezer. Elder Thomas told him who we were, and he said we could come with him into his apartment and talk to him, so we turned back around and went with him, and we taught him some major points in the first lesson. He's one of those people who, as Max says, has "Maxed out on the light of Christ." He prays fervently in gratitude for the life he has and prays for a better one, and he believes in the Bible, and he just seems like a person who is filled with and understands the spirit. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon digitally and asked him to read it, and we're hoping to see him after the holidays.
Day 2: A newish-convert member and her son who doesn't really come to church came with us to a lesson with an investigator, and she basically taught half the lesson, fellowshipped the investigator, and now it seems like they're close friends (also the investigator's house's interior makes her look like she's already a member of the church living in Utah). The investigator seems interested, and she seems like she'd fit into the church really well.
Day 3: We visited a contact who is super interested in history, especially religious history, and I connected with her really well, and I need you, Mom, to send me Nanny's new Isaiah book, her Opening Isaiah series and her Making Their Own Peace book, and possibly Bapa's Collection series. I think she'd be really interested.
Day 4: We ran into this SUPER NICE married lesbian couple who invited us in, gave us hot chocolate and wanted to learn more about what we were doing. One of them said she wanted to develop a closer relationship with God, and we gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon, and one of them connected with me on photography, and she wants to take us to go shooting some P-day. They're super quality people, and I hope we can offer them something that will help them in their lives, to whatever degree they will accept.
I've got to run...
Elder Davis
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