Week 62 - "His name is Dean. We LIKE Dean."

Hello, everyone!

I'm so sorry last week's email didn't show up when it was supposed to and is only appearing now. I sent it near the end of my preparation day and was in a rush and got my mom's email address wrong, so it didn't end up in the right place.

This week's quote is from Hogarth in The Iron Giant. So we've recently been helping out at a food pantry that's run by Lutheran Social Services, and the guy who runs it is named Dean. He's a cool dude with a pretty difficult backstory and past. He told us some of the situations he grew up in the last time we were at the pantry, and it drove home to me just how good I've had it in my life. He's also a gamer, so the three of us get along pretty well. Helping out at the pantry also gives us plenty of time to talk, as well as time to talk to the people we're helping (which is encouraged), so we've been answering some questions Dean has had about what we do and stuff, and I'm hoping at some point maybe we'll get to teach him.

This week's been pretty good. I feel like things are starting to settle down and feel somewhat normal, and I don't have to label every week as "interesting." We had training visits from the district leader and his companion this last week, and that was a fun time. They doubled into our area. Tomorrow we'll be exchanging again, but we'll be on splits. I'm not sure whether I'll be going to Lewis Center or staying here.

When we were doing training visits I was with Elder McEwan. He seems like a good man and a good missionary. Elder Henshaw actually trained him, so they had some fun times reminiscing. He's also a cross-country and track runner, so we had that to bond over a little bit. On our exchange we met with a family named the Sheets. The Daveys, who I met at the beginning of this transfer, said that if I thought they were cool, I should meet the Sheets family. They love music (they have a ton of instruments hanging up on the walls of their living room and so forth, and they introduced me to a black cat of theirs, "Guy." I was like, "Guy?" and they said, "Do you know Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion?" I immediately said I did--on our trips up to Grand Targhee my dad always played Car Talk, and on our way back he always played A Prairie Home Companion, and I look back on those car rides with a lot of fondness. Sister Sheets responded, "That's Guy Noir, private eye!" Immediately I knew I was going to like these people. :) We called an audible from the plan we had made and showed them "The Music of the Gospel," which is my favorite short video the church has produced, and then Sister Sheets told us about a friend of her she has been sharing Book of Mormon scriptures with and inviting to things and so forth, but who hasn't seemed to be progressing. I showed them Isaiah 58:6-12, a passage which I think can apply to spiritual things as much as temporal ones, and Sister Sheets really liked the names we will be called when we draw out our souls to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul: "The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." She thought that was really cool. We invited her to fast for the friend she was inviting.

We also got to visit a recent convert we've been really working with and teach him some of the basic principles from the missionary lessons. There are things it seems like he either didn't understand at his baptism or has forgotten since his baptism--he may have some kind of memory problem, or the missionaries may have baptized him too early. We've been teaching him, and he seems to be starting to progress, which is exciting. We're happy to see the gospel and an understanding of it start to quicken, enliven and enlighten him.

We also had a cool little tender mercy--we've been trying to reach out to a lot of people, especially the less actives we've come across, and I'm in the habit of leaving pass-along cards with notes in people's doors, just to make sure they know we were there and have our information, but I've never heard back from anyone I've left a note with. Well, on Saturday morning, we did! A less active member said she got our note and our offer to help and needed a shelf put up in her house. So we got in touch with her ministering brother, and we were able to come help her put it up (Elder Henshaw used his construction expertise), and I felt like we connected with her really well. I'm really hoping that we can share some things with her that will help her. She works two jobs and goes to school, and she's a single parent, so she's juggling a lot, but she's still trying to keep spirituality in her life.

On Sunday no one we invited specifically was at church, which was a huge disappointment to me. We had invited a less-active member who was dead set on coming, a potential who had come before and committed to coming again wasn't there, and none of the people we're teaching showed up, even though one of them is usually there, and another promised he would be. It was especially depressing because earlier this week we reached out to the elder's quorum president about an assignment the Bishop had given us: He told us he wanted us to work together to come up with an idea for a ward fast for missionary work. Initially we told the elder's quorum president that we wanted to fast that the hearts of the people in Delaware might be softened, but as the people we're teaching have struggled to keep their commitments and have not been progressing, we asked if it might be a good idea to fast instead that the power of the adversary in Delaware might be diminished. We shared it with the ward, and hopefully in addition to us there were some people in the ward who fasted for it. We're going to try to really buckle down and focus this week and see if we can experience blessings from that fast. We're hoping for them. But it didn't seem like the fast was bearing fruit, at least not then. 

We went later that day to visit the person we're teaching who promised to come and found out that he was just sick that morning, so that was kind of a relief.  We re-established our purpose some and tried to clarify his intent for meeting with us, and we're hoping and praying we start seeing some progress in the future. It was just nice to know he wasn't simply flaking out on us. I've found that as a missionary people seem to be more honest and straightforward than I've experienced. They say they're going to do something, and they do it (when there aren't extenuating circumstances). It's refreshing. I guess I expected that a lot of people wouldn't be true to their word, but it seems like honesty and integrity are more common than I gave the people in the world at large credit for. Or maybe it's Ohio.

That's basically all I have to talk about this week. Sorry it's kind of short. Oh, yeah, we also had interviews at the mission home, and that was cool. It was interesting: I didn't really feel like I had a whole lot to talk with President and Sister Stratford about. Sister Stratford was baking cookies, and we just chatted, like I was with my mom telling her about my day or something. With President there wasn't anything super urgent or pressing, it was just a calm and relaxed conversation, and he gave me some good advice: Be exactly obedient, follow the Spirit, and love the people. I was grateful for that. He also told us to keep working with members, so that was good, too. I got to see the zone leaders again, too, and that was fun. Elder Kamerath and Elder Ricks are going to be doubling into our area in a couple weeks. That will be a fun time. :)

Well, I love you all! Keep the faith--keep blessing and serving others, keep working with your ministering assignments and stay close to them, and use your spare strength and time to bless lives! Your brothers and sisters need you!

Elder Davis

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll be sending something cool next week, though.