WEEK SIXTY NINE - RELATIVELY BEEFY

"Don't keep a mistake just because you took a lot of time to make it."

-Craig Boehmer

I've never been called beefy before, until this week. We went over to Castlegar for exchanges, and I worked with Elder Kohl. We went over to help a member of the ward whose less-active son was moving. Elder Kohl's companion is Elder Steiner, who is very tall, and VERY skinny. We jumped in the member's car and drove over to the house of the person moving, and started helping. About two hours into the move, the member looked at me. "Wait! You're not Elder Steiner!" he said. He hadn't really taken a look at me until then. He explained, "I looked over at you and thought, 'Wait, Elder Steiner isn't that beefy...' Not that you're beefy, but everyone compared to him is beefy." So, lest you should think I've gained a ton of weight, I assure you I have not.

We tried to contact all of our potential investigators this week, but with people's busy schedules it can be difficult to catch them at home. We're still working on it though! There are a lot of people who would like us to come back, it's just a matter of meeting with them.

Our mission president is a wonderful guy. He's fantastic. Sometimes he does stuff that throws us off.

For example, we got a text message Sunday morning from our zone leaders directing us all to check for an email from President Keung. Written in bold type and highlighted in yellow was the line: "Elders and Sisters, we invite every companionship in the mission to deliver 'A Living Christmas Card'." When a mission president sends something written in bold type and highlighted in yellow, that's not a request. 

What is a "Living Christmas Card" you ask? Simply put, the missionaries go and carol to a family, and invite them to attend the December 23rd special sacrament meeting. How do we know who to go to? The members refer us to people. When do we ask them to do this? At church. Which was in about thirty minutes. It didn't help that we didn't totally understand what we were doing, or had a plan of how to introduce it, (besides the fact that caroling to strangers is scary when there's only two of you). We introduced the "Living Christmas Card" in a very off-the-cuff way in a combined third hour meeting.

We got one referral. I guess the ward doesn't trust our singing abilities.

Tracting this week was a little slow, but still good. We knocked on a door and a little old lady answered, holding something in her hands. She looked at us and laughed. "I've been looking for someone to thread this needle!" I threaded the needle for her and handed it back. Elder Guymon started his door approach, and she said, "I'm quite deaf, so I can't hear very well! You'll have to say it again!" Elder Guymon started again slowly, and she interrupted, "Okay, well I can't hear very well boys!" I took out a pass-a-long card, and handed it to her and said in my best loud stage voice, "WE'RE MISSIONARIES! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE WE CAN DO TO HELP?" She seemed to get it that time, but said she was alright and closed the door. That's the most exciting story I've got for you this week.

Last night we had dinner at the Wright's house. Brother Wright works for the RCMP, and Sister Wright does too, but not as an officer. Sister Wright got her masters in political science, and was on track to be a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Then she got married and had kids. Motherhood is absolutely a much more important responsibility, but it's not quite the level of excitement of working as a prosecutor for the ICC. Unless your children are mass murderers and genocidal maniacs, in which case they would be very similar jobs. It was SUPER cool to talk to her, and we accidentally stayed a lot longer than we should have for a dinner appointment... Oops.

Let's change the subject.

Have you ever wanted a brief and simple overview of everything you need to know about life on earth?

Go find the missionaries serving in your ward and ask them for a copy of the pamphlets for the first three lessons. They'll know what you're talking about. And they won't charge you for them. (However, if they do end up charging you, just click these links: The Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.) It's so beautifully simple.

Have a wonderful week! And Merry Christmas!

Elder DeWitt