Hola
mi querido familia en Utah! Upon request, this is what a typical
day is like for me: Wake up and pray at 6:30. Exercise for 30
minutes, shower, and eat half a box of cereal (and an apple if
there's time). From 8 to 9 we have personal study. From 9 to 11 we have
Companionship study (normally only one hour of Comp study per day but
because I'm training I have 2 hours Comp study a day for the next 9 or so
weeks). 11 to Noon is Language study (something Elder Brown and I
have neglected recently because of random chores we've had to get done). Noon
to 1 p.m. is lunch hour. We also try to clean during lunch and do
various things like that. But after lunch we get to work! We generally have 3 towns as our
hotspots: New Carlise (a smaller rural town that Elder Brown loves
because it reminds him of home. It's actually where some good potential investigators
are) Dayton- Dayton is a bigger city (downtown Dayton there are some big
buildings like Salt lake. But we stay in the more suburban/
slums parts of Dayton) and the third area is Huber Heights where we
live. We don't actually like to spend much time in Huber Heights because there
aren’t a lot of Hispanics. So that's a brief summary of what we do. We talk
with everyone. We knock doors, which is actually something that I don't really
mind because anything can happen haha. We go to teaching
appointments. We talk with Mexicans (who are always so willing to feed us!) It's
quite wonderful. No one is on track to baptism right now but we're finding
new people almost every day. As a mission we found 354 new investigators last
week! a new record! This is a great blessing to be a part of this work. I
love it. I never realized how much the missionaries need the help of members.
The work is seriously handicapped without member help! So be nice to the
missionaries in your areas! Be prayerfully looking for someone you can share
your testimony with, and then when the missionaries come asking,
whenever that might be, you'll have someone for them to teach. And if
the missionaries don't come around then fell free to take the initiative and
teach your friends, neighbors, coworkers what you know. The gospel is for
everyone.
Time
is always my enemy. I'm realizing that there is just no way to tell you all
about everything I'm doing. 90 minutes of email time isn't enough to cover a
weeks worth of awesome. But I'll continually try to pick a few things and do
them justice with my frantic typing on this sticky keyboard. I email from
a public library.
Biggest thing that happened last week started with Wednesday. We drove
down to Cincinnati area (about an hour south of my area in Dayton) to do a 24
hour exchange with our Zone leaders. The first part of the exchange was
awesome. Wednesday evening we switched companions and both groups had
a lot of fun with cool teaching experiences. Our zone leaders are the coolest.
We stayed in their apartment that night. They are hilarious. They wrestle and
pin each other down and scream at each other "Tell me you love
me!" Quite Entertaining.
But after Wednesday’s fun, things went south and it turned into a lot longer
than a 24 hour exchange. Elder Brown is diabetic and his Blood sugar shot
through the roof over night (which we later found out was because he hadn't set
his pump in properly so he wasn't getting the insulin he needed). But he woke
up feeling awful and was throwing up throughout the morning. I gave him a
blessing, said good-bye to the zone leaders, and drove him to the E.R. We
checked in expecting to be there for only a few hours. We learned that hospital
protocol for a diabetic reaction as bad as his called for us to stay the night.
And so we did. Elder Brown was monitored back to health throughout the night
while I eventually got to sleep around 3:30 AM on a creative
arrangement of hospital chairs. By 2 p.m. Friday he was well enough
that we checked out and left. We've taken it a little easier the past couple
days and Elder Brown is doing well. So far I've had to drive both of my
companions to the E.R. and I'm awfully worried for my next companion, haha.
Overall my testimony of the priesthood continues to grow. I had several other
opportunities to give other blessings last week as well. One blessing was to a
member's nonmember mother in the Hospital on our way to the 24 hour
exchange. By the end of the blessing the older Spanish lady was in tears. The
spirit works amazing emotions inside people.
We also met another lady in Walmart who we ended up travelling to her home and
giving her a blessing. Long story short we were confined to give the blessing
to the lady on her porch where it was cold and windy. But she said she felt
warm throughout the blessing. Go figure.
Another blessing was given to a less active lady who had pain in her side from
gall bladder or kidney stones. We gave her a blessing and next time we followed
up with her she said that the doctor couldn't find the stones anymore and she
no longer had pain. How Cool!
If it sounds like I'm rushing through these stories it's because I am. Time is
up. But Heavenly Father is A God of Miracles and He continues to work miracles
in our lives today. We just have to look for and recognize them.
Random thing of the week: I tried Cow tongue in a taco. It was fabulous. Just
like a chewy steak :D
LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE A GOOD WEEK!
-Elder
Kevin
