November 1st 2010
Wow. What a week. This week was a great week to be in Elk Grove, California. It was supposed to rain like every day during the week but it didn't! I must be doing something right because the weather has been fantastic since I’ve been out on my mission. It sprinkled a little bit on I think it was Friday night but that’s it. The forecast told us everyday "showers" but it never came. It seemed like there was always a patch of sky right over us everywhere we go. It’s like the children of Israel being led by God. We were certainly blessed and we hear it should not be too bad this week. I guess we will just have to see. We have been eating a lot of candy in our apartment lately. Everyone, but me..., got a Halloween package from their families so we have been eating lots of candy. It’s good. (Oh sorry his mom messed up! And she feels really bad about it!)
So this week was pretty good. On Monday we just saw a bunch of people at night. Every Monday we teach a recent convert and her kids. They are 8, 6, and 3 I think. So we can't teach them too much that they will understand so we borrow the animated Book of Mormon movies from someone in our ward and we get to watch those. This last week we watched Helaman's Stripling Warriors. It was awesome! It is such an amazing story. All 2,000 of them live. After we watch the video we ask them questions about it and kind of teach them about what went on. It’s always amazing to see how much they really do pay attention. Watching the video made me so happy that like each of the stripling warriors I had a mom that taught me what was right just as well. And to add to that I had an amazing dad too! Man I am blessed. (Oh what a great kid he is!!!)
On Tuesday I shoveled dirt...
It wasn't so bad. One of the Elder's in our apartment had a training meeting to go to so his companion came with us. We spent the morning seeing random people that said we could come back but that we have never taught before. Then at one my companion had a doctor’s appointment. He thought he had cancer cuz he was going poop a lot. I told him he was probably going to die which wasn't too nice because his dad died when he was 7 from colon cancer. So he went with a member to the doctor while me and Elder Roberts went to Erich's house to do some service. I used to teach Erich when I was over both wards but now I’m not over that ward anymore. It was nice to see him again and talk to him a bit. He is a really cool guy. When we got there he told us he needed help filling a hole and I imagined maybe a 3ftx3ft hole in the ground that would take us like 20 min. to fill in. He took us into his backyard where there was a fifty foot long trench that was like 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide and said "I need you to fill that in for me". I looked at my watch and said "Well we have dinner at 5:30 so we can work till then and then come back at 6:30 and finish" and he just laughed at me. He only wanted enough of it filled in so a tractor could drive over it and fill in the rest. So we started filling it in and it ended up taking us about 2 and a half hours which wasn't bad timing. I was a little tired but it was nice to be more physically tired than mentally and emotionally for once. That night I slept real good.
On Wednesday we had a great district meeting. We were trained by our district leader on how to begin teaching better and how to discern the person’s needs before starting to teach. It was really cool. I learned a whole lot. Then the rest of the day was kind of weird. We were at the church a lot of the day because we had a meeting with a less active member and his unbaptized daughter then later we had a ward correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, elder's quorum pres, high priest group leader and the relief society pres. We have them every Wednesday and it really was a fine meeting. Then we tracted for a while then had dinner then met a recent convert at the church to help her understand what she is reading in the Book of Mormon. She rocks. She’s almost done with 3 Nephi and she only got baptized in July! That was at the church because she lives with her parents and they are extremely anti.
Thursday was a tremendous day. We saw people all morning, had lunch to feed us physically, and then our zone was spiritually fed in a Zone Training meeting with President Jardine. It was a really delightful meeting. He taught a lot about honesty. It turns out he wrote a book a couple of years back and he gave us each a couple of printed pages from it. It was pretty cool and very inspirational. It made me want to be a more honest person in all that I do forever! Then the rest of the day was kind of weird because we weren't sure if it was going to rain or not but it didn't. We had some great tri-tip for dinner. Seems like everyone in Cali eats tri-tip. I don't know if we ate it back home and just called it something different but it is good.
Then came Friday... It was a good day. A couple of let downs but overall it was a good day. We had a lesson set up with our investigator Mark and so we called the Stake President, who is in our ward, and asked if he would like to accompany us that afternoon and he told us it would be his pleasure. So we rode over there with him and then Mark wasn't home. It was kind of a bummer and we haven’t got in contact with him yet but we will. The rest of the day was kind of weird. We saw a lot of people and we did a lot but it felt like we didn't do anything. It was cold all week but Friday was real cold. It was like 60 all day. It sprinkled a tiny bit that night but that wasn't bad cuz I stole Elder Robert's gloves. He asked me why I took em and I just said "Duh Harry, we're in the Rockies" and he laughed cuz that’s his favorite movie.
Saturday was a special day. We had an appointment with a Negro man named Mark who is old but said he wanted to know what Mormons believe so we went over there and he did most the talking but we did teach a bit and he said he'd read and pray about the Book of Mormon so that was nice. The rest of the day was kind of weird. We bought two pizza's for dinner on Sunday because for some stupid reason we told the lady in our ward who is in charge of our calendar not to put anyone on that day. We went and saw a lot of people but no one was really home all day. We tracted at night and it was dark and a lot of fun because the street was old. Everyone was watching the World Series. It looks like the Giants are going to take it this year which is good for us because everyone and their mom here are giant’s fans. They lost Saturday night but are currently leading the series 3-1. We find out a lot about sports out here. Which brings me to my next point. Why didn't anyone tell me Max Hall was the starting QB for the cardinals? That’s kind of big news. That’s awesome. I hear he isn't too bad either.
Sunday was good. We couldn't go out after four so we stayed in our apartment and listened to Christmas music till 7 then we got together with the zone and watched the Testaments. Boy do I enjoy watching that movie.
So this week I wore my black suit to church. It is a great suit but I realized that I don't have very many ties I can wear with it. I was thinking I need a nice maroon tie with some other color to wear with it, but I don't know where I could get one from? Maybe ya'll can help me out with that one. (I am quite sure that his dad is already working on that. For those that don’t know, almost every time I send a package, the dad has gone and picked out a beauty of a tie. I am sure that Elder Arnett is going to come home with the most ties ever!) Well it looks like my time is coming to end. I hope all is well at home. Let me know if there is anything specific you would like me to talk about in my emails.
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett
No comments:
Post a Comment