Email veintinueve: la semana de mis sueños

February 27, 2017 

This week was full of being tired. You'd think after 6 months I'd get used to this getting up at 6:30 thing, but it's gotten harder. When I hear the alarm, muscle memory automatically has me up on my feet the second that thing goes off, then about ten seconds later it feels like the bed suddenly turns into a giant Elder Smalley magnet. Just about every atom in my body begs to jump back in those covers. Then two words automatically go off in my mind: "exact obedience." So I run downstairs, chug some ice water, chew some gum, and start doing push-ups. Works pretty well.

This week was slow. Not slow time wise, but slow work wise. We lost our car, and Elder Giles doesn't have a bike, so we did things the old fashioned way. We would walk 45 minutes to an appointment just to have it fall through.

Tuesday we had District Meeting, and it was just our trio and the Sisters, because the other Jonesboro Elders are Zone Leaders, so they were up in Paragould Arkansas for the day. The mission organization has changed a lot, each Zone has 4 Zone Leaders instead of 2. In District Meeting we talked about finding new investigators. 

We taught a family from Mexico
with the cutest little puppy

Lately we have just been knocking on doors to find, which is good but not the most effective way to further the work. I heard a statistic that one out of every thousand doors knocked results in a baptism. So our focus going forward is to talk with everyone we see outside, and to work through the members. Talking with everyone as a concept has been difficult for me. Does everyone mean everyone? Wait...please don't tell me everyone includes this guy...yeah not feeling it today sorry... I really need to work on my courage.

The English Elders names are Elder York and Elder Stiles-Culver. They are good missionaries. Elder York is from Boulder Colorado and is way good at basketball. He's about 6'4" and Elder Stiles Culver is 6'4". So the four of us are all about 6'3"/6'4", and then there's Elder Spencer at 5'6". I find that pretty funny.

Now Brothers and Sisters, let me introduce you to Brother Freddie Green, the only black member of the Jonesboro Ward. Freddie Green is one of the greatest people I have ever met. In his words he's "just a black Mormon boy trying to do right" or "the black sheep of the Jonesboro Ward". Freddie has a stutter worse than his old clunker Buick that he calls "the hoopdee", but more importantly he has a heart of gold. He loves the missionaries. He got baptized back in the

A quote that kept me going through the week,
so I decided to make it a screen saver.

80s in Memphis. He's retired here in Jonesboro, with nothing to do but "hang with the missionaries." He saved our lives last week with rides, and he tells us all the time: "I'm only a call away, so holler at me if y'all need me." I love this man. I've started writing down Freddie Green quotes, and my favorite one so far is "No duh Sherlock Homie!"

 A cool experience this week, was when we taught a lady from Peru. She told us "I'm looking for a church that teaches the truth." What a blessing to find an elect that lives right on our street! This week was a good week to really start figuring out who I am and what I want to be. I studied President Uchtdorf's Pride and the Priesthood, and it really helped me identify a lot of pride in myself that has been there for years that I had never noticed. I really want to humble myself and learn how to change through the power of Atonement.

I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. I feel every day I learn something new and profound about His infinite love. I know He is my Savior and that He lives. The Church is true, the Book is blue, His love is infinite, even when weekly numbers are few!