Another week gone
March 31st, 2009
Well! Another week has gone by fast. But a lot has happened in these last 7 days. Again, I wish I could tell you everything, but that of course would take forever, ha ha. Fortunately I wrote a few notes during the week on what I would write.
First is my daily schedule. Every day we wake up at 6:00am. The rule is that we have to be up by 6:30, so by setting the alarm for 6:00 we have a few minutes to just lay in bed and “wake-up”, hehe. Once we’re up, I jump into the bathroom for a quick shower, which really helps to get my brain working. Then from about 7:00-8:00 I write in my journal (so far I haven’t missed a day!) and eat a healthy breakfast (with at least 5 essential nutrients! Hehe). At 8:00 we start Personal Study, we each take an hour to study the scriptures, manuals, and basically prepare for the lessons and subjects we’ll be teaching throughout the day. At 9:00 we sing a hymn, pray, recite a memorized scripture, and then start studying what we planned the night before. (See “Nightly Planning” later on) It’s a great start to the morning. At 10:00 we’re out of the house. We might have an appointment, or a meeting, or maybe we’ll just go out looking for people to teach. We’ll come back home for lunch at 12:00, and it’s out again at 1:00. Each night, once we’ve finished our daily work, we have to be home by 9:00pm. We have Nightly Planning for our next day from 9:00-9:30. And we have until 10:30 to prepare for bed. We’re on our knees in prayer at 10:30, and in bed just after that. And that’s how things will go for the next 2 years!
Except today is a little different. Some of you will be familiar with it. It’s called Preparation Day. Basically it’s the day when we email, shop, clean, and do laundry. It’s a great day!
I want to thank everyone again for the emails! A lot of you asked how I like the ward here. It’s really nice. There’s a lot of seniors; more than the younger couples for sure. But they’re all very friendly. I have to say, it’s both strange and fun to be on the “missionary side” of church life. Sunday is one of our busiest days. We’re trying to get people to come to church. And if we’re not doing that, then we’re out teaching, or trying to find people. Sunday is a great day though. And speaking of which, next weekend is General Conference. I’m so excited for that. I really hope we can get a few of our investigators to come to that.
There’s a reall nice sister in the ward here, Sister Rook, who’s just an amazing artist. She takes pictures from missionaries and makes paintings out of them. For example, my companion Elder Groshong gave her a picture of him with his guitar, and long hair. (Btw, he plays really well!) — and she’s going to make it into a painting for him. I talked to her, and me and Elder Groshong are going to take some pictures of me today. I think I’ll have her do something with me and a Canadian flag… we’ll see how it goes!
One of the members here took us to a restaurant called “In ‘N Out” — and let me tell you, they have the best burgers by far! Big thanks to all those who recommended it to me before I came here. And, don’t worry Mom, I’ve only eaten out like 3 times since I’ve been here. And it’s always either with members, or the Zone.
Speaking of which, the East-Sac Zone is awesome! I love all the other Elders here. (For those who are wondering, a zone is just a group of missionaries in a certain area.) We meetup about once a week, and they’re all really cool. One of the Zone leaders goes home in August, probably around the same time as Phil (who’s a friend of mine serving in Texas). Anywho, It’s still weird to think that I’ll be getting back in 2011!
President Jardine said something that I liked in our last interview. “The days are long, but the weeks are short.” — and it’s really so true. Speaking of President… I wonder if he reads my blog? Haha.
I’m not gonna lie. Last week was HARD. Getting adjusted to mission life is pretty crazy at first. But every day I just got on me knees and prayed for help, and for strength. And I can tell you honestly that the Lord answered my prayers. I know I’ll still have hard days, but now I know how I can get through them.
Well, I don’t have much time left. Please keep writing me emails though! I love to hear from you all every week. Take care.
Love,
Elder Macpherson
PS. If you’ve got a few minutes, why not SEE where I’m staying? Just go on Google Maps and search for “1517 Jonas Ave. Sacramento, CA” — and be sure to click the “Street View” button. But please don’t send mail here, it should still go to the mission office (see contact page) — Cheers!