Slow but Sure
August 31st, 2009
That’s what the week has felt like… slow but sure. We’ve worked harder in the last week, and we’re starting to see the blessings. Let’s see if I can’t give y’all a little day-by-day breakdown.
So, on Monday of last week we finished off our preparation day at Laguna Creek 1st Ward’s BBQ in the Park, which was pretty fun. There weren’t a whole lot of people there, but hey, it’s free food! Someone made homemade root beer there too, which tasted pretty neat.
On Tuesday we had a FULL day planned. We also decided we would fast the whole day (until dinner @7pm) to find people to teach. Our plans went really well, and we were able to contact a lot of people. Later on we did some tracting from 5-7pm… since that’s usually the time when most people are home. The street we tracted had a lot of people on it. It was pretty fun. We met all sorts of people… from pastors to this crazy old guy that has been asking LDS missionaries to heal him every time they come by (without any faith on his part…) — he was weird. We happily ended the day with dinner at a member’s house. They made Quiche! Mmmm.
On Wednesday I was on a full day exchange in Laguna Creek 3rd Ward with Elder Black from Idaho Falls. That was a lot of fun, he’s only been out for about 3 months now. One of our priests in 1st ward named Joe Cross helped us out a lot during the day with his car, which was nice since it was pretty hot. Mm yeah, exchanges are always fun!
Back to my area on Thursday, and then to District Meeting that morning! After that we did Team-ups with our Zone Leaders for about an hour. I was on Bike with Elder Worthington, and Elder Kilman went in the car with Elder Webber. They went to see some people that might be interested, while we went to see a less-active member. When they got back they had a miracle! They found a new person to teach! I guess Elder Kilman had actually read a house number wrong so they went and knocked this door, a young girl answered and they ended up talking to her, going in (since her older brother was home), and teaching her! We’re going to go back tomorrow and follow up with her. Then later we tracted in a newly built apartment complex right next to the church building we go to, which was really funny because we’d just say “Hey, we’re the missionaries from the church nextdoor!”, an most people would talk to us for a bit. The complex is what you call “fixed income” housing… so the people living there are, in general, a little more… humble.
On Friday we did our weekly planning as always. The day was a little slower in some ways, but it went by quick. We had 2nd ward’s missionary correlation meeting that night at our Ward Mission Leader’s house. His wife is a ward missionary so she sits in too. Her day job is stocking vending machines, so she’ll give us some partially melted chocolate bars sometimes, haha, y’know Twix still tastes pretty good, even when it’s lost a bit of it’s shape!
Saturday was HOT. Like 105 degrees. The Sacramento Stake had it’s big 75th Anniversary party at the Gardendale chapel that evening from 5-8pm. All the missionaries in our zone were there. As well as about 1200 other people from the stake! It was huge! They held it outside in the same field where we had some of our “Day of Unity” activities. Each ward had a tent and was assigned a decade (from the 30s to the 90s) to decorate it with world, church, and stake history. They were all really cool. We got a ton of Pop Rocks candy from the 70s booth, hehe. The Fijians, Tongans, and Hmongs all had food at their booths, which was really good. Later that evening everyone gathered to watch the Fijians, Tongans, and the Hmongs perform. The Fijians and the Hmongs did some great dances, and the Tongans had someone do the Fire Dance… where one man spins a baton with fire on both ends really fast… it’s very impressive.
Sunday was nice, as always. We had a blitz that night and I was with Elder Ostlund. It was lots of fun! We were blitzing in 3rd wards area. The day came to a close quickly… and now here I am!
So yeah. Thanks for hearing my tale of the week… as you can see we’ve seen some success. And I’m sure we’ll have more next week too! I’m excited, are you?
Love,
Elder Macpherson