Hey everyone. What's up. It's Monday so I guess that means another letter. In this episode I get to give the first lesson to a new family, eat Japanese food, and celebrate my birthday. This last Wednesday, we finally got the go ahead from a self referred person for us to come visit. Maguy had invited us over once before but was unable to make the meeting herself. So we were pretty glad to actually get to see her this time. We met her family, her two sons and got to talk to her about her beliefs. She struggled a bit with her English, but her son, Leo was pretty good and shared a lot of info about how they grew up. He enjoyed attending his local church and hearing the pastor there. He was very respectful and interested to hear about what we had to say. So we gave him the restoration lesson, and he listened but I don't know if he fully believed us. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read and we are planning to see them again soon. We will meet up with the French speaking elders the next time we go so that hopefully we can include Maguy a bit more. We will probably have to completely hand them off in the end but whatever. As long as they are given the truth, and the chance to grow closer to God.
Then on the twenty eighth we celebrated Elder Youngstrom's birthday, I was able to get him some piano music that I hope he will enjoy. (The theme from "Up"-- I got a copy from another Elder, and some of his music from home his mother was so kind to send me.) We spent the evening of that day moving a sweet old lady who simply had too much stuff. We only got there after it had already been sorted a good bit, but it still sorely needed to be cleaned out. There were plenty of cockroaches under all the furniture and a pile of them under the TV. After seeing them under the TV I let other helpers move the TV. Something I didn't mention to them was the fact that cockroaches are attracted to warm things and most likely were swarming every warm circuit inside the TV. In I.T. we watched plenty of instructional videos on how to clean cockroaches out of computers and laptops. We ended up "donating" most of her stuff into a nearby dumpster that we felt bad about for the sake of the next garbage man. We actually were asked to check the desks at the dumpster for anything that was left inside. And while searching, found five pairs of scissors, a lot of scrapbooking stuff, and her social security number. She was so happy to see it she said "maybe tonight we'll find my driver's license too!" Anyways, we hope she's been doing alright. The next day we went out with the Evan's to knock on the apartment doors. We spent an hour going from door to door without a single answer. On the last door the blinds next to door opened then closed really fast. We knocked again, no answer. So we went home.
I got annoyed by our apartments new policies about mail delivery during Covid, but I luckily got my package for my birthday the day before. I opened it up immediately in order to rescue the spinach vine inside. It's a little limp now but once it puts out roots it will be fine.
The next day, Halloween, I got up and looked in the box to find mom had sent me Cream of Wheat and so I happily made that. It tasted just like home.
I decided to open one of my presents at the table. An explosion of seed packets fell at my feet. I was so happy to see all these different kind of seeds I could plant. I will never be able to plant them all but I love having such a variety to choose from. Mom also sent some fertilizer that will definitely be used.
After breakfast we went to a farmer's market and just walked around. We talked to one or two people, but kind of just enjoyed the morning. Then we met up with the APs and we all went to Texas Roadhouse, not just for my birthday but Youngstrom's and two other missionaries who have a birthday this week. The steak was delicious. Then we went to the ward trunk or treat. We walked around and saw all the other members cars they had decorated and and talked with them. Elder Bodily and Youngstrom were excited to see all the Spanish speakers who showed up.
I talked with who I could from home in the evening and it was all pretty great. Sunday night, we had dinner with brother Pinto, our ward missionary leader. His wife is from Japan, and happily made us a dish I can most easily compare to stir fry, except it had tofu instead of vegetables. With beef and onions. It was really really good, the tofu was delicious. They gave us their life story of how they met and their testimony while we ate. He is a convert who was introduced when he met his wife in Japan, who was one of 40 members in a very wide area. It's a pretty great story. This P-day, or Monday, I had to go to the store to pick up some more para cord. Just so you know, I have a little fidget toy that I build out of para cord, and I'm constantly spinning it around my fingers. More people in my district are requesting I make one for them so I needed some more. Also I made a stop into a great clips to get my hair cut. My first cut yet. That's all that has happened up till now. I got to give my first introduction to the gospel to a non member family this week. We'll see what happens this next week. Oh and also I'm nineteen now. So there's that.
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