Week 55

bauce soss

Monday, January 31, 2011 12:48 PM
Dearest family of mine (MINE MINE MINE)

How are y`all doing? Here we are in the last moments of January. Tomorrow it`ll be just a memory. Sigh. Anyhoo, WELCOME TO FEBRUARY! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

So life is great here. You`ll be pleased to here that I got mail last week on Tuesday at district meeting and then we had a small zone conference and interviews on Thursday so I got more mail. The sad part of all of this is that I will not be getting any mail for the next 2 weeks. Anyhoo, I got letters 44, 53, and 54. Yes that is correct. Letter #44 came through, postmarked November something. I also got the box with shoes and the box that you also sent out without letting me know which is evidently a sign of your concern that I was not eating enough. As I have said, I am eating more and better, but the box was/is appreciated anyways. I couldn`t believe the number of granola bars. :D Also, I did get Angela and Trevor`s box for Christmas, if somebody could let them know. I`ll send out a letter tomorrow, but then they can know right away as well.

There are 2 pictures attached, one is obviously me, and the other is obviously a shoe. That would be my second pair of destroyed shoes...you`ll notice that the Grand Canyon has taken residence down there. If you look along the edge, you can see how thick the rubber used to be, and then in the middle, you can see how thick (and I use the term loosely) it is now. Good stuff. Happily, I am still using those shoes though. I`m using them as long as absolutely possible so I can be as sure as possible that I won`t need you to send another pair of shoes. Sauce.

Now, with regards to investigators. For the first time in my mission, we had double digit investigators in church. We had 10 yesterday which is super cool. Still nobody with a solid baptismal date, but we do have 3 (a couple and the wife of a less active) that are pretty much sure baptisms, and soon as well. They`re both going (or so they say) this week to get a marriage date. For this reason, among many others, I`m really hoping and praying that I`ll stay. I think I will. I would really like to see them get baptized. The few people we have who have accepted a solid baptismal date are kind of wishy-washy. OOTS.

The conference and interviews were nice. We had a nice little lesson on agency. I pretty much love anything to do with the Plan of Salvation, so that was good. I realized that agency is not so much just the ability to choose, but more of the responsibility to choose (see 2 Nephi 2:14). There are things created to act, and things created to be acted upon. If we don`t exercise the ability to choose, we inevitably and unwisely turn ourselves into things that are being acted upon (in a certain sense of it). This is why it was so crucial that Adam and Eve eat the fruit, but that they choose for themselves. God made them choose in the sense that he gave them 2 conflicting commandments. He wanted them to exercise their agency, and of course Satan helped in that sense to tempt them. Good stuff. In the interview, President told me to imagine that Mom was there, then he asked me what she would say about me to him, what she would want to know about me from him, and what he would say to her about me. and I answered as if I was her, something like that. The President obviously knows who I am, no doubts, but he said some nice things about me. I don`t really care too much if people focus on me as a missionary, but it is nice to know that the President can tell I`m hardworking and obedient. Obviously I`m not perfect and the President finished the interview telling me that he hoped I learned something from the conference that I could put it into practice.

Side note, that`s super awesome that Devin Bell is on a mission. I was surprised and happy for him. I like that you guys send me those flyer things from the Stake. They`re good.

As far as transfers, I`ll find out next Sunday night. I`m praying to stay. I don`t feel ready to leave yet. When I asked president to stay, I told him that I know it`s all revelation but I just wanted to let him know my thoughts. And I told him that I never thought I`d ask for a 7th change in the same zone. If I stay, it`ll be my 7th change in the same zone. Wow.

Anyhoo, have a great week. Remember I`ll be writing on Tuesday next week regardless...hopefully with good news. I don`t need anything right now. I`m doing pretty well. The days here just fly by. I never know what day I`m in anymore. I just live on a day to day basis. Oh well. What can you do? Thanks again for the packages and mail (ps, I got 3 letters from Grandma, including one that took only 9 days to get from her to me, hmmm). Keep on keeping on. :)

Love always,

DJ