This was a pretty solid week. We had a really fun time playing sports as a Zone on P-Day. Also, for some reason I still play AMAZING when we play basketball. I don't know why I'm suddenly really good at basketball. Anyways, we played another game called Scatterball that is really fun that I don't have time to explain, but basically it's free-for-all dodgeball and is really tiring, so we got exhausted by the end. Why do I share this? So Tuesday, we had to fix some stuff on our car because it is falling apart faster than Buster did, and we are in the shop like every other day, it's crazy. So we headed out a little later than usual to work that day, but Elder V accidentally locked the keys in the car. Luckily the Zone Leaders were in SA for a meeting and they were able to grab the spare keys for us. However, we had to spent from like 2-7 on foot without our car. We walked probably 6-8 miles and it started to rain and was pretty windy. That could have stunk, but for some reason I liked it a lot. However, we were really tired from playing that game and walking for 5 hours. Wednesday we had Elder C with us. He is an Assistant and he is a crazy hard worker. Of course all of our lessons fell through so we ended up trying to find new people to teach. He does an amazing job of easing into conversations with people, something I learned a lot from. He was also really bold, maybe even too bold and some people seemed really annoyed with him. He was a great example though and we talked to EVERYONE we saw, just like we are suppose to. Since then, we have done a much better job of talking to everyone, and easing into conversations better. I've found that one reason I'm probably in Texas is because of how much they love football. It makes an easy topic of conversation and instead of trying to avoid college football so I don't get distracted at all, I decided to embrace the fact that I know so much about college football and I started TONS of conversations with people with college football. If they are wearing any Texas gear, have a flag outside, or something, I usually talk college football with them, then we bring up, or even they bring up what we are doing and what we are sharing. So far no one has been interested in hearing our message, but they seem to enjoy us a lot more than when we go straight to the point. It has been hard though to not get distracted by all the college football talk. Thursday I was feeling pretty crappy, and I was just so sick of starting to be in a bad mood again, that I decided to start a few new things. First I made a list of things to remember that I keep in my pocket at all times. It says:
Things to remember:
-God loves you, He's proud of you!
-You don't need to be perfect
-Work on one thing at a time
-Your family loves you and prays for you
-The Lord is on your side
-Any positive thought is from God, negative thoughts are from Satan
-Any positive thought is from God, negative thoughts are from Satan
-Trials are required to become better
-Trials make us better
-You will be blessed
-Things have ALWAYS worked out in the past
-You are learning things that will help SO much later in life
-Serve others
-Pray for strength
Then on the outside it has the quote really big from President Hinckley, "Things will work out." This helped a lot, just writing the things down, and I haven't needed to even look at it that much since then. I also have a space in the back of my journal where I write things that I love about my mission and I try to add one thing every day, or circle one that I already wrote. It has helped a ton to have a great attitude even though lots of our lessons fell through. We have a Bible Study class starting this week and our Ward Mission Leader is going to set up lessons with active members so we can teach them and get them excited about missionary work. Hopefully both activities can get us some solid new people to teach, because I'm starting to forget what that's even like. We have been to a lot of really good food places down here and the food is really good. Tex-Mex and Burgers are really good down here. However, instead of gaining weight, I've actually stayed at the same weight and built some muscle. It's crazy what actually working out can do to your body. I just do push-ups and stretch each morning and each like 2 bananas and an apple each day and avoid junk food. My cardio is probably not that great, but it's funny that I've actually built muscle since the older missionaries say that no matter what you gain weight on the mission. We had a lesson with J this week and we went in just hoping to answer any questions and really find out what is holding him back from committing. It went pretty well and it appears that he wants to understand everything 100% first, so we ended up talking a lot about faith and how we will never understand everything 100%, but need to act on the faith we already have. We also had a lesson with V, a recent convert who just moved in, and we had a great lesson on God's love and how we can feel it in our lives by praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. My knowledge of the scriptures has improved a ton since coming out and I can find just about any scripture already, so I'm really grateful for that improvement.
We met this really strange guy yesterday that was totally crazy. He claimed he was in the Luminadi and that he had died three times but came back to life. He told us about extra terrestrial life that he's seen and also how George Washington did too. It was really funny. He talked like he was giving a slam poem or something, and he was a pretty good speaker. Then he started predicting our futures, and he said I looked like the next president. He said I'd be married in 3 years and Elder V in 4. He said my wife would find me, that she would wear plain, but beautiful dresses, walk with a pivot, have dimples, and when I see her toes I will know she is the one because I will blush. It was really really funny and we both pretty much just sat there and listened to him for like 30 minutes while he rambled and told our future. Apparently we will both be leaders too. It was really awesome. Also, that really cute girl that gave me a hug last Sunday continues to LOVE me and Elder V and yells to us whenever she sees us. I guess she is turning 4 on October 7 and her mom invited us to dinner that night since she's pretty sure there is no one she'd rather have at her birthday dinner than us. She is so cute and we are so excited! Anytime anything bad happens now, we're like, well at least we are going to Bridgett's Birthday party! It is really awesome. Anyways, I know that no matter how tough the work is that I am doing the right thing. I know that the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to God than any other book on this earth. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and I know the happiness that can come as we strive to follow the example of our Savior. I know that if we turn to Him, He will help us with anything if we accept it. He died so that He would know how to best help us (Alma 7:11-12). Thanks for all the love and support! Go BYU! I hope they take the Utes down one final time!
Love,
Elder Pew
