Week 33: 3/31/14

March 31, 2014

Longmont, CO

"Hi.  My name's Dory and...I don't think I've ever eaten a fish." :) Our Stop Smoking group started this week, and that is how I felt.  It went swimmingly though ;) Lots of excitement about setting goals and stickers and good support.  Uber excited to see how this goes for these people that I care about to use the Atonement in very tangible ways in their lives.

Alright, someone needs to help me figure this out.  It appears to be that, more often than not, when I am feeling incredibly prepared and excited for a lesson it falls through.  And that person becomes uncontactable for a month.  As well, we recently put a sign on our bedroom door reminding us to update our area book.  In fact...

(The area book is basically a record of the work which we, as missionaries, do for the particular area we are assigned to.  We record information which can help missionaries who are new to the area know what is going on, plus it helps us remember important things)  We are supposed to update any necessary information in this book every day.  We weren't doing so well at remembering to do that, thus the sign.  However, ever since we put the sign up, and have dedicatedly followed it's instructions, we haven't had much to update.  Hmm.....

One of the fun things about eating dinner with families in the ward is that you have straightforwardly have a great discussion on the Word of Wisdom during dinner, and not even have to be the one to bring it up!  One great thing that Brother G pointed out is that, besides the 5 'do not's in the Word of Wisdom, the rest of it is about accountability according to our understanding.  Once we understand that something is not good/harmful for us (think allergy or diabetes) then it would be against our personal wisdom to partake of whatever it is.  We have to hold ourselves and our wisdom accountable on these things and no one can do it for us.

In the midst of this great discussion on the Word of Wisdom, we were actually having ice cream (no comments on how that is not healthy for me and should be against my personal word of wisdom, personal accountability remember).  Sister G leaves for a minute to go to the kitchen, and apparently examine the ice cream carton, because she came back saying "Don't eat the ice cream!  It has coffee in it!"  Oh the irony. :) So if my running was a little wearier or my walking more faint-like this week, or the hidden treasures of knowledge more hidden, I may have accidentally broken the Word of Wisdom.

Yet that was not the end of my coffee adventures!  The next day, Sister C and I were washing the dishes at the OUR Center during lunch, and one of the people serving food brought in a strange bowl.  We sent it through the washer, and then I went to ask someone where it would be put away.  In a coffee pot!  I thought she was making a joke, but no, the poor Mormon missionary just doesn't know how to put a coffee pot together.

Then, once again at the OUR Center (great adventures there) (Sometimes D will even play MoTab instead of his usual Oldies music, quite strange how not far behind on news and popular culture our members, contacts, and service keeps us), this time we were helping serve on the line (think middle school cafeteria lady, but with a more fun apron) a woman came through with a walker.  So I carried her tray for her to a table, and then she asked me to get her a cup of coffee as well.  Oh boy.  I got plain hot water on accident at first because I didn't know which pot the coffee was in, then some nice man on the line handed me the sugar so I didn't have to figure that one out.  But how much sugar?  How much cream?  Why is it even worth it to drink something you have to make so many decisions about?

Had a day this week that was one of those where you become worried about even getting out of the house because everything that you do is wrong.  Oh dear.  But then I remembered what I, myself, had told T just a day or two before.  That sometimes I have bad days or rough minutes, but the week is good anyway :) I tested that out for sure, and it still came out true!  The week was good, even though I felt pretty silly and bad a couple times that day.  Though I think that set me up to be so over awkward situations that when we met someone on the street that night and had a conversation something like the following, I didn't give up on it and he now has a Book of Mormon :)

"Hi!  We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..."

"Yeah, I talked to you before remember?"
"Oh" squinting to try and see him better (it was a little dark) "Sure..."

"Yeah I was walking with the little kid by the park"

"Oh......well did we talk to you about the Book of Mormon?"

"No.  You just told me about that dinner thing they were doing at the church.  At 5:30"

"Wait.  Today?"

"Yeah I talked to you earlier"

"Um...we definitely didn't meet you before...there was nothing going on at our church today at 5:30..."

"No remember, I was with the kid"

"Nope.  Pretty sure I didn't meet you before.  But would you like to know about the Book of Mormon?"

What do you do when you meet someone who has already on their own studied out and learned pretty much all of the doctrines of the Church, except for that one key point of continuing revelation and the Book of Mormon being true, who in fact finds the Book of Mormon ridiculously unbelievable, but only because this person has yet to give it a try?  Think Green Eggs and Ham :) Even better because we weren't recently introduced to a missionary parody of this done by a mission president's wife somewhere in Florida :)

Super excited for General Conference (the Women's session on Saturday was terrific!) and the upcoming weekend will be splendid :)

I love hearing from all of you and hope the week goes as good as Heavenly Father knows it can be ;)

love, Sister Emily DeFord