A Wave of Weed 9/16/2019

I'll get to the subject later. On Tuesday we got up at 6am and caught a train up to Layton where we

were picked up my mission president (President Call) and some other people. We drove to the mission home and had interviews and some training. We had lunch and then we found out who our companions are. My companion is Elder W. He is from Vancouver Island, Canada and has been out 7 months but is 20. After that, we took pictures with President Call and his wife and headed over to our apartment. The rest of the evening, we set up our apartment and my bike and moved the bunk beds into another room (we had to take them apart to do this) and put them as 2 beds. I also discovered that I didn't have a blanket or a pillow which was fun. We get fed dinner by members every day except Monday which is nice. I also saw Elder (William) K at the mission office which was fun to see him.

Wednesday was my first real day. In the morning we went to the church setting up my phone. We also are supposed to provide 10 hours of service a week so we contacted a lot of people looking for service opportunities and set up our week. We played tennis in the morning but I didn't have a racket so I used a racquetball racket. It rained all day and I was confused because I thought Utah was supposed to be a desert but oh well. We also taught a teenager from the Marshall Islands named R. He is on date for baptism but he needs to come to church consistently. We talked about how the Gospel can bring families closer together and service. I like him. He doesn't say much but his testimony is powerful. We later had dinner and they made a heroic amount of meat. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, and kielbasa which was excellent. After that we went to a branch activity and played basketball in our white shirts and slacks.

Thursday we went and tore down fences for service in the morning. We had to dig around the concrete bases and pull them up which was a lot of work but was fun. Then we broke up the concrete. For dinner we had Chinese food with the 1st counselor in the stake presidency and then had ice cream. I had mint moose tracks which was amazing. We went and taught a recently baptized family. We talked about the blessings of the temple and  we are trying to help them get to the temple as a family. When we talked about how it is holy and is a house of the Lord the spirit came super strongly and I teared up. We then taught a super hyper 10 year old named I. His brother was there which helped him focus. We told him about the keeping the Sabbath day holy and invited him to church.

Friday was exhausting. We went and weeded in this lady's backyard. She is about to start chemotherapy which was sad. That was the first time I ever remember weeding. We had more service to do afterwards so when she offered us lunch, we told here that we would come back. Then we went and put chicken wire in underneath a shed. That was fun because they had a tomato garden right next to it and they let us eat the cherry tomatoes. I want a tomato garden like when I am older. The tomatoes were amazing. After that, we went back to the first lady's house and had some Taco Bell with her and some of her family. All of our appointments fell through that day but that's just how it is sometimes. We are planning on going to the temple with the branch and we are trying to go to General Conference as well. 

On Saturday, one of the people Elder W taught was getting baptized. He really wanted to go but we couldn't go unless we brought a nonmember. We spent most of the day inviting people to come but we couldn't find anyone. He was sad so we went to 7-11 and got Slurpees which a member saw us and paid for them. We went to contact some people and we ran into a less active member. We set up a lesson with him and his nonmember wife and invited him to church. During personal study, Elder W and I talked about how awesome the first two chapters of 1st Nephi are because they are super packed with principles and promises that are awesome. In the evening none of our appointments showed up so we just chatted about random things for 2 hours.

Sunday was crazy as we ran between meetings because we are over 6 wards and a branch. We met with 2 bishops about missionary work in their wards and went to branch council. Two people we invited to church came which was great. That evening we were having a lesson with 2 kids that were recently baptized and a nonmember outside the church. We were talking about the Temple and the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end). When we were talking about the temple, all the sudden there was gust of wind and the whole area all smelled like weed. I was like you have got to be kidding me.

Monday we went hiking to a waterfall and went shopping for food. Some lady came over while we were looking at sandals and bought them for us. Utah truly is the best mission.

Quote of the Week: "Thomas Edison looked on the bright side of things.

Pictures (hopefully in order):

1. A lot of coca cola 

2. Me at the waterfall

3. Who eats free at Tonyburgers 

4. A merry Maryland reunion

5. Jandals