Ok, if Mac gets any funnier (is that a word? Elder Worley corrects me all the time with my bad grammar/making up words. The other day he tripped on a bump in the road and trying to sound not like I've been in the Bahamas or Jamaica for 14 months I said "Be careful Elder, there are lots of informalities along this road" Yeah, that got shot down REAL quick... but anyways), I don't know what I'm going to do. Every time you tell me about something that comes out of his mouth, I can't stop laughing! I bust up every time. Eating dinner at the D's is much like family meals back home. This conversation sealed the deal for me yesterday.
Bro. D- "We should've invited the so and so's to dinner tonight"
Sis. D- "I'm glad we didn't, I don't feel like being social.
Daughter- "So the missionaries don't count as being social?"
Sis. D- "No, they're more like family. They don't count as social."
Dink- "Romney! Gimmie more spuds!"
Classic. I love that family. And the E's too, we eat there every other Monday night. Such a hoot! They've got 3 kids living at home and all have a super sarcastic sense of humor, makes for fun dinner appointments.
And so begins the crazy schedules. this is the last year before you only have high school and college kids.... whoah. That's pretty crazy. Mom, do you realize that by the time you're 49 you will be an empty nester???? I just thought of that, that's so weird! You're right, time is smoking by. I hit my 14 month mark last week on the 6th and I didn't even realize it until a couple days later. Elder Nelson goes home in less than two weeks. That will be a sad sad day for the mission. Their whole group is awesome, Elder Nelson- that guy is the man. I think he might deploy when he gets back. He's still not sure, but that will be weird not seeing him over skype at district meeting. Time doesn't stop for anyone!
Speaking of fitness, we are forgoing the gym this month, swallowing our pride, and going to run, run, run in the mornings. Elder Worley played soccer for Utah State before he came out and loves the game, he's got me on a soccer kick these days. It's defintly good exercise. There is a park by our house that has nets, so every morning we are gonna pack some light weights out there, do down and backs, light weights, kick the ball around a bit, I have new motivation to exercise now. Hopefully it works out.
This week was actually a pretty great week. We were door knocking FIENDS! We knocked a couple nights this week four about 2 and a half hours each night in Cable Beach. I'm getting better at it. At first it's so awkward and you don't know what to say but its getting more natural. I had a cool experience with the Spirit while knocking too. We knocked this one door, no one had answered or accepted a pamphlet the last three streets, and this nice Philippeno lady opens the door, we tell her about the church and yadayadayada, and she says that she can't entertain us because she just works for the family at the house. Right when we opened the door before we even said anything, I had the thought, "Bring up M". So conversation continued and she said she couldn't let us in and I asked her "Can you make good Loompia?" Loompia is like like a Philippeno egg roll you dig in sweet and sour sauce, Mercury makes a mean loompia, and she says "Well of course! I'm Philippeno! How do you know about Loompia?" I mentioned that we were teaching lady named M and that she makes Loompia like an angel. The lady says "You know M?? She's a good friend of mine! We are from the same island in the Philippines! I can go to her house and you can teach me there!" Boom. New investigator. And, fantastic Loompia for my belly. It was a win win situation. The Spirit nailed that one.
Also along in our finding excursions this week, I had an experience where doing something even though you really aren't in the mood to gives you the greatest blessings. Friday we had a bust of a day. Our only two appointments cancelled, everywhere we went no one was home, and we had planned on knocking Cable Beach area in the evening. We make our way out there, both of us are in a bad mood, and didn't feel like knocking doors one bit. But, we said "Alright, buck up little camper and knock for an hour." So we park, and the original plan was to knock the street over a bit, but there was a cross street and we said why not, might as well. Knock one door- nothing. Second house there is a rasta outside chopping the yard, so we start talk to him, find out he's just the yard man, and then a younger guy comes out of the house. He looks mid-twenties, right arm has a sleeve tattoo, and we start talking. Introduce ourselves as missionaries and he says that he's been church shopping lately. We explain to him a little about how no one in the church is paid for their service and how this is Christ's one true church back on the Earth again, and for the next 30 minutes this guy lays down his life story to us. How he's been looking for truth for his whole life, and how he lives a higher moral standard than his peers because he feels that it's right. Long story short, he's cleaned up his life minus smoking and everything he says he wants in a church and feels is right is literally everything the Gospel is centered around. He's got a little baby daughter and a fiance who doesn't attend church, and he just wants everything for his family. Wants to go to church together and as he's telling us all this I can't help but just feel DUMB for almost not knocking doors that evening. His name is T, and he's a boss. He wasn't at church Sunday but we are going to meet up with him this week and begin teaching him. It is so cool to see people being prepared for the gospel. It gives us some much needed hope that people actually are prepared. Moral of the story- buck up lil camper, the Lord is bound when we do what He says.
Sunday was a good day too. There was a young tourist couple that was standing outside the gate with a lady when we pulled up to open the church. We start talking, they say they are from Boise. I mention that I'm from Spokane and the woman says "Me too!".... crazy, right? I ask what high school she went to. She says East Valley. I say "Me too!" She asks "Do you know John Gjendem. I say "Oh ya! Johnny was a receiver on our football team!" She says "That's my little brother!" Ya, SMALL world. I guess she was baptized a year ago May and her and her Boise State linebacker husband (who's last game was the '07 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.. when he told us that Elder Worley and I both did a seated version"statue of liberty" hand off right there in the chapel) were just married in the Spokane Temple three weeks ago. I gave her my email to give to Johnny, it was so weird! I felt so close to home. The lady they were with I thought was just their ride to the church, but turns out her name is J and she was at church because it was an assignment for her theology class at college. We are actually having a lesson with her in about 30 minutes, she seems interested. Our hope is to have her take more interest that just a simple class assignment. How cool would that be? Showed up because she had to, prays and finds out for her self that its true, baptized a month later.... those are stories you read about in the Ensign.
G is struggling. We are checking on her today, she still hasn't found a place. One apartment told her yes and then told her it was sold already. I'm praying she found somewhere. We shall see.
That's cool Ty is back! I've been emailing him and CJ pretty regularly these days, love those guys.
This week should be fantastic. We are teaching Sis. B wednesday night, hopefully M and I this week, T, J, M (who is getting baptized Sunday!) Maalique is the 10 year old son of a member. Then a slew of recent converts, we will be busy. Busy = :-) I don't know what it would be like to have a large teaching pool. I'll be interested to see how big other missions teaching pools are. If we have 5 people to teach, we are stoked. I can't imagine having 10 or 12.
That's about it from over here. A good week, hopefully another good one coming up. I better get changed, J will be here pretty soon. I love you!!
Elder Romney
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