Elders McCleod and Romney

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

commitment to working out and learning Creole

Good morning! 

Seeing pictures of Mac wrestling brings back quite the flood of memories! Watching that little fella kick some serious butt on an early morning Saturday, maybe grab a nice donut at Something Sweet, work on some project at the house- fun fun fun! Or the memories of my own prestigious wrestling career, weighing in bright and early, looking at all the other kids wondering "Which one of you tough guys is going to kick my butt today?" I'm glad Mac is doing well! 

Robbie's statement cracks me up and for the record, I refuse to come home chubby. If I look the way I do now the transfer I'm going home, I'm asking for an extension! I think this month is the month I stop with the reindeer games and buckle down and do some running and stop eating garbage. We started strong this morning. There is that awesome park by our house and we while Elder Worley does a down and back, I do something with the dumbbells. I want to come into a nice set of shoulders so I did mostly shoulder press and extensions. Then we switch. 5 sets twice. You know your a fat kid when you do one set of 5 down and backs with weights in between and your body is trying to release the 6 cookies and two slices of cheesecake from the night before... the buck stops here! 

We had a better week this week! Wahoo! I already told you about E I think. He's been coming to church with a member for about 3 weeks in a row and two weeks ago he was rather apprehensive to meeting with us. Last Sunday he asked how he could become a Mormon, so this week we met with him. E is an awesome guy and is pumped about the Gospel. I'm picking up a little Creole! Not much, I'd love to be able to bear my testimony in Creole, but for now I'm working on just small talk. "Bouswua, como u yea? Miu frum!" That's about all I got. E wasn't at church yesterday, he picked up a job this week and they needed him, but it's not going to be a regular thing- surprise surprise that the week he receives a baptism date (Dec. 2nd) his job needs him to work on Sunday. We called him last night and he's already read the chapters we left with him. He says "Yes Ewda Womney, I am weady fo you." I love Haitian accents! 

Sis. B is doing well. We had a really super lesson with her on Tuesday. She needed help understanding how the Bible and Book of Mormon fit in together like on a timeline. So we whipped out some paper and made a timeline starting from Adam all the way to Moroni, highlighting the major prophets and stories through the timeline and keeping an estimate of what year it was. She said it all makes so much more sense now when she reads the Book of Mormon. Good lesson.

I felt like an idiot last night at the D's, this story just goes to show how out of the loop a missionaries mind is, at least me and Elder Worley. He and Sis. D weren't at church because they had to go lay a wreath at a memorial downtown. It was a big gathering, all the ambassadors where there, government officials, fancy stuff. So he's telling us all about the ceremony, and I ask "So who was the guy who died?" Yeah... didn't put two and two together and realize 11/11. DUH! Totally horsed it. Oh did I get a razzing for that one. 

I'm really excited for this transfer. Two guy showed up to church interested in what it was all about yesterday, that's always a good thing. We are meeting with one on Wednesday, hoping that his "church shopping" (as he put it) will end here. We had a zone fast yesterday to start off what is called the 40 day challenge. When Elder Zivic was here he gave the Zone Leaders a story about a missionary who felt he was doing well but really wanted to have the Spirit with him. He noticed that in lessons he would bear his testimony but there wasn't anything behind it, and when the member they brought would say the same things the room was full of the Spirit. A local leader of the church came to town and this missionary asked him what he could do to have the Spirit more fully in his life. The leader looked him in the eyes for about a minute and then rattled off a list of very personal questions, all pertaining to the missionaries conduct and obedience. This missionary wasn't a bad missionary by any means, he worked hard and had seen results but he wasn't satisfied. The church leader told the missionary to go home and make a list of all the things he either needed or wanted to change about his missionary work or his desires, have a fast for these desires to be changed, and then the next 40 days to constantly be aware of this thoughts, actions, and the things on that list so that he wouldn't do them. He was left with a promise that if he did this, he would see his desires changed. So he did. The story (told by the missionary) talks about how in the beginning of the 40 days the desires he wanted to change became so much stronger. This missionary loved golf and it seemed that everywhere we went golf was trying to occupy his thoughts and time. By the end of the 40 days he said that his desires where changed drastically, he and his companion were having very spiritual experiences, and the results they achieved where pretty drastic. As a zone we had a fast and as a zone we are taking that 40 day challenge. Elder Worley and I made a list, we are ready to buckle down and test the Lord. Small and simple things shall great things be brought to past. That is so true- nothing on our list is this huge change. It's the little things. Excited to see what happens!

Your talk was fantastic! I'm going to print it off and maybe steal it if I have to give a talk in the future :) I really like it, good work Mom! Your workout regimen sounds pretty intense. I realize that what you eat is just as, if not more, important that working out. Carrot sticks and jerky. OH! We found beef jerky this week! Kinda expensive, but everything is expensive here. I'm glad Grandpa Dan's funeral went well. Ironic how it's always a funeral that brings family together, eh? 

Talked to T this week- he said he isn't set on going back to Andros. He has a couple job offers that might keep him here. It was his birthday this week so we bought him birthday cake Oreo's and played/sang happy birthday on the guitar. Fun night. 

Remind me who's in our new bishopric? I think you told me already, but I can't remember. Bishop Payne, John Nowels and who?

Alrighty Momma, that's about it for this week. Crazy to see pictures of snow from over there. I shiver just thinking about anything below 78. I wore my long sleeve shirt to church yesterday because I was tired of being cold at night (cold as in 70). It was weird wearing long sleeves- I felt kinda fancy for some reason. Maybe because I've only worn that long sleeve shirt like twice for baptisms and it's super white and crisp still. 

I love you! Have a great week!

Elder Romney 

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