Friday, January 28, 2011

Avalon Week 6

Yeah! In one week I'll be at my 1 year mark!! Holy smokes that's so crazy! Can you believe it's already been that long? For me it has flown by so fast, it's unbelievable. It's probably because we're always on the go, always doing something that makes the time go by extremely quickly.  Actually for the burning stuff we're no longer allowed to do that anymore. Some missionaries burned some things outside (of course) and were dancing around the burning article, and of course someone (which happened to be their landlord) saw them and called Pres. Summerhays exclaiming that they didn't know that we were "Satan worshipers" and did
"satanic rituals". So Pres. told everyone to stop doing that, and to find some other way to celebrate. Otherwise I would have burned a shirt. Oh well that's okay, I'll probably go out to eat or something.

So this week is transfer week and Elder Lee is getting transferred which is a bummer because he's a really good missionary. I'll be staying in Wexford for a little while with new companion who is a zone leader.
There are 9 companionships, or, 19 missionaries total in our zone and 9 out of the 19 are getting transferred so there will be a huge change in the zone, (in case you're wondering why 9x2 doesn't equal 19, there is a
companionship that has 3 in it, just to clarify) So that's fun

We're still working with Stephine to stop smoking it's going to be hard but she'll make it. We also obtained 4 new investigators this week which is really exciting! One is a former investigator that we came into contact with a few days ago. We were able to teach a full first lesson to her and it was very plain and understood. I do believe that the Spirit was there to help us in that lesson to make it more understandable for her to grasp the claim that we make. The other 3 investigators are an Egyptian family that we tracted into. They are a
really neat family and want to learn. We're excited to teach them, and it would really help if we could find a couple copies of the Book of Mormon in the Arabic language for them. The parents can't read English that
well and they requested a couple in Arabic so hopefully we can get those soon.

To answer your questions Mom,
Do you still have time to practice/play the piano. Any more opportunities at church.
-I do get to play the piano once a week on p-day or at district meeting. People are always asking me to play the hymns for the meetings. You were right when you said that piano skills would come in handy on the
mission. And I did get to play a little prelude music one Sunday while we waited for the organist to come. I was on the piano playing because we came really early for a meeting we didn't have. Anyway I was playing
and few people came in and sat in the pews and were reading their scriptures. So I decided that I would just keep playing the hymns that I was as a sort of background thing, and I did and more and more people
started arriving so I ended up playing some prelude for church.

You never did tell us about your service. What do you do at the Alzheimer's center?
-we basically just sit and talk to all the old people. It's funny because Elders have been going there for years and we're still new every time we go there! It's really funny.

You haven't told us any driving stories. I think you are a good driver...i think. Did anything specific happen to make Elder Lee question your skills?
-I drive every time Elder Lee is really sleepy and it would be dangerous for him to drive. So I would. And I am a good driver! Elder Lee is just half asleep every time I am driving so he doesn't know what's going on,
when I'm wide awake and fully aware of the situations. Like, we were driving down a narrow road and there was a car coming in the opposite direction. So I pulled over to the shoulder to let him through, and because I was in the shoulder there was a telephone pole right in front of me. Now I was rolling forward slowly, and had plenty of room between me and the telephone pole and Elder Lee happened to barely wake up and freak out because he saw the telephone pole in front of me and try to grab the steering wheel to steer us out of the way! and he kept accusing me that we were driving full speed right at a telephone pole when he had no idea of the situation going on. I tried many times to explain but he doesn't listen. So since then, and that was a few weeks ago, I've only driven a couple times. Which is stupid. Anyway! That's one of the experiences.

It's been a great transfer and I've been able to learn a lot here. I am learning everyday to have patience. More and more do I have opportunities to have patience with people; companions, investigators, and people we talk to on the street. And with the Lord's help I've been getting better and better, and I can really tell. When you learn patience you have to learn love, and a more perfect form of love; Charity. To think that the Savior's perfect love for us is infinite and long-suffering, how can I get frustrated when a wonderful child of His struggling and failing to quit smoking? And how can I be not patient with people if I expect the Savior to be patient with me in my iniquities. It's an ongoing process that will be rewarding.

Love,
Elder Benjamin

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