WARNING EXTREME PHOTO DUMP AND EXTREMELY LONG AND BORING EMAIL AHEAD
ALSO...
If you're going to skip through this and not read the whole thing because trust me I know there's some who probably will, then I have some words to say to you...... alright whetever you want. I'm writing for those who want to read. Maybe you like pictures go look at those or something.
So, I lied. It's clearly not "next week." It's been a while I am perfectly aware thank you very much! During the last 3 or so weeks, at the MTC and (spoiler alert) here in Missouri in the field, I've experienced a lot. It's been crazy busy and my p-days have not been an exception. So it is my fault for not writing an email for this long, but also it's kind of not all my fault. Anyways to recap: at the MTC as I said in my last email the chocolate milk was the best thing there. Well, it wAs... for the first week. After that, the chocolate got so much worse which probably had to do something with the fact that the apostles were on campus for the first week. So all the new mission presidents were getting trained, so there were tons of general authorities on campus the first week I was at the MTC. We saw Presidents Eyering and Oaks but they weren't there at the devotional last night. President Ballard and Elders Bednar, Anderson, Stevenson, Rasband, Renlund, Gong, Soares, Holland, Uchtdorf, and Cook all were. Elder Bednar and his wife's messages were super awesome and some main points in his: he defined intelligence by saying intelligence is the application of the knowledge we obtain for righteous purposes. Diligence brings knowledge, but obedience brings intelligence. He said to us, If you, (as missionaries here at the MTC) take what you know and apply it righteously you will be sUper intelligent. Have not I commanded thee? Just something I learned from that devotional. The next week and a half or so at the MTC went quickly and slowly at the same time there's no good way to describe the feeling. It's a blurry experience with tons of meetings and tons of lessons and interesting tasting cafeteria food. Then the day came up on me. 2:45 am is the time I woke up to finish getting ready to leave to go to the mission field. Sat and waited for a bus from about 3:45 till 4:30 so that was great, then got tossed around on a couple different types Utah public transportations until arriving at the SLC airport. Finally got on the plane and took off towards the Dallas FW Texas Airport, for some reason I don't even know why, at around 9ish. Landed and the humidity was striking, I was like huh it's hot. Got some lunch, then took off on another plan to the Kansas City airport. Got out of the plane and said ohhh never mind thiiiissssss is actually hot. 102 I think with like 98% humidity or something crazy like that. Insane, and that's just the first day. Met my mission president, President Ames. Seems like a nice guy. Next we loaded our suitcases into the vans and the assistant to presidents (APs) drove us to the temple for pictures and then drove us to liberty jail for a tour. Next we all arrived at the mission home, and had some pizza and went to bed, let's just say I did not sleep well, I went to bed around 10:45-11, and remember I woke up at 2:45am that morning 20+ hour day. Long day. The morning was rough. Rough is an understatement but Ill leave it at that. We got up and got ready and headed to the stake center for an orientation and the process of meeting our first companions/trainers. Elder Burr and I are assigned to each other. He's a good guy with a good heart and love for the gospel. So yeah, Elder Burr and I headed to our area, a small town by the name of Gallatin, our area is about an hour and 15 from the mission office and mission home. Immediately after hopping in the car the ward mission leader gave us a call to help give some service to a lady that needed it, basically as soon as we got there. We arrived to Gallatin and dropped our stuff off, the previous elders decided to fill up our tub with pond water and put a couple of fish in there for us to enjoy. Alive. Although some of them died. We didn't have time to take care of that because of the service so we headed over in like 95 degree humid as heck weather to help this lady. Turns out she's crazy and told us to tape the entire inside of her van down with plastic wrap and duct tape, so that from the insane pile of trash in the corner of the motel area that we were going to chuck into the van would prevent insects from traveling and nesting anywhere in her frame, or in the front. Funny thing is, the front was so disgustingly dirty it was basically a stupid idea in the first place because she said there were already rats that had made their homes in the van somewhere. So we got like maybe 30% of the van tape up before it was time to go. To summarize, over the rest of the week we were just roaming around trying to figure out where everything was because we were whitewashed in to the area which means neither of us had ever served in that area. Elder Burr has been out around 19 months and turns 21 on the 17th of this month. Sunday services went well and we met a lot and a lot of people whose names I do not remember. The first talk was a male youth speaker who talked about having an eternal perspective and being patient to receive the blessings of eternity. P-day we went fishing with some of the Elders and I caught crappie fish. Then there was a members home who had a little recreation area with all kinda of stuff, ping pong tables pool tables, foosball table (or however you spell that), all kinds of tables. There was a mini gym and a pickelball court, there was an arcade machine and even a little mini salon for hair cutting. I was too tired to really do anything there so I sat and laid down to relax. This past week from Monday P-day till now has been trying to plan and figure out who's taking lessons and how we can better let the Holy Spirit guide us to bring the gospel to those who the Lord has been preparing. Sorry for the long email and for all of the photos I hope you enjoy seeing maybe a little snippet of what this experience has been like for me so far.
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If you don't want advice from a greenie missionary, now is the time to skip to the pictures.
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This advice is primarily for those wondering if they should serve or not.
It's hard. You make a choice to serve the Lord, and let me tell you giving up what you have to go somewhere you aren't familiar with and maybe even a language you don't know, it's extremely difficult. Adjusting to it isn't easy. Missing what you left isn't easy. Preaching the gospel and being bold isn't easy. None of it will be easy for you, and you're going to wonder really quickly how everyone can say that this work is joyous. I have yet to fully figure that out for myself. But there is growth, and there is spiritual light and knowledge you will gain. If you're serving a mission for someone else or for yourself, DONT even go at all. Not until you change your mind on why you're serving. You have to forget thinking about what you want to do because on a mission is not where you're going to be able to do it. But. Listen I'm not done. The Lord is preparing people to hear His word and feel his love which is something they don't yet know. His work will go on without you, but if you're called to serve, it's just a matter of whether or not you're willing to be a part of His work. There's people only you can touch on a mission, and there's opportunities to grow beyond what you can imagine.
Just my two cents if it even means anything to anyone.
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Picture time
I am moving and leaving my first area. Today marks 6 months since I was set apart as a missionary. Ive spent all of that time since in this ...
