It has been a better week. Today it is
10 degrees Celsius. The signs of spring are
here. We did get a snowstorm Friday morning but the snow cleared
up by noon.
We received news
yesterday in church that Elder Renlund of the Quorum of The Twelve
Apostles and Elder Wong of the Presidency of The Seventy are coming on June 5th
and are speaking at a university in Sackville, New Brunswick. This will
be a bi-stake regional conference. All of the missionaries will be traveling to that regardless of where they are. President Pratt is
flying in all the missionaries in Newfoundland too. No one really knows
why they're coming and why they're speaking at a tiny university in the
middle of nowhere. We just know that they're coming for a special reason. I
am looking forward to that. All of the members are also encouraged to
travel there.
It has been a rough weekend for my companion and I. It all started on Saturday morning. My companion was being very quiet and seemed discouraged.
We went contacting and he just kind of treated it like a chore. Then we had
a lesson with a member and he was dead quiet in the lesson. We had
lunch and he still didn't say anything. He reached his boiling point
when we went contacting again and he had a disgruntled look on his face.
He let two people walk by him without talking to them; then I asked him
why he didn't talk to them and he said because "I'm tired of talking to
people.. it's pointless". I then went into the bathroom and phoned President Pratt. He talked me through it and advised that I do all the
talking. So I came back and we began contacting again. All of a sudden my companion turns towards the car and says "Why do we even come here?
It's always the same people." I told him I wanted to talk to this one
guy behind us so I did and I then I just talked to people like crazy and
just took over everything. I worked like a motor. Then we went knocking
and I knocked the first 4 doors; then the zone leaders called and cheered
him up. After that he was fine. But he was tense in the evening. Then
yesterday him and the Sisters got into an argument about an
investigator we are teaching over the phone.
So
I have a struggling companion right now and I am feeling kinda stressed
about it. I am concerned that I am going to have to carry a load by
myself while he is working through his problems. I am also concerned
about our relationship with the sisters. An accumulation of stresses
have added up this week and I am not feeling very good about it all.
It's
ultimately going to come down to how I want to end my mission. It is
completely in my control. I really don't want to end my mission on a
sour note. But I am going to need help from my leaders to help ease the
burden I am feeling. I can't take all this on by myself. I'll do all I
can in my power.
I feel bad for writing letters
this but I need to open with you guys. I need to be completely honest with you and
how I'm doing emotionally. I'm sure you want me to be open too. The
thought came to my mind while I'm writing this that you would jokingly
say in your head "You've got 3.5 months left, just deal with it... son".
Haha. "As long as you come home August 5th we don't care how you do it just make it home in one piece".
As for the week, it was a pretty mild week. We helped Gary with his family history for 2 hours. We found his
parents, grandparents, and great-grandpa for him. He also has a brother
who died a crib death when he was 6 weeks old. Sadly we weren't able to
find his brother.
Thursday was a service
day. We played bingo at an old folks home. The guy I helped won one
game. He got a stuffed animal. We also gave service at a food bank for
two hours. It was really busy. I filled out some orders and some people
didn't claim them. That never happens at that food bank :P.
As for Saturday and Sunday.
It was a rough weekend but we did pick up a new investigator in
Enfield. She is a former. She has some issues
with the Book of Mormon but she's very inquisitive and is a truth
seeker.
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder O'Brien (the older)
No comments:
Post a Comment