Monday, May 26, 2014

May 19 Letter

Transfer 17 starts today! Someone asked me yesterday how many more
transfers I had left, and it was really weird to say "one." I didn't
like it. But, I'm dying here in Geneseo like I expected and will be
finishing off my mission with Elder Moulton.

This week went pretty well, actually, although it was very
irregular.... and kinda drama-filled. Tuesday went pretty typically.
But then Wednesday came around. We'd pretty much blocked out the whole
day to help Vinnie and Linnea move. Then we had missionaries and fen
church members arranged in Pennsylvania to help them unload the next
day. So we get there a few minutes late, just after 11 and
were confused at the lack of a moving truck. We get out and knock...
nothing. We finally get ahold of them by calling them, and they pretty
nonchalantly explain that the house they were going to buy failed its
safety inspection so they can't move in. But they get kicked out of
their current place this week... so I'm not sure what happens haha.
It's all a big mess.

Then, Thursday rolled around. We had interviews with president first,
(Guess what?! I'm temple worthy still!) followed by district meeting.
Eventually we got rolling and visited Bridgette. So she got baptized
in January or so and was doing FANTASTIC. Whenever she got brought up
in ward council or anything, it kind of got pushed off because she was
doing so well. Well, we went over, and things definitely weren't
right. Even in our small talk, friendly conversation, she seemed
different. Well, without going into details too much, she says she's
been feeling overwhelmed in the church lately. See, she is one of
those girls who can't let someone go unhelped, which is great, but now
she's taken on a thousand roles that she shouldn't have to, and it's
taking a toll on her big time. She's gone from being a daily scripture
studier and prayer, to not doing either for weeks... Annnnd so that's
been fun to try to reenergize her without hurting any feelings.

On Friday, we were planning on a few things before heading up to the
temple for a couple in our ward's endowments and sealing. But that
morning we got a text from Dan, who is back in the hospital.
Overnight, it had rained a lot, and his basement flooded. So, we went
on over and spent a couple hours helping his daughter clean out the
basement while making dozens of calls trying to track down a
dehumidifier. Well, we eventually found one and got it all taken care
of just in time to make it home, change clothes, and head up to the
temple! I like the temple.

Unfortunately, while at the temple, President Jackson from Warsaw said
that Jimmy hasn't been to church in quite a while... which is
mindblowing. Apparently Stephen has been sporadic, at best, and hasn't
made it the past three weeks, either. Sooo, of 13 baptisms in my
mission, one is excommunicated, one has had their name removed from
the Church's records, 10 are less active, and one is on the brink of
less-activity.... It's pretty frustrating/disheartening/really, really
crappy...

Saturday was packed as well, and among the most hectic. Haha I really
can't get into it much via email.... But some crazy crap went down!
Remind me to tell you in six weeks :)

But, after the crazy crap settled down for a while, guess who I got to
get lunch with? Richard Orcutt! He is working out in Albany now, and
was driving to Niagara Falls so he swung down to see me. That was fun!
Although... He says I'm fat. Which is worse than most people, because
he's the only one who has seen me recently who hasn't seen me since I
left of my mission... It's depressing :/ Buuuut, then we swung over to
a big ward service project for a lady whose husband was just given a
month to live. It was pretty neat to see the turnout there.

Finally yesterday rolled around! We hadn't weekly planned yet, so we
were figuring our day would pretty much be church, eat, study, plan,
eat, bed. But then some MORE (of the same) crazy crap went down haha.
Luckily, what is quite possibly the highlight of mine and Elder Holt's
time together ALSO occurred. A few weeks back, we were moving records
from our binder to our iPads, and setting aside the teaching records
that looked interesting to contact again. One of them, a guy named
Jared, stood out but it said his address was wrong. So we called him
and just left a voicemail. Well, yesterday - a good two weeks later -
he called back! He said he'd been thinking about faith a lot lately
and wanted to meet up again soon... So we made it very soon and went
over last night! He's so cool. He is about 20-21, and is brilliant,
but in a really humble, looking-for-direction, kind of way. He has the
coolest library of history and religion books. He talked about the
Church, though, and said the missionaries met with him his junior and
senior years, and that he'd had a full testimony of the Book of Mormon
(which he said he received quite emotionally) and had wanted to get
baptized. But then a whole slew of things went down in his life, from
his family to his girlfriend to school, and all of a sudden he was far
from where he should be. Well, lately he's quit smoking, quit
drinking, and decided that it is time for him to figure out what God
wants him to be doing! Haha it was pretty sweet! We're going back
Thursday, so I'm pretty psyched!

Well... I should probably head off! I love you, but I don't miss ya!
Elder Allen





Spring in the Sacred Grove

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