Don't have a lot of time. I've got to read everything you guys sent me and head out early because I'm going to a different zone for a departing dart war in my old chapel for my.....
LAST DAY IN THE UNITED STATES
Well, at least for a few years :) I got my visa!! Leaving tomorrow night and heading to good old Europe! It was actually a funny story. So we visited a family named the Francis family. This was on the 25th which was the exact day they told me to expect my visa so I'd been silently freaking out every time the phone rang thinking it might be President Riggs with some big news. A kid named Ethan Francis who is 3 years old said the prayer for us at dinner and asked to bless the missionaries that they can get help and right there during his prayer the phone vibrated in my pocket. I silenced it and saw it was President Riggs! Longest moments of my life waiting for the prayer to end so I could go outside and call him back! Well Ethan's prayer brought my visa and just as President put it, this is bad news and good news. I'm leaving a lot of friends behind here, but I am beyond excited to go and not understand anything for a few weeks! I have 33 hours left here so I'm soaking it up while I can.
This week has gone by in a blur. I went on two sets of exchanges, one with the Zone Leaders and one with the Elders that work in the Office. It's been great because after all the exchanges and moves and stuff I've had I have now worked alongside Zone Leaders, a District Leader the AP's and even done Office Work (Which was mostly moving a ton of furniture funnily enough). Life has not been boring during my mini mission haha! I wanna keep hearing from you all! It's a good problem to have to hurry during email time!
As far as people go, we found Janis finally. It was actually a really neat experience. I haven't been feeling too great lately, kind of had a stuffed nose and a sore throat. It escalated while I was out tracting to the point where I lost my voice completely and it hurt everytime I talked with my new super raspy two thousand year old smoker voice. I had to revert to whispering to Elder Ni and just letting him to the talking. It was a little frustrating because as we walked up to Janis's house this lady starting yelling at us "Mormon ***holes" and all sorts of other fun insults. Anyway as we started talking to Janis it was hard for me to stay silent because she has had a lot of lot of lot of trials recently, and is obviously not taking it well as she started smoking in front of us and used the F-Bomb directed towards our bishop for offering her Psychiatric help. She is under the impression that her siblings are paying the landlord to hack her computer to help them in a court case against her and having other people follow her... I had to stay silent through all of this while Elder Ni did a great job of defending what we know. It got to the point though where Janis started yelling at us and getting mad with us and so after staying silent and listening the whole time I finally felt that I knew what to say. I pulled out the scriptures to one I felt she would like about "justice to those who seek your destruction" and how that promise only applied to those who were pure in heart (Jacob 3:1). I managed to find a sort of whisper that didn't hurt to bad, but it made me eliminate any words I didn't absolutely need to say. I explained that we may not understand her temporal needs and were sorry if we had offended her in anyway, but that we were there for her spiritual needs. I told her about a talk Elder Bednar gave to the MTC missionaries about the Character of Christ and how no matter what trials and afflictions hurt him he was always concerned about how to better those around him instead of bettering himself.
It's hard to explain, I just felt like I had learned a lesson by being forced to listen rather than talk too much. I've seen my words affect people before, but never change someone the way that those words changed Janis. So I've come to believe that it wasn't necessarily my words that did it. After having to listen rather than speak and by saying only that which was needed I could speak with the spirit more than I have before. She went from angry and smoking, to slowly putting the cigarette down, to apologetic and nice just like she used to be with us.
Anywho, I've gotta go. Remember to listen rather than speak sometimes and to follow the 11th commandment to write missionaries! Love you all!
The pictures are of my district and Joy Call who is a lovely lady who adores missionaries and has each one that passes through take a picture with her and Harry. That was cool. Also she kept one of my ties, she's making a quilt with missionaries ties.... That's gonna take a while.
Vi Ses!
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