I had an interesting thought this last week: It's kind of stressful being a missionary, because for two years, you're responsible for other people's salvation. I know it sounds a little high and mighty, but if you're feeling lazy one day and decide that you don't want to talk to that last person of the night on the street corner, you're denying them a chance to accept the gospel, and it's on your head that they didn't get that chance to accept or deny it! Most of the time in life, if you decided to take a lazy day, and didn't get much done that day, the only person it really affects is you, but on a mission, you affect so many other people when you slack off!
As far as clothing fitting me, there's good news, and there's bad news. The suit that I had custom fitted for me a few years ago is starting to get a little tight, which is sad, but the good news is that it's getting a little tight in the chest and not in the gut! I guess the fact that the rules say you're supposed to work out every morning is better motivation for me than I've had before!
This last week has been pretty crazy for a few reasons: The first being how much the work is picking up in our area, the second being that our apartment flooded this last week! I'll focus on the work first. To give you an idea of how much busier we've been getting, we keep track of how many new investigators we find every week in the mission. Last transfer, we found a total of three new investigators for the whole transfer. So far THIS WEEK we've found 8!!! making a total of 15 for the transfer! Needless to say, this has been keeping us plenty busy! We've been seeing a lot of miracles, and I'll include some of my favorites for the week. We were in the middle of contacting this guy on the street (he was grade A crazy and convinced that vampires walk among us and that blood bank's are a giant pyramid scheme set up by Satan. Definitely one of the most interesting people I've met so far) and someone walked up and said, "Hey, are you the Mormons?" "Yes, we are!" "I'm on my way to work right now, but can I have your card so I can call you tomorrow?" "Sure!" That was pretty cool in and of itself, but then when we were on our way to the appointment that we set up with him the next day, we met another guy who was out in front of his building who said that he had just felt like he needed to come stand outside for a while, and he wasn't sure why. He proceeded to say that he had always seen us around, and asked us what we do. When we told him, he said he'd been looking for a church for the last 5 or 6 months, and asked if he could come to our church this Sunday. "Sure!" Then when we went to talk to the guy we had originally set our appointment with, he said that he was busy right now, and we'd have to try him another time, but he had someone he wanted us to talk to. He took us to his neighbors house, knocked on the door, and said, "These are the Mormon Missionaries, I think you'd like what they have to say." And we then proceeded to teach THAT guy the first lesson! Then when we went by the next day to meet with the first guy's neighbor again, we were teaching him out in front of his apartment, and the first guy's girlfriend came out, listened for a while, and then asked if SHE could have a copy of the Book of Mormon! Long story short, We've been really blessed this last week. That's just one of the amazing things that has happened!
Now on the the apartment flood. Apparently, the apartment above ours had a sink overflow, and it overflowed badly enough that it came through the vents and SOAKED our carpet! Luckily none of Elder Dixon's or my stuff was damaged, but It's been a bit of a process to get all of the water out, deal with the apartment management, and get the carpets cleaned! It's all taken care of now though, and the apartment no longer smells like mildew!
One last thing to write about: On Halloween, all of the missionaries in our mission who aren't "out of valley" (in California or Arizona) got together at the mission office for a party! Apparently they've had problems in the past with punk kids dressing up as missionaries and pulling pranks, so they've started doing this so that all of the missionaries can be accounted for and no one can blame the church for any pranks! It was a lot of fun though! We ended up watching the Cokeville Miracle! It was a really good movie! And for those of you who don't know, it's especially close to my heart, because the principal of the elementary school that was held hostage in the movie was none other than my Grandpa Excell! I've heard the story before, but it was definitely cool to see it on the silver screen.
I think that's all for this week! Thank you for all of your continued love, support, and prayers! I couldn't make it through without them, and will always be grateful for them!
Love,
Elder Excell
Q&A - 11/2/15
1.) Did you find someone nice to help you fix your China suit pants? --They've been fixed for quite a while now! A member of the ward was more than happy to fix them for me, and it was a super easy fix because it was a rip right down the seam. 2.) Do you get to meet with President Snow very often? --Because our area is so close to the mission office, we're there every once in a while, and I see him around. But as far as official meetings go, we have a zone conference with president snow attending and training every transfer, and every other transfer, this conference includes interviews with president.
3.) Do you have people you are regularly teaching right now? Several or a few?
4.) Tell us about your best moment of the week. -- I'll address both of these in the blog email!
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