This
has been quite an interesting week, and I'm not even sure where to
start, because it was so odd how laced it was with completely awesome
and completely horrible things.
I guess I'll go
in chronological order and say that last Monday after e-mails, we got
to go to Walmart in Show-Low! I forgot to tell you, but my glasses had
gotten bent out of shape somehow (I just put them on last Friday
afternoon, and they were busted), so President Sweeney gave us
permission to get them fixed. I hadn't been to a Walmart- or anything so
convenient and cheap with such a wide selection- since July, so that
was really fun! I think I bought enough groceries to last me til the end
of the month! I was even able to buy fresh produce! Imagine that! And I
got two new t-shirts: one that's just a bunch of poorly Photoshopped
cat heads pasted together around the entire shirt (which makes me laugh
every time I put it on) and one with Queen Elsa that says, "Keep Calm
and Let it Go." Now, I don't approve of the whole "Keep Calm and..."
movement, but they were selling Queen Elsa shirts in the men's section,
which deserves praise. The sad thing is I forgot to take pictures of the
shirts to attach... And we even got to eat lunch at Panda Express,
which is also the first time I've had Chinese food since July, so that
satisfied a craving I've had for months, even if it's fast food. Then we
had a Little Colorado ward party that night and our ward mission
leader, Chad's wife, Raj, an Indian immigrant, made authentic Indian
food for everyone. Elder Blanchard and I got to help serve the food, and
I didn't know if it was hilarious or heartbreaking that so many people
had never, ever had Indian food and they were so scared to try any. Most
people actually ended up loving it, but there were some we talked to
who said, "Well, it was interesting..."
On
Tuesday, we got haircuts at the beauty school! You wouldn't think St.
Johns would have anything beyond public school, but for some weird St.
Johns-ian reason, they have a cosmetology school out in a sketchy
looking warehouse by their little airport. Anyway, all of us in the
apartment got haircuts for free there, and most of the students just
happened to be either non-member or less-active! So one of these girls
says, "You guys should come to the Zumba class I teach!" And all of the
girls are like, "Yeah, you should come!" And they're all a bunch of
potential investigators so of course, we're like, "Yeah, we'll try to
get permission to go!" And... we got permission. So on Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday, we went to Zumba class at the elementary
school. Most of the beauty school girls weren't actually there; it's
mostly old ladies. But those old ladies are all non-members too! So
we've been setting up some lessons and gaining some good trust by doing
Zumba. And apparently, you burn 800 calories per workout, so that's a
plus.
Wednesday and Thursday happened. I don't
remember much of what we did. Well, Wednesday, we had Zone Training
Meeting. And Elder Blanchard started going to voice lessons with that
old lady we talked for a couple hours when I had to fart really bad, so
of course I had to go with him.
So Friday and
Saturday were the horrible days. See, it's always seemed like Elder
Blanchard and I are always either getting along super well or there's
some tension going on. Anyway, the tension was getting really bad on
Friday, so I called for an emergency companionship inventory to get to
the bottom of it. I was trying really hard to use all of my
conflict-resolution skills I learned from Adult Roles (stay calm, see
what you've done wrong yourself, no attacking the other person, using
more "we" statements than "you", etc.), but it didn't take long until
Elder Blanchard just started listing everything he hates about me. I
guess he never took Adult Roles. Anyway, I stayed pretty calm and wrote
down things I did need to work on, and I kept my statements about us,
instead of attacking Elder Blanchard. But after we got through the
inventory, I found myself pretty angry that he gone full-attack mode
like that.
So the next day, we ended up in
another argument and it reached a point where Elder Blanchard literally
said, "Stop trying to make this about both of us, and just tell me
everything you don't like about me!" So I broke and I did. And then he
cried. And I felt really bad. So I had to do quite a bit of apologizing
even though he literally asked for it.
So,
yeah, Friday and Saturday were bad. I ended up spending Sunday fasting
and praying for help to know how to better serve and love Elder
Blanchard, and it seems to be helping so far. Oh, also on Saturday,
Louie dropped us because he's moving to California to take care of his
brother and he doesn't want any flack from his family about being
Mormon. So that sucked. But we'll teach him on Thursday and try to knock
some sense into him.
Sunday we had a stake
fireside for the youth, and President Sweeney came up to speak at it!
And guess who his co-speaker was.... Elder Holladay! I actually knew I'd
be doing it a couple weeks ago and forgot to tell you (lol at me!). But
yeah, the stake youth council picked me to talk, and I think that's
because of the time Elder Denham and I taught the seminary classes. The
fireside was built around social media, so I spoke about the church's
new hashtag, #ShareGoodness. I basically just listed all the ways high
school can suck and how #ShareGoodness can help by brightening someone's
day. I think it went really well. President Sweeney said it did. The
St. Johns district also had to sing Called to Serve at the fireside, so
that's why Elder Blanchard got singing lessons. But it was really a
good, fun fireside. I really enjoyed it.
So
that was my week. I love and miss you all! Make sure Brandon hears that.
That missionary mom story in Meet the Mormons was really the only
segment that made me feel real emotions. So I know that feel.
Have a great week!
<3 Elder Holladay
No comments:
Post a Comment