Hey all,
Lol, Ben had to stay in for two inches of snow?!? We literally have 2 inches of ice on top of the actual road, and then on top of that is the normal packed down snow. They don't even bother to try to break the ice, they put some salt on it but it doesn't do anything. What ends up happening is they pour this dirt and rock combination on top of all the roads to give you traction. And we've had some gorgeous weather this week!
Also, that's weak sauce mom. You can't give up on the creative subject lines. That's like telling a joke without the punchline. (JK, you don't really have to if you don't want to, but pretty much every missionary ever just does numbers, and I think they're dumb.) I jokingly put "Life, week 2,555" as my subject line.
Q: You never said who was which kind of finisher when you described the three types. I'm sure that was on purpose because you don't ever say anything negative about other missionaries. :) What type of finisher do you plan to be...I can guess. :)
Yes, I didn't say anything about how others have finished on purpose, haha. I've seen that attaching names to things doesn't actually really help anything, it just taints people's memories or views on someone. Better just to use the experiences to teach principles than throw someone down. (But this is a topic for another time, cause I could expand a lot more on that.) I definitely plan on being the finisher who keeps working and going strong. I've really learned how to deal with changes on my mission, and how to face the future, so I anticipate that I'll just keep working on.
This week has been pretty cool! We had MLC in Halifax, which was really good. This one and the one in January have been some of the best ones we've had, we're able to get a lot more done and there's better discussion in it all. We haven't had as many people just dominating the councils either, and giving their views on literally everything under the sun, haha. Man, again no names, but there are some missionaries who didn't realize how much they talked. I guess they caught "old Maritimer disease." (What we call it when an old person starts talking. They start... and never stop. And it's very contagious, because when one old maritimer has it, and another old maritimer is exposed to it, the other one catches it too!)
Q: How's the progress with Troy? Howie? Brendan? Jeff? Anyone new?
So we've been teaching Troy a lot (I have a hard time remembering what I wrote last, but I hope I explained that we met with Troy again and resolved his concerns and now he really wants to get baptized) leading up to his baptism this Saturday. It's kinda exciting to finally be having a baptism to plan for. Troy asked me to baptize him too, which was cool, but I think that some of the realizations that I came to when he asked me were cooler. I realized while I would love to baptize him, I would be totally happy to let my companion do it too. Or a member, as that would be someone he could turn to in the future. So while I said yes because he asked me, I realized I have grown a lot from the start of my mission, where I thought if we ever got someone close to baptism, I would really want to do it. I'm grateful I've been taught humility. I also felt the spirit teach me that Troy was someone that I had promised to find and bring the Gospel, which wasn't something I had really expected. I always thought that a promise like that would have reflected in an "instant bonding/ close friendship" but that really wasn't the case. I never felt a closeness to him as I introduced myself to him or as we had just started teaching him, but it grew as we continued, and then I was able to recognize it. It makes you think, how many more people have I promised to find, and I just haven't recognized it yet?
Speaking of finding a new person, while we were on exchanges with the Presque Isle Elders, we knocked into this guy named Ryan. While our initial meeting was a little interesting because he was super high, he expressed that he really wanted to be baptized, so we invited him to church. And he came! And since than, we've taught him, and he's quite sincere about getting baptized. He came to FHE yesterday, and we put him on date for March 30th.
Howie dropped us, he got into anti and didn't want to listen to us anymore. Jeff and Terri-lynn are pretty much in the same spot, they still need to get their marriage licence, but once that happens we're marrying them ASAP. If we have to, we'll just bring Bishop Hall to a lesson with them, and he can marry them and we'll witness it on the license. For Brendan, again, I don't remember what I last updated you on, but he responded to my message saying that he'd be interested in meeting the sisters now! I'm going to Skype into their lesson tonight, we're going to stop in Amherst on our drive down to Halifax for our exchange with the assistants tonight.
Transfers aren't till next week, although it's a pretty safe bet that I'm going to be staying, and getting a new comp. (So that will mean I email next week on Wednesday. ;) )
I'm making the Tomato Rice Bisque tonight! :) Again, we've had a pretty crazy week with everything going on, so I didn't have time to make it last week. Because of our exchange we decided on me making homemade spaghetti sauce instead, cause we have a lot of noodles and the elders wouldn't wreck our budget. But it's on the menu!
Love you all!
Elder Marsh
Q: Could you share some of your biggest challenges as you've been on your mission? I don't have to put them in the group email if you don't want, but I want to be able to discuss with Joey what things he might have ahead so that he can be prepared. ...I'd love to inoculate Joey as much as possible by helping him to anticipate challenges and be ready for them. Your letters are always so positive, I think he may have the mistaken impression that missions are easy. You don't have to focus on the negative, talk about what has helped you the most during hard times.
P.S. I personally don't care if you include the coming section in the weekly to everyone, I just divided it up to make it easier.
The things they never tell you about a mission:
Literally, every mission is different. And they all have their own challenging circumstances. Personally, that's why I think that people don't prepare you more for them. The missionaries in Chile have such a different mission than here that it's unreal. I'll try to share the things that I see that are pretty common challenges.
Learning to create your own happiness: If there is one thing I have learned, it's that I need to create my own happiness. We will always have external problems pressing us. There are people all around who rely on others for their happiness, and it never works. I've seen it enough that I've decided one of the requirements I need in a future companion is that they can be happy whatever happens. That's who I want to be.
Being mentally tough: There is one missionary in my stewardship who, transfer after transfer, has problems. It's because this missionary doesn't know how to face these problems. And they blow them up to involve lots of people, when this particular person just needs to toughen up. It's just a dramatic hissy-fit. Things are going to go wrong. People will drop you, you will spend days where you don't have any lessons with anyone, and knock all day, and don't find anyone willing to listen, and you can barely understand the language, and you're cold, and everyone around you is having success, and the members don't feed you, and THOUSANDS of reasons to feel down. But you CHOOSE to be happy and tough. There's a lot of disappointment. Prepare to be disappointed over and over again. Whether that's people not getting baptized or choosing not to listen to you, or members having stupid, silly arguments or not friendshipping new people...because of the mission you're in, your perspective will be shifted to whatever place you're in. I had a really good conversation with Bishop Hall, talking about how he was disappointed sometimes when they only baptized 1 or 2 people a month. What's normal for you will be taken for granted. Enjoy and look for the blessings you do have.
There are relationship problems: Some of your companions are going to be lifelong friends. Others are going to really frustrate you and take a lot out of you. People are needy and clingy and don't have the same mental toughness that you do, and then they break down, and lose it and don't want to listen to how they can solve problems. It's terribly frustrating. But you have to be patient and help them. Sometimes you get put with a companion to help them, to "mission medic." You're also going to see lots of things that annoy you with someone, like they track mud all over the floor, they don't flush the toilet, they don't do the dishes, they chew really loudly, they're really slow walkers, they take FOREVER to get ready, they use all the hot water, or even better they start the washer and the dishwasher while you're taking your shower. And sometimes you disagree with how to solve a problem or what you should be doing.
You've got to get over yourself too. You've got to do a lot of uncomfortable things. But they make you grow. A lot. This is true in another sense as well. One of the most challenging things I've had to deal with is understanding myself. You guys all see me as some perfected being, but I'm not even close. My mission has taught me so much about how I treat others and my faults.
One hard thing is how repetitive it can be. You can really (here he must have meant to come back to this thought but ran out of time...)
My biggest suggestion to help is that you go on your mission for these things too. As weird as that sounds, if you go to have a hard time, you will be going to be refined by God. Without the sacrifices we make we can't be who we need to be. Look forward to the challenges you face.
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