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| Elder Kilbourne keeping to the straight and narrow way!! |
Alright,
so this week has been pretty sweet!! So yes, I did end up playing piano
at zone conference. I spent like 3 hours practicing "abide with me tis
eventide" and "battle hymn of the republic." I got abide with me down,
but DANG battle hymn is hard, so I didn't play that one at zone
conference. It is nice to play the piano! Even if it's one of those
electric ones like they have at the stake center. In any case it was
nice :) I thought you would like that picture!! It's funny!! I would
send home pictures, but I'm not sure yet if i'm allowed to use the wi-fi
capabilities on my camera. The missionary handbook discourages use of
wi-fi devices, and while I could easily justify it I figure I'll ask the
president first, and if I can't I'll just send home the micro SD card
and you can get them that way :) I forgot to ask him at zone conference,
so I'll be sure to ask in the letter to the president this week.
Ok, so this week I'll have more time to write, and I won't be so rushed.
The main reason I asked for letters is so that I can know what you want
to know, and I can keep it in mind throughout the week, rather than
having to come up with it on the spot. So, yes i'll appreciate the
letters :) I got your package this week!! It was like thursday, the 11th
(two weeks late for a welcome package haha) but it was still nice to
receive!! I have like 3 pills left of my Lialda, so hopefully I get that
package this week :/
Oh! Funny story. They DO pick on the new missionaries. True to form, I
was called wednesday night to give a talk on sunday about who I am and
my experience with conference. Not just that, they wanted me to be the
closing speaker. Ouch. So I prepared and what not. The sacrament
(portion of the meeting) was super fast, it ended at like 9:15. The
first speaker was sister ward, and she gave about a 15 minute talk, then
we had a rest hymn. So basically, it was up to me to fill the time
between 9:35 and 10:10. Yeah.... I gave a 25 minute talk and they closed
early, but still. I was pretty impressed with myself. The branch is
tiny!! I counted the members, and we had 63 people present at sacrament
meeting, which is actually pretty good haha but they're all great!! I've
been able to meet with most of them, and they're all great. I've had
some neat experiences!! I've never really noticed until now how
different the spirit in peoples' homes are. It's a very stark contrast
to go teach a less active member who hasn't been to this branch, and
then go meet with the Branch President immediately after. There's a
different feeling, it's SO much more comfortable there, and you can just
be happy. I dunno, I liked it haha. But it made me think a lot about
our home and how amazing it is to be there!! We were actually talking
about it with a family Saturday night that we ate with, the Kapu's, and
Elder Adams talked about one of his friends who was always at his house,
and when Elder Adams asked why, the friend said because his house feels
different. It made me think of all my friends who were always over, and
now I know why :) and also why I always loved staying home. It felt
comfortable, it felt happy, it was a very open environment, and people
could notice it immediately. So thank you family for having such a
wonderful home!! Brother Kapu is hilarious though. They're Hawaiian, and
apparently he was less active up until about a year ago.
I Really do love the members here though. The entire area in fact is
just amazing!! It's different, but I love it!! Heres some info about the
wild life here. There are bugs everywhere. Really. Like, just outside
there used to be a hornets nest. We took some promethrin to the nest
though, and watched the bees writhe in pain. It was great. :) There are
red ant hills EVERYWHERE. those things hurt too, their bites sting. I've
seen 3 cockroaches, 1 of which we killed in our apartment. No bed bugs
yet. Mosquitos are nasty. They're rampant, but with winter coming I'm
sure they'll die down. Every night little gecko frog things climb up the
walls around the street lights and eat the bugs!! It's really cool haha
I keep telling Elder Adams I want to send a frog home, but I just don't
think he'd live through the traumatic experience :/ Let parker know I'm
trying to get him something cool for his birthday though... Haha. We
also have lizards!! They're cool, I've seen probably 5 of them.
Supposedly there are alligators here, but I have yet to see one. We're
going to sister mustards house this week though, so i'm keeping my
fingers crossed!!!
As I said before, this is an all car mission, but it's really hard. As
of today, we've used up 450 something miles, so we're a little bit over
budget, but we're going to try to bike more to keep that down. I love
biking!!! It's seriously the best. It feels good, and you have a better
opportunity of talking to people. Saturday night we were just biking
around Southport, and we found like 2 potential investigators. One of
whom we're meeting with tonight, and we think he's pretty elect. He had a
best friend when he was in high school who was mormon and went to byu.
He said he spent a lot of time with him, and that he loved the family
environment. So, that's pretty neat!! We ended up dropping C's
baptismal date because we couldn't get up to her. A is still
awesome as ever. We're working little by little, but we're diligent and
we're already seeing the effects!! We'll just have to keep it up, and
i'm sure we'll reap the rewards!! I can feel and just tell that there's a
lot of work to be done here, great and marvelous work, and it just gets
me excited!! I want to be the missionary that turns this small
baptist/catholic area around!!
You asked about my mission president. He's an awesome guy!! According to
the other Elders, he has a lot more rules than the previous mission
president, but he isn't as strict about them, and more loving about
enforcing them. So, in that sense, he will likely be lenient on the
camera thing, but I'm not entirely sure. Elder Adams is his favorite,
even if he won't admit it. I'm pretty sure Elder Adams is going to be a
general authority. So save this email in the case that I'm right,
because that makes me a prophet too :D Elder Adams is awesome. He really
is. He's diligent, he's obedient, and very spiritual. We work really
well as a companionship. He says I'm an answer to his prayers, and that I
came pre-trained. Hopefully I can live up to that!! I really just want
to work out here, and do good. But we get along really well, we're both
pretty easy to live with, and there haven't been any issues as of now.
:)
12 week program isn't really anything big. It's just suggestions for
companionship study, like read 3 pages of the missionary handbook, and
study the lessons in chapter 3 of preach my gospel. Nothing major. I
completely agree with the increase of missionaries! I'm sure it'll
happen. ESPECIALLY sisters. BUT the quality of missionaries will go down
I think. Sisters have a reputation of being amazing, and I think that
is due in part to their 2 years of extended experience and heightened
maturity. With the age going down to 19, I don't think they'll be AS
effective as the current sister missionaries, but I'm sure they'll be a
great addition!! I'm all for the 18 years for guys, but I really do
value the year I had at BYU. I would encourage others to have a similar
experience, there's no problem with waiting a year before you go out. I
think it's better to be prepared to leave, than to be time-savvy and
leave before you're ready. But, that's just me. I'm sure we'll be
getting some excellent missionaries, and I think Jackson would be a
prime missionary!! Seriously, that kid is the STUFF!!
I don't want to be THAT missionary, but if anyone wants a spiritually
uplifting message I would encourage you to read Moroni 7 :) It's an
awesome chapter. I read it this week, thought it was pretty amazing.
It's uplifting and encouraging, but at the same time it's real. You have
to keep in mind all the trials Moroni was going through at that time.
Pretty sad, but he endured well and never lost his faith. Emulate his
Example :)
Well I need to go write the mission president, if I feel like I missed
any thing I'll just throw it in my letter later today, or I'll write
next week. Can't wait to get your letters!! Love you all!! HURRAH FOR
ISRAEL!!
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