Meringue Land

So all the world was a pie this week. Like some of you may know it snowed a lot a little while back. Well for NY it was pretty powdery snow! We got a little bit more this week and then it rained really cold rain! So wherever there was snow there was a glossy-stiff-half-an-inch-thick layer of Ice. Well, it made everything look like someone made white cake batter and poured it everywhere! The way it was shaped was all rounded because it was warm enough just before the rain to start to melt the snow and then cold enough that the rain froze on the snow. It oozed everywhere and looked so interesting and amazing to me! Ha-ha. Well, That's way I say the world was a pie, cause the snow looked so much like Meringue (without the browning) except where the snow was dirty or on the side of the roads, in those cases however it was not browned it was.... dingied (dingy + past tense).

I keep forgetting if I had forgotten this or not... but here it is, I wanted to say thank you to Mike and Risa because they sent me an awesome package! I loved it! It had no return address so I couldn't send a letter back to them. So thanks you two! It was really great! My favorite part is what you did for Elder Jeong. That was the best thing you could have said and it got to him just in time, right before he left back to Korea! How did you know how to say that in Korean? How did you type it up like that? So cool. You two rock! So thoughtful and nice! :) thanks!

We have been working hard, looking up lots of people! So far we are still kinda... well, we are doing what needs to be done. We've really helped organize the area better I believe and we are learning a lot about the members here. Eventually some good things should happen! :)

Tito still has his baptismal date, but he didn't make it to Church yesterday, I'm not sure why. As far as I know he is still drinking about 6 cups of coffee a day. We don't really know how to help him cause he lives in a place with a bunch of other people so we can’t really have him throw it out. Plus he has a Dunkn Doughnuts really close to his house. He understands the word of wisdom and knows he'll be blessed for it, and has experience blessings when he has tried it... but I think he just doesn't see any immediate consequences so it doesn't seem like an urgent thing. Anyway, he is great!

We confronted Khan. We went to his work. He was surprised. You should have seen his face. But it changed to a smile cause I smiled at him and nodded my head. I shouldn't have done it, it was my instinct though... anyway, he has 20 min left of his shift but he tried to escape and wouldn't answer our questions directly, he offered a drink but we declined. We set up a way for him to say sorry and all he could say was about 5 different lies that all clearly conflicted one another.

Well he went into the back and on his way he said to give him a call (after he told us he lost his phone). Well we gave him a call later and he refused to talk to Elder Mitchell and insisted that he talk to his "buddy" elder Morris. If you know me, you know that really frustrated me.
1. because he was being rude to my companion (which always feels worse to me than when I am getting the blows)
2. because I’s not cause he likes me more it’s because he knows he can smooth talk me easier than he can Elder Mitchell >:( and
3. because the word buddy has just always seemed so derogatory to me. Any way,

Khan called later (to our surprise) and so Mitchell had me answer it. Khan said he was sick. I asked if he was ever even really interested and he didn't know what that meant, he told me to stop talking in code to him. He sounded drunk or high so I asked if he was feeling all right and he told me he had the flu.... well eventually he tied to get us to meet him at another restaurant... I told him we already tired that one with him. I said if we could pick the place and it was in the city of our choosing or at a member’s house or at the church, we would meet with him. He said no. If it had to be only in certain cities "then forget about it!"... well we weren't about to break any rules for this guy or fall for the same crap again so we said all right then forget about it. He ended the conversation with a "I'm gonna reimburse you. I don't know how and I don't know when, but I'll reimburse you." He called again while we were at Church but didn't know cause our phone was on silent. We are so confused about him. We don't get why he would call. There is so much we don't understand about him. I don't understand why I feel so bad for him. Well if he decides he wants to meet us again under the proper circumstances we will. But we will not go the 90% for him. He has to do that now. Anyway, weird... but I pray he gets things figured out. Elder Mitchell thinks he might be scared of us.

The best part of the week was a fabulous mission conference on Saturday! It was great. One of those meetings that inspire you and make you feel like you need to repent without making you feel like a bad person. It was a Seventy named Elder Pearson. It was really uplifting and many of my questions were answered about life and missions and missionary work. The rest of my questions are important. I know the answers to some of the questions I had won’t change anything because it doesn't affect me... wow that was ambiguous! lol. Anyway, I guess I just realized what’s really important and that there is no use worrying about things you have no control over or that are in the past. It’s funny how sometime you learn a lesson that has always been a part of how you have done things. For example one of the points he taught was that we choose our attitudes and emotions and our reactions to other people’s actions and to our circumstances. I used to go around telling everyone to stop stressing out and to choose to be happy! What happened? I ask myself! Ha-ha. I guess New York rubbed off on me for bit there. But now I'm telling myself to smile and be happy and know that I can't worry about stuff. Worrying never helped anyone. Also I learned that Identity essentially controls our reality. Also I learned that Obedience blesses us with faith which causes us to repent and make covenants which gives us spiritual power. What good is any amount of authority if it’s not backed up with some real power! Anyway, it’s one of those things that you really just had to be there. The impressions I had could not be written down because I had no real way to articulate them.

Well I love you all! Remember that You are all children of God and each have an individual divine purpose. Let’s all try to define ourselves as disciples and rid ourselves of all the unwanted traits we have that are holding us back from our potential and our capacity!
Love,
--
-Elder Samuel Austin Morris