I Miss the “Mis-mis”

Well, it was a rough week. The first two days i missed Elder Kiser a lot. I felt like my best friend had just died or something. I really struggled to keep us busy. It was tough. I realized that for the first time on my mission I was completely in charge, and not for just one day siked but the next 6 weeks minimum. I was really worried that Elder Moyers would think I was just a big slacker missionary. Then to top everything off not only do we have very little to do but I was going off of memory for directions and since I was in the hot seat and my old comp with a map for a brain was gone I myself out and sent us on some big unnecessary detours a few times. We were late a few times too and on splits only one member showed up and he didn't have anyone he wanted to look up or any home teaching to do so I had to improvise. It all turned out ok... and I am comfortable now as far as not being so stressed or feeling so pressured. Our numbers were the lowest I've had in a long while. :S

I thought it was interesting that Todd in his mission just had the same thing happen to him as what happened to me. That is our companion left to go to the office and we both got a greenie in his place. Man... I never understood what the old missionaries were talking about when I was younger in the mission. I felt like I wasn't any different than anyone else, and I really defended greenies when old missionaries would talk about their frustrations. I understand now. Not only is Moyers super green but he spent the last part of his mission in the Korean program. In the Korean program they are kind of Isolated from the rest of the mission. They kind of have their own culture and everything. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with elder Moyers. He is really easy to get along with and he and I seem to teach pretty well together. He has a really funny innocent grin he puts on ha-ha. It’s really funny. Also I'll get lost in thoughts sometimes and he thinks I’m ignoring him or am angry or something and tries breaking the science but doesn't know how. Ha-ha. Sometimes it’s really funny to just watch him when its obvious that there is something he wants to tell me or ask me but instead he just walks around or attempts to talk multiple times but then doesn't say anything. :) Ha-ha. I kind of feel bad for him. Ha-ha. He asks me the silliest questions sometimes like about how to do something or if he can do something that no one cares about (probably because he doesn't want to offend anyone by his actions... but he forgets he is in a pad with Mitchell, Ledbetter, Judd, me, and Paulson. There are probably few other pads that are so laid back). He often won’t do something until I do it or give him permission to do it with the exception of the car heater.... ha-ha. He’ll adjust the temperature really fast and make some little noise that sounds like a mix of awkward and uncomfortable then check up with me to see if I'll say anything.

Anyway, ha-ha-- hopefully he'll learn to relax, I think he is in this pad to learn that he can really do a lot of good and still be obedient and he doesn't have to focus on each rule but on the objective and his purpose as a missionary.

He is sitting right next to me and he keeps looking at my screen to see what I am doing as if he is nervous that i am going to go on to a porn sight or something. Well, moving on.

We had an amazing Zone Conference on Friday. I really felt the spirit. And Thursday we came up with some really good plans for this week. I hope we can be more successful this week.

I'm really sad about our recent converts. Particularly Wayne cause he is being a punk lately about coming to church. Grace really wants to come to church and told me in a text last night that she is "proud to be Mormon" but her boss won’t let her have the schedule she was having last month with work. I wish I could give her a bunch of money or find her a new job so she could get to church on Sunday. Harold was coming but he didn't come yesterday. I was thinking maybe he was going to start becoming less frail in terms of his activity since he had a long interview with bishop and was sustained to receive the priesthood. Last time I called him he was all weird on the phone and I think he misunderstood what I was trying to say. i just wanted to check up on him and see if he was going to come to the new member classes but I think he thought I was harping him. I felt bad cause I really, really like Harold and I want to be his friend and keep in contact with him after the mission... but i think he liked elder Kiser better cause Kiser knew more about movies and stuff, anyway....

Fortunately Eugene is strong as ever. He always makes it to church even with his busy schedule. I love I; he is so cool.

Well besides having a nice meeting with President Croft, this week was mostly introducing Moyers to the English program and this area, Zone conference and a disappointing day at church. No one came. Judy came... but no one else, none of our potentials and none of our other investigators. I was really looking forward to seeing Cornell again and hopefully setting up an appointment with him but..... he didn't come and when I called him he told me basically he wanted to do the whole reading the book of Mormon thing and learning about the Gospel on his own. I was so surprised. I've never met someone who was so interested and loved a testimony meeting and believed the Joseph Smith story but didn't want to meet with us to learn more and faster. I guess he's just a really independent person. :S Well I’ve got to go now.
Love,
--
-Elder Samuel Austin Morris

Happy Halloween

All right, so, this past week we had a lot of opportunity to do service. It was nice because we were able to gain more trust from the members and ward auxiliary leaders. We had a few switch ups that were different but not all bad. The one bad one was that our ward mission leader is out of town because of a family emergency concerning a grandchild. We pray for him. The rest however were good because we were able to work more closely with the leaders. We met with the Elder’s quorum president and he fed us amazing steaks and broccoli with cheese and apple cider. Then he showed us pictures and videos from his trip to Jerusalem and Israel and Egypt, way cool! ha-ha. Looked like lots of fun. He told us Petra is way cooler than the pyramids, (but both are cool). Then we talked about people in the ward and investigators and service projects and less actives. Basically we have a list of things to do that will be great things to do. Plus we are working better with the elders. Also we will be meeting with him every Saturday from now on and he will be feeding us! Score, his food was delicious and I was totally satisfecho. I hate feeling totally stuffed and uncomfortable and embarrassed that I can't finish the food, and offending people that I didn't eat enough. I'm a small guy! I'm done with that game!

We also tracted this week and were able to find some good service opportunities as well as potential investigators. We talked to one man (the last house we knocked on) for a half an hour. His name was rick and he is a long time practicing Catholic. We gave him a book of Mormon at the climax of our surprisingly intellectual and spiritual discussion, at which point he expressed a sincerity to actually read and pray about it. He told us that history is written by the victors and there are billions of Catholics so he wouldn't be surprised if there are other things out there.

I had a burger Saturday at Frank n' Burger! ha-ha. It's a Halloween themed burger place open all year round! What a gamble right!? Well he has been open a whole year now and has amazing customer service for New York, not to mention his burger was really good! It was Huge, i couldn't finish it. The bun was amazing! Big all encompassing bun! Hardly any drip-age or slippage of the innards of my burger. It all looked good (all the choices) but there was one (that I'm sure was tasty) that I just couldn't go for-- A zombie dog--it was a deep fried wiener with honey and whipped cream on it. All I could imagine when I saw it was eating some part of a zombie...... well you don't want to hear about that do you.

Halloween was an odd Sunday. We helped a man named Bob Lugo out. He is taking care of his dad while his mom is in the hospital and he himself really should be taken care of. His wife is out of town and he has an amputated foot from diabetes. He is a wonderful guy with a strong testimony. Well it’s tough for him to stand up and sit down repeatedly and walk around. Since its Halloween and not Utah there were trick-or-teat-ers. So we handed out candy, answered the phone, and attended to Grandpa Lugo while Bob took a break and did some things he needed to do. I was quite surprised how many kids didn't even dress up! Most did, but a surprising amount did not. The More surprising thing was that the kids had to be coaxed to say "trick or treat!" Can you believe that! We had to ask "What’s the magic words?" or something to that effect nearly every time! Ha-ha. Well we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon and night inside (mission rule not be out after 5 on Halloween). I felt bad we could stay and help bob out longer and so did he. But he was thankful for the time we were able to give him.

Love you peeps, chow.