The Wizard Of Oz: One Day Late

Well everyone, I know what you're thinking:

"Today is Tuesday. Unless I am mistaken, Elder Oswald sends his weekly letters on Mondays. I know this because I have marked it on my calendar because it is my favorite part of the week."

Well I am deeply touched. And your calendars are correct, I do usually send my letters on Mondays. However, as you can probably tell, I am sending this letter not on a Monday. In fact it is indeed Tuesday. And to answer the question you probably just asked yourself now, the reason why is that it is Transfer week and yeah that's really all I know actually. I didn't actually know yesterday wasn't P-day until yesterday

So speaking of Transfer week, Transfer week, if you don't know, is the week in which some missionaries get transferred from one area in the mission to another area in the mission. And the time between each Transfer is called a Transfer Cycle, or a Transfer for short. In case you're interested, one Transfer Cycle is 6 weeks long usually. Except for this last one which was 5 weeks long.

So I am not going to be transferred, and neither is my companion Elder Bower. Neither are the Spanish speaking Elders with whom I share an apartment. And neither is anyone in my District even. So things are going to be pretty much the same this coming transfer cycle. With the only exception being that I am no longer in as much of a blurry haze of confusion and stress and that I sort of know what's going on a little bit more. So this next transfer will be great, because I already know people and am comfortable here.

In other news, I got to drive this week! That was very fun, since I haven't driven in a long time. And then I remembered that I'm not actually that fond of driving. It's also interesting though because we have this lovely little white box in our car that tracks our driving. And if we go over the speed limit it will yell at us in this horrible voice that pierces to our very souls, filling us with both fear and shame, as it tells us to "check your speed." So that part isn't as fun. But anyway, I'm not the assigned driver so I don't usually drive. Except for there were some times where we were on companionship exchanges and where Elder Bower forgot his wallet where I had to drive.

Also, here is my random fact for the week: I just learned that in at least one of my pairs of pants I can fit an entire Book of Mormon into my pocket.

Also, favorite joke I heard from an old man at church:

"I have a fear of giants. It's called Fee Fi Phobia."

So now I would like to tell you about this lady that Elder Bower and I are teaching. She goes by the name of Dee, except that isn't actually her real name. Anyway, she is so cool, and she is going to be baptized later this month!

So, how did we meet Dee? Great question. We met Dee because her neighbors invited her to Church. She came to Church for like 3 Sundays in a row and loved it, before we were even able to set up a time with her to meet with us. We eventually did set up a teaching visit with her though and that first visit was probably one of the coolest moments so far on my mission. I'll never forget it. I have never met someone before who is so ready to learn. Her whole life has been preparing her to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it has seriously just been amazing to watch her learn and just take in everything that we have to offer her. And here is the coolest part about it. She understands how to really learn. Because as missionaries all we do is invite and help and testify of what we know and what we have learned. The learning process has pretty much nothing to do with us other than us just telling people things. The thing is is, just telling people things really doesn't do much. People have to learn on their own. They have to find out for themselves. They have to study things out and ponder about things and truly have a desire to learn truth and then pray about those things and ask God whether or not they are true. That's how people learn. And that's what Dee understands. In fact every time we'd invite her to pray about something we've taught her she'd be like, yeah I've already been praying about that. She is just loving the Church and it has been just so amazing to see. And the reason why I share this story is because it shows how there are people in this world searching for truth. And it shows what our job as missionaries is. It's to help people learn. I love this story because Elder Bower and I did hardly anything. We didn't even find her ourselves, she was invited by her neighbors, which also shows how important members of the Church are to the work. We are just the instruments in the Lord's hands. And not a clarinet kind of instrument, I mean a stethoscope kind of instrument, like a tool for Him to use to help accomplish His work

But yeah, it has been very exciting to work with Dee.

Well my friends, it seems like it was only just this afternoon that I started writing this email, and yet we've come to it's close already.

I hope you all have a week that is, as an old friend once said, "good."

Talk to you next week!

~Elder Oswald

P.S.- I have some pictures.

The first picture is of the half eaten watermelon that was in our apartment for what I thought was way too long.

The second picture is of the half eaten watermelon a few days later even though I thought it couldn't get any worse the first time I took a picture.

P.S.S.- In case you are wondering we finally threw it out after I took the picture. Well the next morning after.