Happy Canada Day!

Well everyone, I learned from my Canadian companion Elder Salter that today is in fact Canada Day, the celebration of Canada becoming it's own country.  

So before you bust out the red, white, and blue hats and the fireworks, take a moment to sit down, relax, have a nice cup of maple syrup, and enjoy your Canada Day, or as I like to call it, "the 1st of July."

I could use many words to describe this past week. I'll name a few of them:

Hot.

Miraculous.

Exhausting.

Hot.

Exciting.

Long.

Busy.

Hot.

Bike.

But above all, the word that can describe it best is this one: Fantastic. 

All week was just super busy and awesome. But to conserve time I'll only share the most important details. 

So Tuesday, we were invited to lunch by an old couple in the Ward. They live in a retirement community, and it is seriously the coolest retirement community ever. I'm honestly considering retiring there some day. First of all, lunch in their "cafeteria" was actually like a 5 star restaurant. We ate so much food. But after lunch they showed us around and that place is so nice! There's billiards and card tables at every corner, there's a theater that plays old classy movies, there's a library, there's a barber shop, there's everything you can ever need, and there's also a lot of really nice old people who really appreciated that Elder Salter and I were wearing dress shirts and ties. So that was great.

One of the other days this week we biked up to the gas station at which Omar works as the chef in the  restaurant. He made us Philly cheese steaks and didn't charge us which was really cool.

On Friday we met with Reza again! He was the one who requested the Persian Book of Mormon. So Friday we stopped by to deliver it since he was busy earlier in the week, and he let us in and we talked some more. He is so excited to read the Book of Mormon, and he said that he's going to read the whole thing within a week. We made sure he knew he didn't have to feel rushed, but he said that he loves reading and doesn't have anything else to do. So that's cool! He's had some amazing personal experiences as well so that has been cool to discuss with him. 

So Saturday, it was a special day indeed. Such a good day. And every day is a good day, but Saturday was just extra good. Elder Salter and I just got super hyped up and we went out first thing Saturday morning to go spread the Gospel. We began by trying to visit a couple members of the congregation but they didn't answer. So we then went across the street to the apartment complex that we had previously decided to knock doors in. We get there and Elder Salter goes "Let's do building E" So we did building E. On the first floor, no one answered their door. On the second floor, one person answered the door except the lady was super weird and not interested and it was kind of awkward. Then the third floor. No one answered their doors, until we came to the very last door. And a woman answered. And she said it wasn't a good time because they just came back from an early flight from, guess where, Michigan. So, instant connection right there. And she said she would like us to come back another time to talk. So that was super cool! It just shows how even when we think our small efforts aren't doing anything, like knocking on a bunch of doors with no one answering, sometimes that's what it takes, because it shows the Lord we're trying and we're ready and willing to be led to those who He is trying to lead us to, so that we can be an instrument in His hand. 

But the miracles didn't stop there, after leaving that complex, we decided to go try and find a man who is named either Kelvin or Eugene. Some other missionaries told us he called them saying he wants to meet, so they gave us his address and phone number. And we've been trying to contact him but he doesn't answer his phone and his address doesn't exist. It's pretty strange, the house numbers just skip the number we have for him. So we decided to just knock the houses on the street and see if they know a Kelvin or Eugene who lives on the street. And we started going down the street, and it was so hot. Unlike the shaded complex, we were right out in the sun and it was like 113°. And there was a moment where we were like, no way we're knocking all these doors in this heat, but we quickly reminded ourselves of how it isn't about us and we got ourselves hyped up again. And the first couple doors didn't answer. Then we saw a lady outside and we talked to her. She was not interested but she was very nice. Then we knocked a couple more houses and no one answered. But then the next house, we knocked on the door and a woman answered. She was on the phone with someone but she still talked to us and she took our information and said she wanted us to come back. Her name is Delma, she's old, as you can tell from her name being Delma, and she is just super nice. It's super awesome!

And riding back afterwards I was just overwhelmed with gratitude for being made an instrument in the Lord's hand. We don't knock doors all that super often, and of all the many doors we could knock, we don't know who lives where and what people are ready to listen to our message. And so we just have to do our best, and the Lord put us in people's paths or put people in our paths. A perfect example of this is Kelvin/Eugene' s nonexistent address. I'm honestly starting to think he's not even a real person. But we had that address, we couldn't find it, and it was on the most random, tiny little street that I would have never in a million years thought to knock the doors of. And we did. And we found Delma. It is just so amazing. I am just so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to be placed in situations where the Lord can use me to help and serve others. It is amazing.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. That we are all a part of our Heavenly Fathers plan for us. I know that Jesus Christ's Gospel has been restored. I know that the Book of Mormon contains God's word and that is on the earth for our blessing and benefit. 

I love you all, and I hope that your week to come is everything that you hope it to be and more. 

Til we email again.

~Elder Oswald

P.S. - Attached is a picture of me and Elder Salter celebrating Canada Day

Splitting the Ward...and My Pants

There are many things that are great. For instance, the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Lakes, the Great White Shark, and Great Value brand stuff at Walmart to only name a few. And much like all of these things, this past week was very great.

The week began with Zone Conference on Tuesday. Last Zone Conference supposedly was President and Sister Robinson's last Zone Conference, however, the one we just had on Tuesday actually was his last one. The previous one was where we were broken into smaller groups and were able to talk more one on one with President and Sister Robinson. And this one on Tuesday was a big conference of all the missionaries in the Valley. It was really cool. It's also really sad to see President and Sister Robinson leave next week. 

Then the rest of the week was pretty much normal after that. 

Thursday was particularly crazy busy and awesome. We just had a lot of people we were able to visit, and the people we tried to contact actually were home and we were able to talk to them! 

Things have been going well with the Ward being split with the Sisters as well. We're figuring out how to coordinate and balance things better. So that's good. 

This is just a good ward. There are such great people here. 

Also, as the title of this email implies, I split a pair of pants. Luckily it was while in the apartment and not while in public. But yeah so after this, the cactus incident, and another incident involving bleach, I am now down to only 3 pairs of slacks.

Also, Elder Salter is great. As I mentioned last email, he is from Canada. He says "eh" every once and a while so that's really awesome.  He's also just a great missionary and we have been working super well together. It's been a fun couple of weeks. 

Oh yeah so we are pretty much foreign language missionaries also. In one of our visits, it was with a guy named Reza, and he speaks English well, but his first language is Persian, and he was like "I really want to read the Book of Mormon, but I prefer to read in Persian because it's easier. I know you probably don't have anything for that though." And we were like actually we do, give us a week. And so we obtained a Persian Book of Mormon today, and we'll be able to give him that which is cool. 

Then with Omar, his first language is Spanish, and our first visit with him he expressed that he struggled to read in English, and I just so happened to have a copy of El Libro de Mormon in my bag that I could give him. And since then, in almost every visit with him when we read from the Book of Mormon, we read in Spanish. So that has been really cool. 

Speaking of Reza though, sorry I'm all over the place today, when we we visited with him, after the prayer was said to close the lesson, he says, "Wow, I feel really good, I'm not superstitious or anything, I just feel like I was hit with something, I feel very good." It was pretty amazing. 

I know that God knows us and hears our prayers. And I know that we can feel His Spirit testifying to us of Him and of our Savior. I know They live. The wonderful feelings we have when we come to Church and read the scriptures and pray, are powerful feelings that come from God. He blesses us with those experiences that strengthen our testimonies and help us learn for ourselves the love that He and His Son have for us. In our last visit with Omar, he was talking about how good he feels when he reads the Book of Mormon and when he prays and when he hears the speakers at Church. And in his awesome accent he said, referring to the Gospel, "I see it, I feel it, I love it. And I'm not gonna give up." There is so much wisdom there because we can have the spiritual experiences and the testimony strengthening things, but if we give up and don't do anything with what we've been given, then it will "be taken away even that which [we] hath." We have to keep doing the little things in our lives to continually deepen our conversion to Jesus Christ. And when we do that, when we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ," then no matter what, everything will be okay, and we will see so many blessings in our lives.

Have a great week! Til I write again,

~Elder Oswald

Nightmare on Elm Drive

Well, judging by the emails in my inbox and the food in our refrigerator, it's P-day once again.

This week was a good one. My new companion, Elder Salter, is great. He's from Canada. So that's really cool. It's been a fun couple of days with him. It's gonna be a good 6 weeks. 

In other news, my glasses broke the other day. We were playing indoor soccer during exercise time, and I scored several goals but that's unrelated. At one point though another Elder was trying to get the ball from me and I guess his shoulder went into my face and it broke my glasses. It's inspired me to write a poem though. So I hope you enjoy. I've titled it "My Glasses."

Oh how much I loved my glasses

Though they broke playing soccer, I still made some great passes

Not tape, not glue, not even molasses 

Could fix my poor little pair of glasses

It's still a work in progress. Obviously it's not ready to publish yet, but it'll get there. 

Anyway, it's been interesting adjusting to now only covering half the Ward and to sharing the Ward with Sister missionaries. 

We also did a ton of service this week as well, which was a lot of fun. We helped an organization that provides food for those in need, provide food for those in need. We also raked up some weeds another day. And another day we helped some people get rid of some junk. That pretty much consisted of going through junk, and finding out which junk the lady wanted to keep and which junk she actually wanted to recognize as junk and throw away. This is actually the third time we've helped her with this. There is just so much stuff in that yard it's unbelievable. It was a nightmare you might say. She also lives on Elm Drive. Hence the title of this email. 

We've also been trying really hard to stop and talk with everyone we can. We've also been trying to contact a lot of people we have in our records. 

We had many teaching visits scheduled this week, and we had many teaching visits cancel this week as well. So that's always too bad.

The highlight though was definitely when we taught Omar on Friday. After making and eating fry bread, we had a really great conversation/lesson with him. We talked about his baptism and he's still committed and really looking forward to it. He also really loves the idea of working towards baptism alongside his daughter Lousiabella, who's also being baptized the same day. It's just super awesome. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is just so wonderful. I've seen many times on my mission and many times in my own life how following the Savior and His teachings, brings joy and peace into our lives. It's the joy and peace that we have made possible because of Him. We just need to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those blessings will flood into our lives. We don't need to be perfect, we aren't going to be perfect, living the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't require perfection. Because if we understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ we understand that central to it is the Savior and His Atonement, which makes possible forgiveness. That if we constantly do our very best, despite our shortcomings, if we humbly seek the Savior we can have the strength to change and do better. That's what repentance is. It's a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's something we do every single day as we try to do better and be better a little bit at a time. 

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love my Savior. I know He loves me and He loves each one of us.  

Well, we have come again to the end of yet another email, and the beginning of yet another week. Let us make it a good one. 

Til next week,

~Elder Oswald

P.S. Pictures

1. An artsy photo of a hummingbird 

2. Elder Salter looking cool next to an old VW bug

3. Me trying really hard to look cool next to an old VW bug

4. The frog/toad that peed on me

5. I was going to attach one of us on our bikes except upon further examination I realized that I look disappointingly like a 7 year old learning how to ride a two-weel bike for the first time, so I'll hold off on that one. 

Miracles on 74th St. (and the Surrounding Area)

WHAT A WEEK!!!

Sorry I just had to get that out. There are so many things, and the only possible way I can think to organize this email is to do a "Top Ten Highlight Reel of the Week." So enjoy.

⚡🏆Top Ten Highlight Reel of the Week🏆⚡

1) Exchanges on Tuesday

As I explained last week, as a District Leader, I go on exchanges with Elders in my District and the Zone Leaders go on exchanges with District leaders in their Zone. So on Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Lott, one of my Zone Leaders. We had such a great day. And I learned a new thing that I am beginning to use. It happened when knocking on someone's door and she was very polite and she said she was Christian but not interested in hearing our message, but Elder Lott just goes, "well would it be alright if we read a quick scripture with you before we go?" And he shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and we had a nice conversation about God and Jesus where we could share our beliefs with each other and it was just really a positive and uplifting conversation. It was really cool. 

2) Latoya Jones!!!

So Wednesday was another fantastic day! I went on exchanges with Elder Larsen that day. So we did back to back exchanges those days which was super crazy busy. But it was so good. Elder Larsen is super funny, we had such a fun day. Interestingly enough Elder Larsen had a personal goal of using the Book of Mormon more when teaching, and I had recently been thinking a lot about that as well so we made it a goal for the day to use the Book of Mormon every time we had a teaching opportunity. So to kick off the day, we were biking to an appointment but we had some time, and we saw a lady sitting at a bus stop with her head down. I thought she might be asleep so I didnt want to wake her up, but as we began to pass her, her head shot up and I slammed on my brakes. So we talked to her, and she was super nice and is very Christian and she had a lot of interest in talking to us. And her name is Latoya Jones. I just really like that name. And then remembering our goal I asked if we could share a scripture with her, and she said she would love that, and we asked what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said she didn't know much but that she believes it's good because she knows it's about God and Jesus Christ. And all of a sudden I realized I didn't know what to share with her, but then right before I went to open the Book of Mormon the scripture Helaman 5:12 popped into my head, which says, 

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

So I read that and shared my thoughts and feelings about it, and Latoya just started crying and said that recently she had been through a lot of trials like losing her home and some other very difficult things, but she said that she started praying more again and reading the Bible more, and that her faith has helped her through those trials and so she knows how true the scripture is. And she said that she felt like that scripture was meant for her. It was really powerful. And it was another thing that added to my testimony and my knowledge that the Book of Mormon is God's word, and that it's a gift from God to bless our lives and help us come closer to Him and to Jesus Christ. 

3) Another Miracle

So flash back to a few weeks ago, the day that the whole cactus incident happened. I mentioned that we successfully contacted a family we had been trying to contact for a while. Well after that happened, they became hard to contact again. She's very bad at answering texts, and we just couldn't find her home. Well this particular family was originally being taught by Elder Larsen a couple of months ago, but they moved into our area. And so Elder Larsen really wanted to be able to teach them again. So had planned to go by and we were hoping to find them home so that we could maybe actually teach them something, which is something Elder Bess and I hadn't been able to do. So we prepared some stuff we wanted to share, we were so hopeful they'd be home. And we were just praying that we'd actually catch them at a good time. And there was a part of me that was worried because based on the recent past, it almost didn't seem possible, which was a doubtful and negative way to think about it, and so I tried to silence those thoughts by continuing to pray that we could teach them. And so we went over to their home, knocked on the door, and the mom answered the door and immediately invited us in because her whole family was home and it was a good time. It was so amazing! God really does answer our prayers. Sometimes it isn't always the way we think or want, because God has a plan, but sometimes our prayers are answered the way we hope. Again, not from anything of our doing, but because God knows what's best and sometimes He blesses us with miracles. Miracles do happen. And in this particular case, it was a miracle and a blessing that we were able to teach that family, and specifically for Elder Larsen that he could teach that family again. 

4) Lessons on lessons on lessons

So on Thursday alone we had a ton of teaching visits or "lessons" if you want to use the slang termuntil. I was back with Elder Bess again, it was weird not being with him for two days. But it was just awesome teaching so much. We were so busy. It was wonderful. Our teaching skills improved a lot just in one day just because we got to keep doing it over and over and evaluating over and over to find ways to improve. It was a lot of fun. I love teaching about Jesus Christ and His Gospel and I love the scriptures. They're so good. 

5) Omar!

I told a little bit about Omar and his family last week. He is just doing great though. We met with him on Monday night and also on Saturday night. Also, his family is out of town and he came to Church yesterday BY HIMSELF and he was ON TIME. He's really awesome.

6) I turned 19 and a half

That one's not actually that important, I'm just running out of things to go on the top ten list.

7) TRANSFERS!!!!!!

So this is where things got crazy. Much to our surprise, we learned that one of us would be leaving and going to Mesa. Of course to make things unnecessarily suspenseful they wouldn't tell us who until the next day. It was just sad though because things were just going so well, and Elder Bess and I were just loving life, and then Transfers had to come along to bum us out. We're thinking positively now though. As we realized, it is just prideful and selfish to think it's unfair that one of us had to leave because transfers always ends up being for the best. We did find out the final news though. Elder Bess is leaving me and Elder Salter will be joining me as my new companion. I am no longer the District Leader either, that will be Elder Salter. He seems cool. He's been out for about 4 and a half months, so less than me. And that's all I know about him. It'll be good though.

In other transfer news though, we learned that we will be sharing the Ward with Sister missionaries again. And that's all I'll say about that because I just said some profound things about not being selfish and prideful and I don't want to contradict myself. 

8) Elder Larsen and I found a lizard while doing service and so I've attached a picture

Yep.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the

⚡🏆Top Eight Highlight Reel of the Week🏆⚡

Tune in next time for more exciting updates!

Have a great week!

~Elder Oswald

P.S. Pictures:

       1. The promised picture of Elder Larsen and I and a Lizard.

       2. Turns out that's the only picture I have from the week

Happiness Can Last Forever, But Bread Apparently Can't

Well, once again we find ourselves on a Monday. Whoever you are, whether you are a family member, a friend, and I guess that's it just family members and friends, but whichever of the two categories you fall under, it doesn't matter, because you all have something in common: you're about to read the most recent update in the life of Elder Oswald. And so from the screen of my electronic device to yours, here is yet another email. Enjoy.

T'was a good week we had. Full of teaching people, and talking to people, and burritos, and a digestive system that reacted poorly to the burritos and other such adventures. 

Also, the other day I got out my bread to make a sandwich to find that my bread was exceedingly moldy. I've attached a picture for your enjoyment. 

So I'm short on time today, but I did want to share a recent experience. So one night we had an hour left in the night. We were trying to decide whether to try and find a couple new people we could start teaching by contacting a family who seemed to really be interested or to try contacting a member who we've been trying for weeks to find home and who hasn't been to Church in a long time, whose name is Rolland. We had first decided to just try visiting the member since it'd been so long since we've visited with him, and we sort of doubted he'd be home anyway since he hasn't been home all of the other times we've tried. Which was wrong of us to do. But we soon changed our minds however and decided to try the family first, thinking that the worst that happens is that the family doesn't answer and then we could go try Rolland. So that was the new plan, but then sort of to my surprise Elder Bess asked which we should do first. I was just feeling super indecisive, because we'd been back and forth about it already and in my mind I was sort of thinking it didn't matter because if the one didn't answer then we could just try the other person, and if one did answer then we'd just visit with them and we would try the other person another time, and so I didn't see why to try and switch up our plan. And this all happened in my brain in like an instant, and when he asked me I was about to say the family, sticking to our plan, but then the members name, Rolland, came to my mind seemingly like that was the conclusion I came to. But it was different than just me having my own indecisive thoughts like before. Because I somehow felt confident enough in that decision to say it, and I hardly ever am that confident in decisions like that because I tend to just way over think things. But we went to Rolland. And he was home. And we were able to have a nice visit with him. He's an amazing guy and has had incredible experiences and seemed to benefit from the visit. Immediately I realized that it wasn't a coincidence that I had the last second thought to go to Rolland rather than the family. The way it worked out was just so perfect. But it was a while later, a couple days later actually, that I realized a seemingly small detail. That Rolland's fiance was there, and that she was just about to leave for work when we got there. But she joined in the conversation for the first part and we got to know her and stuff and she also has had amazing experiences. But right before she left she requested a spiritual/uplifting message. So we did our best and we had a nice short discussion about it and she left for work. And I didn't think much of it until much later, like I said. And what I realized is that it did actually matter which order we tried visiting people that night. Because if we had tried the family first, sure we would've been able to still visit Rolland, but his fiance would have already left for work. And we never know what people are going through. But the fact that she requested an uplifting message makes it seem that it was something she at the very least wanted, if not something that she needed to hear. I wish I could adequately describe to you my feelings. We plan for all sorts of things as missionaries, and as human beings as well. But things don't always go as planned. And that is because we don't always know everything, and the Lord does, and sometimes He puts us in the paths of people we can help. There was no possible way for us to know that Rolland would be home that night, that his fiance would be as well, that at 8:14 pm she would be about to leave for work, but that there was something she needed to hear. We were one indecisive, second guessed, moment away from going to the family first. Which would've been great I'm sure, again, even if they didn't answer we would've made it to Rolland in time to visit him. But we would've missed his fiance. So I don't believe that was a coincidence. I absolutely do not. 

I can't express this any more than I have. So I just will leave my personal testimony and witness that the little things in our lives matter. And they matter because there is a God who knows us and loves us and cares about the details of our lives. He knows what we need and will put people into our paths that will help us with what we need, whether that be comfort, peace, or love, all things that have been made available to us by Jesus Christ. We've been blessed with families, and with joy and happiness in our lives. And we've been blessed by our Savior who makes it possible for that happiness to last forever. It's true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, it's been restored to the earth with all of its original clarity, authority, and power found in Christ's original Church, and when we live this Gospel, the way Jesus wants us to live, we will draw nearer to God and to Jesus Christ, and we can access that peace, comfort, joy, and love, and all other blessings that our Savior makes possible for us. I know that God is our Heavenly Father and that He knows us and He knows what we need and He has a plan for us. I know that. I know that Jesus Christ is His Son, that He lives, and that He is our Savior. And I know, and I promise, that as we have and exercise faith in Him, we will come to know Him. And I leave this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Til next time.

~Elder Oswald

Untitled

Depending on what time of the day you happen to be reading this, good morning/good afternoon/good evening/good night.

This has been a pretty good week.

Much has changed with our large teaching pool. It's still pretty large, except for we've stopped working with a lot of the people the Sisters were working with/trying to work with. We've also been finding a lot of new people as well. There are these two brothers we found. Robby had been taught be missionaries at one point so we tried knocking on his door to talk to him, and his brother Reuben answered. He said he was interested though. So we went back a few days later to try and see Reuben, and Robby answered this time and he is interested as well. It was confusing too because they're identical even though they're 2 years apart in age. 

It's been really busy. Which is really good. Unfortunately many of our scheduled appointments fall through. So that's always really disappointing. I mean I get it, people have lives. They're busy. It's understandable. It just stinks. 

We had a super awesome lesson with a lady named Kathleen this week. She didn't cancel, which was one of the things that made it awesome. But also it was just a great discussion about God's plan of happiness. She had great questions and she has such a strong desire to gain more faith. We invited her to be baptized as well and she said she would, she just didn't want to set a specific date yet. It was cool.

Oh yeah I also wrecked on my bike this week. I sprained my wrist. At least we think it's sprained. I did see a Doctor, luckily there is a member of the Eldorado Ward who is a Doctor. However he's an anesthesiologist and so doesn't really specialize in wrists at all. He did do a pretty good job wrapping the off-brand ace bandage on my wrist though. 

Well, we've got a busy day ahead of us, and we don't want a repeat of 3 weeks ago when I ran out of time to email, or of 2 weeks ago when I also ran out of time to email, so we'd better make like my off-brand ace bandage and wrap things up. 

A scripture I really love in the Book of Mormon is in Alma chapter 36 verses 18-21. This is when a man named Alma is telling his amazing conversion story. And these verses is how he describes his experiencing the Savior's Atonement, His grace and mercy. 

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

One reason why I love this passage is how he talks about light. Jesus Christ really is the Light in our lives. And just as light dispels darkness, Jesus Christ can completely dispel the darkness we have in our lives. And we can have the kind of miraculous joy and peace that Alma experienced. I know this is true. I know that Jesus Christ really is our Savior. That He lives. That He knows the pain and struggles we feel. And He is waiting for us to come unto Him in faith so He can provide the peace and joy He wants to give to us. I love Him and I love His Gospel and I'm so thankful for the blessings I have in my life because of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. 

Well, I'll talk to you next week.

With an appropriate amount of affection,

~Elder Oswald

Heather's baptism

Cacti: A Real Pain in the Butt Sometimes

Hello Everyone!

If you are reading this, and if you are as invested in these emails as I know you are, then you might be asking yourself some questions. And it is for this reason that I have taken the liberty of preparing the following Q&A thing:

Q) I really love these emails, literally they are the highlight of my week, how come I didn't receive an email last week, or the week before?

A) Well, I could come up with many excuses, for example, "I ran out of time" or "we were just so busy" or "there's a long/funny/embarrassing story in this email that took so long to write that by the time I finished writing it last week there was no time to send it." I could say many things like that, but I won't of course. Instead, I will say an apology. And so it is with that preface, that I say, most sincerely, I'm sorry. 

Q) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 

A) A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Q) What did that have to do with anything?

A) Absolutely nothing, I hope you enjoy the following email.

We had a good couple of weeks though. To catch you guys up, actual transfers happened. Elder Bess and I both are staying, thankfully. The interesting thing is that the Sisters with whom we were sharing the Eldorado Ward, both of them got moved out. So now Elder Bess and I cover the whole ward, which includes everyone they were teaching. So to do some math, if Elder Bess and Elder Oswald were teaching 10 people, and the Sisters were teaching 12 people, when the Sisters leave, that makes 22 people that Elder Bess and Elder Oswald are teaching. 

So it's been busy with teaching and scheduling and trying to contact people. 

One girl we're teaching now, named Heather, is actually getting baptized next week. We've met with her a couple times and she's really awesome. So that's exciting. 

So that was our week, then Saturday happened. And Saturday was a lot like a bowl of Cocoa Krispies. It started out really awesome but then pretty soon it kind of turned to mush.

We had a great day planned. We went out right after planning to contact all of the people we haven't been able to contact yet, including a bunch of people with potential interest and people who were previously taught. It was gonna be so good. Right as we were leaving though I started getting a migraine, so I took some medicine, and I was just not in the mood for a migraine, I was so ready to have a great day and I wasn't going to let a migraine ruin that. So I insisted we keep going. So we bike around contacting a ton of people. We knocked on one apartment looking for someone named Yomi. A man answered and we said something clever like, "are you Yomi?" He said no, so we asked "Does Yomi live here?" And the man sort of paused, and then from somewhere inside the apartment we here a voice loudly whisper "No!" The man then informed us that Yomi doesn't live there. It was pretty funny though because the man at the door started laughing and was like, "Yeah I know y'all probably heard that." 

Anyway though, so we kept trying to find people. One guy said it wasn't a good time and we should come back later. When we asked when, he said "never."

Meanwhile, my migraine was getting worse and several times I thought I was going to throw up. And Elder Bess frequently asked if we needed to go back. I still insisted to keep going. And I was glad I did.

The next complex we went to, we were looking for a family that the Sisters were teaching, we had texted the mom and called a couple times but no answer to either. So we knocked on her door, and she was excited to see us! Like it almost caught me off guard how positively she responded to us and to the idea of meeting with us. So that will be an awesome family we will hopefully start teaching soon. The only tricky thing is that they're super busy from the looks of it. But yeah that right there made it all worth it. 

Then we went across the street to the next complex. A complex to which I hope to never return. First of all, it's literally a maze. The buildings were all one story, and they were separated by narrow cement walkways. And they also had cacti placed here and there along the buildings. And so we are biking through this maze of apartments and we come to the apartment we are looking for, and as usual we get off of our bikes before we go up to the door. Now, to paint a picture, I was on this walkway, on my bike. The apartment is to our right. And so I was intending to put my bike just next to the apartment wall. Well as I said, we get off of our bikes, but I get off of my bike on the right side of my bike. So my bike is now to my left, the apartment wall to my right, I walk my bike up a little ways closer to where the doorway is, but still along the wall. Then, thinking it better to have my bike closer to the wall, I, my back now facing the wall, my bike in front of me, proceed to pull my bike towards me, sandwiching me in between me and what I thought was the wall. What I soon found out however, was that there was a little something in between me and the wall. And that something was a lovely little cactus. A cactus, that I actually saw earlier, made a mental note of, and for some reason promptly forgot about when I walked my bike over to it. However, the cactus was sure to make its presence known once more, by sending friendly little reminders all up the back of my legs and rear end. 

When I first realized what happened however, I actually laughed. "Oh how funny," I thought. "I just backed into a cactus." And from looking at the cactus, all I saw were the long big spikes, and I assumed that I had been poked by those, and that although it was painful, it was over with. Well I tried walking, and suddenly I wasn't laughing anymore. And I realized that every time I moved my legs, I was being re-stabbed by  tiny cactus spikes. It turns out that what I didn't see were the thousands of tiny invisible hairlike spikes that were actually stuck onto me and my pants. And they hurt so bad. I just want to make that clear. I am just so amazed at how something so small can be so painful. I don't even know how to describe it. 

But anyway, at that point Elder Bess concluded that it was time to go home, with which I agreed. So we walked our bikes, or rather Elder Bess walked, I hobbled, out front and waited for our Zone Leaders, who we live with, to pick us up. Then I had to get into the car, which is a different story.

Once we got to the apartment, I hobbled some more until I came to the stairs. And since bending my knees felt like, well, a thousand tiny cactus spikes in my skin, I used my considerable upper body strength and the stair rails to lift myself from one step to another without bending my knees. And finally I was safe in my apartment, except for the cactus spikes that I didn't know how to get rid of. 

So we called Sister Robinson, the Mission President's wife who is also like the Mission nurse, and she said she'd Google it and get back to us. So meanwhile we ate lunch. It was grilled cheese. That's beside the point though. Soon we heard back from Sister Robinson and she said that according to various credible sources on the internet, such as people who have internet access and have happened to post things on the internet, apparently if one rubs Elmer's glue on the area with the cactus spike in it and lets it dry and then pulls it off, the cactus spike comes with it. And the only other option is tweezers, which is pretty much impossible because they were tiny, invisible, and on areas of my body which made it quite difficult to use tweezers with any degree of accuracy. 

Anyway, we didn't have any Elmer's glue so we texted some members and they said they'd bring some over. So that was really nice of them.

While waiting for them to get there I decided to shower, in hopes that the water might magically convince the spikes to leave. That didn't work too well. A couple may have fallen out, but I'm not sure.

Then the member came with the Elmer's glue. And there's not really much detail to go into other than that I followed the process I described above. It was definitely not something I ever expected I'd do on my mission, or in my life, that's for sure. Also, I guess I imagined it would be like in elementary school when you put the Elmer's glue on your hands and peel it off for fun. It was a lot more painful than in elementary school. It actually worked though. So yeah that happened. 

It was a really great lesson to me. Because I think before this experience I had an attitude of, "I want cool/funny stories no matter how I get them." And now I have an attitude of "Be careful what you wish for because before you know it you're gonna be finding out some previously unimaginable uses for Elmer's glue." 

Well, after that I really feel like I need to share a spiritual message. 

2 Nephi 31:20, in the Book of Mormon says,

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." 

I just love that scripture. I know that as we continually seek Jesus Christ, we can come to know Him and our testimony of Him will be strengthened continually. And something that stood out to me especially this last time I read this, is the very last part. That our Heavenly Father says, as an eternal declaration, that if we do those things, pray, study the scriptures, strive diligently and humbly to come closer to Him, we will have eternal life. And I just want to leave that testimony with you. That as we continually, every day, continually, build our faith in Christ, we will eventually have Eternal Life.

Til next week, and I actually mean next week!

~Elder Oswald