If you are reading this, I know what you're probably thinking: "I spent
all of last week in utter disappointment after not recieving a highly
anticipated email. So I spent all of this past Monday on pins and
needles, anxiously waiting for this same highly anticipated email. And I
spent all of Tuesday giving up hope and lamenting the absence of said
highly anticipated email. And now after having just opened my inbox, I
see an intriguing title, misleadingly sent from the author's
mother...can it be?"
Yes it can. Your highly anticipated email is here, and boy do I have some news for you.
First
and foremost, I was transferred. I am no longer in Scottsdale. And I'm
no longer in the valley either. I am up in the mountains in a little
town called St. Johns. Me and my new companion, whose name is Elder
Fonnesbeck, cover 3 congregations. Two wards, and one branch, which is
the same as a ward but smaller. I am no longer on bike also, I have a
truck, because in addition to part of the small town of St. Johns, we
have miles and miles of ranches and dirt roads out in the literal middle
of nowhere. Everything is just so different. Everyone is like a rancher
or cowboy or mountain man or something of that sort. It's so great.
There's a guy named Mario who lives in this town, and he's kind of a
funny character. We saw him outside on the street the other day and he
was like "Hey missionaries" so we went to chat with him, and at the
moment he was talking with someone else, and when that person left he
began running around looking for something. And he called over to us and
said "is there a cat under that truck?" We looked, there wasn't. When
he got closer he told us that he'd been throwing cats into the
irrigation ditch and that there was one he hadn't caught yet. So we
asked him how his day was going, what else he'd been up to, and he said
he'd just been throwing cats in the irrigation ditch all day. He said he
was bored, except he seemed really entertained by what he was doing.
Every once in a while a cat would run by and the conversation would
pause while he grabbed it and dropped it into the irrigation ditch.
Every cat he picked up was already wet also, and we were just like,
Mario this ones already wet did you already throw this one in? And he
would say yes and then drop it in. One time he picked up a kitten,
already wet, and said "I dropped this one in earlier too except I
dropped it on the other side of that tube so it got sucked underneath. I
felt bad for this one." And then he dropped it in. He also introduced
us to his new puppy. At one point the dog did something that Mario said
was bad, he probably just wagged his tail or something, and Mario was
like, "Okay that's it," and calmly picked the puppy up and dropped it in
the irrigation ditch. It was so strange. Anyway, I thought I'd share
that with you.
Also, something else about St. Johns is that
the town is made up of predominantly members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of latter day saints. So the work here is a lot different, but
it's great. Also Elder Fonnesbeck is great too, he's so funny.
Now
to address the title of this email, I meant that last week was fairly
good not in the sense that it was mediocre or only somewhat good, but in
the sense that the fair was going on last week!
And since
literally the entire town was at the fair, we were too! In fact, we had a
booth. So the vast majority of our week was spent at the fair. We
talked to a lot of people and were involved and whatnot which was good.
As I said, most people are members of the Church here so everyone
already knows who we are. And everyone just loves us. People bought us
so much fair food. It was rather amazing except for I felt like throwing
up sometimes. It was the good kind of feeling like I was going to throw
up though. It just meant I was eating a lot of great food.
One
of the craziest nights of the fair was when we watched the "Mud bogs."
And that was an event that was going on one evening where a bunch of
people entered their trucks in the contest to drive through this big
long mud pit. It was in like a rodeo arena thing where everyone could
watch, and these trucks just drove through the 3 foot deep mud bog
trying to beat the time of the other trucks. And the commentator at one
point said that during intermission he'd have all the kids come down to
the mud pit to do a race through it. Then intermission came and the kids
did their race, and then the commentator said, "Now let's get our
missionaries out here!" and the crowd went wild, cheering for us and
whatnot. So we took off our Sunday shoes, straightened our ties, and
confidently went over to the mud pit. And then we raced through the mud
pit. The crowd loved us, we were the talk of the town all the next day.
Luckily, the commentators wife approached us after we ran and was like,
"I'm not letting you try to wash those clothes yourselves, I have a
secret to get mud out of clothes, let me." And whatever she did it
worked.
But yeah, that was super fun. I'll attach a picture.
Before I wrap up this email, I would like to share a scripture. Its in the Book of Mormon, in Mormon chapter 9 verse 6.
"O
then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the
Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless,
pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at
that great and last day."
There are many different aspects of
what the Savior does for us. And one that I've been thinking about
lately is His power to cleanse us. And although it is entirely
coincidental that this is in the same email as the muddy clothes story, I
love the analogy. Because no matter what muddy paths we go through in
life, however seemingly ruined we can get, we can become clean. Entirely
clean of anything we've ever done that would seperate us from God. Not
from God's love, but from His presence, because "no unclean thing can
dwell with God." But it is because of God's love that He sent His Son to
make it possible for us to be clean again. Because He does want us to
return to Him.
I apologize again for the delay in correspondence. It's good to be back.
I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!
