October 14, 2013

Mom,

The library I'm at is actually open today so I'll be able to email you today. I'm not getting transferred, so I'll stay here another six weeks in New Brunswick. I think that it's most likely that I'll end my mission here in New Brunswick. I think that that's very possible.

So cool news about Uncle Ronnie's note: I wasn't there. My companion was on an exchange a few weeks ago when they opened the door to see a $1. They didn't pay attention to it and just stuffed it further into the metal lining of the door frame. I mentioned it to my companion this morning about how I couldn't believe someone would just take that $1 bill. Apparently he wasn't paying attention when I had told everyone earlier about my uncle leaving a note. So I checked the metal lining this morning as we left to come do emails and I found it! So now I have it. Thanks Uncle Ronnie!

That's crazy to hear about Luke! He hasn't told me anything about it. Every once in a while I'll get an email from him. He'll send something small out to all us friends with a picture or something.

I'm getting excited about those movies!

I'm a little confused. For the mock ward council are you trying to fit in this family (in which the wife is a 7th Day Adventist) to show how it's supposed to be done? Or is it for real that that family actually moved into the ward boundaries?

Q of the W:

1.  So...do you know what day of the week NJ missionaries usually come home?

They always go home on Wednesdays. We always have a transfer conference, where President Jeppson announces where everyone will go when they're transferred. Then those that go home give a farewell testimony. Then the departing missionaries go to the Mission Home for dinner and spend the night there and wake up on Wednesday morning and fly home.

2.  Do you get invited to go to ward council meetings now?

Not yet.

3.  Do you ever just go to a less-actives house to leave a spiritual message instead of teaching the gospel?

Yes. Sometimes we don't want to push them too hard because they can be sensitive and pushing them hard will push them away. You really have to find the balance on what you can share with them and what you can invite them to do.

Last Monday night, we were on our way home from P-Day stuff and the missionaries told us about a member in the hospital. His name was Chris and he had just gone through a bone marrow transplant. The missionaries had gone over a couple weeks prior to give him a Priesthood blessing. Both the missionaries we were with were in the middle of a cold so they didn't want to risk getting Chris sick in the hospital. So we went to just talk to him for a little while because he was going through some depression issues with all this. Chris was a missionary just a few years ago in the Dominican Republic. Right before he was hospitalized he was working in the Coast Guard. He was pretty cool. His older brother was there as well. He was visiting from Virginia. So we talked with them for a little bit and then left them a spiritual message. It was a cool visit.

Well this week was somewhat of a slow week. It was hard to get in contact with our investigators. It just seems like everyone is so busy. That's what makes missionary work hard sometimes is how busy everyone else is. It makes it hard to stay busy when everyone else is too busy for you. I think we just need to talk to people more often over phone and just really push for appointments. I think these last few months in New Brunswick have taught me how to plan well. It's a little more tough to plan when it takes us 15 to 20 minutes to walk anywhere. So it really takes effective planning to make sure we can get to places on time and also to visit all the people we want to visit.

I'm enjoying the weather a lot more as well. It's not nearly as hot anymore. It's been averaging in the low 70's and the high 60's lately. This last week we had a couple days with a high of 63. I unpacked the sweaters! It's definitely starting to cool down and the winter is coming. My mission is coming to a close and I only have two transfers left now. I'm considered among other missionaries as 'ancient'. There are very few missionaries who actually know who my trainer was! There are also other missionaries that were really good missionaries when I came here that aren't known anymore. It's a strange feeling. I don't really know what to think of it. I'm getting excited to come home, yet at the same time I love teaching. I'll just go with the flow and when it comes, it comes. "Come what may and love it" right?

Love you mom! Miss you!

-Justin