Monday, Monday, so good to me (2/23/09)

[1]On Saturday it got really warm. We were out walking and it got too warm in our coats so we had to drop them off at a members' home. It was nice, but I would have liked it better without the sunlight. When the sun shines it reflects from the snow, so we walk around with our sunglasses on and we look like the MIB.

One thing I have found on my mission that annoys me is that members do not understand what we do. It is not at all uncommon to hear something like, "Oh, are you just out tracking?" First of all the word is tracting, as in placing a tract (although we don't usually do that), not tracking. But what is more annoying is that they think that is all we do. I do not know if they use the word "tracking" (or sometimes they get it right) to mean proselyting, which we do do all day every day, or if they honestly think that we only knock on doors all day long. If we did that, an area could get tracted out in a manner of weeks. This area is small that it gets tracted out in months, and a lot of the people up here aren't very nice, perhaps some of the meanest people I've encountered. Tracting is like eating a shirt--it's generally not the most effective, and it's not very pleasant either. We do so much more. We go out to try to contact potential investigators (who are generally people who have been tracted into and have said to come back). We see former investigators. We try to visit less-active members, especially if we have not met them. Even this does not encompass all we do. This week we were walking down the road in the evening and some people were moving in so we offered to help. Generally people decline, but these people actually let us help. We left them our number on a pass-along card in case they need any more help. (I later said we should have left them our number on a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, for the boxes they packed in consisted of diaper boxes and beer, vodka, and other foolish drink boxes.)[2]

Ever since I got here, Elder B. has been complaining about how weird our ward mission leader is. I wondered why he never told me about his wife. He was out of town when I got here, but this week I got to meet him. I got in the car, and wondered why I'd never heard of his wife. Well, the reason was that he really is weird. He was gone because he, a 66-year-old, eloped with a woman he met online two months ago. They have not been sealed yet, but they exchanged rings in the celestial room. Yeah. It does not at all surprise me that he preaches false doctrine over the pulpit to the extent that the bishop has to get up the next week to correct him.[3]

Last night we were visiting some semi-active members. They asked me how long I have left. I realized that this Saturday marks fifteen months, and I only have nine left. That's single digits! I feel like there's still so much I need to do, need to learn, need to accomplish. Nine months is a depressingly short time! If someone conceived now the baby would be born about the time I get home! :(

Continuing with the random incontinuity of my letter, this morning Elder B.1's stereo somehow didn't function properly. I like my Michelle Tumes CD, but not at 4:00 a.m. I didn't sleep too well, and my dreams were all over the place. At one point I dreamt I wanted to get mint oreos for St. Patrick's Day, but they didn't have any, so I was going to get mint chip cookies instead, but then I determined they were soap cookies.

At this point I'm just writing to fill up time. This week we started teaching an unbaptized ten-year-old. His parents have testimonies but for some reason don't come to church. He answers no to every question we ask, even if he knows it. The dad seems enthusiastic but the mom is kind of odd, even though we know she has a testimony. Another example of how a wife drags her husband down. This is the only area I've served in where there have been active brethren married to nonmember wives. But even so, these men haven't always been active. The only other case I've seen was in Ritzville, where the wife of the High Priests Group Leader had her name removed. But judging from my experiences with her, I think she'll be rebaptized within a year.[4] But it is not at all uncommon for an active sister to be married to a nonmember.

We get long email time here, so I'm going to close now, and if I think of anything else, I can write back.

Love,

Elder Melville

Another comment

Today I was looking at pictures of my cute nieces. I mean, nephews. Their hair makes them look like girls.

I've been reading old emails. My greenie emails are so cheesy I had to stop because it made me cringe! If you want a laugh, look back at the old letters I wrote.

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[1] The title of my post came long before my 2013–2014 obsession with the Mamas and the Papas. This email was somehow deleted from my mom’s account, but luckily she forwarded it to my brother, and he still had it!

[2] Later I learned that liquor stores often have lots of extra boxes, so they might not have been as alcoholic as the boxes indicated.

[3] My companion told me about these horror stories about our ward mission leader. The night we found out he got married, my companion called the member we lived with and said, “Guess what Brother Wilhelm did.”

“He got married.”

“How did you know?

“He gets married more than some people change their underwear.”

[4] Indeed, that woman in Ritzville did get rebaptized within a year.