Sunday, June 9, 2019

Summertime (6/8/09)


This week a member lent us an extra air conditioner that should work better than the one we have. Apparently last year the missionaries borrowed it but the landlord told them they couldn't use it. I don't know if it was because they were using both, or if the better one just used more electricity. We snuck it in one night and put it in a back window, so he probably doesn't know about it. If he does find out and gives us a hard time, we will absolutely call the mission office and tell them that our landlord is a torturous communist and we have to move out to another apartment. It hasn't even become as hot as it will and sometimes our apartment is hardly bearable.[1] They've been trying to get us with members but no one will or can take us. We've been mentioning to people (both members and non-members) that the Church pays $400 a month for our pad, and they are appalled that we pay so much for such a small space. That includes utilities, of course, but still, everyone thinks it's way overpriced.

I haven't been too impressed with our landlord. He's a Seventh Day Adventist, who pride themselves on living the Ten Commandments,[2] but he broke the eighth one.[3] I'm not sure if I told this before or not--we asked our bishop if he could get us an air conditioner. He told us he did a few years ago, and it was in the garage window of our landlord. He also lives with someone he's not married to, which is similar to breaking the seventh.[4] One of my first weeks here I heard him yelling and swearing at one of the kids because she got out of the car the wrong way. In the words of Jesus, it would be better that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be cast into the sea.[5]

We had a zone conference this week. It was kind of depressing. It was the last one with President and Sister Clark. It was also the last one with the sisters who came out with me. The Spanish sister is in my zone and she bore her departing testimony.[6] It was so weird to hear her talk about her mission, because I remember that rainy December night when we were all just starting our journey.

In December when it snowed so much we were up in Cheney and I lost a name tag. The other sister who came out with me, who talked my ear off on the plane ride up, is in Cheney now, and we had zone conference at the Spokane West Stake Center (the same stake as Ritzville, so we had district meetings there), and she gave me back my name tag. I guess a member found it and gave it to the elders, who gave it to the sisters, who gave it to me. It's missing the clip but is otherwise in good condition. Sister Van Noy's companion apparently wore it one day but the other elders reproved her, saying, "Sister, you're not an elder!"

I wanted to write more but once again it is not giving me an option of more time. :( I don't know if I'll be able to write another letter this week or not. This may be a rough summer for emailing. This library needs more computers.

Love,

Elder Melville


[1] Well, we had left the windows open, which wasn’t good.
[2] I mean that Seventh-day Adventists in general keep the ten commandments. I don’t think he was a practicing SDA.
[3] “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”
[4] “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.”
[5] Luke 7:12: “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
[6] I totally forgot that a Spanish sister came out with my group. The Spanish and English missionaries stayed completely separate at that time.

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