Transfers are in two weeks. I wouldn't mind staying in
Lewiston another transfer, as I wrote in a letter to President Palmer. But
there are still other areas in the mission I haven't been to, so those would be
fine.[1]
As for my bike, it is in good condition. In fact today I bought a new tube, before I read your email. Some members told us that last year a missionary went home and it only cost about $30 to send it home UPS (maybe it was FedEx), the box also being full of other things as well. I'm going to talk to some members about how to get it taken apart, but I've already acquired the box. I've come to enjoy biking and it will probably be my main transportation at BYU, although I'm not sure how much I can do of the North Salt Lake hills.[2] I'll have to take the pedals off, the handlebars off, and one wheel off. I hope I can put it back together when it gets home. The only disadvantage to my bike is that it doesn't have a kickstand, and I bought one that fits most bikes. My bike doesn't fit in the "most" category. You're making me second guess myself, but I don't think it'll be as bad as you think. There's a member here who supplies bikes for the new missionaries, and I've heard sending it home through him is $60. If the UPS thing is correct, you were ripped off! (Funny side note--once Elder W. was commenting about the strange name of one of the avenues in our area, on which the church is located. It is called Ripon. Like rip off, but with on instead of off. [That's how it's pronounced, too.]) Elder T. made a comment recently about how he doesn't want me even to take it apart until the Friday before I leave because biking is more effective than walking. This is true, but I'm disregarding his opinion because it's too risky to wait that long. I've learned that my easy-going nature often causes people to take advantage of me and boss me around.[3]
Thinking of my bike, I left it on our bike rack on our car, so I hope it's still there when we go back. Maybe I won't have to worry about it. (That would be horrible!)
Nothing too significant happened this week. I got to go on exchanges to Clarkston, WA, possibly for the last time. A less-active we visited there told me I looked exactly like someone else she knows. I will probably get that more now that I'm not as fat. (I feel terribly guilty about the cookies I ate this morning and haven't done the penalty push ups for yet.)[4]
Our recent converts Mallary B. and Katelyn H. are successfully befriending each other as new active members. We're having a lesson with them on Thursday night and it may be the last time I see Mallary, since she goes home for Thanksgiving. She hasn't told her parents she got baptized. She was scared to but now she's excited to.[5]
The other missionaries recently arrived to email, and said the members they live with are going down to Utah, and I may be able to send my bike down with them. It would be free then and therefore totally worth it. I don't know if it will happen yet for sure, but it may work out well, if it does.[6]
We have been concerned about yet another teenage girl in the branch, Kim C. We were teaching her and she wanted to be baptized but her mom wouldn't let her. She seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth but we're starting to teach her again. She was working on Sundays because Wal-Mart pays an extra dollar an hour on Sundays. But she told us last night she knows it's not worth putting eight dollars before God. She's been kicked out of her house because of her wicked stepmother. I don't know about the details of that, but that has happened.
Our Gospel Essentials teacher is frequently absent and we have to teach. Yesterday Elder T. went to talk in a youth class so I had to teach on my own. The lesson was on the law of chastity. Needless to say, the class participation was less than usual, but it wasn't too bad. Our ward mission leader nearly read "precaution" instead of "procreation" but he caught himself. We had three active married members in there, and a recently reactivated member who's living with his fiancée, and Kim and her member boyfriend (usually they come to the branch so I don't know why they came to the ward), who are about nineteen. But I think it was a little more comfortable than when I had to teach the same lesson in Ritzville, during which an excommunicated member spoke up, somewhat inadvertently discussing past transgressions when we got to the part about abortion.[7]
That's all for now!
Love,
Elder Melville
As for my bike, it is in good condition. In fact today I bought a new tube, before I read your email. Some members told us that last year a missionary went home and it only cost about $30 to send it home UPS (maybe it was FedEx), the box also being full of other things as well. I'm going to talk to some members about how to get it taken apart, but I've already acquired the box. I've come to enjoy biking and it will probably be my main transportation at BYU, although I'm not sure how much I can do of the North Salt Lake hills.[2] I'll have to take the pedals off, the handlebars off, and one wheel off. I hope I can put it back together when it gets home. The only disadvantage to my bike is that it doesn't have a kickstand, and I bought one that fits most bikes. My bike doesn't fit in the "most" category. You're making me second guess myself, but I don't think it'll be as bad as you think. There's a member here who supplies bikes for the new missionaries, and I've heard sending it home through him is $60. If the UPS thing is correct, you were ripped off! (Funny side note--once Elder W. was commenting about the strange name of one of the avenues in our area, on which the church is located. It is called Ripon. Like rip off, but with on instead of off. [That's how it's pronounced, too.]) Elder T. made a comment recently about how he doesn't want me even to take it apart until the Friday before I leave because biking is more effective than walking. This is true, but I'm disregarding his opinion because it's too risky to wait that long. I've learned that my easy-going nature often causes people to take advantage of me and boss me around.[3]
Thinking of my bike, I left it on our bike rack on our car, so I hope it's still there when we go back. Maybe I won't have to worry about it. (That would be horrible!)
Nothing too significant happened this week. I got to go on exchanges to Clarkston, WA, possibly for the last time. A less-active we visited there told me I looked exactly like someone else she knows. I will probably get that more now that I'm not as fat. (I feel terribly guilty about the cookies I ate this morning and haven't done the penalty push ups for yet.)[4]
Our recent converts Mallary B. and Katelyn H. are successfully befriending each other as new active members. We're having a lesson with them on Thursday night and it may be the last time I see Mallary, since she goes home for Thanksgiving. She hasn't told her parents she got baptized. She was scared to but now she's excited to.[5]
The other missionaries recently arrived to email, and said the members they live with are going down to Utah, and I may be able to send my bike down with them. It would be free then and therefore totally worth it. I don't know if it will happen yet for sure, but it may work out well, if it does.[6]
We have been concerned about yet another teenage girl in the branch, Kim C. We were teaching her and she wanted to be baptized but her mom wouldn't let her. She seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth but we're starting to teach her again. She was working on Sundays because Wal-Mart pays an extra dollar an hour on Sundays. But she told us last night she knows it's not worth putting eight dollars before God. She's been kicked out of her house because of her wicked stepmother. I don't know about the details of that, but that has happened.
Our Gospel Essentials teacher is frequently absent and we have to teach. Yesterday Elder T. went to talk in a youth class so I had to teach on my own. The lesson was on the law of chastity. Needless to say, the class participation was less than usual, but it wasn't too bad. Our ward mission leader nearly read "precaution" instead of "procreation" but he caught himself. We had three active married members in there, and a recently reactivated member who's living with his fiancée, and Kim and her member boyfriend (usually they come to the branch so I don't know why they came to the ward), who are about nineteen. But I think it was a little more comfortable than when I had to teach the same lesson in Ritzville, during which an excommunicated member spoke up, somewhat inadvertently discussing past transgressions when we got to the part about abortion.[7]
That's all for now!
Love,
Elder Melville
[1]
This was somewhat facetious, because I was going home. But I didn’t want to go
home.
[2] I
did take that bike to BYU, and then it got stolen, even though it was locked. Provo
is not a secure place for bikes. I have zero sympathy for people who steal
bikes. I hope bad things happen to them.
[3] I
was astonished that Elder T. didn’t want me to send it home early. On another
occasion, the teenage son of the family we lived with was going into our
apartment and taking stuff, and Elder T. didn’t like me locking the door. I
wish I had been more assertive to tell him he was moronically wrong. Not that
forcefully, of course.
[4] At
that time, if I ate something that was nonseasonal, I would have to do pushups
as punishment. Now I just avoid nonseasonal things.
[5]
After I came home, it sounded like things did not go well when she told her
parents. Katelyn and Mallary were Facebook friends, and Katelyn often commented
on Mallary’s statuses. Soon thereafter, Mallary unfriended Katelyn. I was
surprised, and it kind of made me lose respect for Mallary.
[6] I
did send my bike with them.
[7] We
were teaching an excommunicated member who wanted to be rebaptized. One Sunday,
she talked to the branch president, and she came into the Gospel Essentials
class, excited about what he told her. He told her no drugs or alcohol, and
eventually she could be baptized. The lesson was on chastity, and when we got
to the part about abortion, she said, “I forgot to tell him about that. It wasn’t
my fault; the government made me do it.” I think drugs had fried her brain a
bit. Missions do teach you empathy for different kinds of people.
No comments:
Post a Comment