I am getting
transferred. I am going to be in the Cherry Park ward in the Portland
zone. I will be a district leader and will be training Elder Woodward
who has been out for 6 weeks. He had an awesome companion so he should
be good. Hopefully he will be humble and ready to work. I am pretty
nervous about the district leader call. I have a lot of great material,
it is just a matter of loving the missionaries in the district. I am
pumped to be going back to Portland. So Gresham is about 30 miles from
Downtown Portland. My new area is about 15 miles east toward Portland. I
am really close to my first area actually. I am going to be walking or
on a bike, so I am going to talk to a ton of people. You should have
seen us before the mail came on Friday. We were all a nervous wreck
because we knew there were some big changes coming up. So there are
about 110 companionships in the mission and 12 of them stayed the same.
Everybody else got a new companion. Then of course the mail guy was so
slow. It was frustrating actually. It was cool because we each prayed
for patience the night before, so it was really being tested. We just
sat there and watched the mailman do his thing. Well as we were sitting
there, a young lady came up to us and started talking to us. That is so
rare. Hardly anybody just randomly walks up to us unless they are a
member. She was very nice and we got started talking about the gospel.
She seemed very interested and we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited
her to church. Her daughter has been sick so she didn't come last week,
but she seems pretty interested. It is just another lesson that we are
out here for a reason.
So
I have been really confused about the subject of obedience. Obedience
is preached and preached and preached here. So some missionaries will
skip lunch or end p-day early or start working early. Part of me is all
in on that. I am all about going the extra mile and working hard.So that
really appeals to me. On the other hand, is that being disobedient? I
feel like the rules and schedule is there for a reason and we need to
follow it exactly. At the same time, I have seen huge blessings,
especially with Elder Kelly and Ewell, for doing extra. I have made it a
matter of prayer and I am still torn on it. Let me know what you
think.
Have
I ever mentioned Bobby in any of my letters? He is Crystal's really
good friend. Well he got kicked out of the place where he was living so
he is on the streets.We were just walking down the street and we saw
him. It was so sad to see him like that. He is usually such an upbeat
and happy-go-lucky guy. He was super stressed and nervous about what was
going to happen to him. He really needed a place to stay that night. We
asked him about Crystal's, but he said that he doesn't feel comfortable
being over there because Crystal is married and her husband is in jail
and he didn't think that would be appropriate. So he would rather sleep
out on the street than be put in an inappropriate situation. If I
weren't a missionary, I would have had him sleeping on my couch.
Unfortunately things are a little more complicated when you are a
missionary. We had to call Bishop and figure stuff out. He had to figure
out how sincere he was about everything and that he wasn't just using
the church. Bishop got a motel room for him and he met with him at
church the next day. Hopefully things will work out for him.
Christmas
break sound cold! It is too bad that you are cooped up. The weather
pretty much stays the same here. Just cloudy and rainy, in the 30s and
40s. Everybody here is so crazy on Oregon. I have no idea what we are
going to do next Monday because everybody will be watching the game! The
shower handle water problem reminds me of a little situation we had at
our apartment. My companion was boiling eggs and forgot all about them.
We showed up three hours later and it was so smoky. We could barely even
see. The fire alarms were going off. The eggs had exploded. They were
charcoal black and the pan had a big hole in it. We are so lucky the
whole apartment complex didn't burn down. Nothing is damaged,but
everything smells like smoke. In fact, it still smells like smoke!
I
have not received your letter yet. I will probably get it on Wednesday
because they are holding all the mail at the mission office. I haven't
seen that Book of Mormon video yet either. I will have to look that up.
I
loved that talk by Dallin H. Oaks. I love it because it applies so much
to our service in the church. Honestly, the church asks a lot from us.
No other religion really does. We are expected to consecrate all of our
time, talents, and abilities to the work of building up the kingdom of
God. There are so many people who avoid the church for that reason
alone. If we can recognize the reasons why we are serving, it makes us
so much more willing to do whatever we can for the Lord. Thank you for
the email and I can't wait to hear from you next week! I love you.
Love,
Jaxon
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