April 29, 2013

April 29, 2013

Dear People of the real world,

     As I explained in last week’s letter, I now have a new companion who is fresh out of the MTC.  His name is Elder C... and the first thing I have to say about him is... He is a stud!  I am supper fortunate to be a trainer to a greeny that has a desire to be here and has the ability to learn as easily as he does.  Greeny is a new missionary, I felt like I should explain this because I heard that they refer to them by different colors in different countries.  I now see and understand how the new missionaries are different than the ones that have been out for a little while.  He is like a sponge and is absorbing knowledge like crazy right now, kind of like a baby does.  Elder C... is luckily not one of those missionaries that thinks he knows everything and trusts in my experience... which is kind of a scary thought actually.

     Speaking of scary thoughts, because I am a trainer by default, I am the driver.  I have not driven in 6 months!  On top of that my first destination in the car was to travel back to Manchester Connecticut from Belmont, Massachusetts.  This was a testimony to me of the power of prayer.  During the drive up to Belmont we got to pass through my old area.  It was weird because I still remembered everything and where people lived and I kind of missed the area.  I think the reason I felt this way was because after spending all my time, energy, and talents serving them, I was blessed with charity for the people in the area.  Unfortunately it always seems like you don't realize how much you love something like this until it is gone.

     Alright I'm done talking about my old area, now to my current area.  When Elder C... and I finally got back we did not have anything planned and so we did what any hungry missionary would do and looked for a pizza place.  Because we are very short on miles for this month, we decided we should walk and in the process got lost.  Let it be known that us getting lost was completely my fault and not poor Elder C...’s fault.  Anyway, in the process of us being lost we happened upon some interesting people.  We ran into a lady looking for an ice cream shop that was as lost as us.  We got to talk to her about who we are and the church a little.  We ran into a less active member who greeted us warmly and told us if we ever need his help he would be there for us.  And then, last but not least we ran into a guy who is married to a member and goes to church every week with his wife and kids.  We just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  Funny how missionaries always do that.  He flagged us down so that he could use our phone to call his wife.  We got to talk with him for a while and he is a super nice guy that loves his family.  We talked about his religion and ours until his wife came and he told us that we should come by some time.

     Alright I have one last funny random story before I go.  So we received a name of a less active member that has not been to church in years from a member after this super amazing spiritual lesson we had that I will probably talk about next week.  So that night we went and visited her.  We knocked, she opened the window to see who it was, I waved and said "Hi".  Then she did not answer.  We decided we should go back the next day anyway just because it was late when we stopped by, we happened to catch her as she was heading out on the back of some dudes motorcycle.  They stopped, pulled off their helmets and we introduced ourselves.  This is how the conversation went;

she said,"This is my fiance."

he said,"No I'm not."

she said,"Yes he is, we have been engaged for two weeks."

he said,"No we haven't."

she said,"We have been seeing each other for 6 years and that we have had a rough time lately and we are getting back together for the first time in a couple of months."

he said,"That's what she thinks."

Now this went on for a really long time and we decided that before we become their relationship councilors that we should leave.  We laughed about this so hard later, we must have come at the worst possible time ever.

     Thank you for all of your support for me out here.  I love you all.

Elder Erb