Saturday, August 24, 2013

Aug. 19, 2013

Song: Two Years




A note about last week's letter:  In case you are a little slow like me, Jace was really saying that the Mission President was teaching them about the importance of good etiquette, not good edict.
Shelly
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Aug. 19, 2013
Hey everyone,

     I have a bunch of stuff that I want to talk about this week.  I just don't know where to start.  I guess I will start the way I normally do by talking about how we fixed a car this week.  So I know that I mentioned that we completely fixed Brother B...'s car.  And it is still fixed, but we did such a good job that one of the members in a different ward wanted us to fix their car too.  So we fixed his locking system on his door on the driver’s side.  We must be getting better at fixing cars because we planned for it to take two hours but we finished it in one.
     Alright I'm done talking about car stuff now.  The thing that I really wanted to talk about is the exchange that we went on this week.  So this week I went to my zone leaders area. For those of you who do not know what zone leaders are, they are the people above the district leaders, who are the people over us.  Anyway, the zone leader I went with was named Elder R..., and we went to his area while Elder G... stayed in our area with Elder R...'s companion.  That area is Hartford, Connecticut. While I was in Hartford I learned that 94% of the people there are African Am...n or Hispanic and that the remaining 6% is everyone else.  We stood out so much while we were walking around finding people, it was impossible not to notice us as two white guys in white shirts walking down the street.  So as we were going about, we were looking for people in the ward that have not come to church in a long time.  Sounds easy enough until you realize that all the people we were trying to visit lived in complexes.  This made it fun because we had to keep finding new ways into the buildings.  We learned that using a credit card really can open a locked door, that holding the door open for someone can also mean that you are holding it open for your companion as well, and also that most people will let you in if you tell them that you were sent by a Bishop.
     While we were going about doing this, we had a couple of strange, gross, and awkward situations.  With one we went to what looked like a nursing home to find a man.  We talked to the officer at the main floor and told him that the Bishop had not seen one of the residents for a while and wanted us to check up on him.  He then went on the computer for a moment and then said "hmm, that's what I thought.  I am sorry, but the guy you are looking for has been dead over a year."  At that point things were getting a little awkward and I said "I guess that’s why we haven't seen him at church for a while."  Luckily we had a good laugh with the guy and went on our way.  Now for the strange one:  We went to a complex and rang to be let in and as we were standing there we started to hear noises above us.  We looked up and heard the noises louder and the ceiling panels were moving up and down.  The best part was when we both looked at each other and both said at the same time, "rats."  Now for those of you that don't like gross stuff or thought that the last story was the gross one you might just want to skip to the beginning of the next paragraph.  So we went over to a lady’s house from Portugal to follow up and see if she kept a commitment that Elder R... had left at a previous appointment. While we were talking, her cat came over and we picked it up and started petting it and continued to teach her.  As Elder R... was petting the cat that was now on his lap, he suddenly turned to me and pointed at its face.  At the first glance I did not see it but then all at once I saw the millions of tiny little bugs scurrying in and out of its fur and eye lids.  The best way I can describe it is as if it was a horror movie made real.  Luckily the bugs that were on it only infect animals with fur so we are good, but it was still really gross.
     So the last thing I wanted to talk about was the ground breaking for the soon to be Hartford Connecticut Temple.  I have never seen a ground breaking ceremony before and this was a big one.   President Monson himself came down and broke ground to begin the construction of the new temple.  It was a great experience and something that probably most of the members of Connecticut have been waiting for a long time.  I will probably need to come back after my mission to see the temple once it is finished.  I cannot wait for the temple and the blessings it will bring to this area.  Until next week…

Elder Erb

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