Week 11

09-03-2018

Sick for Days

Monday was pretty much a normal Monday. People get really upset when we knock on their doors, but hey, at least we're trying right? 

Tuesday was good. We had district meeting and then went on exchanges with the district leaders and ELDER Gohl came to fort Yargo. He can't bike or drive and since I don't have my tiwi (driving) card I can't drive. So we walked everywhere. It was pretty good. We got in 7 miles, it just took a super long time. But that's alright! We got some contacts while walking so it was all good. We were asked to give someone a blessing that was 3 miles away so we walked there and then afterwards they drove us back. 

Wednesday was pretty good as well. We biked to a ladies house to give her a Book of Mormon and a Bible. That was 7 miles away so we were really tired and she offered us water, we said "That would be great thanks". So she got water for us and halfway through the second cup I realized it was water... with little chunks of rotten milk in it.... I already wasn't feeling too great and that made it worse hahaha. No fun. She also told us that she had been crucified and showed us her hands, there wasnt anything there so we decided she was crazy. She then asked me where I was going after this and I said back home to Utah, she said, "no you arent, you're going to Germany because that's the only way out of Georgia, and because it's closest to Egypt" we left After that and told her to have a good day. Super weird stuff. After that we went tracting some more and met some pretty nice people. One person was interested in us coming back, but not really, so we don't think we're going to really push that one. After we finished tracting we biked another 7 miles to get to our dinner appointment with sister Xiong. She fed us Mong food and then had us teach her a little bit of English because she doesn't speak it very well, it was fun. After that we biked 5 miles home and tracted our neighborhood then went to bed. Good day for biking! 

Thursday was decent. I woke up really sick so that wasn't fun. Then the nurse called to follow up on my sleeping to see if I had made any progress in sleeping more. Sadly that was a no, so she gave me more suggestions and a possible medication that might help. Nice. Then we had mission wide cleaning day, yayyyyyyyyyyyyy. Let me just say, thank you so much to my mom for teaching me how to clean well. I found out that most guys don't know much about cleaning. So thank you mom!!! We did that for a little while then went to a lesson with Shannon. We invited her to church and she said she would come (spoiler, she didn't end up coming:( then after the lesson I still wasn't feeling very well and we went back and then I threw up. No fun. I stayed home with Elder Martini and Elder Roberts went with brother Glazier to teach a less active member. She came to church again which was awesome. Brother Glazier also bought me the sleep medicine the nurse said to try and wouldn't let me pay him back. He s a good guy. That's all from Thursday. 

Friday was rough. I woke up even more sick than the days before. I threw up twice in the morning alone, no bueno. I had some apple cider vinegar with honey and lemon to try to help out with whatever I had. Wasn't the best but it helped. I did that twice. We cancelled our dinner appointment and stayed inside listening to talks all day. I just slept a lot and felt like a pile (missionary term for someone who doesn't do any work cause they're lazy). Long day. 

Saturday was awesome. The day of rest I got helped tons. TONS. Sleep is so important kids, so sleep. But only when you're supposed to. We met with a man named Matthew Baccus who we tracted into. We taught him an awesome lesson about the restoration and wow, the spirit was so strong in that home. After the lesson I asked him if he would say a kneeling prayer with us and then I asked him to ask heavenly father to know if what we taught him was true, and he did it! After the prayer I asked him how he felt and he said this, "I feel like God is leading me to a path that will bring me closer to him" YES MATTHEW YES!! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT GOD IS DOING!! Man it was so cool! Then we went tracting with high hopes for the day, we ran into two people who have left the church that day. And man, I have never felt that much sadness in my life. Never before had I realized how much this gospel means to me. And seeing those two people leave all the blessing it brings brought grief to my soul (cheesy, I know, but that's what prophets in the book of Mormon say when the people turn their hearts away from God). It was an unreal feeling. The rest of that day was a blur and I don't really remember it.

Sunday! Pretty good day. The ward mission leader came after us and got super mad at us. He called us disrespectful and rude and that all we did was make excuses. We asked him what he meant and he went on a rant about how we didn't work hard enough and didn't communicate with him like he wants us to. We apologized that he felt that way and then I told him that we were sorry for the misunderstanding and we hope we can get things cleared up. Then he yelled at me and told me saying sorry was an excuse. Then I told him what our schedule had been that week and what we had done then he layed off of us and we got things cleared up. Background for this guy: he was a parole officer and always wants to be in charge of every situation, he has gotten in all out arguments with previous sister missionaries in ward council simply because they went somewhere he didn't want them to go. He also called our mission president to complain to him about us. Nice. After that the rest of Sunday was awesome though! Lessons were all great and elders quorum was good. We went home and the monroe elders were at our apartment for dinner. They brought steak and we made mashed potatoes and pb&j. Great meal. Then we went to the stake center and got ice cream with all the missionaries. The high council talked with us and told us about how we have angels surrounding us and protecting us, it was super cool. Then they told us that they know we are where we're supposed to be, super cool stories behind that. Overall a great day! 

Love all of you, stay safe! Have fun and be good/do good in school! 

-Elder Tolman