Jolly Old Santa Maria

Hi! Been another wild week. But a different kind of wild week. Waterbury is a unique ward. Very unique, but I enjoy it. The area in general has been tough for me. The work here. We were talking the other day with the Spanish Elders; there’s so much sin here. I’m sure not any more than Hartford, but it seems to be more in the open here. Iniquity. Its too bad. Its getting harder and harder for me to relate to people in that sense. I feel I get removed from “real life” at times (yea I know, I'm a missionary and I am). I just can’t understand how people can live the way they do without either going crazy, starting to really question, searching for something, or whatever people do when they ponder their purpose in life. Whatever it is, I don’t know. Its like people loose touch with their souls. With their spirits. I’ve had people tell me they don’t care. That their purpose is to get the money or something like that. If there was a God and He answered prayers, would you want to know? "Nope. I don’t care." Like I said, I don’t get it. I can’t get it anymore. Its sad. Satan leads us by the neck with a flaxen chord until he can bind us with chains forever! 2 Ne 26. Its soo easy to forget the little things and let those lead you to medium things and suddenly big things appear to be little things and you don’t care anymore and you’re in big trouble but the world is telling you you are fine and you’ve totally lost touch and on and on and on. THREE Elders got sent home from my mission because of some stupid thing they did that they let get out of control. Small and simple things. That was this past week. Crazy huh. If there’s God, there’s Satan. If there’s a higher power for good, there’s a power for evil, whether you want to call them God and Satan or not. Hot/cold. Happy/sad.

Well gosh, sorry to be such a downer! I’m quite happy at the moment! Its just HARD to see people here be so blind! And I don’t even mean to say they are blind because they won’t accept the doctrines of the Restoration and LDS church. People are blind to good morals and things like that. The world is a hard place.

Ha, again, sorry to be more pessimistic this week. There has been some good things! Oh but we did part ways with one of our investigators who was asking some of the questions. The Bible scholar. We were sitting there with her at the end of out last appt and I could think of a hundred things to say to her, scriptures to read etc, but as I sat there I just knew that nothing I was going to say was going to change this woman's heart. So I wasn’t going to push it. It would be a waste. She’s a very nice woman and maybe someday it will click for her. Hope so!

Earlier this week was the good part. I was just looking at my journal. On Wednesday I wrote “Today was a good day. The thing I can say about today is that I think I did a little better than yesterday.” I remember that feeling and it felt really good. That was my first legitimately positive day I had had in a while. Consistent. I really struggle with consistency it seems. Anyway, I must just be going through some trials. Some tests.

Elder Mansfield is doing alright. I think he’s doing good actually. Its just a hard thing to tell. Its hard for me to remember exactly what I was like back at that point of my mission, because I know I definitely have come a long long long way. So I gotta cut him some slack. He’s not me and I can’t make him great in a week, or a transfer. Oh speaking of transfers, it was transfer calls last night and I’m getting transferred to New Canaan! Just kidding I’m staying in Waterbury with Elder Mansfield. But I knew that was happening already. Ha I’m so funny huh.

So the other night we ate at this members house who lives exactly across the street from a track at a high school. I was easily talked into running a lap after dinner by my companion. I don’t know how I did it after dinner cause I was pretty full. But I went over there and ran 400 in my loafers. One minute ten seconds. Ha! Not bad eh? I gotta say it felt amazing. It was such a nice feeling to just RUN! Just go! Not just jog, but really expend some energy and push myself. Seriously I can’t remember the last time I did that. It was great. But the after math was not so great. Don’t get in a car and drive for a half hour after you’ve pushed your muscles about as hard as they go. It’s a real bad idea. Ha ha I got some nasty shin splints! My calves are still a little sore! But it was worth it probably.

Speaking of running, I’ve been able to run in the morning a little bit because I’ve convinced my companion to go walking in the morning. Its not much, but at least he’s doing something to exercise and be obedient. I’m working on getting him to run. He’ll come around. I always tell him, come on man, just 5 minutes. He’ll come around. I just run in large circles around him while he walks. Great.

We haven’t done much teaching this week unfortunately. Been a hard week. Lots of cancellations. It’s a rough gig sometimes! I always wonder what it would be like to be somewhere south of the Rio Grande. Be teaching all the time. Be busy everyday. But I’m in Connecticut for a reason, and I've got some stuff to learn from this type of work. And I am learning a lot. I’m learning an insane amount. Its fantastic and I thank the Lord every day that I can be here. Okay well that’s all I guess I got today. Hope all is well everyone! 13 months can you believe that? I’m on the downhill. Doesn’t feel like it. Doesn’t seem to go especially fast or slow for me. Just goes. Great.

Love David

OH the weather has been amazing and has made doing a lot of the work so much more enjoyable. Been around 70 give or take almost every single day! Except today is a bit foggy.