This last week was pretty intense. Won't lie to you on
that one. I feel like I saw the whole mission three days of the week. It
was a bit much. It's good to be back to an almost normal schedule
again.
So first, we had the Meet the Ballard's meeting. That was
odd. Sister Ballard talked about stuff that we all learned in
the MTC (like, how to mark your scriptures, etc). She was a little
intense. President Ballard seemed
compelling and motivated and open to learning how missionary work works
in the Oregon Portland mission. He will be great for the mission. Sister
Ballard took about a gagillion pictures throughout the whole meeting
and afterwards as well. Expect a ton of photos to be emailed to you mom.
After she takes them she asks us for your emails and phone numbers. ha,
as if I memorized phone numbers.
The next day was Mission Leadership Council. It was
the first day in a long time that it felt like an actual council. Nobody
was afraid to pipe up and chip in, and President Ballard didn't have
any preconceived ideas about what we were doing wrong. It was good to
have an open discussion about a lot of things in the mission. We could
all tell that Pres is just spinning wheels at this point trying to find
some sort of traction. He has no idea what he's doing... yet. He'll get
there. I give it about a month or two before he starts completely
revamping the way the entire mission is run. It'll be a really good
change for the missionaries for sure.
The next day was the 4th of July. We spent it at a
block party BBQ with a ward missionary playing basketball out in the
street in our proselyting clothes. It was super hot that day too. Then
we played chess with D. G. and his kids, and then we went to go
watch fireworks with a bunch of other missionaries and president. I got
to see some of the members from the West Linn Ward that night. It was
good to see them again. I got to teach the Ballards' kids sime dance
moves that night. That was fun. I have never really been a big fan of
fireworks until I came on my mission. Both years I've been close enough
to the fireworks that I can feel the concussive force of the explosions.
It's amazing to feel! I tried to take a picture of me eating the
fireworks, but it didn't quite work out.
Other than that, we were able to set new baptismal
dates for the R's and to address some of the oldest girl's concerns.
When we retaught the word of wisdom this last week she totally caught
the vision of it. She still loves tea and coffee, but she knows now more
of the why behind it. I feel like that's all people ever really need to
know- why things are the way they are. When people know why Jesus
Christ matters, they'll do things they would have never thought of doing
before just to obtain that peace that comes with knowing that we can be
forgiven and that we can forget the pain of past decisions. It's a
simple process, but so worth it. it includes living according to our
faith, repenting, making and keeping covenants/promises with God,
receiving and following the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. If we
can just do those things, peace, joy, love, patience, and every other
good thing that comes with God is ours. The why behind Jesus Christ is
that our lives can have better quality when we come closer to him. Pain
and grief can be gone forever through him. I love it. I feel it. I know
it to be true.
There's this other non member kid that is interested
in the oldest R. girl. He comes to church every week now. He nearly
went to Young Women's last week just to be with her. It's pretty funny.
fortunately he was interested in learning about the church well before
he met the Rs. he moved up here with some family friends from
Georgia. He's honestly just a cool kid. We
hope to pick him up as an investigator tomorrow, but we'll see what
happens.
We also went to a half way house to try and find an
old former investigator, and we found G. instead. we told him that
we go to church, just across the street. He asked us if we were Mormon,
and we said yes. He asked if we play basketball, and I told him that we
do every Wednesday night and every Saturday morning and that he was
welcome to come if he wanted. He was the most polite man I've ever met.
He asked us if he was welcome there, even though he just got out of
prison, we told him absolutely. We didn't think much of it till Saturday
morning when he showed up. HE WAS THE BEST ONE ON THE COURT!!!!! holy
cow! and we've got some goooooood people that play with us. He was a
little rusty to begin with, but then after 5 minutes all the rust came
off and he was sinking 3's all day and blocking people left and right. I
was a little wary that he might get aggressive since he probably played
in prison. He was actually the most polite player out there. I was
completely and totally astounded. A ward missionary gave him a full
suit, tie, shoes, socks, belt, etc get up so that he could come to
church the next day, and we taught him the first lesson while taking him
back to his place. It was awesome. He caught on the idea that the
message of Christ needed to be spread to the whole world very quickly. I
have high hopes for G. :)
Love you all. Hope you haven't been injured on the 4th because of fireworks or something like that. Stay zesty out there!
your Elder Lloyd
