September 5, 2016
Hi guys!
Well this has been another interesting week. Luckily there was a pretty good mix of positive in with the negative, so it felt like a better week than the one before.
Well, in terms of teaching, we did marginally better. We taught two more lessons than the previous week. But we still had the majority of our scheduled lessons cancel. It was rough. Tuesday was especially rough. All our lessons, except one short lesson to a less active family, canceled, and to rub dirt in the wound, one of the families we've been teaching straight up dropped us. And they didn't even drop us in person, they did it via text, so that was extra cold. Thankfully it wasn't any of our on dates or progressing. But it was still a downer. And with everything cancelling and falling through, and with no referrals to contact, we were basically left with nothing to do, and rather discouraged. So to help us feel better, we got with another companionship and pranked the Zone Leaders' apartment. :) And after our one lesson that did happen, we got some ice cream and ate our feelings.
Not much interesting happened the rest of the week. More appointments cancelled, and we still haven't been able to find any new investigators. But Tuesday was the worst day.
However, we had a really good weekend. The big highlight was Reagan's baptism and confirmation! It went wonderfully! There was so much support. A lot of Greg and Reagan's family came for the baptism, in addition to a lot of people from the ward, and a few people from their previous ward. The stake president was also there, and former Elder Fairbanks drove down from BYU to be at the baptism. And there was a special musical number by Brad and Shae Robins (Brad is the singer from Gentri who's become a fellowshipper for Reagan), which was really good, and also pretty cool that we had a semi-celebrity perform at the baptism. To top it off, Greg, Reagan's formerly less active husband, was able to perform the baptism.
The confirmation on Sunday went really well too. Bishop confirmed her and gave her a very beautiful blessing. President Smith also came to our ward to be at the confirmation, and that was really cool to see the mission president at our sacrament meeting. And ward was immensely supportive of Reagan, and it actually blew President away at how welcoming and supportive they were. It's a good ward. And it was a good weekend. And these aren't all the details, but you get the gist of it.
To finish the week off, we got a last minute appointment with Mona and household, and began the new member lessons. And although Maria missed the lesson, we were able to talk to her for a few minutes after, and she's excited to move forward with baptism and is on date for September 17!
So at least we're still having some success. We still need to find more people to teach though, that's the problem. With that family dropping us, and with Reagan getting baptized along with the other
baptisms we've had lately, we are down to only two investigators (well three, but we haven't seem Ann in over a month), Maria and Ryan. So we're basically starting over. Hopefully we'll start finding lots more this upcoming week, and in future weeks!
Well, I'd like to end with a funny experience from P-Day. You may be wondering about the mention of decapitation in the title of this email newsletter. Well...So last week, Elder Howard and I took our districts on a hike in Snow Canyon. We went to the lava tube, the same one I went to with Elder Fairbanks. Elder Howard picked us up, and then we met all the sisters at my stake center. That was where I had a little mishap and almost got decapitated.
Before Elder Howard's sisters showed up, my sisters pulled up and they had a question for me so they rolled down their window and I rolled down mine and stuck my head out of the window to talk to them. Meanwhile, Elder Howard (the driver) was attempting to play with Elder Stevens's window, but he actually hit the control button for my window. He was trying to roll the other window up, which means he accidentally rolled my window up...on my freaking head! The window caught me right under my chin on the left side and forced the top of my head all the way up until it stopped and the window couldn't move further up. So now my head is firmly wedged in this window, my jaw is clenched really hard, and there's a pane of blunt glass trying to pass through my lower jaw, and I can't figure out what the fetch is going on. Meanwhile Elder Howard, still thinks he's controlling the other
window, and is confused why it's not working, so he keeps hitting the up button! I'm gagging and squirming in discomfort, and finally after a few seconds, Elder Howard realized his mistake and released the window. This was his thought process he said: "Huh, why won't this window work? That's really weird. I'm pushing the button. Hey Elder Oswald what are you doing? Stop goofing off- oh I'm killing you."
The Sisters were just staring like "what on Earth is happening right now?!" After I got my head out of the window guillotine, Elder Howard called out "hey sisters, sorry for trying to kill your district leader".
So that was interesting and kinda scary and pretty funny. It freaking hurt! The left side of my chin was kinda red and swollen and really sore. And it actually still hurts a week after. But in hindsight,
since I didn't die, that was freaking hilarious! Recounting that story just makes me feel happy. It was scary and painful at the time (and it's still a little painful), but it's just one of those ridiculous "what the what?!" moments that are just really fun to look back on. Also Elder Howard is a good friend so this is another thing we can laugh about together.
Well that's about all for this week. Some good things, some negative things, and a lot of laughing (and some facial pain to go with it).
Well, have a great week!
-Elder Oswald
Assorted pictures from Reagan's baptism on Saturday. The big group at the bottom is the people who were involved in fellowshipping Greg and Reagan. They've got a pretty big group, and that's not even including the ones who couldn't make it or slipped out before the picture!
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