September 4, 2012

So, I finally got some time on the computer to email at the library. I have half an hour instead of two hours but it's better than best buy. I really don't know what to say...nothing that exciting has happened. I bought some peanut butter crunch...that's the highlight of the week. There are some Deaf people around that I've met, who have been harsh towards me - because I can hear. I don't like being teased for the lack of a disablilty. This woman, Sharon, grew up jewish but doesn't actively practice her religion. She has been around mormons her whole life so she's considered a "dry mormon". She was explaining that the religions are very similar and the main difference, is that the sabbath is on saturday for jews and sunday for mormons. I didn't want to get into it because she is old and thinks she's heard it all.

She made us lunch half an hour before our dinner appointment. I didn't find out about our dinner appointment until she started boiling a bag of pork. Elder Mercy didn't bother telling me I guess... I sat at the table as she cooked and prepared this extravagant meal with a fancy salad, refried beans, and some yummy pork sandwiches. Nothing to drink, so we grabbed some water bottles on the way out. I have never seen so many water bottles since I've been in California. It must be all the craze to get a whole bunch and recycle the bottles. Is Utah starting a water bottle fad?? Anyway, we were half an hour late to our dinner appointment and when we got there, the sister who was going to feed us looked a mess, and said that things are just too crazy for dinner at the moment, and she had to go to work in a little while, so she handed us some money and said let me know what you decide to eat. I put the money in the car.

The white handbook clearly states "Do not accept money from...members..(or anyone)" I am always hesitant to take people's money because I know they worked for it and they could go do something better than feed the missionaries. It's hard to say "sorry, we cannot accept any money" when they are so nice and don't mean any harm...we have almost 50 bucks saved up from members saying "here, go get some dinner" we have already spent quite a bit of what we had before but we have about $50 right now. We never have time to eat dinner unless it's an appointment (which I wont find out about) so we just keep saving the money. What should we do with the money? any suggestions? Well, I'm not being trained anymore...technically. I just started my 3rd transfer!

I've applied to volunteer at the school for the deaf. We've been there many times before but I was never officially a volunteer. I will have a picture ID and I have to submit to their rules and everything. It's like not being a missionary because you can't wear missionary clothes, you can't bring up any gospel topics to anyone, you have to go by your first name...and so on. I'm probably going to set up a meeting with one of the administrators and the mission president so they can argue about it. I really don't care what we do as long as it is necessary for growth in the church. And since we can't teach people who have the ability to hear, the school for the deaf is a good place to meet deaf people and become friends and hopefully, eventually, they will be interested in the church.

Since I've been out, we've taught maybe 5 or 6 people and one of them has a baptism date. Sept. 29. So we'll see how that goes. Honestly, I think she is way to hyper to understand what's really going on. Sure, she should just get baptized and move on, but I feel like she is still an investigator we need to take seriously. 8 year olds can't understand everything right away, and I understand that, so maybe it's best that we just get it over with. We'll have to keep teaching her of course, since her parents don't know english or sign language. Her grandma is learning sign language, so that's good.

I know this is the most boring email I've sent so far, but you can only expect more boring ones. Maybe by the end of the year, something really exciting will happen. Thanks for reading and suffering through my dull dialogue. I'll work on making things more . . . imagination oriented. anyway, have fun whatever you're doing.

Elder Brian Ross Peck