Howdy howdy howd it do! I've given up on trying to keep proper English. I've decided that will be part of my "relearning phase" that I'm going to have to go through when I get back. Who said English speaking wasn't a foreign language?
Soooo this week this week this week. What a journey. Lot's of ups and downs. I'm just gonna ramble, and good luck trying to make sense of what I say. We finally got in contact with a referral that we've been trying to contact for a month now, so I was super stoked for that. We go down to her house, talk to her (back story, this referral was supposed to be super promising) and find out she's just interested in all religions, won't convert, husbands a devout Southern Baptist, and basically a whole lot less promising then we thought she'd be. When we came to her door though she saw us and raised her arms in the air and said " Oh my pilgrims!" I guess that's what we are now. Pilgrims! Haha but they have two boys and gosh I'm tellin you what. They're great people. But from what it sounds like the husband's going to be a problem.
Have a mentioned yet my increasing dislike of husbands? Well if I have you get to hear it again. We talk to and pray with these women, who are interested, feel the spirit, and want us to come back, and then we do and often the husband opens up and turns us away. It's So frustrating! With Beth though (the referral) she offered to have us back over for dinner, so that's our one shot! At least when we talk to her we'll have the spirit with us and then we'll know that she knows and it'll be up to her to act.
Funny story, well stories, two times this week we've caught people taking pictures of us. Once in a subway, and once at a thanksgiving dealio at the church building. At subway it was this asian guy that tried to act like he was texting. Problem was his thumbs weren't moving. After he took the picture though he didn't even stay in line to order food! I guess he got what he needed and left! Haha. The other time was when we were at the stake center, eating with some other elder's ward mission leader's family and one of his nieces of family friends, same thing. Acted like she was texting, but this time the flash went off. Haha so it was wayyyy obvious. Elder Clontz turned to her and said "did you just take a picture of us?" She said "No..uh well ya.." I guess she's friends with President Taylor's son so she took a pic of us and sent it to him.
For Thanksgiving though we spent the morning playing football with the wards in the Norman area. Our ward is too old to want to do anything like that so we came up and played with them. It was awesome! Kinda hard though cause it totally reminded me of playing across the house with the family back home. The only thing missing this time was your cinnamon rolls mom! Gosh dang good stuff. But after that we went to our bishop's house and had Thanksgiving lunch/dinner there. It was some good food. After that we just went back to the apartment and had to stay there for the rest of the day! Looong day. But journal writing, letter writing, and scriptures keep you entertained.
Friday we had another thanksgiving with a family in our ward. It was BBQ. So good! These folks out here know how to BBQ! Oh just remembered, I got your package Mom with all the pictures. They were awesome. Absolutely loved it! Shout out to all friends and family. Feel free to send pictures my way. I love to brag to the comp and any other elder that comes on exchanges about y'all. Because y'all are AMAZING!! Guess what I'm picking up too? Sewing! Never thought I'd say that in my life. But I have three slacks that have taken some damage from getting caught up in the gear thingy of my bike. So frustrating. You'd think after doing it once I'd learn! Nope, took three times. So I've been sewing quite a bit this last week. I'm pretty much a jack of all trades now. Hah I did lose a needle in the couch though... Hope to never find it again, because I'm sure it'll be a painful experience. And when I say lost it in the couch I don't mean it the cracks, I mean like in the places where you sit. So maybe in the near future you might hear a story about that.
Now you might notice that I haven't mentioned much about missionary work yet. That's the "down" part of this week. We've had some great experiences with heavenly gifting (meaning offering to pray with people.) I can't tell you how many times we've asked to pray with people, they say yes, and we find out that they've had a death in the family or are just going through a really hard time and need help in their life. We say the prayer with them and they thank us, but once we ask to come again and share our message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can find solace and strength through it they say 'no thanks'. I don't understand it! The military family-- we haven't been able to meet with them yet, which is also something else that just stunk about this week. He's gone away working in the oil fields, and she's been busy with family over Thanksgiving weekend and all that jazz. Getting in contact with folks out here is another challenge that missionaries face across the board. We have a few other investigators, but they just aren't progressing (keeping commitments) and so we're trying to find people who are serious about changing their lives and really wanting to know and have that desire to find the truth. Time's about up, Elder Townsend is threatening to skip lunch if I don't get off. Ha ya right. Anyways I love each and every one of you. Like always, I pray for everyone back home, and just a thought. EVERY MEMBER IS A MISSIONARY!!!!! That really is the only way we find success, is through members. LOVE YOUUU!!!
Elder Traasdahl
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