4-29-13

I am on the road to Freeport, Kansas where there might be 2 or 3 houses. There's a lot of country like this wherever you go. It was funny because we got a referral down that road where I am taking that picture and when we got out of the car, like 20 cows stopped eating the grass and just stared at us. There's also another picture I took last night of an alpaca that was a little too interested in us. I don't know if you'll be able to see the animal but it's there, haha.

Family,

Well how was birthday week? We have another one coming up this Wednesday. Dad is turning a young 51 years young. Dallin had his golden birthday. I hit mine when I was 9 and Cody's when he was 13 and Caitlin's last year. That's great to hear that Caitlin and Billy are safe and sound in Arizona. They'll have DC in their memories for a long time, that's for sure. 

Okay now for my week. I had several eye opening experiences and some unique ones too. I was surprised when you didn't comment at all about how the Leavitt's are in my ward here in Wellington because we all love that family. Anyways, Mondays are nice and relaxing. We just stay inside all day and do e-mail, letter writing, and pool playing. The members we live with are cool. He was in the military for like 30 years or something like that and is retired and I don't know Sister Brundage's story but she's here haha! She's like 6'2'' or something like that and is taller than my companion. So it's fun to have height competition. Anyways, on to last Monday. Once P-day ended, we headed out to Anthony: one of the small towns we go to on a regular basis. Nothing too big happened that night other than an RCLA lesson. On Tuesday, we had my first district meeting here in this new district. We go to Wichita for the meetings which is like close to an hour away. So Monday's weather was pretty warm  but came with some wind. Oh, before I forget, Dad doesn't have to send me weather updates anymore. We get it on the phone now. Tuesday, however, was a different story. It dropped down to like the low 30's and was really cold. I wasn't really prepared for that weather but it changed pretty quick. The meeting went well as I got to know the missionaries in my district. I have sisters in my district now, so I am happy. The other missionaries are really solid hard workers. One is MTC-fresh. After a good lunch at Braum's (phenomenal ice cream and burger place) we went to work in Belle Plaine and then Wellington while setting a baptismal date for one of our investigators who was supposed to come to church yesterday but didn't. It made me sad. Tuesday I was feeling kind of down because I wanted to teach more typical lessons instead of these short little talks that we have with our investigators. We were also teaching this one guy who smokes a ton and is baptist. He says he'll never change churches but just wants to learn. The Book of Mormon will change that, though, haha! One of the people we have on baptismal date, we saw on Wednesday. He has a huge mountain man beard. He also is very sarcastic. So I had to be very serious with him. And when I want to be serious, there's no fooling around. I made sure he understood what he's getting himself into when he gets baptized later next month. Fortunately he understood. He gets off topic quite easily. Which isn't a bad thing, but we're supposed to teach him. Not him teaching us. He later shaved off his whole beard when we saw him later in the day. We then went north about 10 miles to Harper, Kansas which is about the same size of Anthony (2,000-3,000 people). We had a spanish team-up come with us back to Anthony to teach this couple: one is white and one is a Latino. While we were waiting for our team-up, I was talking to his roomate who spoke mainly Spanish. I always love speaking Spanish to people. I have a lot of opportunities to too because there are many here in the area. More on that later. Anyways, we taught this one couple and invited them to baptism on May 25th! The spirit was powerfully strong and told me to do it. They will have issues getting to church but we'll help them out with that when we go over next time this week. But if they follow the commandment to be baptized and confirmed they will be greatly blessed. Thursday was a good day as well. It was also Jeremy's year mark in the Philippines. We had a lesson in Wellington with a lady that sleeps like 15 hours a day and smokes a ton! Whenever I go into a home where someone smokes, my asthma acts up and bugs me. But we taught her about the Word of Wisdom, among other things, and invited her to be baptized whenever she stops smoking. She said no and is quite stubborn. We do our shopping now either on Friday or Thursday depending on whether or not we're in Wellington. There's a small Wal-Mart there so I'm good. We don't shop on P-day because the only store in Argonia is the gas station mart.  Friday was several people's birthdays. Other than Dallin, it was Elder Casper's birthday. He was my first zone leader and is now an assistant to the president. It was also the birthday of one of the granddaughters of the members we live with. So there was quite a party going on upstairs even though she was having a rough day. The rest of the day was "eh". We got dressed in normal clothes and brought missionary clothes to Anthony so that we could do some service for a couple of people. Too bad both of them fell through. Turns out, the city was having a quilt show the next day and needed help setting up. So after changing back into our proselyting clothes, we helped some old people with their job. Hey, I got a free Gatorade out of it...and pringles. I saw some plaques in the gym they were setting up in for Anthony high school that date back to 1888. We were 2 of 3 people there that were under 20 years old. Probably 2 of 3 under 40 years old. We placed flowers, moved PVC pipes, and set up a quilt. It was fun on a cool, rainy day. Then came Saturday. Oh, Saturday, how I disliked you. We went to Caldwell where seemingly nobody is interested in the gospel. It was also a day where I was just very unhappy throughout the day. That actually was the trend throughout much of the past week: just not being happy. But Saturday was just the top of the peak of unhappiness. Satan was doing his best to get into my mind stupid Mr. immorality. We went to the bathroom at the only gas station in town there and all over the walls covered pictures of mostly naked women. It hurts me to see, looking back on all my experiences in this regard, how much this has hurt the modern world. It reminds me of Elder Cook's CES fireside talk at BYU-Idaho last year who talks about not wearing a mask. I suggest you watch that one. It was good. Anyways, we also talked to this household with this one guy who seemed kinda sorta interested but said he literally has 3 wives. That bugged me that he just said that to us. There were 3 women living in the same house as 2 men but as far as participating in immoral behavior, I'm just glad they didn't tell me any of that. They were also breaking the word of wisdom as we spoke to them. I don't understand why people smoke. What good does it do and how does it look cool? Anyways, later we met a very nice Jehovah's Witness lady who we had a nice conversation with on her porch for about a half hour. Once we left, we hit up Freeport (that is where 2 of the pictures I took were taken) and called it a night. After church on Sunday, we went to Harper again where we talked to this one lady who smokes a ton and noticed how the giant wasps are emerging from there dormant state of winter. At 4 yesterday we went down to Harper with the Spanish team-up and for the next 2 hours or so, I was speaking mainly Spanish. We talked to this one guy for only like 5 minutes and scheduled and appointment with him then went over to this one house with several people who spoke only Spanish and like 2 who spoke English fluently. They were bashing with us in Spanish (mainly with me because I was the only one with a tie on that could speak Spanish fairly well) and since I don't understand Spanish as well as I speak it they thought I was at a loss for words and they won the conversation. They were breaking the Word of Wisdom too and when we got there, handed all 3 of us iced teas. Of course, I denied it but they kind of got offended. I was later told to accept it but don't drink it just to show respect and gratefulness. I didn't care because then it would fall into the hands of someone else who would be breaking the word of wisdom. Once we were done with that experience, we went home for dinner, tracted the small town of Milan (that's where I met the alpaca and the llama). At the end of the night, we now have 1 mile left to use for the rest of the month. Let's see how frugal we can be, haha. 

Now to answer your unanswered questions. That is awesome that Jayson finally got a haircut. That boy needs to figure out life. Of course I was a rebellious child at his age. I think my life turned out pretty good. So I think this is just a phase for him. About my companion, I get along well with Elder Dansie. He's a hard worker and wants to bring people to the gospel. Just like all of my companions (and myself), he has things to work on. But he is good and he knows what he's doing. Dad, about the tornadoes and stuff, I am not sure what we'll do in an emergency. Since it is tornado season, maybe we should figure that out, haha! But I would love to see a tornado here. There were a couple that were here last year that barely missed Anthony. Our ward doesn't give us too many referrals because it's quite a small ward. Only like 60 people attend every week. It should be a branch but when it had enough people to call it a ward, they started tapering off again. YES! I do remember the Olsens! That's cool that you were so close to that member of the seventy. I was sad when the Olsen's left. Hopefully families keep moving into our ward and experiencing the love that is there. So apparently the building here in Wellington is getting an extension to it in July. I was very very surprised by this news because our ward is super super small and I don't think extending the building will do anything. Now the Fleming Park ward needs an extension. The foyers and the overflow were packed every week. Well I think that's it for me. I will talk to you later. OH WAIT I FORGOT to ask you: Why did Cody send me the exact same letter he sent me back in September or October or something like that? Well now that's it. Until next week. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Out there is home. Home, Auto. And it's in trouble"

"It is not necessary for us to go back."

"AH!.........I'm the captain of this ship. And I say that we go back."