11-19-12

Family,

 

As far as Christmas stuff goes, I made a list of things that I potentially needed but left the list in my other planner at home. But don't worry, I'm going to try to send a letter to you this week with the harvester, my mission president's christmas card, and that list that you might possibly need as for things to get. Just remember, missionaries could always have ties. Wow, Cody. You sure asked for a lot for your birthday. Of course you remember my birthday this year and how simple it was. But maybe you just want a little more sizzle to it (think of the quote from the movie "Cars"). That's hilarious that he gets up thinking it's time for seminary in the middle of the night. I only did that once. That was embarassing for me. Just good thing you can't drive yet and go to the church when there's no one there. Speaking of flat stanleys, does Sister Beebe need more pictures of the flat stanley she sent me? I left it in another car and will get it back if need be or just toss it. Congratulations on getting that job if I haven't said that already. It will be a great opportunity for you and hopefully you can change the lives of many people and kids at a rich school. Your principal is Mr. Mizel right? He was my Mesa Verde principal all 3 years.

 

But, yeah I was having a tough time adjusting to a new phase in missionary life. Now I am over it and Elder Black talks much more than I did at that stage of my mission. So he's a really good support beam when I'm feeling down or can't think of anyone for us to go see. He reminds me a ton of Billy because of how quiet he is and his physical looks. Especially the way he talks. Billy is totally like him. But now, we've got into the groove of things and the only things that are lacking right now are our key indicators. We had 1 member present all of last week and need to get better. The standard of excellence is 6 and we haven't done that since September. This past week we also had my second zone conference ever. That is where all the missionaries from East Salina, Topeka, and Olathe stakes come together and is presided by the mission president and all the missionaries get trained in various aspects of missionary teaching. We implemented a new memorization requirement and every missionary now has to memorize D&C 4. Well, in my missionary preparation class at BYU-Idaho, that was our final exam. So I already had it memorized, I just had to dust off the cobwebs. I also saw Elder Clare there. I don't know if I'll see him again. I think I will but we'll have to wait and see. He became the zone leader in Topeka. It was fun to have a missionary reunion. We also had 4 people with a baptismal date as of yesterday. But since none of them came to church yesterday, it went down to 1. We'll have to re-set a date for 2 of them and the other 1 we'll probably end up dropping pretty soon here. It was a nice bike week. Our branch mission leader sisn't want us biking into town anymore so  all we had to do was bike around town and to St. George a couple of times. Oh, and I also had a pretty cool experience. So, we were biking back to Wamego on the main highway that goes from Manhattan to Wamego and right as we entered the highway, I got a flat tire very quickly. Our dinner appointment was going to pick us up in 10 minutes and we were 7 miles from Wamego. Now is where the tender mercies of the Lord come into play. Brother Earl (our branch mission leader) was driving back from work and stopped to pick us up. He is also a really talented bike repairman so while we were at dinner, he fixed it up for me. Things like that have happened a lot on my mission thus far and I realize how merciful the Lord is with His missionaries. I also got a Bud-cut on Saturday (Bud for Bud Crouch) and it feels like he did a 4-2 haircut. That might be the one thing I miss about home: the amazing haircuts that were worry-free. I got your package with the acne stuff and all. so don't worry about me.

 

To answer your questions, we are going to have Thanksgiving at the Clemens. They always make great food and she is like my second Mom, she takes care of us so well. We will also be playing in the Turkey Bowl that morning so I am way excited. We haven't had dinner with the Chandlers in a while but we are signed up to go and have dinner with them this coming Saturday. I definitely do have my favorite families to eat with and see. But I'm not going to name them because that would be rude. I don't ever get used to being in a member's home as compared to an investigators home. But hopefully they can feel the spirit that we bring into their home. Oh, I also had a really crazy experience. So, we were going to check on a less-active recent convert who lives in the home of a guy who literally seems drunk half the time. We knocked and the crazy man invited us in. He's usually a really nice guy and we get along. But today he was literally burning incense old-testament style and it was smoking all over the room. He wouldn't let us leave. So we just left and he followed us and talked with him outside. We never got to talk to the recent convert because he was in the shower. I was so relieved when we finally left the room. At first, when we entered, the spirit totally left the room and told me to do the same. I didn't know what it was at first but then he told us it was incense. That was one of those crazy missionary moments.

 

Anyways, on to Dad's e-mail. Sounds like you had another busy week. Is that really all the Corolla needed? And high school girl drivers can be so reckless when driving if you could tell, haha. I won't talk much about your E-mail but I love hearing all the things that go on in a bishop's life and your life too. That's funny how you talked about how Dallin and Erin have a two bedroom floor and they should stay in separate rooms. I literally laughed out loud when I read that. That work is going pretty good and of course I talked a lot about that in the big e-mail. The weather is also San Diego-like in the mid-60's this week. It's fairly abnormal for the weather to be like this this time of the year for here. But hey, I like it, haha. We get the car every other week and bike everywhere else. Thanks to both Mom and Dad for sending me letters and for all the support you give. And thanks to all who read this and support me and my companion. We try our best to work hard even if it may be against what the world says and wants. Love,

 

Elder Sutherland

 

PS: "My name's Mater. Like Ta-Mater. But without the Ta. What's your name?"

"Wait, you don't know my name?"

"No, I know your name. Is your name Mater too?"

"What?! No."

...

"I'm an fast [don't know what he syas there] instrument of speed and aerodynamics."

"Ya hurt you wha?"

"I'm a very famous racecar!"