12-23-13

Making Christmas cookies!

 A little tiny tree and presents!

Family,

So this week was warm and then cold. I got the letter and package with the cookies and popcorn. That was very nice of you. Elder Clay and I call the snickerdoodles Scooby snacks because they're just so delicious. So thank you. I enjoyed the letter from Cody and Jayson. Jayson's letter was filled with trunky questions but it was totally cute. Elder Clay "aaahh"-ed at some of them. As far as the Skype is concerned, I'm still not 100% sure where and when but my plan is to call you right before and say get on. I'm either going to do it in the mid-afternoon in Pratt where we're going to have dinner or we're going to do it in the early afternoon here in Kingman at Brother Waters' house. So I'll just call you from the member's phone and say get on. I hope that's okay with you because I assume you'll be available all day.

Okay my week this week was better but still kind of tough. There's still plenty of opposition here but we see the hand in the Lord all the time. Monday was nice and warm. It got up to like 71 degrees in the afternoon where the Sisters and us made sugar cookies at the Greenlaws house. That's the picture that I sent to you. I also sent you one of them on their way to Wichita for transfers on Wednesday. We miss her but are glad to have Sister Miller in our district now. On Monday night we went caroling to various homes as a branch for FHE. It was fun. 

Tuesday we began service at the Kingman county recycle plant. The guy in charge there was super grateful for our help because all the volunteers he works with are convicted criminals and sometimes don't get the job done correctly. So we helped unload some bales of wood palates. I don't really remember what happened on both Wednesday and Tuesday just that during weekly planning we said bye to Sister Bitter. Oh, we did walk way far up North and get a new potential investigator. That was the main highlight of the day. The investigators that we did have an appointment with at night after dinner weren't all at home. They finally did arrive but only after we were waiting for like 45-60 minutes. So we didn't have time to teach a lesson at all. So that was a bummer. 

Thursday we did more service at the recycle plant where the guy in charge went and bought us some drinks and cookies. He is super nice and we'll try and grab his address to be able to go by and teach about the gospel to him and his family sometime. We wore real service clothes this time because last time we wore our church clothes and they got all dirty from the bales inside the truck we were working in. This time we helped load these huge bales of compressed cardboard boxes. Boy were these heavy. We had a jack to use but we really enjoyed the work that we did. After, we had another appointment with one of our investigators. She said that she knows it's true but she's afraid to leave her old life behind to commit to this life and then miss everything that she had before. She was out of town this weekend...I think. So she couldn't come to church. We are really showing care for her and want the best for her. She knows what she needs to do but she's just not committing us much as she needs to. Another thing that's kind of frustrating is that there are many distractions there. People coming in and out and disrupting the spirit. At the end of the lesson, she had a friend come in and pick up her son who was being babysat. We'll be praying for her and working with her. We had 4 appointment today but only one held. So that was a bummer. 

Friday was a little bit of a better day. We did some more service for one of our investigator's daughters at the Kingman rec center by setting up table and chairs and baking cookies. Yes, Mom, I actually baked some cookies without adult supervision. Aren't you proud of me? JK. We also went to Pratt and had district meeting. It was a great meeting as I provided a decent training on lesson one, the restoration. I hope it aroused the district to a greater sense of their duty. I also found out today (meaning 12/23/13) that Elder Andrus is a district leader now. I'm so proud of that kid. He's an awesome missionary now in the MIM instead of the KWM. That reminds me, I can't believe the sisters that came out with me are home now. Isn't that crazy?! Time sure flies by when you're in the service of our God. I'm looking forward to serving well for the rest of my mission. I'm also looking forward to skyping all of you at home. That'll be fun. We'll get an hour again. But just like I mentioned above, I'll call your right before and say get on. 

Saturday was a full Kingman day yet again. In the early part of the day, it started to have freezing rain. Then later in the day it turned into snow. So we got like 6 inches of snow this past weekend and as a result it cancelled church. So I haven't taken the sacrament in over a week now. I'm going less active! Just kidding, just kidding. But Saturday was totally sweet!!! Since the weather was terrible, everybody was home and inside because they couldn't go anywhere. We taught 3 lessons this day and got 4 new investigators. It was totally cool to see the Lord bless us with this kind of weather to make our hearts warm up a bit because of the amount of work that we are doing. The appointment that we were looking forward to at night that night cancelled because one of the investigators got sick and had to re-schedule. I think the Lord blessed us with a snow day not only to bless us but to try us. Even though Elder Clay loves the snow, the snow cancelling church was kind of hard for him a little bit. It was hard for me too because Satan has been eating at my mind again just as he has in Wamego and other parts of my mission saying that you don't need to go outside and work. But alas, we went out and work. After all, that is the recipe for success: Arise at 6:30 everyday and go to work. The Lord, as a result, has been blessing us. In the past 2 days (even within the past few hours) members have been giving us food right when my food supply was beginning to diminish. So I love seeing the hand of the Lord in my life and it is so much more evident as a missionary. 

The blessings of missionary service not only apply to me but they also apply to you. I know I am blessing you. So it's just one constant cycle where you pray for me and me for you. Sunday was tough but we left the apartment and got to work. More and more people are surprised to see us out and working in this weather. We actually have been blessed to talk to and meet another less active member here in town. Isn't it awesome finding members that aren't on your records? They're all over the place. So we'll be getting them back to church someday. But despite the snow and bad weather and church being cancelled and all, these experiences will "be for my good" as the doctrine and covenants relay in section 122. Well anyways, that was my week! You can talk to me more about it on Wednesday and whatever else you want to talk about.

Sorry, Dad, that the interfaith shelter was so bad this year and that you got so sick. I hope that it gets better in future years. I feel like I want to give that lady a piece of my mind. How long has the ward been going to the interfaith shelter? It's been since before I was a deacon. I also just want to say one thing to you guys: "HI CAITLIN!" I'll see y'all on Wednesday. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: I'll be praying for all of you.

PPS: "F is for fire that burns down the buildings. U is for uranium...bombs. N is for no survivors!"