Janurary 13, 2014

This week was actually pretty uneventful, so I apologize if it's short. A lot of this week was filled with meetings. There was a trainer/trainee meeting on Teusday, a zone meeting on Friday, and then there's zone conference this coming week. Also on the days when we had a bunch of appointments lined up, usually only one or two would keep it. Very disappointing, but at least we did some good tracting.

A lot of our week was also hindered by the rain. For two days in a row it was just straight up pouring rain. Thunder, lightning, the whole deal. It literally rained 3 inches! Gutters and some streets even flooding with rivers of 3 inch deep water. And everyone carried on just the same, no biggy. Now that the rain is gone of course it's back to October weather on the Utah scale, so the 'natives' have coats on while I'm strutting around with a short-sleeved shirt. Back to the subject at hand, rain. This week was fortunately bike week, so yeah all in all I may never get dry again. By word of the white handbook, we're not allowed to ride our bikes in harsh conditions, and Elder Leishman and I both agreed that rain that literally hurt as it fell was pretty harsh. So we were home for a good portion of the week, but we weren't completely useless! We called a bunch of people we had saved in our phone, treating them like former investigators, and we cleaned. We cleaned and even did a bit of re-decorating, in preparation for our carpets going to be cleaned later this week. I like having a clean apartment, it eases my soul.

I have been very stressed this last week, even to the point where I thought, "maybe I wasn't ready to come on a mission". I knew that wasn't my thought nor was it from The Lord. I talked to my mission president, and he showed me a lovely booklet called "adjusting to missionary life", or should be more appropriately titled "hey if you're stressed read this and then you won't be". I am pleased to say I feel a lot better, aside from the usual stress and loneliness, and it's all thanks to some good old fashioned cleaning and organizing. Again I apologize if it's short, I'll try to make it up next week!

-Elder Matthew Gardner

John 15:15