We greatly enjoyed hearing from our son this past week. He always has such interesting things to say and such a way of writing that we eagerly devour each and every word. What a blessing it has been to our family to have our beloved son serving the Lord!
Here is his week in his own words:
Dear Family,
Life seems to move on over there quicker than seems possible. I wonder how many things will have changed by the time I get back? A Wal-Mart in our midst, very possibly a stake center, and I hear that over in mainland China things are shaping up for the country to be opened to missionaries soon. Or are they just rumours?
One thing I think needs to be added to the list of things to send is pens. More specfically, there is a pen which I brought with me which I absolutely love for writing everything. It doesn't smear, the ink lasts forever, and it writes very fine so I can cram a whole bunch of information into a little writing space (which I often have to do). The pen itself is called a Pilot G-2 05 and I can't find them anywhere over here and it's driving me insane. They have 07s but those write too big. It seems silly to ask, but I would love some of those pens whenever the next package gets sent, and plenty of ink refills if you can find them. These other pens are driving me crazy!
Anyhow, we had a good 50 hour week as far as accountability, and that doesn't include traveling (walking, bus). It was an exhausting week for sure. On Wednesday the Assistants to the President came up to our area and went on splits with us. One of the policies our mission president tries to implement is "talk to everyone" which is really hard, but the assistant I was with, Elder Sonntag, took it very seriously. He'd see someone walking down the other side of a busy street way down a hill, and he'd run off down the hill, and wait to cross the street and then hurry to talk to the unfortunate and thoroughly freaked-out person. I guess there's extremes in everything, even "obedience with exactness". I don't think I'd like to be an Assistant to the President, just for that reason. Scaring people by running after them (in a dark suit and coat, no less) doesn't seem very effective. Maybe it's just me.
However, we had amazing success when I was with Elder Sonntag, especially while knocking doors. He has a way of getting straight to the point and impressing upon people the importance of our message in a way that I haven't been able to achieve yet. Our area had been suffering, as far as numbers are concerned, and that seemed like the right boost our area needed at that exact time and I'm grateful for that. One person in particular seemed perfectly prepared to recieve our message. Funnily enough, he was coming at us down the other side of the street and I felt very impressed that I needed to talk to him right then, despite the fact that Elder Sonntag and I were talking to someone at a door. I walked down and greeted him and felt impressed to right away talk about how the gospel can lift us up in times of distress. I then explained about the Book of Mormon and how it came to be translated. He practically pulled the book out of my hands as he asked "can I have this to read please?" I said of course he could and set up an appointment with him to see how the reading and praying went. His name is David, and we're seeing him tonight at 7. Unfortunately because of his busy work schedule, we couldn't meet until tonight.
I'm sorry, this email seems short, but I've been working on uploading and sending pictures for the most part. I figure pictures are much better than words right now. Hopefully those sent okay.
I have to go and get some shopping done now, and my companion needs a haircut, so adios!
And good luck with the farm!
-Elder Alsop
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