A minute of "Momentary"...
Thomas talks a lot in this e-mail about his side part. For those of you who know him well, he has always had fairly untamable hair. His hair does as it likes, and about all we can do is pull out the weedwhacker to chop it down every 6 weeks or so. It's unruly, curly, and not agreeable to a part. One of the requirements of this mission is to have your hair with a side part. We joked so much about this before he left. He was required to send in a passport photo with a side part in his hair. We gelled and coaxed and managed to get him to Costco with a side part. By the time I finished my shopping, his hair was asserting its vow to defy control. By the time he gets back in 2012, I think he will have conquered his hair, maybe forever!
Thomas also makes reference to "the skunk thing". About 11 at night on Saturday, May 1st to the most horrible skunk smell I have ever experienced in my life. We still do not know exactly where it came from, but it made sleeping impossible. Of course Tom was out of the country on a business trip, so I didn't even have a man to "rescue" me. Holy cow, it was horrid. My eyes were watering, and there was not much sleeping that night. It wouldn't do any good to open the doors and windows to air out the house since the "air out" is where the stench was coming from. Finally, sometime the next day, the smell abated enough to breathe freely, but lingered on outside for a few days. Some skunk, somewhere, met his doom and made my life miserable. I was just grateful that it wasn't my dog or my kid that tangled with the skunk!
Dear Family,
Thomas talks a lot in this e-mail about his side part. For those of you who know him well, he has always had fairly untamable hair. His hair does as it likes, and about all we can do is pull out the weedwhacker to chop it down every 6 weeks or so. It's unruly, curly, and not agreeable to a part. One of the requirements of this mission is to have your hair with a side part. We joked so much about this before he left. He was required to send in a passport photo with a side part in his hair. We gelled and coaxed and managed to get him to Costco with a side part. By the time I finished my shopping, his hair was asserting its vow to defy control. By the time he gets back in 2012, I think he will have conquered his hair, maybe forever!
Thomas also makes reference to "the skunk thing". About 11 at night on Saturday, May 1st to the most horrible skunk smell I have ever experienced in my life. We still do not know exactly where it came from, but it made sleeping impossible. Of course Tom was out of the country on a business trip, so I didn't even have a man to "rescue" me. Holy cow, it was horrid. My eyes were watering, and there was not much sleeping that night. It wouldn't do any good to open the doors and windows to air out the house since the "air out" is where the stench was coming from. Finally, sometime the next day, the smell abated enough to breathe freely, but lingered on outside for a few days. Some skunk, somewhere, met his doom and made my life miserable. I was just grateful that it wasn't my dog or my kid that tangled with the skunk!
Dear Family,
It's hard to wait until Wednesday to email home. It was another bank holiday this last Monday (there are quite a few of those throughout the year in England) so I couldn't email then, and zone conference was yesterday in Billingham so everyone had to wait until today to email. Things like that will probably happen quite frequently over here.
Zone conference was absolutely amazing. Sister Stock gave another amazing talk and testimony about Jesus Christ, and President Stock was so moved by it that his talk afterwards was mostly just in reflection of his wife's words. Somehow the whole day just zipped by as we learned more about helping our investigators make and keep commitments, which is something that Elder Heumos and I were really in need of after last week. Somehow, we confirmed about 6 people for church (and by 'confirmed' I mean they seemed sincerely set on attending) and then none of them showed up! Of course it was disappointing, but afterwards I realised that I had done all I could to bring these people to church. No matter what we do, people will always have their agency, especially since agency is one of the most important things in God's plan for us. We'll try to see all those people again and try and resolve any concerns they might have, and I know that as long as we are continually guided by the Spirit that we have done our part.
We are still teaching some wonderful people though. We talked to an elderly man and woman on the street named Gordon, and Betty, and set up a return appointment to talk to Betty (Gordon wasn't interested). When we showed up at the appointed time, no one was home, but we continually checked by because I felt like we needed to keep trying to get into contact with her. Finally after a week or so, we knocked and Gordon showed up at the door. He was visiting Betty, and we were invited in. It turns out Betty had been at a hospital a lot, caring for one of her relatives. We talked to both of them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and surprisingly enough, Gordon turned out to be the one who showed the most interest. Betty is a wonderful lady, always very cheerful, but she's in her 80s and is a little deaf, and maybe not entirely there upstairs. Gordon, on the other hand, is bright and has so many questions about the Plan of Salvation that I spent almost the entire time talking with him. We committed them both to read about the Plan of Salvation and pray to know of its truthfulness. They are also coming to church this next Sunday, that is, if Betty doesn't have to go to the hospital again. I think we are going to try and see them later today.
Gateshead is a strange area, to be honest. The people are generally more friendly than the rest of England, but when we find a sincere person to teach, and leave them a commitment, we tend to never see them again. I used to think that this was just part of missionary work in general, but Elder Heumos is confused at the fact that no one up here keeps appointments. Down South, I think its more of a strict custom to keep commitments with people you talk to, but up North its a bit of a struggle. Isn't that weird?
I've never had more fun doing missionary work though. Sometimes, when Elder Heumos has had enough of people turning him down, he relieves stress by hailing people in different ways, and introducing our message by unorthodox means (with surprising results). He enjoys referring to men as "Captain" as he waves them down, and from time to time, the first thing he asks people to introduce the gospel is "Excuse me, do you think my side part is powerful? That's good, because we share a powerful message about Jesus Christ..."
In case you're wondering, side parts are all that matter to senior missionaries. How "powerful" their side parts are determines (semi-jokingly) how powerfully they can be guided by the Spirit. "Inspiration comes through the side part, Elder" is one of Elder Heumos' favorite things to say. I guess it makes sense.
Anyway, its good to know that everyone is getting better. Except the skunk thing, that's not so good. When are you gettting pigs? Just make sure to send pictures of everything going on over there (and everyone), so I don't feel like a complete stranger when I get back. Is Rudy looking a whole lot older now? And how are the stake center plans?
Alright, I'm running out of time. Let everyone know I'm still safe and sound.
Love,
Elder Alsop
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