April 29, 2013

Hi Dad,

Wow, its great to hear about everyone's missions so far. I'm excited for everyone, Carson especially. It would have been cool to go to his farewell. Last Saturday we had exchanges and it was a good experience. I realized that there are more than one way to do missionary work. Each companionship has their own culture and style of work that they do. I was getting fairly used to the way Elder Rose and I work, and then I had to plan the whole day of the exchange pretty much by myself and use the cell phone that day. And some parts of that day were pretty hectic. I had to do a ton of calling to coordinate something going on in the ward, calling the Sister missionaries, then trying to call people in the ward, except new Yorkers are horrible cell phone answerers, and our phone was dying, so I was trying to charge it at the same time, but the charger on it is very touchy. It was a little crazy but a good experience. On Thursday Elder Rose and I went to the mission office in Rego Park to pick up my packages and some other ones for the zone. I love the backpack, it has the northwest outdoorsy touch that backpacks here don't really have. The cupcakes were really good, and we have about three left in the freezer. I gave some to a family we visited, but they had already been informed of my birthday and brought out Ice Cream Cake! so that was nice. Thursday night we were supposed to play soccer with the branch but the member we planned it with forgot to call people and he didn't come either, but there were a lot of Hispanics playing soccer at the park we went to, so it was really fun.

Thanks also for the short sleeved shirts, they will come in handy soon. I wore one this week and it was nice, but some of the other days it was cooler outside, and today it's raining a bit. I guess I am a lot more used to spring-type weather than most people. It was overcast and probably in the mid to upper 40's or lower 50's and everyone was wearing coats. But I felt pretty comfortable just in my shirt and tie. You and I call it fresh, but nobody really understood that.

This week I gave a short workshop in our District meeting about being happy and enthusiastic. People told me that it was really good. I enjoyed giving it. One of the things on my mission that keeps me happy is realizing what I have been taught many times in the mtc and preparing to come here. I'm not supposed to worry about myself. It's not about you. It's about God. I understand that my growth is really important on my mission, but I fulfill that when I forget myself. When I actually realized that the other week, I actually cheered up. I didn't need to worry about my lost backpack, or other things. Maybe Ammon will realize that, too.

This week was good overall. I started to get a little bit worried that we weren't making enough progress towards our three month goal yet, but I feel like maybe things are picking up more. Our companionship three month goal is three baptisms. The last three months our whole zone got like 1 I think. But in the planning meeting for these three months, our whole district felt inspired to set really high ones. So we need to be working really hard to get this done. I'm a little bit worried that maybe we aren't doing enough to achieve it, so I'm trying to improve my personal obedience and worthiness and lead our companionship to do the same.

Yesterday we had a great step in the right direction. We finally had an investigator to church. He had committed to come the week before but an emergency came up in his work and a job took longer than he expected and needed to be done by Monday, so he didn't come then. But he came yesterday and I think it was really good. He wants to get baptized and is making steps toward it, so that's good.

I am feeling pretty good. I love my zone and district and companion. I love the branch, the more I get to know everyone the more I love them. One major thing that I have learned is how many blessings there are in the Gospel and living it your best. It shows how much God loves us that for every good thing we do, he does something (or multiple things) good for us. He's the Best.

Love you all, Hope you have a good week!

Elder Schenk