So this week in Oregon:
It rained......and rained.....and rained some more.
IT has rained almost everyday since I've been here. Tuesday we spent two hours tracting in the rain, and I got thoroughly soaked, especially because I didn't have fenders on the bike( which I had never seen until I got here, but I see why they are important.) Two hours in the rain and we only met one person that seemed interested, and we havn't been able to get ahold of him since, so who knows.
Wednesday we taught a less-active family who has an eight year old daughter. The oldest daughter was 16 and asked for a blessing at the end of the lesson. I was chosen to bless. I felt a little overwhelmed, but calm at the same time. We saw them at church on Sunday, and she said she was feeling much better. Friday is when I broke my bike. I'll start by prefacing the situation. The ground is always wet. Always. So we were riding our bikes to our weekly service and we were on a paved trail. Right as I was going over a bridge my bike decided it didn't like me and turned sideways and slid out from under me. It was quite exciting. The downside to this moment was it completely broke my pedal, which is essential for a bike to have. I'll buy the cheapest working bike I can find so you don't need to worry about that.
Saturday we walked everywhere, which wasn't too bad because the sun actually came out for the first, and last, time since I've been here. We walked to the Library so I could email you( I had permission to email you not on P-day). On our way we were talking to everyone we saw. Just before we got to the library there was this scraggily bearded man that sort of looked like a homeless person smoking a pipe. I didn't really want to talk with him, but we tried anyway. He walked away from us before we could say anything. When we came out of the library we saw him again and were able to start a conversation. He is an Irish-Catholic and is in the process of starting up a church in Portland. We talked to him for a while about God and how he talks to us. He said he prays all the time and has a really good relationship with Him. I asked him if he would be interested in learning more about our church and he said yes very excitedly. I pulled a Book of Mormon out of my backpack and gave it to him. He took it, and said that he would read it. We also asked him to pray about it before and after, and he said that he never reads a book without praying before, so thats a good sign. I hope we will be able to teach him. It just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover.
Yesterday was my first sunday in the ward, and so the bishop asked me to stand and introduce myself. It was no problem, because I had planned on doing that anyway. The members here are really nice, and they feed us almost every meal. I think I may be putting on weight. Which is kind of sad, but my companion wants me to help him get into shape, so we are going to start running every morning.
Elder Fannin is a really cool guy. I have been learning a lot from him. He only has four months left, and its a good possibility that I will kill him off. The mission president and his wife are great people. They are both so warm and caring. We stopped by the Portland temple to take pictures. It really is a beautiful temple. We are able to go through every three months, so it will be a while before I can actually go through. I hope you guys are doing great.
Did you give my address to the ward? Because I need to get a letter so that I have something with my address on it so I can get a library card. Right now I have to get a visitors pass everytime, and it take a while. Also I'd love to hear from somebody during the week. I find that now that I have a little more free time I have more time to think about home, and it's kind of sad when no one writes.
Love always,
Elder Schultz
No comments:
Post a Comment