Ok, so I decided to
write a more in depth letter on my life as a missionary because 1.
You asked, and 2. I like when people write me in depth letters. So
I’ll go through my daily routine and add special commentary. I’ll
fill you in a little more on my thoughts and feelings throughout the
day. We’re told that we’re not supposed to become occupied or
think too much about home, that we need to be consecrated and fully
dedicated to the work, I have mixed feelings about that though.
Obviously we need to be fully devoted to the work but how am I
supposed to not think about home. I spent 19 years with my family and
friends, how am I not supposed to think about them a lot and worry
about them? It’s not like I’m homesick or anything (my first week
or two I was a little bit) it’s just that I think about you guys, I
think about a lot of stuff. Okay quick side note, I get random
inspiration and funny thoughts a lot, and I write them all down in a
notebook, and I already have a bunch of funny ideas, I’m gonna hit
twitter and social media so hard when I get back. Okay coming back
from the side note. In the mornings I’m usually tired and don’t
think about much, but when I do, I usually think about you guys at
home. Sometimes I’m way tired and I’ll do really easy exercises
since we’re supposed to exercise but I don’t want to. For real,
I’ve gotten pretty good at jump roping. For breakfast I’ll
usually eat something really fast, either egg sandwiches, pb&j,
pasta, oatmeal (oats water and sugar), or hot dogs, I have to eat
cheap food, and food I can make quickly, so I don’t eat super well,
but well enough. I’m pretty adjusted to the food and juices here.
Like I always enjoy lunch now, and sometimes I enjoy it a lot, the
worst thing I ate recently was a super huge pork rind which is fried
pig skin and fat. So basically a giant piece of pure fat and
un-cuttable, un-chewable pig skin. But the rest of that lunch was so
bomb. Personal study is probably my favorite part of the day. I wish
it was 3 hours longer, no joke. I’m really grateful that I’ve
developed a love for the scriptures, because before, I honestly
didn’t have it. But now I love reading in the Book of Mormon,
Bible, or in Jesus the Christ. I’ve only read the first 4 or 5
chapters but it’s so good and I’ve learned a lot already. You
should really read it. I guess study might be a better word than read
in that sentence. It’s full of references and I study most of the
scripture references too so I’m not moving through it very quickly
but I’m increasing my knowledge and teaching skills a lot. I study
that book a lot when I have free time (sometimes I’ll have 15 min
free time before bed). But yeah my favorite time is personal study.
Honestly, that means that my day isn’t that fun. And honestly it’s
not, its hard work that only stops for a few hours every Monday. I
can’t go to the beach with my friends or go to a roller rink, dance
party, and abandoned unfinished building to explore with my friends
in all the same night. The mission isn’t as fun as the last two
years of my life, but that should be obvious. That doesn’t mean
that I don’t have fun though. I try to enjoy myself in each moment.
It’s important that we remember though that fun isn’t happiness.
Work and obedience often bring more happiness than dance parties.
Already I’ve developed skills, habits, knowledge and faith that I
know will affect the rest of my life and be a huge blessing. I can
see that I’m laying the foundation for the rest of my life. I can
see myself changing from being here in the mission, and even though
I’m still “me” I’m different than when I started. I can’t
say I wish the mission would never end. I’m looking forward to
coming home (in the distant future) and being able to do normal
things with my friends and family, of course only after I finish what
the lord has commanded. I hope I get to the point where I don’t
want to go home. It’s not that I want to leave, I’m very happy
and comfortable here (Giron feels like home now) but I do want to go
home (when the time comes). Hopefully the mission will become “the
best two years” like people say and not just “the two most
important crucial, drastically life changing years”. After studies
we proselyte. My companion is super awesome. I do most of the
planning, calls, guide the lessons, and stuff because I know the area
and people but he works hard, teaches well, and is obedient, and he’s
cool and super easy to live with. We have a good amount of members and families
that accompany us in lessons. The ward actually relies on the
missionaries too much. People come up to me in church (while we’re
busy with investigators) and are like “Elders I need a blessing”
then we say “have you talked to your home teachers, the Elders
Quorum President, or the Bishop?” “no”. There are other
examples too, like when we had to take on 4 responsibilities for a
ward activity that had already been assigned but incomplete, so we
had to try and do everything last second. We have good support
though. Teaching isn’t hard anymore. Converting is super hard, but
I’ve gotten way better at teaching and it’s not really a problem
anymore (but still trying to improve every day). Seriously though,
converting is so hard. Working 24/7 for four months, and I have for
sure converted one person (well Jairo did [Viky’s boyfriend] but I
did a lot of teaching to help) and Lizeht and Rubiero are at the
testing point, so in about two weeks we will see if they are
converted (hopefully I can finally have a baptism. I don’t say that
for that stats but because if someone is baptized it is because they
are ready and have been converted). So yeah, it’s a little
discouraging that I have nothing to show for my work, and normally a South American town like Giron would have a lot of baptisms
from what I understand. I might as well be in Germany. I might as
well be in Germany in the 1940’s if I want to be really dramatic.
It’s a little discouraging, but don’t worry I’m still working
my hardest. If you guys freak out about the difficulties I have, I
have to act like everything is rainbows all the time, so please never
worry (feel free to give advice though). Yes, I’m being obedient
and working hard and I don’t love EVERY one but I’m trying to
(advice besides those things). The companion really is good though so
things aren’t too hard. Sometimes he can be a little moody and hard
to work with but I think that’s normal. Usually we’re good and
we’re never bad. I wonder what things I do wrong because I know I’m
not a perfect companion but I feel like I’m pretty easy to deal
with. And that brings us to nighttime. We plan, eat, and sleep. My
bed is pretty crappy because it is a metal frame with wood planks
laid across, and the mattress lies on the planks, but the planks
always fall through and that makes the bed super lumpy. If I put the
planks back its comfy again though. I get destroyed by mosquitos.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because my bites itch
and hurt so bad, and I can hear the mosquitos buzzing around my ears.
I’m going to buy a mosquito net (we were told we have to) but don’t
worry, my faith acts as an antidote to dengue fever. Usually I sleep
with the fan on and that helps. But yeah Giron is pretty Ghetto. Two
blocks away there are little shack houses made out of boards and a
tin roof. The drinking water is super clean (well I
guess toilet water too) because Bucaramanga 40 minutes away has a lot
of rich people. This week we preached the gospel. At the beginning of
the week we had an inspiring zone conference (for real it was cool)
and we got our new schedule for kiosks. We have been spending a lot
of time in Bucaramanga standing by our sign waiting for people to be
interested in the restored gospel. We have been working hard in the
area but people progress and fall and progress and fall again. July
has fallen pretty bad. Wendy and Nelson are on the decline (but not
for long) and Lizeht and Rubiero are on the incline, trying to get
married and baptized, but they’re getting hit by problems and so
the next few weeks will determine if they fall or get baptized. But
one person (Viky) hasn’t fallen so I’m happy about that.
Converting people is way harder than they made it sound. The gospel
is so great, I don’t know why people aren’t lining up in from of
the baptismal font. It’s kind of the opposite though. One of our
investigators hit their kid with a belt for letting us inside. She
wasn’t very discrete about it. She cancelled the lesson because her
husband “was working” but we were close, so we stopped by to make
another appointment and the kid invited us in because the dad was
home. Then he got beat, poor kid. They were some of our better
investigators too. The other stories of rejection aren’t as
interesting, but there are many. In other news I got brainfreezes
twice this week from my shower. I thought it was pretty funny
actually. This week we got a temporary cell phone, while we wait to
get our old one back. The screen is shattered and completely
destroyed, and the battery life is pretty bad but I was way stoked to
have a cellphone again. Another funny story, our power went out for
about 13 hours, so I made dinner by stovelight. Stovelight is like
candlelight but funnier. I really like living in Giron though, its
heat, ghettoness, and mosquitos have grown on me for some reason.
It’s almost as if having a lot of money and nice things isn’t the
key to happiness. I don’t now man it’s weird. This week I’ve
been doing some reflection and scripture-reading and I’ve learned
that people are wrong when they say we don’t have to be perfect.
People always say “you don’t have to be perfect” but really
Christ teaches “be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which
is in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:48. A few other scriptures drew
my attention and teach the same principle- 3 Nephi 27:27, John 13:15.
A lot of the time we think we are fine because we don’t do really
bad things, but the commandment is more, it’s to be perfect.
Perfect in faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge, patience,
humility, diligence, and obedience. This week I realized that we need
to be improving every day for the rest of our lives, always, learning
and repenting. Repentance is so awesome. I’m so glad we can repent
all the time and keep improving. Well I guess I already knew that,
but the importance of it really hit me this week. Before I was like
oh yea, ok sure, perfect, got it. But this week I was like wow Jesus
is serious here, he wants us to be perfect. But it makes sense, he
didn’t pay for our sins so we can stay the same and say “well no
one’s perfect” but so that we can become like him. Well, that’s
my though of the week, I hope it doesn’t make you stressed. The
mission life is treating me well though, it’s fun and I don’t
know why. I shouldn’t be happy when I have to stand by a sign for
hours but I am. It’s almost like the key to happiness isn’t
partying and never working, I don’t know man it’s weird. Love you
guys, and miss you (most of you [not Sammie]
Love
Elder Downing
Almost
forgot, on Thursday, after 6:30 pm we had to be in the house because
it was “day of the women” or Woman’s day” and it was illegal
for men to be in the street, only in our region though. Pretty weird
right? One more request is that it’s fun to read in your weekly
letters about news or trends like the ice bucket challenge or that
Pau Gasol left the Lakers. I’m pretty cut off here, so little
things like that are always fun.
