Another Week Passes By

Well, well, life as a missionary . . . It can really be a tough road, and a lot of hard work goes into it. Not necessarily physical labor, more like emotional and mental taxation. Not fun sometimes, but hey the work progresses.

This week I really have to honestly say there is not a lot to report. We just basically taught less active members of the church this week, many of whom really don't ever want to come back to church. They are the people in Lehi's dream who partook of the fruit and were ashamed. I hear a lot of them generally say that they gave the gospel a "good try" and now they are done. Sometimes I want to say back, "If you gave it a good try you wouldn't be less active."

I am also trying to encourage my companion to find other methods rather than tracting. He is angry at the request, but in my mind, missionary work is evolving out of that. There used to be required tracting hours for every week, and now if you look at preach my gospel, they give a list of about 50 things to do to find people, one of which is tracting. I feel like the day and age we live in is not conducive to only tracting. Many people get offended simply at our presence. Even people who would probably respond favorably to the church are automatically inclined to tell missionaries who show up at their door that they are "not interested.". People are kind of going "hermit crab." It makes it a lot harder to find people through our own efforts as a missionary.

I had to go on exchanges this week with an Elder Cook, who doesn't talk a lot. This was last Tuesday, but it was really cool to be able to work the area for one day. It's really hard, but I was able to fill our day with meaningful activities and we were able to teach 4 people that day. Yah!! So it really was fun.

It’s kind of sad how poor we are though. We really don't get a lot of money from month to month. Good thing I like ramen! I'm gaining weight for some reason.   I'm up to about 166 pounds.   So I might be a fatso when I come home. Haha

Well that's my report this week. Thanks so much for all the letters you send me! J

Elder Bringhurst