Week 24

On Tuesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Johnson went over to the French branch while Elder McMullin came over to our area. Elder McMullin is a big man, maybe half an inch shorter than I am but super strong and with huge hands and feet. He's got a deep, booming voice and his shoe size is 17. He can fully fit the shoes of the other Elders inside his own (we tested it). He's from the forbidden frozen land of North Dakota. I think we made quite an impression as we were tracting around. I'm sure people were wondering that whole day what on earth the "Mormons" feed their children to make them grow like that.

Elder McMullin is pretty cool, he had some good ideas on how to move the work forward in our area and different strategies and methods we could try. He's really good at street contacting and I feel like I learned a good bit from him. He's also a French-speaking missionary, which is interesting.

It might be surprising to some but there is actually a French branch of the Church in Phoenix, AZ. There is a substantial number of North African immigrants that have come to settle in Phoenix, probably because the climate reminds them a lot of home. There is work to be done among them and right now there is a small but growing congregation. I studied some French in middle school so it was cool refreshing my memory a little bit and hearing French be spoken. Elder McMullin said that it was a bit of a challenge to become fluent in French when most of the time the only person you can speak it with is your companion, but from what I can tell they're doing pretty well. 

I had my first foreign language study that day, by which I mean that we watched one of the Book of Mormon videos in French. Elder McMullin is of the opinion that the French voice actors are better than the English actors. It was pretty funny to hear Lehi speaking about his dream in this super deep, gravely French accent. I guess french Lèhi is a chain smoker (which fits with what I know of France).

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We had a pretty cool experience on Friday. We stopped by this lady named Tracy, who I think I mentioned in these emails a while back. She was meeting with the missionaries a while back but they lost contact with her and marked her as too busy. Elder Christensen and I stopped by once and met her, and she said that we could come back one evening the next week since she would be outside putting up Halloween decorations. We hadn't been able to get in contact with her since, but Elder Johnson and I stopped by Friday and were able to talk to her. 

Her front yard was all decked out with skeletons and headstones and even a pirate ship (I should have gotten a picture). We talked to her about some struggles in her life and about how we can find hope and comfort in Jesus Christ. We shared a scripture, Helaman 5:12, and that led into a conversation about what the Book of Mormon is and why it's important. I was actually able to giver her a copy of it, and when she asked if there was anything that she should read before the next time we stopped by, I marked down 3 Nephi 11. It wasn't the first time I've given a Book of Mormon away, but it was the first time that I gave one away to someone who wasn't already asking for one. I'm glad I was able to have that experience, and were excited to meet with her again soon. 

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Thanks as usual for the emails you sent me! I was a bit lazy about answering them this week, didn't manage my time super well, but I'll do better next time.

Yours Faithfully,

Elder C. Calder

We've invited a lot of returning members to the Trunk-or-Treat which is this week. It's supposed to be a huge event around here, apparently upwards of 300 people came to it last year and a lot of them weren't members. We're planning on giving out candy from the back of our little Rogue with pass-along cards attached to them. We're not allowed to dress up, but my companion and I both bought pumpkins while shopping today and I'm fully planning on making a jack-o'-lantern. Now the real question is, how to make a Jesus-themed pumpkin without being sacrilegious?

I decided I needed to find a use for my fine china and bought a box of peppermint tea. I had heard that peppermint was pretty good, and it isn't derived from the tea plant so I thought I was golden. I was imagining that it would taste a lot like liquid candy canes, but sadly it ended up tasting more like leaves. It did smell vaguely of peppermint though. My district leader, who considers himself something of a tea connoisseur, says I just need to steep it for longer. We shall see how that goes. 

We went over to the Clinger household to put together an exercise trampoline for them. Sister Clinger had purchased an "e-bike" before but she ended up falling off of it and hurting herself. She told us that she saw on the news that lots of people were falling off of them and getting hurt/dying. I think she was of the opinion that it was some kind of conspiracy by the Chinese government to target elderly Americans, since it was made in China. It was my grim duty to inform her that the trampoline we were assembling was also made in China. As we were talking, I learned that Brother (Steve) Clinger is from Provo and actually knew my Grandpa Jim Calder from school, which is pretty cool. He told me to say hi for him.

Need a bottle opened?

Takes all the blood, sweat, and slimy pumpkin guts out of jack-o-lantern carving. But where's the fun in that?