December 6-13, 2010: One thing led to another...

Hey!

Great letter! Yes, how ‘bout that quote by Elder McConkie. It's actually one of the recitations that we have to memorize in the mission. Probably one of my favorite quotes ever!

My Missionary Commission
By Elder Bruce R. McConkie
My 1963 Missionary Commission.

I am called of God. My authority is above that of kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him—to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine. My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work. How great is my calling!

About Elder Schneider... I can't remember what I told you before. But Monday he saw a chiropractor who told him that he had a collapsed zygomatic arch, Monday night he saw the mission doctor who told him that he would be fine and he would heal up on his own, but that he needed to get an x-ray just in case. Tuesday he and Kennington went and got the x-ray and it turned out to be at LEAST a fractured zygomatic arch and they would have to go back to get a CT scan. After they read the CT scan they noticed that the zygomatic arch was fractured and was pushed inside his face so that it was hindering the movement of his jaw. There were also two other fractures, one below the eye in the eye socket and then another one just below that on the bottom part of the eye socket/cheek bone. His mother was informed like three times and she actually came down for the surgery. This is because if he went home for the surgery, he wouldn't have the adequate medical facilities. He's from Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. He is also a MAJOR hunter... but that's beside the point. Anyways, he had surgery on Friday and they had to put an incision in the top of his head so they could go down and pop the zygomatic arch back into place and then they had to go up through his mouth and put a plate in his face to fix the other fractures. His companion has been with us in a threesome and we've had to cover both areas as well as Elder Schneider's district leader stuff. His mom is his companion here and they are staying with some members in Schneider’s first area. It was so funny when he saw her for the first time in the hospital. He didn't know what to do! So, in essence, one thing led to another, and a missionary who ran into a Samoan sister missionary, had to get plastic surgery. :D

Yes, by the way, I got your package. Thank you so much! Yeah our "scripture books" were probably not as cool to you as they were to us. We got such a kick out of them! I'll send you the funny pictures though sometime soon. Yes, I am feeling much better now and it's all thanks to pumping vitamin C, airborne, nyquil, and other necessities. MADISON IS NOT PLAYING SOFTBALL!?!?!?!??!??! GET OUTTA TOWN... I DUNNO IF I CAN SUPPORT THAT. I MEAN LAX (lacrosse) IS COOL... BUT... COME ON. Get serious. The phone call home will probably be from the Bagley's home around 8:30-9:00 in the morning. Listen to this, Elder Kennington's family is leaving for Fiji on Christmas day and said that he has to call before ten in the morning because they have to be to the airport after that. He also said that the week after he entered the MTC, his family went on an Alaskan cruise. He's questioning whether he is even going to call at all. HAHA Please don't do that to me... I just want to hear from you guys and anybody else that would like to be present that's cool too! It's up to you. Oh by the way, the Bagley's have a super nice sophomore age daughter who is looking for friends to go to EFY with her. I told her that the twins would love to go. :/ Her name is Celest Bagley, she said she would try to add them on Facebook.

Well this week has been extremely... different compared to most. I've been on exchanges with Elder Waynick (Schneider's companion) most of the time because Kennington had to take Schneider to all of his appointments. He's a brand new missionary. He's awesome and does really well, but he's in the middle of reading the Book of Mormon for the first time and has a hard time teaching certain principles. We had a baptism on Saturday and of course Elder Kennington baptized her so Elder Waynick and I had to do the intermediate message. It's crazy how different everyone is and how weird it feels when you teach with another missionary! Sometimes you just get used to the way others do things and when change happens it blows my mind! It was a great baptism though. Her name was Tiffany Schmidt and she just walked in to church about a month ago. Crazy eh?? The funny thing is last week, another lady named Karolina (from the Czech Republic) just walked in and has been coming to all of the activities as well. I guess when you have to spend so much time doing other things during the week, the Lord just brings His elect to us! She is awesome and wants to be baptized but says that soon for her would be in like half a year... Those Europeans. haha

Oh! Funny story. Well not funny. Crazy. So Waynick and I were street contacting down on 19th Ave and Northern (which has been told to us to be one of the most dangerous intersections in the nation...). While we were talking to some people on the corner, a mass of high school age kids started walking out of a nearby restaurant coming right toward us. They were following after a Navajo looking kid and it looked like they had just been in a brawl with him or something because his face was all bloody. He was back peddling to get away from the kids and when he got about ten feet away from us, one of the high school kids came up and roundhouse punched him in the face! The Navajo kid was knocked right out and fell backwards slamming his head on the asphalt and landing right in the middle of 19th Ave. My adrenaline leaped! All the high school kids scattered and Waynick and I were left there with a few older people that we were already talking to. I ran out into the middle of the road before he would get squashed by a bus or something and dragged him on to the sidewalk. Meanwhile, he's bleeding profusely from his mouth... you know how I love blood. It turns out he was just plastered with alcohol (which may have been a good thing cause wasn't it you that was telling me that drunk people survive a lot more accidents and falls?) haha The cops were called and finally when he came to, he tried to sit up but I told him to stay down and that help was on it's way. He looked at me and said some very choice words as well as some obscene suggestions with a certain finger. Waynick then sat down by his side and as the kid looked over at him, he spit a chunk of blood right on his tie and white shirt. Yeah, after that we just left him and stood back. A lady came up to us, gave us a brownie, and told us that we were angels sent from God to that specific place at that specific time. Haha She at least made us feel like we did the right thing...

So next week we have interviews with President Beck and a Zone Meeting during the same time. I love that kind of stuff so I've taken it upon me to plan out what we are going to do. I read through some of your previous letters and decided that the Parable of the Wasatch 100 was a great place to try to find some missionary application. I think what is going to happen is I'm going to give a synopsis of what the race is and some of the main items involved and then allow the other missionaries to apply each item to a part of missionary work. Then, we'll let them decide where we need to improve. That way it's not us telling them where we need to do better, it's themselves committing themselves. For example, maybe watching weight/staying focused/hydration/keeping your mind on the race could be consecrating your heart, might, mind, and strength on the work. Then afterwards, we'll collectively as a zone choose three or four and focus on them over the next transfer. I'm kind of excited but it's going to be tough!

I recently read the talk from the October conference by Elder Scott. I love the quote: "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day." As a missionary, I've noticed that it's easy for people to tell when you are putting on a face and trying to act like someone you're not. As long as I/we are the same person in the apartment that we are out tracting, we won't fool anyone. It's hard to do sometimes when you get four missionaries together in an apartment! I do want to become a good missionary. But it takes consistently being what I want to become to make it happen. Sometimes it's hard to be myself out here and that's what I've really been trying to focus on recently. Whether it's with members, missionaries, or investigators it's got to be the same Elder Mouritsen! haha Being around the members of the singles ward is different because it feels like I'm just hanging out with friends sometimes. We're all so close to the same age already! It's a blast though. Anyway, that's my short lil’ message. Just be yourself. haha

Well I hope that all is going well back home! I love ya'll so much! Thank you for the letters. Oh by they way the continuous feed paper with everyone's little message was such a great idea. That was awesome! Man, it was so cool to read. I haven't opened up the presents yet…I promise. But I couldn't resist leaving Madison's CD till the 25th. Nope, not gonna happen. It's amazing Madison, keep up the good work! I found a freakin' sweet suit at Goodwill that fits me perfectly for like 25 bucks so I'm going to buy it next time I get the chance (a.k.a. when it's half off). Brian Regan released a new album?? SWEET! I bet it's good. Thanks for the shirts too! Very much needed.

Love you.

Elder Colton Mouritsen