Hello family!
Sounds like a good hunting trip... :/ haha It's funny how you described it because Laken just wrote me and said that his elk hunt was a bust as well in Star Valley. In three days of horse back hunting through the mountains, they saw a few does, a bull moose, and absolutely no elk. Where are all the animals? That makes for a very frustrating hunt. I'm glad you and Madi look at the blessings that come from the time spent together. Let's face it, how many people get to say, "Today, we get to go hunting" or "Today, we get to eat at Maddox chicken." I would love to be able to say that... haha We don't eat much here in the YSA. Family ward members are helping us out though. I love the members here. I'm guessing the girls had an absolute blast in St. George! They had 80's, we still have mid-upper 90's here. Fun stuff!
With transfers this week we were pretty busy. We have a stellar new district leader named Elder Perkins. He is one of the former assistants to the president. The work is going to take off. Elder Brayden Henrie replaced him as assistant. Cool!
We had a pretty crazy experience this week. On Thursday we were heading over to a lesson with an investigator named Mark Coleman when all of a sudden someone driving next to us rolled down their window and said that our truck was leaking something real bad. We stopped at a red light and another person told us that it was radiator fluid. We pulled right over and immediately the engine started steaming all over. We popped the hood and noticed that the heater connector that takes coolant through the firewall had snapped and was just dangling there. Elder Buttars and I know nothing about cars so we called one of our investigators (Nick) to come help us. He came right away and in the meantime we told Mark that we wouldn't be able to make it to our lesson. He said he would come and help us as well. So there we were with two investigators, working on our truck to try to get it running. Nick found the solution and started calling Autozones and O'Reillys to find the correct part. Of course, none of them hold parts for vehicles made in 2010 because they are too new. Frustrating. So we called Pep-Boys, and some more places until we found out that we could use a different model's part that is the same size. Nick, who was driving his friend's car, went and picked it up for us. He got the part and on the way home, didn't notice that there was someone in the median and rear ended them. Oh man this was devastating. He swears that it is the story of his life to do what he can to help somebody out and then get the shaft himself. He just barely received a temporary license and needs to pay off a probation fine or else his probation can't be waved. It was terrible. The car he hit was also a very nice Volvo. Bummer. We got the part and headed back to our truck to put it in. We ghetto rigged it up and got it to work but noticed that after we drove about a mile, the truck still wouldn't cool down. It was overheating realllll bad. So we stopped and checked to see if the coolant was going down to fill the radiator. It was so we added more. We tried to drive a little further and same story. So we sat there. By now it had been about 4 hours of car problems. Nobody would answer our calls and it was way past time we needed to be home. We finally got a hold of some other missionaries who came and picked us up and took us home. It was 10 o'clock by then. We were so dang tired! The next morning we got a hold of the vehicle coordinator and he hooked us up with a new vehicle. Heck ya baby we got to drive a 2009 Chevy Silverado! It's about the same size as the truck you have. It was fun and brought back a lot of good memories. We have to take it back and pick up our Colorado tomorrow. :( sad day.
Anyway, I've thought a lot about this experience and why so many ridiculous things have to happen to such a good person (Nick) at one time. He changes his life by quitting all addictive substances he had done, comes to church, wants to get baptized, makes great new friends, etc. And the girl he was liking who was a member, tells him off, he finds out he can't get baptized because of probation, gets in a wreck, has his $500 TV stolen from him by his cousin, and many more tedious things. Why would such things happen to someone who is striving to make such needed and good changes? I think that Heavenly Father knows the strength of one’s testimony and He also knows what we can handle. He won't put us through things that we won't be able to get through. Nick has a super strong, powerful testimony. When the day comes that he will be able to be baptized it is going to be greatly meaningful and exciting for him because he has been through so much to get there. I wish that before my mission I didn't take such things for granted such as the opportunity to be baptized at 8 years old. I don't think the significance of that ordinance is made as apparent as it needs to be. What about the opportunity to repent? How are we at being thankful for that? The Book of Mormon? A modern day prophet? I'm grateful for the knowledge I have.
Dad, I've been thinking a lot lately about the leading and lagging indicators of a successful mission. I drew out a little graph that shows a few leading indicators to becoming a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th missionary. The lagging indicators are also there. I realized just how important the first three months (trainee months) are to a missionary for the rest of his mission. In those three months he learns the importance of: waking up at 6:30, studying, exercising, having only 1 hr for lunch, daily planning, going to bed at 10:30, being in the apartment by 9-9:30, etc. All the basic rules of obedience during the day. Also, all things you can see and monitor from the outside looking in. Having a firm habit of each of those, will take a "green" missionary and help them to become: consecrated, optimistic, enthusiastic, happy, living their purpose on a daily basis, prayerful, grateful, humble, etc. All things that are measured inwardly. As a missionary follows the leading indicators, the blessing and benefits will be immense. This is a short version of what I am probably going to be training on tomorrow in our zone meeting. Hopefully it goes well. Thanks for all the info you have given me. If you have any more cool info like that I would love to have it!
Well sorry for the short email. Not much more to say. Thanks for all that you do! Yes the bumps in my arm pit have gone away. The antibiotics worked I think.
I love you all so much. Sorry I am not good at writing letters. There just is no time. Please tell Grampa Roger of my love and appreciation for him. When you said that even though he hasn't been to Dingle the past few times you have been there physically, but you can still feel him through the whole house, that really touched me. Grampa, I love you. Thanks for being who you are. I love the stories and find myself recalling an experience that I've had with you very regularly.
Love,
Elder Colt Mouritsen
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