14.9

Ugh

Sorry about how late this email is, I'm so tired I can barely walk around. Sunday night the district leader surprised us with an exchange which I was absolutely not prepared for at all. Monday was an empty day, and our district leader is extremely diligent. Not that being diligent is a bad thing, he's just the kind that takes it to the extreme, and he's either very impressed with your work or he's very disappointed in you and he tells you about it, so I had not a lot of time to develop a plan to stay busy all day. I planned the best I could but I wasn't feeling great about the plan I made so I desperately prayed and said "I did the best I could and I'll work as hard as I can, I need you to make up the rest today". Our day got off to a rough start. The District Leader was very upset because we left at 10:01am (missionaries leave the pad at 10:00am every morning) and his exact words were "We were 15 seconds away from having the spirit with us today! Now it's going to be a rough day Elder, I hope your ready for that." And he wasn't even being sarcastic about it. I'm usually very good at getting out on time, but I don't think 10:01 warranted as much backlash as I got from it. When we got in the car to start the day, our district leader spoke up again. He said, "Man, I almost felt like a real missionary there for a second. I feel like we have such lazy missionaries who use the car too much"

That was when I snapped. I didn't say anything to him, or fight back because why would I, but I did turn off the car. I said, "You know what? Let's walk then."

And we didn't use the car the whole day.

14.9 is the title and I'm sure you all want to know what it means. We'll, that's how many miles I walked on exchanges yesterday. In church clothes.....with.... a very annoying district leader. It was lovely. I figured by the end of the day he would be humbled somewhat. I mean, I would have been. I walked through my shoes at last yesterday, I sweat through my church shirt, and my pants too, I was almost vomiting by the end of it, and my feet hurt. But I'm proud of it. I will say that the Lord pulled through for me and enough people talked to us that somehow the time was filled. It's just that Mondays before temple day are usually the most empty days of the week, and we never really have appointments on those days so it was very hard to have a planned out, good day. But I worked my tail off and I woke up at 5:45am instead of 6:30am this morning, so I'm barely awake, honestly speaking.

That said, hard work pays off!! We set up so many return appointments and saw so many small miracles, but above all I'm just glad my companion is Elder England!

My lesson learned is take care that your diligence in obeying the Lord does not prevent you from loving the Lord's children or being willing to accept others. Love one another, judge not, that ye be not judged.

And of course: Be NICE TO PEOPLE!

Even if they are different from you or live a different lifestyle than you do. People are people.

I'm spending what little p day I have left sleeping off those 14 miles. It was a long day. Worth it though.

*Mom note: This week we had a visit from Elder Durrant who has completed his mission and is now starting fall semester at BYU with his brother Seth.  It was fun to talk to him and hear stories about his mission and his time serving with Caden.  They spent 4.5 months as companions which is the longest Caden has served with any one companion so far.  We are very grateful to Elder Durrant for  being a great friend and companion to Caden especially during Caden's headaches and eye problems.  Thanks Elder Durrant!!