I'd like
to start with a few snapshots of the city I live in.
--10:13
am. We are driving on a street mostly void of cars. It is bitter, bitter cold
and there are only a few people on the street. Because of the slow speed limits
I was able to look at them closely. The first was a very, very large man in a
power chair. He had a dvd player attached to one of the arm rests and an
umbrella attached to the back of his chair. On the other arm rest hung a 6 pack
of beer, 5 in the plastic and one in his free hand. He got to a curb and I
thought we were going to have to push him up it, but he stood up (quite slowly
and clearly with more effort than he was used to exerting) and wobbled/hobbled
around to push the chair up the little curb ramp. Then he waddled back to plop
down in his chair and continue 'driving.' He was not the first person I have
seen here like him. There are a bunch of people who ride around in these
wheelchairs and don't get out of them all day. Many who I have seen
walk. Like the man who drove his up to the store, parked the chair, locked it,
and strolled on inside as if he had just gotten off his bike, or out of his
car. I don’t quite know the whole situation for each of the many people who
seem to be chair riding rather than chair ridden, but it is just an interesting
part of Las Vegas that you don’t really get to see in the Oceans movies, or the
commercials, or really anywhere else.
--A few
minutes after probably like 10:19 am. Same road further down, a homeless woman
sitting on a half wall of a liquor store. Her shopping cart was full
of all her temporal possessions and there were quite few. But there
she was sitting on the wall with one of those 3 packs of 24oz beers,
drinking away. It looked like she had already drunk one and was partway through
the second. And it was only a few cold minutes after 10. I couldn't help
but wonder how long she had been waiting to buy those beers and how
long she would go without food because of them (these three and all the many
that led up to her sitting in front of this liquor store in the middle of the
winter.)
-- And
then right before turning on to the street where I am emailing now only another
few minutes later, another woman, but this one much younger, maybe 25 at the
oldest -barely old enough to be called a woman. She was hands free and clearly
drunk. She was staggering across the sidewalk. I'm not sure if she was still
drunk from yesterday, or she has already finished her morning dose. But as we
drove past we watched her empty the contents of her stomach all over the
sidewalk. Much like me in Mexico (what feels like a lifetime ago). It was gross
and sad.
I have
tried my hardest not to pass judgments, and
have succeeded surprisingly well in relation to
how judgmental I was just a few months ago, but these three are only
a few of the hundreds I have seen that make me think. It's a sad,sad city that
I live in, and I am so blessed to have things in my life that make me happy.
One of which being here helping people change their lives and change their path
away from the liquor store's of the future, or bring them back to where it is
warm. One of the hardest things about serving the Lord, (I think I mentioned
this earlier) is being rejected. Not because it hurts my feelings, but
because for most of the people we talk to it is easy to see that they are not
happy, that something is missing. I love the people I serve and the ones who
won’t let me and I want all of them to be happy and when they don’t want to be,
refuse to be, or don't try to change the things in their lives (that even they
know are wrong), it saddens me.
Okay, I
have a lot of feelings about this place and I hope
I don't sound self-righteous or overbearing
or ignorant (although I do recognize that I am in many ways) or
anything at all like that. Grrrr. Words never get out the feelings I want to
express. kk. Moving on.
ERIN! I
am sending you a letter later today but congrats on the mission call! I am
soooooo excited for you! You will do wonderful things and your testimony of the
Savior and service will be invaluable.
To the
rest of you who wrote me, thank you so much. I have a nice big chunk of time to
respond to all of you today. Hopefully I get to you all..... *sigh* I'm not
very good at all this.
Moving on
again, my week! What a great one. I met some amazing people this week.
Monday! I
emailed you guys, which was awesome :)! Pdays are very different here in
Sunrise. Everyone gets together at about 2:30 and we all play sports together
until 5. I was not prepared nor expecting that, but it was good to get a good
2.5 hours! of exercise. I wish I could tell you that I wasn't sore, but I was.
No matter how many push-ups, curls, and sit-ups I do, nothing is like lots of
running when you haven't for a while... After that we went to the Schweke's
house. A German Hawaiian family,super nice, but struggling with activity right
now. The whole family wants to be active and wants to be stronger in the church
but they are just not as committed as they need to be. That's what they said.
So props to them for recognizing. Insert of Elder Anderson preaching -- I think
that if you are going to do something, and I have been learning this for a
while and learned it the hard way too, and am still learning it, you have to be
committed. Half way is practically worthless, and multitasking will just leave
you unfulfilled. Go big or go home, get in or get out. Recognizing where we
lack full commitment, in whatever it may be, can help us
to re-prioritize and reorganize our lives and days to evict the
things that we don’t actually care about to then have and give proper attention
to the things that do matter. Idk. I'll be better able to explain, as I better
apply and understand this myself. Sorry for being longwinded... --. Shwenke's.
So we ate dinner there and it was really goood. I have had a surprising amount
of Hawaiian food here in Vegas but I think this was my favorite. And it was
simple, chicken and rice and potatoes. I had to sit with my back to the TV
because the national championship was going on. Interesting how some things I
cared about before the mission are not really even part of my thoughts and
other things ... are now a temptation. I hate to say it, but I wanted to watch
that game really bad, even though Notre Dame got killed... ;). But I sat with
my back to the TV and got to talk to them in between whoops and hollers and
screams and a lot of pretty hard hits among the family members! They were so
sweet and nice. Brother S. told us about 10 times, that the house was ours,
take off your shoes and coat and get comfortable, "the only rule here is
be yourself." Comforting. And sorry to be all faux-intellectual,
enlightening. I realized that sometimes I don’t act totally myself. I
may be schizophrenic but that is no excuse to be super serious and boring
and distant when talking to people I love about things I love. I am usually
pretty good about it but when around the AP's or stake presidents I usually
think and act differently. Well now I'm rethinking what I said earlier, because
the way I treat a 4 year old should be different than the way I treat the stake
president... should it? ughhh. Okay moving on, sorry. Later that night we went
to visit a recent convert in our area who might switch to a different ward
because it is tough for him to understand the Spanish gospel terms. And I don’t
blame him. He was taught in English and there aren’t many cognates for church
words. We had a great visit and he shared with us his conversion to the gospel.
It came because he saw that 2 brothers at his work were very different from the
other guys he works with. He said they were happier and more driven. So when he
asked why, they sent the missionaries over and shortly he got baptized. To all
members of the church, people watch you. You've heard that before, but (if you
are living how the Lord wants you to) people really do watch and pay attention
to what you do.
FREAK!
I've got to write 6 more days in like 5 minutes. I'm a turd.
Tuesday
we met the stake patriarch and his wife. They are cool, cool people. Apparently
she is tight with Pat. Like Pat Holland.... jealous hahahaha. They told a bunch
of stories about 'Pat and Jeff'. Then we visited a member and we were talking
to him (a widower) about his Christmas and he said he didn’t celebrate. Of
course that threw me off and we asked why not and he said because I have nothing
to celebrate. That broke my heart. If you don’t understand why what he said is
sad... well I'll explain later. There is so much to be happy about, and one of
those things would because of Jesus (whose birth we celebrate on Christmas) we
can live with our families forever. He was suuuuper lonely.
Ahhhh!!!!
oh yeah. JSH [Joseph Smith History] 1:24-26 is bomb.
Then we
saw a dog sized goldfish.... it was huge. Then we talked about baptism with one
of our investigators and she doesn’t want to be baptized because she wants to do
it with her husband but he is dragging his feet. So more info on that
later.
Wednesday
we ate with the temple president. So naturally we talked about the temple and
food! It was good and we learned a lot. They were sooo, so nice and their daughter
married the young guy (now a man) from the restoration movie. Then we had
a lesson with another guy who wants to be baptized to be an example for
his sons but he's been struggling with drinking and he works too much to come
to church and meet with us. Then we taught English class! That was a cool experience.
Soooo cool.
Thursday:
taught English class, did service for an old family, taught a less active
family. I have to write about them. He was a movie producer big time in London
like 24 years ago. She! is an ex model and her mom was a Japanese movie star
and model... she showed us a few pictures of her mom but I had to close my eyes
after the first one. You will find pornography in the weirdest places here, not
that she was trying to be evil or anything but models are hired for specific
reasons. She told us a lot of stories of her traveling around the world. Cooool
stuff.
Friday: great
day.
Saturday:
great day.
Sunday:
great day. Got to take the sacrament and be a little better for next week. We had
dinner with a Spanish member and he was showing us his iphone and all the cool
tricks it can do.... I feel like a caveman who just stepped out of the time
machine. So that's it.
ahhh!!!
sorry!!!
I love
you all so much.
Sam
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