Really Tough Week

My companion was sick Tuesday until yesterday, so I spent a lot of time listening to talks.  Great talks like “When Prayers Seem Unanswered” listened to that one about 10 times.  The one about tragedy and God, I don’t remember what it’s called, the one dad told me to listen to it before I left on my mission. [God and Human Tragedy by Robert Millett.]   I read “The Message” in two days.   I read 1 Nephi to Jacob in 2 days.  I plan on reading the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants at least two times on my mission.

I finally got the package this week.   Don’t send chocolate anymore.   It melts in shipping and then is bad!

The work over [last week, I asked what it was] is when the Assistant to the President comes and is your companion for a day.  It gives me a chance to see how others work with stuff.

I did get some Allegra D from the doctor.  He said this is a really heavy time for allergies.  No rain and a lot of pollen and hot!  

  

The new washing machine is here and we are washing everything!

The Ward Mission Leader is way cool.  He works for the American Embassy and is very supportive of missionary work.  One investigator stopped drinking this week. We do have 1 new investigator with a baptism date of next transfer now.  

Our scale was broken and not accurate all the time.  So I weigh 68-69 kilos, which is about 150 pounds. So I did drop some, but put some back on.  Still a little loss of weight.

Tomorrow is one year since Kenny died.  It’s gonna be really hard for me here. I think harder than if I was at home because if at home I would have love and support from family. Here I am not going to have that.  We will see how it goes- you could see me on a flight home by the end of the week-  that’s a joke, dad! Chill!

This week was really hard I didn’t do much work because my companion was sick. So it was hard week.  I didn’t have anything to get my mind off home, so I missed home a lot. I called the President yesterday saying I wanted to go home, I was sick of this already.  He assured me that once I got out of the flat I would be okay.

 And yesterday, we were tracting and we had got done and started to walk back. I got this feeling we should knock this door number 10.  An all white door and I knocked it.  A big black guy answered and I was holding the Book of Mormon.  He said Yea- I have that book. I have read it.  I said like you wanna hear more about it.   He said I’m busy right now, but can I call you and set up a time to meet you.  We were like yeah and gave him the address of the church. 

We were walking down the street and I stopped this guy and started talking to him. He has been to our church before and said that he has a son that has gone off the deep end. He thinks we can help him, so we are meeting with his family this week.

This e-mail isn’t too long. I didn’t have much happen this week, but I know that this coming week is going to be hard and I am going to be so home sick. I feel Kenny’s presence everyday in my life. I know that he wishes he was here with us still. I know that he will be there to greet us when we get to the other side and for some of us it may be sooner than we want to leave. But we never know when that day will come.

Love Elmer Stevenson

 [“Elmer” a personal joke with his dad. On Scott’s mission one guy asked why all of the missionaries had “Elmer” as their first name.]

[Casey also sent a note he wants posted to facebook tomorrow. I will update the blog to include it tomorrow as well. And include a couple of photos he sent today.  Please say an extra prayer for him tomorrow and throughout this week-Thanks!  Mom]