Madness Journal Entry Number ???

Well, I guess I'll start with last night.
Gretel's 8th birthday was last night, and we had a good time eating cupcakes and watching Toy Story 3. I love that movie; it's the best animated film I've ever seen. Gretel will be baptized around Thanksgiving when all of the family gets together for it. Oh, I love Thanksgiving. I always look forward to it, because I know that the family party most always means 1. Tons of yummy food to snack on all night long, 2. Board games all night long, 3. Most likely a sleepover at grandmas and 4. Football in the morning! Julie Jarvis came over last night to join our family birthday party. She's a good girl; her parents raise her well. How old is she now, 10? She must be.

Everybody in the family is dying this week. Kids are sick and vomiting and irritated at everything. I'm glad I got it first so that I could help them get through it. Even mom had to shut down and take a couple of naps today. I hope tomorrow they'll be feeling better.

Today, I was priveleged with the opportunity to hang out with the ward missionaries, which I took. It was like job shadowing, and it was AWESOME! We didn't do any tracting, but we drove around to some of the less active members of the church and visited them. Elder Hill and Elder Mendel (dang it, I know I am getting his name wrong) are also the Spanish speaking Elders in our district, so we visited a couple of Spanish speaking people too. It was fun, even though I had a hard time understanding what was being said. Elder M (I'll just call him that) turned to me and said, "So, do you know anyone that we could meet?" at one point of our drive as we listened to Disney music, that's right. Disney music. Like, Hurcules, Mulan, Pochohantus soundtrack. The only family that I could come up with after a bit of thought was the Church family. They are a family of 6, and Henry just loves to come over to their house to play with guns and video games with his best bud Westley. A very very friendly family. I don't know them as well as Henry does, but I have met them a couple of times.

I directed the missionaries to their house, it being in the newer suburb area of town.

Mr. Church, with his friendly, metallic (he has braces) smile, met us at the door. I introduced the elders, and instead of saying some chiche variation of rejection, they had a funny conversation. Not about religion, about some salesmen that had just come by who were selling salad spinners! XD Mr. Church was expecting some guests to come soon, but he planned a time that the missionaries could come by again.

HE WANTED THE MISSIONARIES TO COME.

I am really excited for their large family. Mom later told me that they had been looking for a church to go to. I'll have to wait and see how things turn out...

After all of that, we returned to the Elder's apartment right on the top of this really big hill. It was, a cool looking spot to me, kind of symbolic to missionary work too, eh? Green grass, leafless trees scattered everywhere, and some cool archetecture right in the middle: their apartment.

The interior of the apartment was, I admit, cluttered. Though the room was filled with leftover snacks, books, planners, charts, and cutouts from church magazines, I could feel a unique, strong spirit in the musty room. I was kept well entertained just by studying the whole room. My two most favorite things that I noticed were a poem about refinement using a statue symbolcally and a quote by President Hinkley which went like so: "You are good. But being good is not enough. You need to be good for something. You need to contribute to the good of the church and society." I think I paraphrased it okay.

We just chatted about life while I was there. Elder Hill was a member of a student leadership group in his high school and had tried many different things in his life before his mission. He suggested that the best thing for me to do now is to just try everything out and see what I like to do. He sounded to me like one of those overachieving, organized, awesome kind of people. I love people like that; the more people like them I know, the closer I feel I get towards their levels of excellence. They are... inspiring. Elder M was still not too sure what he wanted to do in life, but that was exactly the reason he went on his mission. To figure things out, and to learn.

Even after just one day of working with the missionaries, I feel that my communication skills, thought patterns, and spirituality have improved. I love serving the Lord, and I love helping out the missionaries! They are so service oriented. They've got connections, and ya know what? I think that is one of the keys to success. To know people. The more friends you know, the more connections you have and the more work you can get done for the good of the world.

I am so so so excited for my mission. Now I can see why a mission turns a boy into a man.