Oi, you lot,
How are ya? I miss you upon this day of love. I hope that you are all prospering. I've got some amusing stories this week so I hope that you find them as good as I did.
We talked to this homeless dude named Jacob for like 30 minutes. He was kinda off his rocker but also like the sweetest guy at the same time. At first he didn't want to talk to us but after we pushed past initial hesitations he was actually super friendly and really needed someone to talk to. As we were walking away he said "I love you Jacob!" I'm super glad he felt loved by us and I think he really needed that.
We were teaching a recent convert who lives in an assisted living facility and an interesting occurrence unfolded before my eyes. He stood up in the middle of our lesson, told us he needed to drink these fluids for a procedure, and left the room. He came back with a large jug of what he later told us was laxatives. Before my very eyes he guzzled, and chugged away ¾ of this container, a glass at a time. He just gulped 9 glasses worth of the stuff for basically 15 minutes straight. It was a spectacle.
We had a ward game night and we went and played a couple rounds of liar's dice with a member of the congregation who used to be a professional race car driver. T'was quite fun actually. Then afterwards, at the same party, I had an unexpectedly abrasive conversation with a fellow who wanted to...dissuade me from my work because of some issues he had with the facsimiles of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. That was not quite as fun, and felt kinda personal. But he said he still felt welcomed and appreciated by the other members at the party so that's what matters to me.
At Sunday dinner with an absolutely adorable family, the mother at one point made a mad dash to the door to make sure the suspicious figure she had spotted on the doorstep was her son and not a burglar. On her way she managed to catch her toe on a chair and bend it out of place at a pretty jarring angle. In our midst, the husband made his best efforts to move it back into place. Quite an amusing proceeding.
In other news, I'm staying in Monterey for another 6 weeks.
I would've thought that since I've been a missionary for what seems to me a decent amount of time that I would be done with all the anxiety and turmoil within myself. But it always seems that right when everything is going our way, a wrench (or in many cases more like...a locomotive or something far greater than I wrench, I don't know) drops into our plans unexpectedly. To me, and I'm sure most of us, it can feel like we will never catch a break. That we just move from one difficult situation to another. But amidst what may seem to be a never-ending storm we must always remember that our savior has said:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
When the path ahead may appear barren or gloomy, we need not search for temporary solace within the imperfect and temporary solutions of the world. We are offered freely the perfect peace of Jesus Christ. He will be out soother, our healer, and our rescuer in our very darkest hours.
I can promise that He offers freely the breath of fresh air that we are all searching for. Though he may not remove our suffering, he will always help us through it.
[Music Notes Emoji]
Under My Skin--Briston Maroney
Blue World--Mac Miller
For now, adieu.
Elder Winegar
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