Hey Mom!
A good jedi is never without his lightsaber. Remember that.
Oh yeah, I haven't heard anything about my VISA yet. Don't get your hopes up; the visa is like a two month process and I received word like halfway through the MTC experience that my visa was messed up. Ooops. But I'll be fine wherever I go-I just want to talk to real investigators instead of Enrico, my emotionless robot of an investigator that Hermano Burnham is pretending to be.
Anyway, that's not that much that's new with me. I learned how to sew a button back on a white shirt and let me tell you something: it's TERRIBLE!!!! I now understand why you hate to sew. I think I poked myself like 9000 gagajabllion times and then end product is certainly not rewarding enough to warrant the work. But I am learning to fend for myself here in the wilds of the MTC.
Oh, have I mentioned that we are the oldest distric in our zone now? That means we really, really have to try to be good examples and we want to reach out to other districts more. This is hard for me, mostly because I'm a natural born slacker and I generally wait for people to reach out to me before I become their friend, but I am trying. I say "Buenos Dias" a lot now because I'm buddy the Elf 2.0 and I like to wave. It's just what you do as a missionary. Also, our new zone leaders (which almost always come from the oldest district) are Elder Swenson and Elder Jones. So now the other districts have the privilege of putting up with our married couple for extended periods during the day as well.
Wow, I'm really out of things to say and I have thirteen whole minutes left. I better throw in a story or lesson or something here to take up time and to encourage you to keep writing me (I can't lose my only contact with the outside world!). I'm not sure if I've said this or not, but recently, Elder Wheeler (who is not, in fact, employing this strategy in his emails) and I have really, really started to try to use the Spirit during lessons and it is hard. I am not a good teacher (go figure). I know a lot and therefore I try to help other people understand what I understand. However, oft times they lack the capability, desire, willingness, and/or background to understand what I understand and thus I end up going into too much detail, getting hung up on little things, or not teaching according to need. This is where the Spirit comes in. So, the other day during one of our lessons, Elder Wheeler (who will wait for up to two seconds in order to hold open the door for approaching Hermanas) and I employed the strategy of silence, following both the promptings of the Spirit and the example of a District 1 clip where they employed silence as well. It was like, a minute and a half of silence. It was SUPER awkward. But SUPER effective as well. Seriously, if that lesson was a pokemon battle, I would've been Charizard, Elder Wheeler (who tells me stories of lighting hay bales on fire in rural Kansas) would have been Moltres, and our investigator, Natalia, would have been Venosaur. Ask Colton; he'll get it. After the lesson, we knew exactly what we needed to teach next because she told us after our completely silent interrogation and I think she is really close to baptism. Let's hear it for the Spirit!
Okay, here's something a little more reverent and on a completely different topic: I was reading "Jesus the Christ" (which I love), and I read a quote that I really like. In fact, it's the only quote I've underlined in the whole 650 pages that I've read so far. It reads, "Man, as a peculiar habit, has a tendency to project and augment onto God the very qualities that he himself posesses." That blew my mind with how true it is. This can be both good and bad: For example, to me, it's very important that God's plan connects in every way, sometimes in subtle ways that others cannot easily discern. This is how I think. Also, for me, it's important that God is understanding, almost more important than God being loving. See, I feel as if it's incredibly important to be able to put yourself in another's shoes and not judge. Therefore, the God that I imagine understands exactly my intentions and my attempts. It can also be bad, however, if, per chance, you happen to be an incredibly greedy person and therefore you imagine God to "reap where he has not sown." Be careful how you put yourself into God and understand that God is only the best of us. He is perfect, as is His Son Jesus the Christ. Maybe this isn't as cool to you, but I thought it was great. I'm not sure what the application is specifically yet, but I'm working on that. I just need to get some time to think.
Well, now I'm out of time right as I think of a bunch of other cool things to say. Shoot. Well, love you and don't forget to write me!
Love,
Riley
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