Wass Gucci Fam!!
Over half way baby!! 20 short days and I will be on a plane do DEUTSCHLAND!! Boy do I have some stories this week for you all. This was by far the most fastest, annoying, best, frustrating week of the mission. Let's get to it.
Thursday: I was at lunch and all of a sudden POP my bottom permanent retainer broke. That was annoying because I just got it fixed a couple days before I left. So I went to the front office, told them and they scheduled for a shuttle to pick my companion and I up and take us to the dentist. When Elder Day and I heard we were going to be able to leave the MTC and go to the outside world for a bit, we were as excited as giddy school boys. (Elder Hann) So my appointment was at 2:30, right when they open, but we got in there at 2:00. They let us in early and as we walked in it was so sick. It was all beach themed! They had some lawn chairs and a jeep and worldly music was playing over the speaker. It was heaven to our ears to hear something other than a hymn for a little while. They made us smoothies and treated us really nice. It was a little embarrassing and sad how much fun Elder day and I were having in there, at the orthodontist... We had a full on photo shoot, they were laughing at us the entire time.
Friday: Got to watch Boyd K. Packers Funeral. It was sad but so good. Other than that Friday was nothing exciting.
Saturday: More service. We did something called Foaming. We all acted like military soldiers while working and we were being really loud, it was a good time.
Sunday: I was asked to give a talk in sacrament about the book of Mormon. Last minute. It was nerve racking but I think I did well. Everyone says I did at least, which is nice:) Also Shout out to Holly and Raquel for visiting me during my temple walk:)) I loved seeing you guys. It's so fun to see people from the outside world. I don't know it's weird and hard to explain why.
Monday: Another bad service day. We scrubbed a brick wall. Seriously a brick wall? Pretty positive it looked exactly the same after we finished. Maybe I’m just mad because I got chemical on my shoes….
Tuesday: Yesterday was weird. I was fine all day until I got an itch on my head. I rubbed it and there was a bump on my head. All of a sudden I got a really bad migraine and super nauseous. I thought I was going to faint. They took me to urgent care across the street. They wanted to draw blood. They stuck a needle in my arm and she hit a nerve so I was pretty much in tears when that happened. Then she informed me she had to do the other arm since she wasn't able to extract any blood from my right arm and that was fine. Didn't hurt. Did more tests and got an X-ray. We were there for three hours. I went back this morning and they are still looking at it. One doctor thinks it’s a lymphnode, one doctor thinks its like a cyst or something. They had like 5 doctors rubbing up on my head. I'm fine now! They said they don’t think it's anything to worry about but they are going to keep calling me in to check on it until they figure out what it is. I might need surgery but that’s not for sure yet and if I do it’s not serious surgery! So nothing to worry about mom and dad:)
Frustration: It's been 3 weeks. There is a little tension in our district. We all really like each other, it’s just being with people for 16 hours a day everyday is a lot. I wish I could just chill by myself sometimes. Some of the rules here at the MTC drive me insane. It's a little ridiculous. Somebody tells me someone is breaking a rule every 10 minutes. That's where I got a little frustrated this week. Luckily a friend gave me an idea. She sent me something she wrote in the MTC when she was on her mission - just how she was feeling. So I did the same and it was a really good venting session. I want to share some of what I wrote with you guys.
"Just because we are missionaries with name tags doesn't make us any more righteous or better than anyone else. Every person in this world is as equally important as the next. Every active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a full time missionary too, or at least should do their best to try. The only difference is we have ONE purpose. To invite others unto Christ. I'm so tired of people worrying about things that have nothing to do with that purpose. I'm guilty of it myself. Unless we want these next two years to be a lot harder than they need to be, we need to put our pride, ignorance, and arrogance to the side. Just because we may think something is wrong doesn’t mean it is wrong. And just because what we think is right, doesn't make it right. Besides the obvious commandments of God and our church leaders it is not our place to judge or decide what's right from wrong. That's up to the individual. As for change, it is good. It's important to constantly try and be better than we were the day before, but complete change doesn't happen over night. For the most part change happens over time naturally. If you decided to completely change as soon as you put on your name tag I don't think that is necessarily a good thing. You were called of God to the place you are serving because of who you are and the type of personality you have. You are able to connect with someone in your area better than another missionary could somewhere else even though you both have the same purpose. If you force change yourself, I really believe the entire purpose of where you’ve been called has been defeated. Yes, we need to hold ourselves to a high standard, and be good examples but that's different. We are here to share the same joy and happiness the gospel has brought to our lives with other people around the world. Let's focus a little bit less on ourselves and self righteousness and more on the people we are about to teach and bettering ourselves with knowledge of the gospel. Is that not why we all decided to serve in the first place?
Despite the frustration, the doctors appointments, and all the rules. I am still Loving the MTC! I miss you and pray for you guys everyday.
Elder Miller
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
1. How many hours a day do you actually spend learning German?
A LOT! At least half the day. 8 or 9 hours.
2. Have you studied and or learned about the Germany culture at all?
A little but not much. We know that Germans are hard to crack but once your in, your in with them for life. They are very loyal people. Christmas over there is suppose to be something special too.
3.What has been your favorite talk or spiritual experience so far?
Elder Banks, who use to be of the seventy, gave a really good talk yesterday. Probably the best one we've had since we have been here. We're due for a member of the 12 any day now though.. As for spiritual experience, too many favorites:)
