What Day Is It????

Oh, Yeah, Dec. 12. Tomorrow is Dec 13. The first day of doing the 12 days of Christmas. So, why are the 12 gifts I have for Michael still sitting on my kitchen table, waiting for a box that will hold them all??? Most of them aren't big at all, but a couple are and now, I have to go find a box tomorrow to hold it all. Hopefully one that's not too big. He'll have to open a couple a day for a few days to catch up once it gets to him. Oh,well. It's the thought that counts....RIGHT? Whatev.

Today's email from Mike was the first one that hinted at a little bit of discouragement. I feel for him, but don't know what I can do other than pray for him. He lost his trainer at last week's transfers and I think he's a bit frustrated with feeling the responsibility of being the guy who's supposed to know the area and investigators (of which there aren't many) and wonders how Elder Lewis always made it seem so easy. He wants letters from people. I usually get one off to him at least once, sometimes twice a week. I can't wait for him to call on Christmas!!! 13 more days! Yikes. This is what he had to say in today's email:

"being the senior companion--in the sense that i know the area and have to pretty much plan our days out by myself--is hard. it feels like elder lewis always knew who we could go see when we didn't have anything to do. now when all our plans fall through, i'm at a loss for plans. so we tract. a lot. yesterday we tracted all morning, and then most of the afternoon. with little success. it's frustrating, but that's just part of missionary life i guess. it just feels like i'm forgetting so many people that elder lewis didn't. but i've been thinking about it so much, and the only conclusion i can come to is that i'm not forgetting anyone. we try to see a lot of different people, it's just that nothing works, they're either not home or "busy" or whatever. and that leaves our day pretty open. we're still working with a lot of the same people, and they don't seem to be progressing very quickly. no one wants to meet with us more than once a week. the zone leaders are teaching a young couple that they see almost every day. we need to find someone like that to teach! what we really need is some member support. we haven't gotten a single member referral since i've been here. members will go to lessons with us when we need them to, but that's about it. there's no real fellowshipping happening. IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANYONE THAT MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THE CHURCH, TELL THE MISSIONARIES. MEMBER REFERRALS ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE. "

Later...