This week was a pretty good week for us. We had a lot of success even though I had to leave the area for two days this week to finish spending a day with each missionary in my district. I like all the missionaries in the district and I’m glad only one of them is leaving for the next transfer.
On Saturday we had two graduation parties in the ward that we got invited too. At first we weren’t planning on going, but then we realized that there would probably be a lot of non-members there as well. We ended up being able to talk to a lot of new people and it was awesome to have a lot of people from the ward there too. It was our chance to show members that we are capable and confident as missionaries. We got a couple potential investigators out of it as well.
We had a missionary return home from Mexico a couple weeks ago and he had his homecoming talk in church yesterday. We’ve been taking him out with us a lot and he is a huge help. Plus he’s having missionary withdrawals too and I guess he went out knocking doors by himself in his neighborhood. It was pretty funny but I can kind of relate. Missionaries always talk about how their ‘home life’ seems like a fantasy after they’ve been out on a mission for so long. I never really believed them when they said stuff like their family felt like a made up dream and stuff like that. But I’m starting to get that way too. I’ve come to a point where all my dreams are about missionary work, I sign my name ‘Elder’ instead of ‘Erik’ all the time without realizing it, I think in ‘transfer periods’ rather than months, and I celebrate when we drive less than 30 miles in one day. So yeah I can definitely see how it’s hard for a lot of people to go back to normal life after a mission. You get to a point where nothing else really matters anymore. I forget to even check the mail most of the time. Elder Mayfield is always the one to run back downstairs and look in our mailbox. It’s not that I don’t care about letters or anything, it’s just that they’re not at the front of my mind anymore.
The ward has been getting better and better for missionary work lately. I think the baptism we had last week really helped spark it. We’ve been getting a lot of less actives back to church as well an hopefully we’ll be able to count some reactivations really soon. I really like this ward a lot and would be happy spending the rest of my mission here but this will most likely be my last transfer here. Howell’s apartment is easily the best in the mission too so I don’t want to leave 😉
Other than that not to much has changed. I’m having a lot of fun in Howell and we’re starting to see some true success. I’m really excited for the next transfer. I hope all you guys are doing awesome!
-Elder Rushton