Tuesday, July 1, 2014

HAPPY CANADA DAY

His adoptive nation celebrates Canada Day / Fête du Canada, and Elder Eli celebrates with a great letter home:
Howdy all!

I hope you are all in good health and good spirits! I sure am, so if you’re not, borrow some of mine!
This was a good week. They go by so fast once they’re over! It’s interesting how the weeks are paced. Let me give you a little rundown of what a normal week is like for Elder Webb: 
  • Monday- P-Day! Shopping and cleaning and laundry and emailing and (lately) Frisbee golfing. I like Mondays. 
  • Tuesday- Kind of drags. A little more difficult to fill the time, so we sometimes do service. If we serve at the Food Bank, it’s typically on a Tuesday. 
  • Wednesday- Still kind of a drag, but getting better. Still tricky filling in time. If we do exchanges that week, they usually start on Wednesday and end on Thursday, so that helps. 
  • Thursday- District meeting! This is when the week really starts to pick up. District meeting takes a good chunk of time (especially if we have to travel), then it’s much easier to fill in the day. 
  • Friday- Starts with service at a care center for old dependent people. By “service” I mean that we pick them up from their rooms and wheel them over to a sort of atrium where they play cribbage and tile rummy. Then we usually get to play with them, which is so fun. After that we have weekly planning, where we set goals and make plans for the coming week, and where we evaluate our progress so far for the current week. 
  • Saturday- Nothing consistent. We’re looking for something consistent to do on Saturdays, because usually they’re wide open. We have to get creative sometimes. 
  • Sunday- Church. That’s basically the only consistent part of Sundays as well. 
What I listed was what we can count on happening most every week. With the time we have left we tract or teach or visit members or do other service or eat, basically just missionary stuff. It’s a good time.

So, this last week we went to do service at the old folks’ home. A few weeks ago I made a friend whilst playing crib. He just turned 100 in February, and he’s awesome. Just last Friday he didn’t show up to the games until they were nearly done, but he saw me and we both just lit up. It was awesome to see how excited he got. 
His daughter was with him, so once we finished up our game of tile rummy we went over to say hi to them. They were looking for two more players to finish up a game of crib since they had lost their previous ones, so we filled in and got to know them a little better. Apparently his daughter used to come out to our church (I’m not sure if she was ever a member), but now she identifies with Catholicism. She was so grateful that we played with them and talked, but I couldn’t really see why. Heck, I love games, so I’ll play whenever I get the chance. She was so grateful, in fact, that she insisted on buying lunch for us. We conceded and headed over to the cafeteria to pick something up. 
While we were over there (we’d left her father eating at our table) she told us why she was so grateful. Apparently, her father was only recently admitted to that facility. He had been in a car accident previously and had lost the ability to walk. Prior to his accident he could travel and get around with a walker and basically do what he wanted, and that was well into his nineties. 
She told us that he had had a really hard time adjusting, and that just last week he had told her that he was done. He wanted to give up. He said they’d play one last game of cards and then he didn’t want to go on. They played their game and he was wanting to go, but he was staying around for a bit longer. Then Friday rolled around and we came and talked and laughed and played with him, and she said that it gave both of them a lot of hope. We’ll see what the future holds, but she said it was a miracle that we were there that day and that we played with him. I’m so glad that Heavenly Father puts people in our paths for us to help and uplift. I really hope I see my friend this Friday. Go ahead and send a prayer his way.

Transfers are this week! Elder Stoker has been in the area for six months, so he’s out of here, even though we only had one transfer. I’m going to be serving with Elder Felt. I think I’ve met him, but I can’t picture his face. Apparently he’s from Sandy and he went to Hillcrest (I wonder if Hannah knows him). I’m excited for this next chapter in my mission! I don’t know the area as well as I’d like to, but we’ll get by.

Thanks for all of your love and prayers and support and emails! It’s nice to hear about what’s going on at home. Keep me informed! There are some members that keep me informed on the important things, like the fact that USA is playing Belgium on the 1st, and that Jabari Parker is going to Milwaukee (ouch). Don’t stop giving me those updates, though, in case anyone misses anything.

Oh! I came up with a joke the other day that I’m really proud of. I’m about as proud of it as I am of my female sheep joke*, but I would prefer to tell you guys in person, so remind me once Christmas rolls around! I know, I know, it’s a ways away, but I just have to put it out there so it’s on our radars. Love you!

Keep the faith,
Elder Eli

* If a female sheep ate only the leaves of a yew tree and defecated in the shape of the letter “u”, one could say, “Ew, a yew ‘u’, you ewe!”
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