Medic!

Why is everyone sick. Like stop, please. The other set of elders and the sisters are all sick, so it's just us and the mandarin elders carrying the ward at the moment. Hopefully everyone feels better. Its really empty at the institute. 

For starters, we baptised Mason! He really loved it. It was a really spiritual experience, and my companion got to baptise him! He is ready to endure to the end, and I'm sure the Lord will watch his career with great interest. 

He was baptised on the 25th of January. For folk back home, that's a special day. Burns day. He was like some old Scottish poet who wrote some good stuff, so we have haggis and a celebration for him. Sadly, we did not have haggis at masons baptism, becuase I actually think it's illegal to buy over here. Anyway, it's an even more special day than people think, becuase just as Mason was baptised on the 25th, so was I. 25th January 2015 is when I was baptised, and that's too much of a coincidence to be one. It's poetic, and all thanks goes to God and the Holy Ghost

We went to the beach for pday, and it was awesome. Then we went to the institute for the rest of pday becuase the regular building we go to is doing renovations or something, and the other church building had a funeral on. But pday was great. Elder durrant and i got to jam out, him on piano and me on the organ, which was sick. Turns out I'm a lot better at table tennis than I thought I was. Or maybe I just got really lucky. 

On the way back, we met a bloke called Raja, who was wearing a Dresden football top. We got to talking about it, and it turns out he knows an exchange student from Edinburgh Uni here at UofW! And what's even crazier, is that i ran into him back in October! The only downside is that Raja is a celtic fan, so he was immediately made a red dot, do not contact, and he will not be receiving any of the missionary lessons and the blessings that come with baptism

I celebrated my 19th birthday on Wednesday, and it was such a good day. One of our friends, Tony, of whom we've been trying to meet up with for the past few months, decided that he would take us out to his restaraunt for some hotpot, which was awesome! Institute was good as well, as it always is. 

I've also had "Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis stuck in my head for the past two weeks. No one over here has ever heard of any Oasis songs except Wonderwall. Yay

On Thursday we got a call from President Sherman to go to the hospital and give a blessing to one of the sisters who was ill. We got told to go to the UW hospital, so we went to it. We spent about 45 minutes running around with about a dozen phone calls to the sisters, the APs and President Sherman to find out where they were in the hospital, and we found out that they were at the other UW hospital, 20 mins away. So we make our way over there, and finally meet up with them after about two and a half hours of trying to get to them. After president showed up, another two hours later, he took us out to five guys, becuase we hadn't actually had breakfast yet. I can tell you I'd never eaten a five guys burger that fast in my entire life. I ate most of the chips as well

We spent a lot of Friday running around getting meds for sick missionaires. We got a lot of leftovers from Sister sherman, dropping off the sisters back at their flat, and it's been good so far. They've been great leftovers.

We had a lot of lessons on Saturday, and that was cool. We had a phone call lesson mid game night, and I took my cards with me when we went to take the call. I've played with a lot of cheaters, so I'm not taking any chances. We had to leave early, but i was definitely gonna win that game

We had our first, last and only dinner appointment of the month, and it was a really nice lasagne! We also went out for some curry on Saturday, and you got to pick your spice levels out of 5. I got a 4, and it was a good level of spice. Enjoyable and tasty, whilst having a spice level that was hot and not burning to the point of discomfort. We've got some ghost pepper sauce in the flat, and i feel like I need to be using it more. 

Overall I'd say this week has been really great. There are some days where I'm just looking for a place for my head or to runaway, but every step forward gets me one step closer to a better day. It's getting colder, and my hands have become so numb, and I've actually got to use handwarmers. I'm happy with what I've done, and if it weren't for the Holy Ghost I wouldn't be able to do any of it. In the end, it doesn't even matter how good i am, cos it's all the spirit working through me. Yes, it's easier to run from the spirit, but you should never be to the point where you've given up. Yes, there are some days where nobody's listening, but we just keep going. People might not show it, but they care. 

That's a mission for me. A whole lotta fun, a lotta bad days, good days, and linkin park references. 

This week's spiritual though comes in the form of something it says in Preach My Gospel, the "missionary manual" that has all the lesson and everything you need to know to be a better missionary. This quote is from shapter six in PMG, Seek Christlike Attributes. It's Elder Holland saying:

"The Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going. … Soon enough you will have the success you seek"

My favourite part of this is where he says that the Lord blesses those who TRY to keep God's commandments. We all fall short, but we can rely on the Saviour for strength and power. He lifts us up when we are weary and empowers us when we are weak. He is there for us. Use his love for your benefit. 

Keep going!