Missionary work is WORK

I'm doing alright. This week was a pretty hard one. we worked pretty hard! I have blisters coming in all over my feet, some of my confidence is shot, and we literally had no results, no lessons on some days and a lot of appointments fell through.  But it's okay because I know that there was nothing else we could do. We also got a lot more set up for this week. We are going to go by a lot more less actives and former investigators. Hopefully we still see a lot from that. I see doing this work in a weird way.  It's almost like finding, and getting people that are prepared are separate. When we find and do this labor that is really hard, then its showing God that we can handle what He gives us. If we find, then He will give us people to teach, we almost won't find them because it's pretty much all God's work. We had to either drop or go by less to almost all of our investigators because they just weren't progressing. This email sounds sadder than it really is.  The work is going, it might be slow, but it's going, I can always feel the love of the ward, and I love all the experiences, even from the most boring of times, whether it was when we knocked on a door and we heard people screaming and we started bolting, while hearing someone say, "Who is that!!!" or when it is when my companion and I just talk for hours walking in the middle of nowhere.
Love, Elder H.

Letter home that arrived in Shoreline on January 20, 2014

Hey there family,                                                                                       Airdrie Scotland

Jan 6

For P-day it was kind of lame, we didn’t have anything planned so we didn’t know what to do.  We pretty much did the basics, e-mail, shop,, we went to KFC and pretty much just ate and talked about stuff.  Elder Edwards bought a new suit and me and Elder Utley went to the pet store and looked animals.

Jan 7

Today was a really hard, slow day.  It’s the worst.  It feels like the harder I work, the less success we have and the slower time moves.  It scares me because I just don’t enjoy the work as much as I should.  I’m sore, my feet hurt, and not a single person talked to us.

Jan 8

Today wasn’t too bad.  I got to do some service and paint and then we went to the Blacks for dinner and tried by some people that weren’t in.  But it was good because I taught a really good lesson at the Blacks.

Jan 9

Today was a quickie.  We did weekly planning, then did some more painting at a less active’s house.  Then we had dinner at the Easton’s and the food was amazing.  After, it was good because we taught a lesson with their less active daughter there.  Afterwards they gave us a ride to Plains to have a lesson with Ann, a woman that we met on the street that has just gone through a lot of death in her family.  Unfortunately she told us to come again next week.  But we still have hope.

Jan 10

Today I needed to get my broken filling fixed because it’s been bugging me so I was going to look around town and try to get estimates so I could email Mom and figure out how to pay for it.  So we know the huge dental building in Coatbridge and we walked in and it was actually a dental school.  Within the hour I had an appointment, didn’t have to pay anything or give any info at all and got it all fixed up…the health care is so weird here.  When I was filling out a paper, I was talking to the people that were going to work on my teeth, one of them has a sister that is on a mission for her church and we also talked about how cold it was in America and they told me about the polar vortex, it’s crazy.

Jan 11

Today we worked and did volunteer work for the Salvation Army.  We pretty much have gotten the hang of things there.  Just at the register helping people out, a man that was a photographer all over Scotland gave us some pictures he had taken.  Another hippie kind of guy invited us to a religious yoga thing but all the events are down in London, so darn, so close.

Jan 12

Today was an amazing Sunday.  A less active man and his girlfriend (soon to be wife), walked into Church and pretty much wanted us to teach his girlfriend the Gospel and she had already been reading the Book of Mormon and I said to myself, “Finally!  Someone that will actually care about what I have to say, someone that will actually progress and show me hope that I could actually maybe baptize someone.”  But, unfortunately, Elder Davis stepped in and made an appointment and took them from us.  I’m tired of being the ‘other missionaries’, the ‘back up’, that’s all I’ve been my mission is just the worker bee that gets all his reward taken away.  At least it does prove my member missionary work theory:  Those two wouldn’t have been there if Br. Goldie didn’t invite them back.  What we are doing is like cutting grass with scissors, we will cut it but it will take forever and right when you’re done with a section, the other has already grown back.  Members are like your dad lending you his lawn mower, it just does the trick and there really isn’t any other way to cut the lawn.  Yeah sure, you’ll be ‘cutting’ the lawn the other way, but it’s kind of worthless in comparison.  We can chap until our knuckles bleed but it just takes a member to soften the hearts of a loved one.  Scottish people have a personality that is just the opposite of what we need as missionaries.  I’ve heard converts themselves say they have slammed the door on hundreds of missionaries until some miracle person came, like a friend or a loved one.

Good Morning Airdrie!

This should help with the Scotland flooding problem.

I'm mining for souls