There's a super nice non-member couple that lives below us and across the hall. Their names are Dianne and Matt, they have two pugs, and they give us food and buy us cheap things at thrift stores. Well, they bought Elder Adams some ties and socks on Saturday, but they didn't know what I like so they didn't get me anything. Plus they've only known me like three or four days. I wasn't sad.
Man! I'm so excited I can write for longer than thirty minutes!!
Okay, let's see. Oh! My first day was probably the best first day in the history of missionaries. Or at least it felt like it at the time. Let's start from the beginning:
I arrived in Tulsa at aboouuuut 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon. We rode over to the mission office, then over to the mission home. We were all very tired, but we had to listen to orientation stuff for a while. We had very delicious chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and I ate two. Then we talked some more about stuff and Jeffrey R. Holland told us all the rules for driving cars in the mission. The president pulled each of us out for about a minute and got to know us and confirm that our companionship was good by the spirit or something. He asked me why I was serving a mission, I felt like I was in a test. Apparently I passed though, because my companion is pretty good.
After the interviews, the Elders got to go nap because the sisters weren't done with their interviews yet. I was excited. Then I realized that people who snore ALWAYS fall asleep first. And someone had really stinky feet. And my earplugs weren't accessible. So I kinda laid there for a half hour and made sure to face east so I could breathe. Then it was time to get up, and I realized that the blanket I was using decided that it wanted to make sure that everybody knew how great it was by covering me in black fuzzies. My lint brush was also inaccessible. (By the way, that lint brush is awesome, Pop).
We went downstairs and talked some more and they gave us a thousand things to keep track of. Then it was dinner time. As soon as I sat down I was really sad that I ate two sandwiches for lunch. I wished I had eaten no sandwiches for lunch. They had these incredible yummy beans, these super duper biscuit roll things, marvelous coleslaw, and the best brisket I'd ever had. Dessert was Texas sheet cake, which was disappointing because 1. It was not Nana's, and 2. It made me miss Nana's.
Then it was time for bed. I made sure to grab my earplugs.
Then it was time for not bed.
We got up and got ready and then went to the Church to wait some more. After we waited some more, we got into separate vans to wait some more. I was very tired and the missionaries behind me wouldn't stop talking about playing "Magic: The Gathering" on days that I was pretty sure were not preparation day (we're not allowed to use abbreviations here in the OTM.) and something about some elder playing Pokemon cards too I think. I was not impressed. Mostly I was tired. Luckily I got a few hours of "buckled into the back of a van with my head resting on my coat against the window" sleep. After about 4 or so hours we finally arrived at my stop. I found Elder Daniel Miller, and loaded up my stuff. There was a big scary '80s van with a wheel-chair ramp and as soon as I got out all I could think of was "Please don't let that be my ride."
So I got into the big scary '80's van with Elder Daniel Miller. Or rather he got into the van, and I sat on the bench about 10 feet away and couldn't hear what he or the driver were saying. I think they asked me what kind of food I liked. I smiled and said "Haha, yeah!" to be polite.
As I stared wistfully out the window, I was humbled because I realized that this man was clearly very poor, his left side was paralyzed, and he was still willing to help the missionaries out. I hid my French cuffs under my sweater and resolved to not be scared of big scary 80's vans with wheelchair ramps anymore.
FINALLY I arrived to my apartment. I walked up the steps to my apartment and Elder Adams told me not to stomp. Then Dianne came out and also told me not to stomp. I stopped stomping. I opened the door and missed home because my apartment is dirty and a little scary. Then I remembered I was humble and embraced it. I dropped my things off and was surprised to hear that Elder Adams was letting me unpack my things before we left. I took a tour around the apartment, and was pleasantly surprised to find I had my own bathroom and my very own desk! I also have a queen sized bed, but it is on a twin sized box spring, so you cant really lay on it all the way because it's droopy. I don't really understand why they have the box spring, because it would be way more comfy just on the floor, but then I remembered I was humble.
I hope this isn't too long, I'm just excited that I have so much time to write and I'm fat and don't want to ride my bike all the way back yet.
Then it was time to go do things! So I put on my coat and then realized my hat and scarf were in my backpack with all my books, which was in the big scary '80s van. Not to worry! We went out the door and the Spirit of God warmed my bones. We walked, and walked and walked and walked, and talked and talked and talked. Then we found Brother Noe's house. He is old and doesn't come to church because he has arthritis or something and likes when the missionaries come over. Elder Adams talked and talked and then soon enough we were talking about how the Freemasons took stuff from the endowment process, not the other way around. Then we talked about Freemasons and labor unions and other stuff. Then I realized that Elder Adams wasn't going to talk about anything really so I changed the subject. We read a chapter from the Book of Mormon because Brother Noe can't read right now. Then we left.
We walked some more, then Brother Essel, the Ward Mission Leader from Ghana picked us up. He bought us dinner at some Japanese place and the waitress was asking about what we do and stuff. We gave her our information, ate our food, and went home! We stopped by again on Saturday and dropped off a Book of Mormon for her. Anyway. At about eight, we got a call and some less-active member wanted a blessing. A ward missionary came and brought us over. Then after that we went next door to her neighbor, because he was a referral. His name is Casey. He is my first investigator! Woo! He is 53, and an alcoholic. I've got some good stories about him already, but Elder Adams is getting antsy. Needless to say, we walked about 12 miles on Friday so we could go visit Casey. We are excited about him. Oh and we also met another potential investigator through him. I am very excited.
Welp, that's about it so far. I could keep talking about stuff that's not as interesting or important, but I don't want Elder Antsy pants to freak out or go on amazon and buy action figures or something.
"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth"
- Albus Dumbledore
It was on a window her at the library.
Love,
Elder Drake
Elder Drake
