Chapter 4: It's an Addiction

March 31, 2014

Oh, deary everybody. This week´s title has 2 meanings. 1) I´m addicted to the work and when I´m not working I get really sad (I´m calling it withdrawls and it happens when I´m being self centered). And 2) We met a TON of addicts this week.

The first is Edgar, our investigator who we finally gave up on because he officially doesn´t want to give up smoking. There´s nothing we can do with that. Next, we met a drunk who beats his "wife" (they´re not actually married abut she loves him and won´t leave). we also met a gambler this week and a cocaine addict (who is a non-active member). Yeah... FUN STUFF! :D

We also had an assistant to the President with us for 3 days. We were a trio and it was totally awesome. I learned so much and I was actually able to help out. We were all edified by the experience.

3 baptisms fell through this week, but we don´t want to baptize people who aren´t ready so I´m happy with it. I am sad that my companion doesn´t get a baptism this month (his goal is at least 100 while on his mission).

We also had interviews with the president and what did I do? LEFT MY NAMETAG AT THE HOUSE! I felt super horrible but he wasn´t very mad at me.

This week we had 83 people in sacrament meeting which is a huge improvement.

This is my email to the president this week, It has some good stuff in it and I thought I would share:

"Dear President,

This week was really good for me. The day of my interview I had a really rough day but I was able to get some good revelation and was able to work through it. I´ve been going up and down with the mood but I´ve been able to keep it up as long as I´m teaching and working, isn´t that one of the best cures? I´m fairly certain that This experience has already helped me grow a ton and I can´t wait to get back to work.

My companion is doing well too. I can´t see anything wrong, but there is a language barrier. Our Companionship has been better, but we´ve started working out problems that we didn´t know were all that big, but even a small thing can compromise the unity. One of the problems was a lack of comunication, but we´ve started working out a plan for that.

One spiritual thing this week was I realized how people look at our calling. 1) Non-members can really hate us and I think someone tried to moon us the day of Interviews (I say tried because we looked and walked away really fast) and 2) Members, even ones who aren´t active, can really trust us and we had a non-active member open up with all her drug and party problems. We´re working with her and hopefully she´ll be clean in no time.

I think that´s all for this week, Thanks for everything,

Elder VanderMeyden"

Last bust not least I saw a drunk guy fighting and someone saw our "light" and is now an investigator

Sorry that It´s shorter this week,

Elder VanderMeyden