It's been a very fun week and a very rough week.
It was Christmas and I had a wonderful time. We had present time, skyping, dinner, a tornado, and everyone we talked to was quite nice (yes we still proselytized). People asked us "Y'all work on Christmas?" "Yes Ma'am! It's Christmas and what better time to represent our Lord?" (They also had been asking the past few weeks if we were headed home and were often quite taken aback when we explained 2 years meant 2 years). It was a wonderful holiday and I enjoyed it.
We had weekly planning on Wednesday on account of the weather (we were going to have zone training but it was moved to Thursday on account of the weather). It was odd doing the planning on Wednesday instead of the usual Thursday but we did it. We chiseled at it for many hours until it was completed. It took a lot out of us and our day but we finished it and went on our way to get stuff done.
I woke up Thursday very cold. I knew we would be inside for training for a part of the day with suits on so I wasn't too worried about having to be outside in the morning. But as our morning commenced, I was really cold. So cold, I was shivering! I put on my black long-sleeve sweater vest and wore that underneath my suit. The meeting was fantastic but I was still cold! We mainly talked about our new goal as a mission in terms of convert baptisms and what we need to do to get there. The three main areas of improvement that were highlighted were removing distractions, being obedient, and helping people actually progress. We had Steak and Shake with Elder J and Elder C afterwards (it just worked out with the ride situation - I'd explain if I had more time) which was fun. I wasn't hungry by that point so I just got a small sandwich. I think I ate a part of that and some fries and was done. It tasted good.
We did more stuff but as the day wore on I just didn't feel any better. I took some Ibuprofen for the headache and other stuff going on (stiffness and general ickyiness - I'm sparing you a lot of unpleasant details) and that helped. We had dinner at the E's - wonderful family. One of the E's, T is a young man who goes out with us often and is going on a mission soon to Brazil. He's pretty cool. Anyway, dinner was quite nice but I wasn't really feeling well enough to eat and wasn't really hungry so I mentioned that Sister E who was very understanding so that was nice. Later on she took my temperature (she asked and kind of insisted so I said okay - it was one of those ear checker thingys). I had a fever! So we went out and talked to some more people and contacted some folks in the neighborhood.
I woke the next day even worse and we decided it would be best if I rested that day. It was a good decision as I was feeling even worse.
I'm mostly out of it now but I have some lingering effects. Whatever got me got me but I did learn an interesting lesson. I am now grateful for hunger. You don't know you would ever be grateful for it but I learned that is really hard to make yourself eat something. I hadn't eaten in a while and figured it might be a good idea to try and get something in there or I'm just not going to have any energy. I tried eating some bread and it was extremely hard. I do sort of have an appetite now. It's gradually coming back (I had lunch yesterday and had most of breakfast today). I'm making progress.
Anyway, sorry to bum y'all out. It was kind of a boring week.
The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. The aftermath of Christmas, the skyping laptop, Elder W skyping, and me with a stocking.
This is true. I've heard many stories this week of the gospel blessing and transforming peoples lives. It can do that same for you.
Love you all.
(PS mom - I got an attaboy from this super nice older baptist couple. They told me to tell you that they said that to me)
--
Elder Matthew Carlson
