Another egg story

Monday, July 6, 2009

Hola todos!

Elder Goss had a run-in with an egg this week. One morning he was rolling a yolk around in his hand and said, "I wonder if I could boil this in the microwave?" Being an ignorant guy I responded that he probably could, and I went about my business in the other room.

Minutes later there was an explosion, and my companion informed me that he had blown up the microwave. The door was flung open, the turntable knocked off, and egg splashed all over the kitchen. But I got an awesome laugh out of it, and before noon the rest of the district knew.

And for those worried, the microwave was fixable.

Elder Goss has gotten pretty talented with eggs, though. On Thursday we had the whole district over for lunch, and my companion made everyone bacon and egg sandwiches. I wasn't so much worried about the eggs as the bacon; there were three pounds of the stuff in our freezer, and Elder Goss prepared it all for us while he had a salad. But we're not dead, so all is well.

To be honest, I forgot my planner with my proselyting attire at San Pedro's apartment this morning, so for this email I'm just going off memory--and it was a long week, so there will be a bit missing this go-around. The egg story was meant to stall, but not a lot is coming. Elder Goss and I took a wrong turn on the freeway, though, and ended up at the airport once. That was pretty fun for all five seconds we were there.

Oh yeah, and we had president's interviews this week. They went really well; I think every elder should have his mission president sit him down at some point, look him in the eye, and sincerely tell him he's doing a great job. That really helped me a lot this week. Our numbers had been a little low this past month, which gets every missionary down. But President Cutler looks past that and sees the actual work the missionaries are doing, and that works miracles in itself.

We had an appointment with a "limbo" investigator on Friday, who wasn't home when we arrived at his apartment. But while we waited at his door a girl came down the stairs just long enough to take her dog to the bathroom. It was something we knew God had set up; how else would our paths have crossed?

It was kind of awkward when we first introduced ourselves to Jessica. I had pursued her past the corner of the building and startled her a little, and the dog was running around everywhere. But the idea of God speaking to His children today through prophets, as of old, intrigued her, and she invited us up to her apartment on the top floor. She'd been looking for something.

At the start she said we only had a few minutes because she was so busy cleaning the kitchen, but we made a deal with her that if she could work on the cleaning while we were there, we could stay half an hour and share our message with her. And that's how it went for the first few minutes; it was fairly chaotic. But about the time we introduced the Apostacy, all of a sudden Jessica stopped what she was doing and began to listen intently. She'd grown up in several different religions, but none ever seemed totally right to her. She started asking questions--totally elect questions, like what kinds of changes she would need to make in her life if she were to join this Church--and at the end she admitted that she had stopped working on the kitchen because she was just too interested.

But my favorite part was the end, when we asked her to pray. She told us she had never prayed out loud before, but we taught her how and helped her through an example or two. And then we bowed our heads and joined her in a real, heartfelt prayer. It was a beautiful prayer, during which Jessica started crying and paused a couple times to apologize. She expressed many thanks for us being there, and eagerly set up another appointment with us for this week.

The work truly is moving forward in this area, and the Stone Oak Ward especially will appreciate having Jessica as she begins to come to church. This ward hasn't seen a baptism in over a year! But of course, the members are doing what they can to help in our cause; we can't do it without them. A new ward mission leader was called in Stone Oak yesterday, and we had the special privilege of participating in his setting apart. Brother Gonzalez has the right sense of urgency this work needs, and his fire will prove a great blessing in this area's progress.

Independence Day was awesome. The Sonterra Ward had a big breakfast in the park, to which many of the members brought friends and neighbors. There was a lot of work for us to do.

But we didn't leave without our share of play. The bishopric challenged us to a three-legged race, which I was happy to accept; I remember as a kid, seeing the missionaries humiliate themselves in such ways was the coolest thing. The bishopric ended up beating us, but not without us putting on a good show of tripping and pocket puke (a term used in the mission for losing the contents of one's front pocket). Good times.

That evening the San Pedro elders came to our apartment for an evening of games and fireworks; President said we were done working at eight and had to be in by ten, so we made sure to take advantage. A country club and a local megachurch both put on some good fireworks displays while we played Bang!, a spaghetti-western-style card game (THE TSAM game).

And that's my week in a nutshell. I gotta get going (everyone rushes these days), but I hope all of you had a good Fourth. Have a nice week!

Elder Cunningham
Ether 2:12

Pic 1: Our crazy district.
Pic 2: This is how parties work in Texas.
Pic 3: The necessary random firework picture.