Letter from Kelson - Week #80 - What the Pho!!!

Good Morning From Sunny California!!!

 

Wow!! It is that time once again, I am writing on a Tuesday, which doesn't make any sense because our P-day is on Monday... Hum? Why is this? Maybe when Daylight savings time hit, California lost a day; we do have some weird laws here, or maybe there was a huge atomic war and everyone died but us, because we just so happened to be in a fallout shelter, and because we have been in here so long, it seems like a Tuesday, but really is a Monday. I am not sure what could have happened to cause this phenomenon, however, I do know one thing though, I am not leaving the Sacramento YSA Branch anytime soon... Oh wait, I know where I was going with this beginning sentence structure/paragraphical notations that seem to be continuing to grow as I explain that I had an epiphany. It was a TRANSFER Week. That makes a whole heck of a lot more sense than a nuclear fallout and a loss of time and space, or daylight savings falling back a day. Phew, I am so glad we figured that out, it would have caused me to go into convulsions as I was striving to find out what I had forgotten.

 

I am staying here in Sacramento and I will be changing companions. His name is Elder Allred, he is a Hmong missionary that has been pulled out of the Hmong program to come be a zone leader with me. It is also potentially his last transfer of his mission, so I may be here a while. My current companion is going home to his mom and dad, taking his tears with him as he has to leave the mission which he so wholly loved. I am being made the Senior Zone Leader which means I get the ability to drive the car now. I have been riding shotgun this whole time and now it is my turn to shine. I am excited, but I am also nervous. I have been known to blow chances I have been given, by becoming overly excited, doing something that is with half a mind, and then being demoted back to the Scarecrow mode of life. Please keep me in your prayers as I will be driving with these crazy Californians on their turf, trying not to die in the process.

 

I know you are all looking forward to a story so I will tell you of a story that happened this morning.

 

It was a beautiful morning, we woke up to nice sunshine with the breeze slightly blowing to cool down our morning workout, because you know it was heated. As I jumped the rope, to cause my little heart to beat with increasing rhythm, I smelled the lovely smell of the soon to be coming Winter season.

 

*I love winter, by the way, It is so wonderful and it is full of so many great smells*

 

Finishing my slight cardio and entering the apartment, I finished my workout with some good intensity and then hit the showers. My shower was a nice warm temperature, which if you knew the history behind our terribly mean hot water heater, is very rare. After I finished, I had 20 min to eat breakfast and prepare for my wonderful preparation day. I studied, I prayed, I feasted upon the words of Christ and loved every minute of it. The thing I looked forward to the most is that I was about 2 hours away from washing our lovely car, and finally paying off a debt of washing a member's car at the same time. My companion was soon picked up by the Hmong elders as they headed to the temple. Everything was great, we started companion study with my new temporary companions. We sang, we laughed, we talked about investigators, and then a rogue thought jumped into my noggin that I think was placed there by partial inspiration and another part by my own future planning.

 

"I hope he left the Keys to the car and church building on his desk?"

 

I thought this was a weird thought, but because I was wondering, I ran up the stairs to our study room and looked, and looked, and looked and looked. Nothing!! He took the Keys with him to the Temple, which wasn't close enough for them to turn back, and I remembered just as he was entering his temple session... (Right now if you want to throw a chair you may, I was contemplating throwing some, but I didn't because I am a bit more cool headed than that...at least at this moment). This is the big dilemma that plagued my morning. We had to find some way to do all that we could do, without the car, or the keys to anything else...It was a very sad morning. The worst part was having to make a phone call, which in YSA work means a text message, to the member whom we had previously set up to wash their car, many times...I think this is number 4 or 5, because we have been borrowing their stuff to wash our car, so we promised to wash theirs. This was like the 6th time we have had to cancel on them because of unforeseen circumstances! 

 

*Face palm! * 

 

The cancelling took place and my integrity died right there.

 

We then proceeded to try and do as much as possible to make the morning productive. It was somewhat productive, but in the end we have lots to do and very little time to do. Although this morning was very stressful, there was a nice member of the church who played a beautiful piano for us... It was the most soothing and harmonic music I had heard in a long time. As he played, I felt my stress levels dropping slightly, I could feel the little tender mercies of the Lord touch my life and I began to put thoughts together as to how this day can play out. I think we have everything taken care of now, my companion has returned, we have the keys and forgiveness has been given/hopefully received for my lack of integrity. 

 

WHAT A MORNING! I guess the rest of the day had better be great then ;)

 

I would like to shout out to the member in whom we have found the wrongs against us, even though they said that forgiveness would come. I am sorry for the inconvenience and the trouble that we have been continuously causing you as we are the most unreliable, reliable missionaries known to man. I will make sure to try harder on my integrity, so that this type of thing doesn't happen again. Have faith, I may be pretty dumb in some aspects, but I won't stop trying.

 

Thanks for the prayers and all the words of encouragement, I will work on coming up with a super awesome story for next week.

 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

 

p.s. The Pho, is actually pronounced as (F-uh) and it is Vietnamese soup of some kind. it tastes really good! Try it out sometime.

 

p.s.s. MOTHER TYPOS PLEASE!!! Love ya!