Week 20: Kittens, Sickness, and Donuts!

March 20, 2023

Week 20: Kittens, Sickness, and Donuts!

20 weeks already? Huh. Not sure how that happened. Well, hey yall! Happy Monday (or whenever you get around to reading this)! Things have been going well in the Castle Hills area. Still no sign of any actual castles though...Some real nice houses though! I really thought it was going to start warming up this week but then it was 40° so I'm really not sure what is even going on.

Alright I'll admit that it was a slow start to the week. It really ended up being a strange week all together, as you'll see. The only point of interest for the first couple days was that I was half blind for part of it! I accidentally switched my contact lenses from right to left so it was a bit of a blur...both visually and in my memory.

Beware of naps! You may tell yourself that it'll be a 15 minute nap, but you might forget to set an alarm and wake up an hour later and feel super groggy. Definitely learned my lesson. Ended up being a pretty good day though. We had two lessons where we had our first real lesson with Joseph (from the holy land) which went awesome and a lesson with our friend Derek over Zoom because he was sick.

So I'm basically Billy Joel.

If you know me well, you probably know that I like random instruments a lot (eg. bagpipes, accordions, hand pans, etc.) so now I have a harmonica! Perfect for a missionary. Small, light, versatile, and capable of being really annoying when you want it to be. Also giving you the ability to play Piano Man by Billy Joel and feel really cool! Or sound like a train horn.

Ah St. Patties day. Wasn't a very interesting day, but I did wake up sick...which is the worst. Being sick as a missionary is pretty miserable. We still worked hard but a little slower for my sake. I think I've hit peak sick today (Monday) and that it'll be downhill in a good way from here. I hope. Having a migraine this morning didn't help me feel better though. But we did have some grubby tacos from Tacos n Salsa which DID make me feel better, so there's a win!

On day two of being sick, Elder Reynolds and I had the opportunity to administer a couple of blessings to a non member couple who have been facing some health struggles. We got a call from a member in Salt Lake asking us to reach out to them because they're friends and she had offered our services. So that was pretty cool. It's always fun to talk to members from out of state! Anyways, the people were super nice and really appreciative AND let us play with their cats new tiny kittens! Totally made the day way better.

...And then after we left we got pizza. What more could you ask for in an evening? Maybe not being sick.

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Spiritual thought (sorry it's a long one)

So in sacrament meeting a man gave a talk which he titled "Chainsaws, Blood, and Donuts". Usually people don't title their talks, but it certainly peaked my interest. The chainsaws and blood part is honestly sort of what you would expect, so I'll just talk about the donuts. I'll do my best to cut it down so it's not super long. Bear with me.

A teacher had a student in his class named Jason who was a bit of a punk. He often got kicked out of other classes and would only stay in this closed as long as he HAD to. One day the teacher kept him after class and said,

"You probably think you're pretty tough, don't you?"

"Yeah, I am", Jason said.

"How many push-ups can you do?"

"I do 200 every night", he said proudly.

"Can you do 300? I just need you to do them in sets of 10. Do you think you can do that Jason?", said the teacher.

"Yeah I think I probably could.", Jason said.

"Great. I'll see you tomorrow then."

And they parted ways.

The next day, the teacher showed up to class with a big box of donuts. The fancy kind. Good ones.

He then walked up to a girl in the front of the class and asked her if she wanted a donut. She accepted. He then turned to Jason and said, "Jason, will you do 10 push-ups so Sarah can have a donut?"

"Sure!" he said, as he jumped up and quickly did 10 pushups.

The teacher placed the donut on the student's desk and moved on. Down the row he went repeating the same thing to each of them, Jason doing 10 pushups for them all. As the teacher reached the end of the 1st row, he got to the schools quarterback who initially accepted the donut, but asked if he could do his OWN pushups. The teacher said, "No, Jason has to do the pushups."

Then the student said, "Well, then I don't want one."

"OK," said the teacher "Jason, will you do 10 pushups for Michael so he can have a donut he doesn't want?"

Jason did the pushups.

On the teacher went and Jason kept doing the pushups, even when the person didn't want it. He got more and more fatigued, but he kept going. Finally, as the last person in the room received their donut, Jason collapsed on the floor exhausted, but he knew that he had accomplished all that he had been asked to do. This is what the teacher explained:

So it was with the savior. He suffered for each and every one of us. He payed the price for our sins, even when we choose not to accept the gift he offers. Christ collapsed on the cross and gave up His spirit knowing that He had accomplished all that His Father had asked of Him, having payed the price of salvation for all of God's children. His gift is always there for us to partake of, but repentance and forgiveness is a gift freely given but not forceably received. Christ performed the atonement for all of us and he was the only one who could pay the price, and He did. Even when we do not want it.

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Anyways, I thought it was a cool story with a good message. He told it better than I did, but it was a great reminder for me of the importance and beauty of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Alright you are free to go now! Sorry for this weird long-ish email. It was a weird week, so its fitting. I love all of you and hope you have a great week!

Elder DeWitt