Week 23: Spiritual Hype

Hey y'all! Happy late Easter! I hope you had a good one...and that you're crushing your water bottles still. Follow the prophet people. To quote 2 Nephi (and The Mandalorian), "This is the way"!

Yeah ok I'll get on with my week now.

Of no real fault of our own, this was a slow teaching week. It being a holiday week for some reason always messes with everyone's schedules. People are generally a bit more willing to listen to a message about Jesus during Easter though. If they answer the door of course.

Tuesday was a bit strange...

The day before we got a call from an inactive member of the ward who is uhh how should I say..."well known" by the missionaries. Every ward has one! Said member loves to ask us to help him move around some furniture in his apartment. Again. Of course we said yes and made the drive out the next morning. We knocked on the door and...nothing. Rang the doorbell, called him, knocked a bunch more annnnd nothing. Sooo we decided to grab some sticky notes we had in the car and stick them all over the sister missionaries door who live a couple floors down with all kinds of funny messages and drawings on them. Good harmless fun! Yeah, that morning did not go at all how we expected. We also met an interesting fella who believes there's a government time travel facility underneath a park in San Antonio. Fun man.

The next day was the first exchange of the transfer! I got to leave the area for Balcones Heights and ride a bike! I haven't ridden a bike in a LONG time, but it's like riding...well, a bike! Obviously. My tailbone and my quads were definitely sore though. Lots and lots of uphill. Not the funnest, but it was great exercise! I also remembered how much fun it is to ride a bike. It's sweet. 

Thursday it rained a lot. If you know me you probably know that I LOVE the rain. We got a boatload this week and I was all over it. I will take ALL I can get. The rest of that day wasn't very eventful. We did some tracting (nobody answered the door because of the rain or something) and made a bunch of phone calls. I wish there was more to say about this day, but it wasnt that interesting. Oh well! Such is the life of missionaries. Some days are boring and some are jam packed. 

The saying is true. Life is like a box of chocolates. Sometimes it tastes like it's full of toothpaste but hey, it's chocolate I guess? Ok, bad comparison but it's kinda true. Some days are not very good, but the good days make up for the bad. What's important is to open that box of chocolates for the week with a good attitude because maybe all of these ones are caramel filled! Don't throw away the box because you had one bad experience. (I'm going to leave this analogy alone now because it's lame...but I will leave it in here.)

The next day it rained more (yay!). I guess this really was a Good Friday. We had lunch with a new member that Elder Fisher actually originally found about a year ago! Super cool for them to reconnect here. We tried to knock some more doors this day but then the rain really started to come down and neither of us had the brain cells to bring umbrellas. So instead we went to the church and practiced a song Elder Fisher and I will be singing in sacrament meeting in a couple weeks with the sisters! Once the rain died down we did some actual missionary work, don't worry.

Saturday was one of those weird days that felt really long and also short. We did a lot of planning for next week, hung our whiteboard on the wall then tracted for a while. We actually had some people answer the door and had some solid conversations though, so that was good.

Sunday was sweet! We had a great sacrament meeting with a primary program AND testimonies. Double whammy. It went super well and the spirit was really strong. Good stuff. We also had a great impromptu stop-by/lesson with an older less active couple in the ward that evening. It was super inspired though. We came at the perfect time and they really needed to hear our message. Super sweet couple with strong testimonies that just need some love. Such a great experience.

That evening we had dinner at a members home where they fed us a passover/seder meal which was really fun! I did, however, discover that I'm not a huge fan of lamb. 

Today has been a pretty normal Monday except that my companion gave me a haircut. Whiiich was terrifying but it actually turned out just fine hah. Very cost effective option! 

Here's the "spiritual thought" for this week. Every time I think about Christmas, Easter, and General Conference I get excited. The traditions, family, friends, and of course the true meaning of the holiday, Jesus. I feel like we all get spiritually "hyped up" during this season with Easter and General Conference. We come off this high with such good intentions, but we often fall off far too quickly. If any of you have gone to EFY or FSY, you know how this goes. You think you're about to change your life and just be the best ever, and then a few days later and you're back to where you were before. We do so much to try to remember Christ during these holidays and events but we so easily forget. My invitation to you is to think about and ACT upon what you can do to make Christ more of a focus in your daily life. Not just during Christmas and Easter, but every day. I know that as you do this that you will have an increase of joy. Not just happiness, but joy. And I think we all need a little more joy in our lives.

Well, that's all I've got for this week! I hope it wasn't too long for y'all. I try to keep these not TOO terribly boring and long, but I have my limits! 

I hope all of you have a fantastic week and that you get plenty of rain! Unless you don't like rain. In that case, welp...that's too bad! Get over it (I'm kidding of course). I love and appreciate all of you!

Le deagh dhùrachd dhut,

Elder DeWitt

Gonna teach the Mandalorian

My favorite door Mat I've seen so far

Parking REALLY close together