WEEK 17 - OH COME ALL YE FAITHFUL!

Hello everyone, it's me, Elder We--cough cough hack cough cough--Elder Weber. Sorry, but it seems both I and my companion (you all remember Elder V, right?) caught a pretty bad case of the cold. And, let me tell you, there is nothing worse than being a missionary out in the mission field and getting sick. You're constantly tired and sluggish, coughing, hacking, and can barely speak, and your head pounds like you've got the world's largest marching band performing inside your brain. Now, back when Elder V and I were just average, ordinary young men who weren't out in the mission field, getting sick was great. You got to stay home from school, watch movies or play games, and eat nice relaxing chicken noodle soup all day long. But when you're a missionary, getting sick is the worst, because you know that you have a Heaven-sent mission to fill out, and when you're sick you can't do that. So every passing minute when you're sleeping in or hunkering down in your apartment until you get better are the worst minutes of your life!

But, enough with that! My cold hasn't affected me too badly just yet, and I still have a very long week filled with interesting and exciting things certain to entertain you 'til the cows come home (or at least until something else more entertaining pops up, like the next Avengers movie, or a new Nintendo game)! To start off with, let's go back to this last Tuesday. We were told by our Zone Leader, Elder Greer, to stop by the Stake Center for some service. Turns out, however, that the Sister Missionaries were already there, and they were all that were needed to fulfill the service requirements. So what did all of us Elders do? We grabbed the Battle Wagon (our van) and sped off down the road to the Library for an early Mormon.org time. We sat around, listening to talks and videos, for about an hour or so, and then we were off again, this time to Sam's Club, where we sat back and enjoyed Polish Dogs and pizza slices. All was well, until one of the employees at the food court mentioned to us that, since we had such a large group, we could've just gotten a large pizza for almost half the cost of all the individual pieces put together. Elder Greer and Clay both were silent the rest of the day, too embarrassed and annoyed to dare themselves to speak.

The next day, Wednesday, was another great day, though once again not much was done (I'm starting to think that those Elders that rake in twenty or thirty lessons a week are fudging their numbers just a smidge). Once more, we had a lesson with the McManus family. As I've said in past emails, the McManus' are a golden investigator family--they couldn't be more golden even if they were related to King Midas (cue rip shot)! Anyway, Wednesday's lesson with their family was on the three commandments that set the Mormon religion (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) apart from the world. These are: the Word of Wisdom (don't drink coffee, non-herbal tea, wine, or alcohol; don't use tobacco or illegal drugs in any way that is harmful to your body), the Law of Tithe and Fast Offerings (give one-tenth of your income to the Church for temples and missionary tools, and every first Sunday of the month fast for two meals and give the money that would have been spent for those meals to the Church for welfare projects), and the Law of Chastity (no sex, passionate kissing, or anything lust-provoking before marriage, complete fidelity to spouse after marriage, and keeping one's mind clean and pure of dark and lustful thoughts as much as possible--something the rest of the world seems to have disregarded recently).

I was very worried to got into this lesson. I knew that the McManus' were already keeping the Word of Wisdom, which was why we taught that one first, but I wasn't so certain if they'd get the whole Tithe and Fast Offering thing. And with the world so off kilter recently when it comes to morality, and my own uncomfortability with discussing the Law of Chastity, I wasn't certain how the lesson was going to go. To my surprise, though, the McManus family understood perfectly the Law of Tithes, and were ready and willing to abide by it once they were made members. And, they were already discussing the Law of Chastity with their kids, so that went well.

Elder Weber and his advent care package

Elder Weber in his room with the Christmas lights strung

The next day was even better, because we had the Christmas devotional for the mission. Thursday found me, Elder V, Elder Corpus, Elder Leavit, Elder Trottier, and Elder Earl hopping into the old Battle Wagon once again and taking the twenty minute drive down to Longmont for our Devotional. It was great--there were probably about twenty musical numbers, including one that included the entire Loveland Zone (the song's called Olive Tree, if you were interested), many of the Elders and Sisters were called up to bear their testimonies on the Savior and his birth, and we watched a beautiful video on Christ's birth. Afterwords, though, was the part that really made my day. WE GOT PRESENTS!!! Yessir, when the Devotional was over and we were all sent down to the Relief Society's room to grab our mail, the first few Elders that went in were almost buried by the packages that tumbled out of the nearly over-flowing room. There was one Elder I saw that had about six boxes in his hands, and one Sister needed a cart to carry all of hers! When I got home, I found that one of the boxes was my December treat box from my mom, and the other two were present boxes. Elder V and I have had fun with the advent calendars, and stringing the lights up around the room (mostly around my bed).

Christmas packages for Elder Weber and Elder V
 

But, of course, Sunday was the best, as well as the worst, day of the week. By then, both Elder V and I had gotten hit hard with the cold, and could barely function. After getting home from Church and the Ward Missionary Coordination Meeting, we collapsed in our beds and thought we'd take a little break for a while. That "little break" ended up taking about four hours, as very shortly after we had climbed into our beds, we both fell quickly and quietly asleep. We woke up only once it got to be around 5:30, just in time to smarten ourselves up for dinner at the Banagas' that evening. It seemed as though the Banagas' had heard about our weary situation, as they had quickly come up with all sorts of food that are good for fighting colds--garlic-laced spaghetti and meatballs, oranges and orange juice, fresh vegetables, and hot cocoa. We sat back and chatted for a while, just enjoying ourselves. We shared a message on the power of the spirit, and then one of the boys pulled out a Connect 4 game, which we then got into a battle royal over. So, yes, it was definitely a great day to end the week on.

Sorry that I don't have an inspiring message this week. Can't do much spirit-wise when the body's all out of wack. But I promise, I'll have a really powerful message for y'all next week. So, until then, stay epic my friends!

--Elder Z.S.Weber