Loved hearing from you all throughout the week. Thank you so much for the dear Elders, that was very nice of you all. Details again, I'm really not good at the whole detail thing. I have no idea what to write. If anyone is still wondering if I would like picture of grand kids that would be awesome. I would really love them all. Details, details. This is hard without any questions. Things are still going good. The days are starting to blur and time is flying by, which is more scary than anything else because I don't know this language and pretty soon I am going to be out in the field and not know what anyone is saying. We had one of the missionaries from Bulgaria that knew Angus sub for us when one of our teachers was gone. That was pretty cool. He shared a really amazing experience he had on his mission about following the spirit and sometimes the people you would never expect are the people that decide to accept the gospel and change their entire life to comply with what they know to be true. I think that generalization is made pretty often but each story is unique and special and they each continue to invite the spirit.
Thank you mom for reminding me to eat veggies and stuff last week. I have been trying to eat better with varying degrees of success. The food doesn't necessarily taste bad but I can just feel how bad it is for me with every bite so, it amount to about the same thing. Oh how I crave for somewhat normal food. we have a pretty huge stockpile of junk food from packages and stuff in our room. It's pretty terrible too. Most of our zone is going to leave next week so we'll be the big guys, which is weird because we still don't know what is going on and there is no way we will figure it out by this time next week but we have to act our part and try to be the oldies and teach them a thing or two.
I'll try and send some pictures later, I hear the thing is pretty iffy from just about everyone so hopefully it will work this week again.
Oh, goodness, I have no idea what to write about. Ummm, we play a lot of basketball recently and I am doing as much spike ball as i can. I really do have a lot of fun playing that game. Though I think I get a little too competitive and I don't love everyone as much as i should when I do. My goal during much of this last week was to try and think and feel the spirit before i say things so I can get rid of even all the little offenses that i say because i know that they are not nice and that I can't have the spirit when I say them. So that has been my goal, and as with the eating I have had varying degrees of success with that. But I am working at it.
What else, again Elder Porters celebrity has come through. On Tuesday we got a call through the intercom that Elder Porter was supposed to call the front desk and they told him to go to the lobby at 5:30 to meet with the speaker for the night. i was tagging along because of course I am his companion. We got to meet the speaker and it turns out it was a 70 who had been in New Zealand when he lived there because his dad was the mission president. I didn't know this until recently but his dad is actually the head of HR for the church. That is pretty crazy. I really hit the jackpot with companions.
I really don't know what to say. Going to the temple is really cool. This is day 16 which doesn't sound like a big enough number because I feel like I have been here for a really long time. Really long but really short. It just feels normal I guess. I like always having something to do. I keep hearing the speakers and wishing for the time I had back home to make the choices for myself to study more and more intently and to do more service and to love others more. When i was doing that more of my own choice at home than any other time in my life I could feel joy and peace and happiness more than any other time in my life. I realized that even though I don't have the same amount of time I had at home I do have free time where I can choose to study and work hard or i can chose to goof off. Not a lot but I have that time. As I choose to make the most out of that time I know that the Lord will bless me just as much as he did when I had all the time in the world.
The speaker last Tuesday said something that hit me pretty hard. He said the Lord will raise you up to be equal to your calling. That means we aren't equal in our calling. We could always be doing more. Especially as a missionary I am feeling that I am not equal to the calling. Learning a language and trying to teach in it when I don't even know half the words I am saying and don't know the grammar to even put a sentence together correctly is frustrating and scary. It sounds impossible and I would probably think it was if I hadn't seen so many examples of it working out. All I can do is trust in the Lord and put in all of my effort, 100%. I am trying and I know he will bless me for it. I will do my best and put my trust in the Lord for the rest and I know he will make up the difference.
I don't what else to write. This letter thing is real hard. Thanks again to everyone that wrote dear elders. I love getting them during the week and hearing about everything that happened. Thank you so much. Stories are great. I think the best part of letter is really the end though. It helps so much to see the love, so-and-so at the end. That is the best feeling, knowing people love you, I know it always but seeing it is special to me. So thank you.
What else did I do this week. Hmmmmm, I don't know. I think, oh, well a sickness is going around, I think I mentioned it last week. One of my teachers was sick which is unfortunate, a different Croatian subbed last night, and one of the Elders in my room got sick too. He wasn't feeling too good for a couple of days but he is staring to get better I think. I hope.
I need to start talking more in Croatian because that is a really difficult thing for me. Tonight we have a TRC, we are supposed to talk all in our language to a guy being himself and we didn't really have any time to prepare because today is P-day. If I had my choice I would have spend most of the day preparing but companions mean we have to let go of everything that we want, it is really frustrating to not be able to say what I want to to get my message of love across. To anyone who thinks that an English mission is dumb... I think that would be so amazing now, sure you don't learn a language but you can connect to people your whole mission and really speak to them. I think that experience is amazing. I know I'll get it at some point but for the moment I can get pretty lost.
Okay, I think I am done, thanks again for all the letters,
Love you soooo much,
Elder Enoch Benjamin Hogan Olmstead.
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