June 13, 2011

So how is everyone doing? It's been a super, super interesting week in the life of Elder Abbott. My body has just been quitting on me lately, and it all started after I drank some Agua de Pepino, translated, Cucumber Juice. I knew the weird, green drink that the lady gave me wouldn't taste good, but I never could have forseen this. I was totally sick within 20 minutes, and later I got this weird infection on my legs (not related to the Cucumber Juice...I think) and was just in sorry shape. Visited a doctor, told me I had a leg infection going on, and had to not do anything for a long time and use this medicine. Down time is nice, but as a missionary, it's just stressful. There is definitely a reason why they tell us to keep working, not a good thing to have a lot of time on your hands to be thinking about everything. But on the bright side, my Sudoku puzzle skills have never been better, and I can sort of roll my tongue! It's true! Jason Kidd may have been playing 17 years to win a ring, but I have been waiting my entire life to figure out how to roll my tongue. Still not perfect, but just goes to show that miracles do happen in the mission. I started to feel better with everything within a couple of days, and we got a call from a girl who recently got baptized about a month ago that her Dad had died! I totally knew this Dad well, and talked to him literally two days before he died from a heart attack. The girl who is a members name is Tania, and she is the only member of her family, but we have a really good connection with them. We were there for all the funeral type of things, and was all pretty heavy. I have attened like three funerals in my life, and this was definitely the biggest bummer, Catholics aren't really the optimistic type. We definitely have a big opportunity with this family to teach them about the Gospel, and I hope we don't blow it. They want us to visit them as much as we can, so we'll be cooking dinner with them on Tuesday and painting their house on Thursday. It's been a crazy week, the mission is just a crazy thing in general.

As for me, I am doing not too bad these days. My leg and all that stuff is doing better, and so you don't need to worry about me. But I am coming to that point of my mission where I really need to find my own purpose for being here and doing the things I do everyday. To be honest, I have gone off of other peoples testimonies for pretty much all of my life, and have kinda just gone through the motions through these past 7 and a half months. I know my mission is important and many good things will come from it, but right now I am just looking for my own reason and testimony for everything. I'm going to try to focus on the simple stuff of the Gospel and build off from there, I am going to do the same stuff the investigatores do actually. Tons of missionaries (mainly from Utah) like to talk all about this weird, deep doctrinal stuff that I totally don't understand, and all that does is confuse me. Who, or what is a Kolob? Does it really matter? I think no. It's all about the fundamentals, gotta learn how to dribble a basketball before you can cross-over. So thats where I am at, if anyone has any suggestions I would love to take them, but I have to find my own testimony of these things, and I am excited to find it.

So how is everyone doing on the home front? Summer is pretty much in full swing and thus begins the time of terrible sports and not so great movies. I do believe Marvelous's birthday is just around the corner, happy birthday Marvelous! I hope you enjoy your fantastic dinner at the Japanese Steak House, there should be tons of those where you live. I totally rememeber when I was like 6 years old or something, and we went to Burger King for me and Greg's birthday. What a bummer for Greg! Eating at Burger King with a paper crown on, when we totally could have been eating at Japanese Steak House. Sorry Gerg. So live it up Marv.

Okay I better get going, I do believe we are eating some type of Steak with our Zone in 20 minutes, how great is that? But keep the letters coming everybody, and remember to enjoy the little things in life. And the big things too. Just enjoy everything, there's tons to appreciate. I miss all of you a ton, but they'll be tons of time to goof and gaff for many years to come after the mission. Oh! I got your letters family of Randy and Sandy! I loved them. Anna is totally enterting teenager mode, Luke has got some crazy good drawing skills, Caleb is super smart, and Joshy definitely isn't a baby anymore. How are all my neices and nephews growing up so fast? Time is the strangest thing. Thanks for the letters guy, I love all of you, and make sure to pull pranks on your Dad as much as possible. Okay family, have a good week, and always remember to golf it, and then you frolf it.