Dear Family & Friends,
This week started with hard good-byes in Rolla, Missouri, and ended in rough landing in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Monday: We spent part of the day gathering things I'm going to need in Fayetteville, and then we hung out with the Salem Elders for the rest of it.
We ate dinner with a few of our Chinese Investigators. I got a little stuffed animal as a present from one of them, and they wrote a "good luck letter" on the inside of my Tri-column Mandarin Book of Mormon. It was a beautiful note. They wrote it in English, and wrote in Mandarin Characters.
Tuesday: We saw a lot of people, said good bye, had 4 dinners. It was great! I feel like I gained 10 pounds! The people are so kind, and they are really good cooks out here!
Wednesday: We drove out to St James and said good bye to some wonderful people out there. I cried a little, even though I know that Fayetteville is where I need to go. There are people out here who need my help, and there are those who may only talk to me. God has a plan and I know that this is for the best.
(I also stayed up late trying to pack and make everything fit in my bags...)
Thursday: Today was very long and drawn out. I woke up and I could feel some pressure in my sinus and my throat was raw. We drove all the way to Mt Vernon and I got on a van to go to Fayetteville. I slept for most of the time I was in the vehicle. So I was fairly rested when I made it to Fayetteville.
I met Elder P at the transfer point and I asked him what the plan was. Apparently we were getting "Shotgunned" into the area! We got to the apartment and tried to figure out what was going on in this area. Much to our surprise, the area book was outdated and we were left at level zero. The previous Elders had also gone over on the monthly miles for the car, by 400 miles! We didn't drive the car very much for the rest of the week.
(Much of the next few day were spent cleaning and reorganizing the apartment)
Friday: We spent the day cleaning and buying food because the previous Elders left us with nothing. We also called members and ...
(He left off again... They probably talked to them about non-members and inactives in the ward? That's my guess. Just trying to get everything in order and find a good place to start.)
Saturday: We spent the day helping a member move. I was awesome and moved a lot of the heavy things. We reset our planning whiteboard and hopefully we can get our teaching pool filled up with more people to teach.
Sunday: We woke up this morning to find Bedbugs crawling up the wall! We tore apart our bedroom and removed all of the blankets, sheets, pillows/pillowcases, mattresses, springboards from our apartment. I had a strong desire to set fire to anything that might have a bedbug in it...
Hopefully we can get this all sorted out soon, and I can sleep on a normal mattress again.
I have to go now, but always remember that trials happen for a reason!
Love, Elder Hegsted
This week started with hard good-byes in Rolla, Missouri, and ended in rough landing in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Monday: We spent part of the day gathering things I'm going to need in Fayetteville, and then we hung out with the Salem Elders for the rest of it.
We ate dinner with a few of our Chinese Investigators. I got a little stuffed animal as a present from one of them, and they wrote a "good luck letter" on the inside of my Tri-column Mandarin Book of Mormon. It was a beautiful note. They wrote it in English, and wrote in Mandarin Characters.
Tuesday: We saw a lot of people, said good bye, had 4 dinners. It was great! I feel like I gained 10 pounds! The people are so kind, and they are really good cooks out here!
Wednesday: We drove out to St James and said good bye to some wonderful people out there. I cried a little, even though I know that Fayetteville is where I need to go. There are people out here who need my help, and there are those who may only talk to me. God has a plan and I know that this is for the best.
(I also stayed up late trying to pack and make everything fit in my bags...)
Thursday: Today was very long and drawn out. I woke up and I could feel some pressure in my sinus and my throat was raw. We drove all the way to Mt Vernon and I got on a van to go to Fayetteville. I slept for most of the time I was in the vehicle. So I was fairly rested when I made it to Fayetteville.
I met Elder P at the transfer point and I asked him what the plan was. Apparently we were getting "Shotgunned" into the area! We got to the apartment and tried to figure out what was going on in this area. Much to our surprise, the area book was outdated and we were left at level zero. The previous Elders had also gone over on the monthly miles for the car, by 400 miles! We didn't drive the car very much for the rest of the week.
(Much of the next few day were spent cleaning and reorganizing the apartment)
Friday: We spent the day cleaning and buying food because the previous Elders left us with nothing. We also called members and ...
(He left off again... They probably talked to them about non-members and inactives in the ward? That's my guess. Just trying to get everything in order and find a good place to start.)
Saturday: We spent the day helping a member move. I was awesome and moved a lot of the heavy things. We reset our planning whiteboard and hopefully we can get our teaching pool filled up with more people to teach.
Sunday: We woke up this morning to find Bedbugs crawling up the wall! We tore apart our bedroom and removed all of the blankets, sheets, pillows/pillowcases, mattresses, springboards from our apartment. I had a strong desire to set fire to anything that might have a bedbug in it...
Hopefully we can get this all sorted out soon, and I can sleep on a normal mattress again.
I have to go now, but always remember that trials happen for a reason!
Love, Elder Hegsted