Zip Nada

What happened this week? Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Nothing. Zymurgy.

In reality, I know plenty of things happened. I just can't think of any of them right now. I knocked on a lot of doors. Just like every week.

Just to give you a little bit of insight on the Washington Tacoma mission, we knock doors a lot. It's our staple, our trademark, our backup and our first choice. It's rather interesting. We knock doors every day from 5-7 pm. Obviously, my favorite thing to do is teach people, but we are encouraged to do a lot of knocking in order to find people to teach. Lately, we have been asked to try and incorporate a little bit more member work in our work. We have been trying to do that in our area, but there are a lot of missionaries out here who are rebelling against member work.

"Let's go knock!" They say. "This is the Wa-Tac! In the Wa-Tac we knock! We don't want to figure out how to do member work!"

I find it rather funny. Most missionaries try to have a good balance of knocking and member work, but every once in a while you just find someone who wants to knock all day and ignore everything else. I hope that was good enough for you.

Another tidbit this week: The weather is changing. We are passing the season of unrelenting rain and cold and are in the incipient stages of the bipolar weather season. It goes something like this: You are hot because the sun is beating down on you. You take off your coat. Suddenly, a cloud maliciously swoops over the sun and the winds pick up. Rain starts pounding you. You fumble with the coat around your waist, your stiff, frozen fingers trying to undo the knot you tied it in. Finally, you pull the coat over your sodden figure, relieved that you have some sort of protection now. A few seconds later, the rain and winds cease, the meddling clouds give you a sly smile and disperse just as quickly as they came. The temperature increases 40 degrees. You start thinking "Gee, it's getting a little sweaty. Holy casserole, it's hot! I'm just going to leave my coat on  because I know it will start raining again soon.

30 minutes later you are dripping sweat, and you finally decide to take your coat off because it is way too hot and you are convinced that this time it will stay warm. You take your coat off and tie it around your waist, when suddenly, a large cumulo nimbus cloud blocks off all sunlight. Rain and sleet start pounding your face as temperatures drop below freezing and........ blah blah blah.

I actually like the weather this way, though. It keeps you on your toes, and makes things interesting. It's better than having it constantly rain, anyway.
We are teaching a man named Scott, and every lesson he just absorbs the truth we teach. He is so much fun to teach, because as we talk with him, he gradually realizes that he believes the same things as us. It is amazing.

This week I am working on being a better teacher. They key to that is being humble and following the Spirit. I am learning so much. I am grateful for Preach My Gospel, and I am grateful for the restored Gospel that we have on the earth. I am especially grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I invite you all to study a Christ-like attribute this week and set goals to improve yourself in that regard. I know that God can help you to change for the better, and it will be a joyous occasion in your life. Make the choice now. Trust me, you'll be grateful later.

With love and warm figurative hugs,
--

Elder Benge