September 08, 2009

Questions we asked:
You have been in Canada 117 days. What about Canada surprises you the most?
Do you have to pay postage due when we send you thick letters?
What is the best or most original refusal you have gotten?
What are you studying during personal study?

Dear Home,

First off, the poll. Most of you had sent in some pretty good guesses, and I have to say that at least one of you were right. The answer is coming in the form of a picture that I sent in a letter home yesterday. By the way, the reason I didn't Email yesterday is because it was Labor Day. But it's not Labor Day today! =P

Before I forget, I also have to tell you that transfer calls are tomorrow, so in case I leave Prince Albert, don't send any mail here this week or it won't get here on time.

(( Note to Mom (and anyone else this might apply to), I have not had to pay postage due on anything you've sent me. Have you? =S ))

Best or most origional refusal? I don't know. I try not to focus on the people that say 'no'. It's a little discouraging if you do. I rather forget about them and focus on the positive things that are happening.

Personal study varies from day to day. Usually I go in with a question and come out with an answer, but sometimes it's hard to remember the questions you or your investigators have had when it comes time to study them. =S I've got to do better at writing things down.

That's one thing about missions that could be good or bad. You're always finding areas where you can improve. If you've got the right attitude, you can see those as challenges or oppotunities to grow and perfect yourself. If you go in with the wrong attitude, it's easy to get discouraged. Readjusting my attitude is probably one of the many things that I could stand to work on.

But that finding-imperfections factor can lead to a lot of growth! For example, a couple of weeks ago, I made a dumb decision. I bought $10 worth of chocolate covered pretzels. I definately could've been wiser with my spending. So I shopped around. The pretzels were good, but pricy, so I found some mini chocolate chip cookies that are also good, but at half the cost! ^^ I bought a $5 bag of those 2 weeks in a row (I skipped this week), and I'm rather satisfied with those decisions. This week, I didn't have to buy any cookies. The members are feeding us so well that we hardly had to buy anything. ^^

So recently I became aware of how inadequate it is for me to merely answer your questions and leave it at that. Of course, I'll continue to answer your questions, but from now on, I'll try to write more about what's going on in my life. That's probably what you really want to hear, if you're anything like my Mom. ^^

Elder George wants to be a conservation officer. It's nice that he knows what he wants. Seeing him with his strong vision of what he wants to do with his life, I've been really wondering what /I/ should do with /my/ life, after my mission is over.

For guidance, I turned to my Patriarchial Blessing (if you don't know what that is, ask a Mormon). I really like my Blessing. It's got some really good promises in there. Unfortunately, it doesn't really say much about the kind of job I should get. (( Note to Immediate Family: It does say I'm meant to obtain a full education, and that I'm to have an understanding on the 'human condition', but until I find out what that is, I have no idea how to prepare for it. )) I guess I'll just have to follow my conscience and the parts of my Blessing that are clear, and hope the rest of my life sorts itself out when I get there.

So.... That's about all that I had planned to tell you (unless I forgot something), so I guess I'll go right into the next poll.

At Zone Conference not too long ago (Was it only last week?), we had lunch in the cultural hall, as usual. But something was there that was quite UNusual. As soon as we walked through the double doors, we looked around, and GASP! There was an animal in there! I can't remember if I told you about this before, but if I haven't, let's see if you can guess what kind of animal could've created so much excitement. Hints: Um.... I'm not clever enough to think of hints right now. =P

If I already told you about this animal, my question to you this week will be Who is Jason Robarts? I've heard that he's an actor, but I've never heard of him until people started asking me if there's any relation.

And if I haven't told you about the animal yet, you can stop guessing when Mom gets her letter I sent this week. I included two pics of this week's animal and one picture of last week's.

By the way, my camera has been acting weird lately. There's a knob on my camera, and the device sometimes thinks I'm turning it when, really, it's not being turned. Funny, huh?

Well, I gotta get going. My time's about up.
In closing, I love you all. Thanks for reading this. I'll have another Email for you to read next week. ^^

'Till then! -hugs everyone- -hugs Mom again-

Love, your Joyous Missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts. ^^