Saturday, December 31, 2011

Coming home this year!

Hello Everyone,

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!, Can you Believe it officially starting in less that five hours (For me) I will be able to say 'This year I go home'. It is a strange thing. Things are going well. I am still in the office and keeping busy as ever. It has just been a challenge a little bit the past few weeks because it seems like everywhere closed down for the holidays. The post office and our mission area office and many other places. Its just funny because christmas really isnt that big around here but people look for anyway to get a day off and so they use it as a week to two weeks off. I guess it is more of their summer vacation then anything else.

So I had a wonderful time talking to my family on Christmas. It is always a great joy and thrill to hear their voices and to give me a boost. I enjoyed talking to each of them and to see how each of them are doing.

Now for this past week. Not much has happened this past week. The only difference really is that me and Elder Ray (my companion) were running the office all by ourselves monday and tuesday. But it was practically dead in here so I dont want to make it sound harder than it really was but still it was different and then also for the rest of the week Oborns have been gone to Botswana. They just got back today. So it really has just been a quiet week around the office with all the shops closed and no one bugging us about bills or anything else. But I am sure its going to be crazy starting this next week.

I also got to talk with President yesterday. So he says that the plan for me and Elder Ray is that Elder Ray will leave this next tranfer and go back out into the field. Then they will bring someone in to be with me for a transfer and then he will move us both out when he is ready (so like one or two more transfers). I also mentioned to him again about my desire to go to Botswana or North East Areas and he said I have earned it being in the office and working so hard so he is going to do everything he can to get me to Botswana and then if it doesnt work out then North East. So it looks like after I am out of the office then I will be way far away from everything. But I dont care it will be a nice change. But I still got months to go for that.

As it has been the new year I have thought of ways how I can improve. There are many different ways that I thought of and already started into practice some of the things. Some of the things is I want to become more officicent with my scripture study. It has been slacking since being in the office has me totally booked. Also to keep up on my journals. Then also I want a more positive attitude and to look at people's intentions before I jump to conclusions and such. I just all around want to be a better person. I guess that is one reason that I came and have stayed on mission is so I can change and become better. I hope I am doing that I will do everything I can not to slip back to where I was when I get back home.

Well there really isnt that much to say this week except I hope everyone has had great holidays and making them ones to remember. I love all of you and hope and pray that you will continue strong and do things to make yourselves and others happy.

Good luck and miss you all with much love
Elder Aaron Giles Lindsay

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Who knew??...I'm alive!

Hello Everyone,

Yes it is true I am alive and you are reading another letter from me. I don't know how many times I can write and tell you each that I am sorry for not writing and I can give you many different reasons but the main reasons are just that every time I get an opportunity to write I am either pulled away or too tired. I am so sorry I hope everyone can forgive me. I hope everyone is well and that things are going the way you hope and dreamed.

So let me just say thank you to all those who have been writing me letters; Catia, Trent, Linda, Melody, Liz, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Tammy, Laural, and many many more others thank you so much for your letters they really do keep me going I always look forward to hear from everyone and to know how they are doing (Even though I haven't been a good person and at least writing a letter to everyone). Well tonight (Where I am at anyways) I hope to make up for at least a little bit of the time I have lost and I hope I can relate lots of stories and information for you.

Well maybe I can just start out by saying I AM PAST THE SEVEN MONTH MARK! and what is even crazier I can officially count down the number of transfers I have on one hand. Time is going by so fast and when I hear about all my friends coming home off their missions I think its crazy because I am not too far behind them. I have to admit I am excited to get home but then again mission has helped me in so many ways I don't want that part of my life to change. I want to continue the way I am now and not go back to who I was before.

So let me think what I should read about...wouldn't it just be rotten of me to get all your hopes up of a big long letter to make up for things but then I just cut it right here? OK I wont do that I am not that mean. So as many of you know I have been working in the office since the last time you have heard from me. They have mainly been having me help with the charges for the missionaries and the vehicle coordinator (very ironic I know), and just keeping the supplies coming in for the missionaries and whatever the mission needs. It has been a very great experience. Yes like anything else it has its down points. But the thing is I have seen missions from a whole new stand point now. I know a lot more about how missions run and make it possible for missionaries like me to do their jobs. It is really interesting and I am so glad right now my job is to help the other missionaries be able to spread the wonderful gospel we have. The down side is I really don't get to do that part much my self. Every time me and my companion make plans to go out and do some finding or something we always get called back in it seems like and so I haven't taught a lesson for a few months. But as a side note I get to go out to the assistants area with one of them tonight I am so excited. I am probably going to butcher it because I haven't taught in so long. But anyways another down part is that it seems to be cycles. You get one thing going and doing well then have to move to something else but by the time you are almost getting that smoothed out it seems like the old problems come back again. But we as an office staff are working on getting all those little problems dealt with.

So in the office I am working with Elder Oborn who is you can say the head guy of the office staff he bounces around making sure everyone gets their jobs done and helps in anyways he can, and then his wife Sister Oborn who is in charge of the flats and the medical things. I also help her with inventory for the flats and and getting all the supplies ready for moving missionaries and such. Then there is Elder Leavitt who is the head finance guy and who deals with anything with money. He used to be a Federal Judge before he came so that is kind of neat. Then there is his wife Sister Leavitt who is being prepared as President Omer's Secretary and she does all the prep for missionaries coming in and out of the mission and the visas and the scheduling and all that. And then there is the two assistants Elders Ramos and Rivera. Elder Ramos is going home next week so he is done. A great guy though. Then Elder Rivera is the one I am going with tonight. He is rough around the edges a stickler at times but over all he is an amazing missionary and many great experiences behind it. Then there is Sister Baily who comes in and puts baptism records on the computer for a church calling. She is so funny every day she either complains that Elders sat in her chair or her computer wont listen to her or Elders don't do records right or that after we die the Savior is going to judge us according to how we fill out our baptism records. She is an older lady but she is really great. She reminds me a lot of grandma Lindsay. Same kind of stubbornness but a very kind and loving heart. Once and a while I get to work around President Omer. Most of the time he is out doing interviews or setting up meetings or doing something that causes him to run around constantly with no stop. I really respect him. He is up past midnight every night and up around four in the morning for traveling or paper work or some reason or another. He literally has very little time to stop and rest. Its amazing to kind of see his schedule and the way he keeps running. But one thing is for sure whatever he does he does it out of love and consideration for the missionaries. He wants the best for them and for the people that they come in contact with out in the fields in whatever area they may be in.

Then last but not least I work with Elder Ray who is my companion. He is mainly helping sister Leavitt with whatever she needs done right now. They are thinking he will be out in the field again starting at the first of the year. Elder Ray is awesome. He is without a doubt the best companion I have thus far. It is just so easy to get along with him and to talk with him. I think me and him are making each other a little trunky but hey we are missionaries it is good for us right. He knows how to work hard when there is a task at hand but he also knows how to have fun before, during and after the work as well which is an amazing quality with him. He is from Arizona and so not to far from Utah. I definitely hope we will have the opportunity to work together more and we will definitely stay in touch when we get back home. You can just say he is another side of me we get along so well and like too much of the same things. We quote movies and shows all the time its great ha ha.

So that is a big summery of my life here in the office. We come to the office at about 8:30 in the morning and then leave around 5. But sometimes work takes us longer and so we get out of here later. We scrounge for shopping time and time to clean our flats. So by the time we can do things then that leaves like no time for proselyting.

So one of the great experiences I got to do in the past few months I got to shake Elder Russel M. Nelson's hand and got to listen to him speak in person. I was sitting with the all the other office staff and the senior couples up in the front two rows so it was truly amazing. We got to listen to him and his wife and Sister Cook and then Sister Renland. It was just an amazing experience the spirit was there just prompting each of us and letting each of know what we need to do in order improve. But Elder Nelson talked a lot about asking for angels by name. When we pray we tend to ask for angels to help us but he said we can also ask for specific angels by name to help us like people who we know that went through the same challenges as us that can help us. It was something neat that I never even thought about before. Then he also talked about sacrificing for the Lord and being obedient. It is a moment I hope I will never forget and I will always remember the feeling that I had.

Another thing that has blessed my life is I got to go on Mission Tour with President Omer and Carl B. Cook from the Seventy and some of the guys from the office. Now what mission tour is, is when a someone from the area presidency comes and they literally take a tour of the mission. They visit each of the zones and they talk with the missionaries and give them some instruction. Carl B. Cook came and he talked a lot of obedience and that we teach for converts not just to have another baptism and establishing the church rather than just building it. It kind of got me down because I don't do much teaching myself but still a neat experience never the less. So I got to go to all the different meetings with them. Now my job was to inspect all the cars. I had to check the oil and the tires and the cleanliness and all that so if anyone needs a car check when I am home I can do one. That took up most of my time so I didn't get to be in the meetings much. But I did get to see alot of the mission I have never saw before. I got to go to the North East Zone which is about four to six hours away and then I got to go to Botswana. I think I really want to go to Botswana or North East after I am out of the office. In the North East we got to split and go do some teaching with some of the Elders. Now that is the area you more imagine when you think of Africa. The family we went to lived in the middle of a Banana farm and had four sticks in the ground with a tarp over them for a home. They understood very very very little English and their clothes were torn and dirty and it would probably take them almost an hour or two walking just to get to the main road and then another ten to twenty minutes to get to the town (that is if they managed to get a ride if not it would take another hour or two). It was truly a different experience and one I wont be about to forget. The whole mission tour was a great experience but just being able to hear Elder Cook talk (even about his conference experience this past October) and being there in the North East made it all the icing on the cake as people say. Something I will cherish forever.

I have been receiving lots of help from different people lately and I am truly grateful to each and everyone one of them no matter how big of the thing they have done for me. One of the guys I have been meeting with told me once; "The Lord is aware of you isn't he. He has his hand in everything that you do." and I have thought a lot about that. And you know it is so true. I am not saying I am the only one that the Lord does that with but as I look back I can see it fitting all together so perfectly. As Elder Oborn has said once "As you go through challenging times it may not come into focus until you look in the rear view mirror." Some times we just have to look back to what we had or who we were or whatever it may be just to see the difference. Its not so apparent looking forward because we are to focused on what we don't have at the time to realize how far we made it.

Well I think that will give you a picture of what I have been doing the past few months and what has been keeping me so busy. Again I am sorry I haven't wrote in awhile and I hope I can make it up to each and everyone of you. I love you all so much and thank you again for all your prayers and all you do for me. I will be focusing more on writing individual letters starting this week and as well I will make sure to write something to everyone in an email. I will do better. Again I love you all and you are always in my thoughts and in my prayers and I hope to hear from everyone soon.

-Your Friend, Brother, Lacoua (probably spelt wrong), etc
Elder Aaron Giles Lindsay
"Life is what you make it so Fake it Until You Make it"
 
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