Starting at the top, on Tuesday we helped a couple named Paul and Shirley in Altus get some stuff ready to move in preparation for their move to Rapid City. Shirley does service with us at Operation Care, and she's real fun to hang out with. She has a kid that's a member, so she knows a lot about the church already. After we helped them move they took us to Pizza Hut, and the waiter there gave us a discount. Turns out she knows the missionaries and happens to be a member! We have no idea who she is or where she lives, but we pray she will make her way back to church one day. After that we said goodbye to Paul and Shirley. They're a great family, and I'm kinda sad to see them go...but people have to leave Altus at some point.
And once again, you get to hear about good old Sister Thomas. We helped her move her stuff out of her house. She introduced us to Miss Gibby, her cat. And Miss Gibby introduced us to her hairballs...nasty! We found a lot of those under Sister Thomas' furniture...ha. Later on that night the elders from Seymour, Texas (literally the lowest corner of the mission) drove up to Altus and stayed the night at our place. Remember Elder Davis? My old roommate in Mustang back in February? He was in Seymour. All six of us had a sleepover and got to watch Ephraim's Rescue. Man, I haven't seen that movie since I was in Sulphur!
On Thursday Elder Park in Seymour, Texas, and I drove up to OKC for our leadership training meeting. We learned plenty about how to be better leaders and better examples to the missionaries we serve. The best quote that came from the meeting: "Therefore...what?" When you've performed an action, what comes next? Why do we do the things we do as missionaries? Our focus should be working towards achieving our goals and knowing why we perform our duties.
Saturday morning we helped Sister Thomas move--get this, not her house, but we moved instead--her garage. She had a multi-car garage jam-packed with boxes upon boxes of quilting, food storage, antique stuff, odds and ends, old clothes, and what have you. What was originally supposed to be a 2-3 hour project turned into 8 hours of moving and hauling stuff from the old garage to the new garage! In 100 degrees, that was a nightmare. We were blessed temporally with a lot of goodies from Sister Thomas' storage, and physically with stronger muscles and endurance to the heat! Miss Gibby lucked out...big time. All she had to do was sit there and lick her paws.
Later on that night was the night of "The Purge." You outside-the-mission-field people probably know more about the purge than I do, but apparently there's a movie called The Purge where the people in the movie are allowed 24 hours of committing any and all crimes they want without getting punished as a way to "purge" society and eliminate the weakest links, so it becomes a survival of the fittest competition. Apparently something similar was supposed to happen Saturday night from 7 PM to 7 AM the next Sunday morning. OKC police were taking it seriously, so when President Walkenhorst got wind of it he had all missionaries in their apartments by 7 that night. So what did we do? Played Risk! I'd never played Risk before until last Saturday! Any game with a map of the world automatically piques my interest. And my, what fun I had! Even though I lost! Ha... My brothers back home know how to play Risk, so when I return we'll have to play 5-player.
And finally, backtracking to Friday. District Meeting day. Another memorable quote from the leadership training meeting from Thursday: "You are called to be a leader because of who you will become. You are called to put on public display all your weaknesses for all to see." I decided to take a leaf out of the leadership training meeting and "put on public display my weaknesses for all to see." I put all my cards out on the table. Later on the other elders in my district did the same. We went around the circle and fessed up our weaknesses for all to hear. Anyone see Pitch Perfect? The part where all the Bellas share their struggles to everyone? We did something similar to that, but it was much more serious and spiritual. And what a huge act of humility that was for all of us. When we admitted all our mistakes, some of us were more honest than others, some were more embarrassed than others, but no matter what emotions we felt we understood quite vividly what judgment day would be like. Our bond with each other was markedly strengthened that day. Of that, I am sure. I'm so grateful that no one is perfect... myself included.
Elder Garner
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