So, yes, our new companion is Elder Carroll. He is from Tuscon, Arizona (my second companion from AZ – Elder Sharp is from there as well.) He is fluent in Chinese, having learned it for the past 5 years in school. Counting the MTC, I’m now at 11 companions!
Having Elder Carroll here has been a huge blessing. As you are well aware, I’ve been stressed out being with Elder Agamata for a variety of reasons. Many of those things appear to be mellowing out.
This week we’ve fulfilled the parable of the wheat and the tares. We’ve dropped many of our investigators who we’ve been struggling to get a hold of for several weeks and a few who upon our visitation said they were not interested. That will allow us to be able to focus our efforts (planning & teaching) those who are actually ready.
At this point my only “quips” are the following: 4 hours of studies and not having enough time to do service. Pretty minor compared to companionship problems and no anything that I’m going to let myself down on for.
A somewhat scary situation that began several weeks ago and played out yesterday. I’m hoping it doesn’t create havoc in the ward. Several weeks ago, we noticed that one of the members in our ward, who we eath with regularly, lives outside of not only the ward boundaries (which is the same as our proselyting boundaries as we are the only set of missionaries in the ward) but also outside the stake boundaries (which in our mission is aligned with our zone boundaries). As missionaries, the only thing we are able to do is to ask President for permission to leave our zone to eat dinner with the member and if he agrees, problem solved. Sadly Elder Agamata in his quest for “exact obedience” whined and complained to Bishop and said the member should not be attending our ward, etc. Using the example of boundaries, our handbook provides boundaries for what we should and should not do as missionaries. We are under no obligation to tell the Bishop and the members of his ward who can or cannot attend the ward. We are under no obligation to inform our investigators because that is our stewardship. Sadly, somehow or another word to to this member and he became offended by the situation and informed the ward in Fast & Testimony meeting of the fact that he was leaving the ward, which in turn hurt a lot of feelings of other members.
Thankfully other than that strange turn of events, everything would appear to be fine.
P.S. don’t forget to send me the SD cards!
Love,
Elder Allen Blodgett
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