August 20, 2012

hey mom!

i`m glad to hear you guys got out again! you sure have gone out a lot though, pretty sure we did nothing right  before my mission...haha but oh well, at least someone gets a vacation. it`ll be fun to go to yellowstone now and just chill, since here i don`t really ever get time to just chill haha. and i`m sure the showers you have are better than the one i have. it`s pretty pitiful, and there`s no temperature guage thing. it`s weird cause the water is really cold, especially in the morning, so it`s cold while i`m in the shower, but 2 minutes after i`m hot again and i have to keep the fan on me haha. i think i`m a little more used to the heat now. i still sweat a lot, but i`m pretty sure it`s gotten a little better after 7 months. i didn`t even realize that i hit 9 months the other day. time sure is going by faster than i thought! as far as the curfew goes, i always had a curfew, and for a long time you and dad would come search for me if i was late. i think maybe after my senior year it went to midnight, and on the weekends of my senior year, but always during the week and stuff i had a curfew. and you always told me to be home earlier on saturday night, even though i may have been late one or two times...:) i think after awhile you kinda just let me do whatever, but part of it was probably cause i worked until 10 30 at night, and i was going on a mission and stuff, so i don`t know, that`s tough. that`s one thing i`m not looking forward to as a parent haha. there comes a point where they need to just make decisions, and they`ll see the consequences. something i learned on the mission is that you`ll never learn to love the rules until you actually obey them and see the blessings you receive from following them. now the mission rules are a little different than a curfew, but i think the principle still applies. yeah it kind of sucks to have to come home a little earlier than your friends, but it only sucks in the moment. now i look back and i don`t even care. i`m sure i didn`t miss anything, and if i was out later we usually just did stupid things or nothing. i think the rules kept me safe, and maybe something would have happened if i never chose to obey them. not to say i`m perfect, but the rules aren`t there so that we can`t have fun, but because someone with more experience understands and wants to keep us safe. that probably doesn`t answer your question or help at all, but there`s my 2 bits.

so yeah changes are this week, and as i said i already know i`m going. as to where i don`t know, and i won`t know til wednesday, but i`m both excited and sad to leave. it was a hard sunday yesterday. we have these little "missionary minutes" during sacrament meeting, and it was my turn to talk. so i just told them that if someone didn`t know that me and my comp were leaving and 2 new sisters are coming, so if you see them in the street or something if you could say hi just so they know who the members are and can learn the area a little bit, but it was hard. i told them thanks for helping me and having me here, and for all they`ve done. it`s actually a lot harder to leave than i thought, especially with recent converts. we`ve kind of spent the week just saying goodbye`s and stuff, and it`s hard. i`ve met a lot of people here that i`m gonna miss. we went to see one of the recent converts and she almost cried, and it was tough to say bye. who knows if i`ll ever get to come back out here and see these people again. i really hope i can come back before i end my mission, cause i`ve made some really good friends here. we`re also leaving behind some really cool investigators and that`s hard too. the only thing i can think of is that we found these people so late because the hermanas coming have something for them that me and my comp don`t have. i already miss them and i`m not even gone yet. my first area was a lot easier just cause i never really talked to anyone and i didn`t see any baptisms or anything, but i was here for 4 months and learned how to speak and listen and made a lot of friends. we`ll probably go see one or two people tonight and tomorrow, and that`s it, we`ll leave tomorrow night at like midnight to get to Panamà on time. it`s tough to leave, but that`s how the mission goes i guess.

really that`s all that`s happened this week though. just trying to get a few things ready for the hermanas and saying bye and doing all that good stuff. we were blessed with having a baptism on saturday and that was super cool. i think i told you about him a little, that his sister invited us over to teach her family and he was reading the BOM and had a really good experience with prayer and just wanted to get baptized. he  had to do some talking with the mom, and she said yes on the conditions that he goes to school, to church and all the church activities too. he agreed and so she said it`s ok. so we taught a few more things, watched this movie on the prophet one night, on the Lord`s errand i think? and it was really good. it was a super good baptism, his cousin came and something just hit him i guess cause he just started crying after the baptism and he felt something. he lives in another area, but it was still cool to see. so that was a good little farewell present, but me and him became good friends so it`s hard to leave him too.

this week was really just a sad week haha. we also met this other lady and she was sad. we just contacted her, and we were just casually talking for a bit, and i don`t remember how it got to this point, but we started talking about family and stuff and she shared how her nephew had just died a month ago, but he was like a son to her. she said he had a really good relationship with her 5 year old daughter, and when she found out he died she just changed. she doesn`t want to do homework anymore or even eat, and is just super sad. the lady was just crying the whole time and even i almost did (which is big since you know i never cry :) but it was sad. i wanted to help her, and i know what we have can, but it was still hard. i can`t bring back her nephew or make her daughter eat, but i want to help somehow. so it`s hard having to leave people like her behind, but i`m hoping the hermanas can help. i really am leaving a lot of trust in the hermanas that are coming, just with my investigators and converts and stuff, but that just made me realize that i also need to be good and take care of the converts in the area that i`m going to. i want people to be like "oh good elder paskett is coming, he`ll take care of my converts" so i need to make sure i`m doing what i can to make that happen.

that about wraps it up though. it was a fairly quiet week, mostly just of goodbyes and stuff. i`m excited for a change and i hope it`s good, but i`m really gonna miss this area. i hope everyone does well. and i hope you have an awesome week too. good luck with school,  i`m sure it`ll all work out well. thanks for everything, talk to you next week!

much love,

elder paskett