March 30, 2015 - finger picture

Sorry I don't have any pictures of my coban tie.  I'll send that later.  I just took this of my finger.  That's as straight as I can make it.

Elder Passey

March 30, 2015

Hi everyone!

It sure is kinda nice sometimes to be exhausted in the good way.  Although it's also hard to remember that it is good to be exhausted.

I saw today that the Avengers 2 is coming out May 1st!  I bought a cereal box that had a Frisbee in it for it and then I got the super lame Frisbee and so I'm cursing my stupid impulsiveness this morning.  I also bought a puzzle.  I know.  I still hate puzzles but I feel myself going crazy with the monotony and repetition since every day is the exact same.  I had to get something to help take my mind off the stuff every once in a while.  So now I can hate the puzzle instead of hating my life.  At least that's my theory.

I'm way excited for General Conference. :)  I can't wait!  I'm seriously counting down the days till Saturday.  Hopefully Kim is going to get blasted by the spirit and it will give her the bravery to get baptized.  She's going to go to a bunch of the sessions and we had her write down a question the other day and she didn't tell us what it was.  She said she would tell us after General Conference if it's answered. :)  I'm hoping!  But also transfers are this week.  So I'll let you know what goes on next week on if I'm moving or staying or if Elder Nanto is moving or staying.  I think I might be moving...  We'll see. 

Yep I'm almost at a year mark. I'm at 14 months left now.  It's weird being an older missionary.  I never believed the elders who where at their like 9 month mark saying that it felt like yesterday when they were finishing training but now I can relate.  It really doesn't feel like it.  Thanks for everything. :)

I love the new video!  We watched it yesterday with my favorite family the Cuessy family yesterday and it's so good!  Have you seen He is the Gift the Christmas video they did in December?  It's so much like that!  It's so cool!  I'm doing a lot better sharing it with people than I did before.  I feel like I've made a lot of progress as a missionary but at the same time not very much at all.  Makes me want to work harder.  Which is good because I feel like I'm getting in a kinda rut right now. 

Oh yeah so I made a couple ties.  One of them I knitted for St Patrick's day. The other I made this last week and I made out of coban stuff.  It's actually kinda funny because for a while every time I went to the doctor he would give me a new roll of coban stuff.  It's the stuff you wrap and sticks to itself.  So I've been wondering for a while what I should do with it.  So I made a tie.  I don't have a picture of it on me but I actually think it turned out pretty good. :) 

I also got the brace of death for my finger.  It HURTS!  And then I lost it about 30 hours after I got it.  Still annoyed at myself for that.  But I have another appointment to get another one.  It's supposed to straighten out my finger and it's basically the devil.  Just another thing making my life joyous right now.

Anyway that's about it I think.  Have a good week!  Love you!  Be happy!

Elder Passey

March 24, 2015

Gary and Debbie's baptism

Brandon's self knitted St. Patrick's day tie

March 24, 2015

Dear family,

So, I went to a baptism on Saturday. :) It was for Gary and Debbie. I don't remember if you remember me telling you about them but it was when I was with Elder Petersen and we found them knocking and it was a miracle crazy finding situation thing. So I didn't know until like Wednesday but their baptism was for the Saturday. So we went and it was so cool. :) Elder Petersen and I are still their favorite missionaries even though we hardly taught them. We only found them. I guess I can recap a bit on that. So we were knocking and we knocked on their house and Gary was there and he invited us right in and asked for a blessing because Debbie went into the hospital the night before for heart surgery. her second one. So we gave him a blessing and said we would come back by the end of the week to check up on everything. One thing lead to another and they started taking lessons from the English missionaries but we were always their favorites. :) So Elder Petersen and I both said a prayer during the service and we were the witnesses as well. I traded a tie with Gary too. :) New favorite tie!

Speaking of ties, I made a tie out of yarn for St Patricks day last week. Elder Nanto knits so I knitted one. I'll send a picture sometime. I realized that I didn't have a green tie so I made one. It was pretty fun. :) Not getting into that stuff though, don't worry.

Oh yeah the LA temple today.  It was really nice!  We rode home in one van (7 seats) with 11 people in it.  I had someone laying on me the whole way home.  He weighs 120 pounds so he wasn't too heavy just really bony!  It hurt!  He's new though so he's still got time to fatten up. :) 

They took out the last pin in my finger the other day.  Now it's physical therapy and I still go to the doctor's office on Wednesday.  Insurance has been a mess still naturally but I have kept the receipts if you want me to send them all to you.  I don't know if you can get the money back but maybe we can try.  Sorry it's such a mess.  They haven't really done anything too painful in physical therapy yet.  Mostly just relaxing out the muscles in my finger.  I think the painful stuff will start this week but hopefully if all goes well, I will be done with everything by the end of the week.  My finger is just going to be different for the rest of my life. :)  That's just what you get ya know when you play dodge ball.  Or Satan hates you.  One of those.

Anyway love you!  have a great week!  You're awesome and good luck with everything!

Love,

Elder Passey

March 16, 2015

Hey,

Oh man it sure has warmed up.  So we have entered spring time here.  Weather is at mid to high 90's and I swear we got over 100 degrees a couple days.  Ridiculous.  So did you guys really get any moisture at all?  Man that's not good...

That's really cool that you've have that realization about your burdens being lifted and everything.  I've actually felt that a couple times, the first time I noticed it was when I was in the ER and the doctors were pulling on my finger trying to set it and it was really painful.  And that was after I had gotten the 12 shots in my finger to try to numb it up.  That didn't work.  But while they were pulling on my finger it really hurt but then after a bit I got to the point where it like lessened even though they were pulling harder and trying to move it around and everything.  No doubt that it was the Lord strengthening me and taking the pain so I could bear it.  Really neat to have experiences like that. :)

Wow that's so cool that everyone is getting calls and stuff. :)  That's insane about Jacob getting called sign language. :) That's really cool that Wyatt gets to do his mission and baseball and not have to choose. That's super neat and lucky too!  He's a good example.  

So news from here, our closest investigator to progressing and getting baptized is Maria.  She's 17 and we set a baptismal date for April 11th but we don't think it will be on that date necessarily.  It may be a bit.  She's super catholic and goes to two different catholic churches.  So that may be a bit difficult but she prays to get an answer about the book of Mormon and everything every time she says a prayer so yeah! She's open to it.  We've got a couple other investigators who are super close to progressing or just going super lame.  A couple kids names are Alex and Martin, same problem with super catholic family but their main problem is their mom.  She uber cathloc.  Anytime we come over and she is there we can't talk about our message or she will bash.  But they are willing.  Then Kim has a baptismal date for June which I think can be moved to earlier.  She just has little problems she's figuring out and we're figuring out too.  I think General Conference will be a turning point for her.  Then we have la familia Santiago who might progress really quickly really soon if they just are home for the sets we have!  We've had members with us and everything when we go over and they're not there...  Trying again to get a member out with us for tonight.  Aaaand that's it.  So yeah!  I had like a bloody nose every day for 4 days last week so that was fun.  And I got one of them right before  I extended the baptismal date for Maria.  Satan is just like punching me in the face I guess. :)

I don't really need anything. Don't worry. :)  I did get your package!  It made me really happy. :)  Love you guys!  You're the best!  Have a great week!

Elder Passey

March 9, 2015

Hi!  

Well this week has been good.  We found some pretty prepared people so that's good.  We actually haven't started physical therapy yet...  Oh and there were 5 pins and he took out 4.  So yeah I still have one on top sticking out.  Kinda annoying in part because it keeps me from straightening my finger so yeah.  He said it should come out easy enough.  The other one on top came out fairly easy too so yeah.  

I've been working really hard this week with the work.  It's been a good week.  Its been a lot of work.  Sometimes fairly frustrating but it's coming along.  

I didn't get your package.  I probably will this week.  

That sounds really painful with the enchilada sauce...  Is your eye OK?  How did that even happen?  Why would you put enchilada sauce in your eye?  That's not where it's supposed to go.

Woo!  That's going to be way cool to do the seminary sub thing.  Let me know how it goes!

Guess what I've almost been on my mission longer than I've lived in Grantsville.  Funny right?   When is St Patricks day?

Good luck with your embark thing!  Have fun with it!  Not really that much has happened this week.  It's just been average.  I fixed someone's piano.  That was pretty fun.  Except I cut my pinkie doing it.  Don't worry my other one.  Happy 2 year anniversary!

Love you!  Have a good week!

Elder Passey

March 2, 2015

Hey,

Sounds like an interesting week.  Sorry I just don't feel like emailing this week.  It's been a hard week.  I read all the letter though thanks for keeping me up on things. 

So this week a lot happened.  I got all but one of the pins out on Wednesday and I'll probably start physical therapy this week so that's what's up there.  Woo!  The work is really not going good right now.  I don't know what it is...  I keep trying harder and harder but I can't seem to improve the work.  We haven't found anyone really that good for the entire time I've been here and everything I try doesn't work.  I'm just down right now. 

We moved to a member's house.  Still haven't met the members. 

I go to the temple on the 24th of this month.

We did a bunch of service this week which was pretty fun and I worked on a piano this week which was pretty cool.  So a lot happened this week so pretty cool!  I gotta go though.  Love you!  Have a good week!

Elder Passey

March 2, 2015 PART TWO

Hey sorry I just got back on for a sec to say that I'm sorry for the negative email I sent to you guys.  Satan's just been working hard on me to recently and it's hard to keep it in.  Especially when I was about to email you he was just making things really bad so yeah...  Sorry about that. 

They didn't put me to sleep to take the pins out.  They numbed it a little and then took 4 of them out.  There's still one in there.  It bled a lot...  It hurt a good amount too but I'm sure not as much as physical therapy is gonna hurt.

I really don't know what's wrong.  I'm trying so hard to do better in the area.  I've prayed a ton more, I've studied for my investigators and done everything I feel like I can to be worthy of the blessings of finding anyone...  But no matter what I do I just can't.  I'm just frustrated.  I know that even though I can't see it my work is paying off but it's just hard to trust that thought right now. 

Thanks again for the email.  I really do appreciate you keeping me up with everything going on.  I love you.  Have a good week.

Elder Passey