1/28/2014
And this is in part because of the people we work
with.
This past week I received a letter from our investigator
Veasana. He's decided that Sister Dunster and I have STDs and wants to know the
name of the guy responsible so he can beat them up in church. We explained to
him that we don't even date as missionaries, that we're disease free, and that
if we ever needed anyone beat-up, he'd be the first to know. I guess he was
skeptical about that because he wrote a second letter in which he asked if
Sister Walker would teach him from now on, because he feels like Sister Dunster
and I can't teach the gospel effectively while we're dealing with such a
devastating diagnosis. Yeah I don't get it at all but we sure get a good laugh
every time we have a lesson with him. He's a little nuts but it just means he
fits in super well in Tacoma.
Sometimes I think the reason I was called here is because
other people would probably get freaked out and not know what to do with stuff
like that. Sometimes Veasana starts rolling his own joints in lessons, or
insists we use an elaborate method involving dice and all of our names in a hat
to select who says the prayer at the start and close of every lesson. One time
he leaned over to me in Sacrament meeting and asked if the church would be
opposed to him building a boxing ring right outside the chapel. But actually
now I guess it makes sense because this was probably a part of the plot to beat
up the guy who'd infected me and Sister Dunster. Hmm.
Well his first Sunday in Gospel Principles I was a little
unsure how to respond, he was ripping pages out of the GP book and writing love
notes to us on them. But by the end of the lesson I had him in check- I walked
him over to apologize to the teacher for yelling out rude comments during the
lesson, and then to the Elder to whom the GP book belonged to apologize for
drawing obscene things in it and ripping several pages. He knows the drill now-
when he goes to Priesthood (the only time we can't keep an eye on him), I've
assigned several people to watch his behavior and report if he does anything
inappropriate so he doesn't think he can get away with shenanigans when we're
not there. At our first sit down lesson with him, I composed him a list of
rules- like if he's had anything to drink before we get there, we leave and
don't teach him, he's required to call us Sister and not "Miss Thing"
(this one is still a work in progress), and if he has personal questions like
our ring sizes he needs to save them until the end of the lesson. We have to
teach him a little differently, like over a game of monopoly or while rolling
some sticky rice in banana leaves, but we're finding it helps if he has a
menial task to occupy his brain and hands while we're teaching, otherwise his
attention span fizzles out fast.
As promised, here's two harry potter pictures of my
companions and I in front of hogwarts. Sister Walker is the one in Griffindor,
Sister Dunster is a Ravenclaw, and I'm in Slytherin.
I've been in the WA-TAC 35 weeks, and the church is true
here too!
-Sister McQuivey, Slytherin house.
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