“The ninjas are deadly and silent
They're also unspeakably violent
They speak Japanese
They do whatever they please
And if you tear off their mask
They'll be smiling”
Yo this week was a little rough. The work was pretty slow. People seemed like they wanted to hear from us even less than usual! Amusing, very amusing. But not really. I don’t know what I’m on about.
We visited Cheryl again this week. Last week after we talked to her she experienced really severe kidney failure and almost died. We visited her in the hospital and gave her a blessing and chatted about some uplifting things. She’s such a strong woman. I’m excited to keep meeting with her.
We also met this dude named John. He lived in a super small wooden cottage. The majority of the space was taken up by a bunch of massive surfboards. We just got to know him a little bit. He’s an older gentleman and he has many a story to tell. He told us about where the best spots are to surf and how we can get there for free. But there’s more to the story. My companion went back to visit him while we were on exchanges and he hadn’t the faintest idea who he was. Additionally the first two times we called him he asked us if we were Jesus, and upon finding we were not, abruptly hung up. We deduced that he most likely has some kind of dementia. A sad revelation indeed.
We met Martha’s brother Raymond. He was visiting her and his knee was super messed up. He looked like he was experiencing some pretty serious pain. We asked him what happened and he said that a ghost threw him out of his bed onto his knee. Sus. We gave him a blessing to heal his knee and we cast out anything that was haunting him or whateva. We have yet to hear a report on how he’s doing.
Friday was certainly my favorite day this week. We had exchanges with the Salinas Elders. I went to Salinas with Elder Bullock. Now, I don’t know if I’ve talked about Elder Bullock yet but we’re pretty tight. So you can imagine my excitement when I got to go on exchanges with him in his area. It was fantastic. Major bro time moment. We were only able to teach one lesson but we had a good time mobbing around. While taking a stroll through Chinatown, we met this homeless fella named Ron who invited us to his ‘room’ which we were hesitant about but we followed him. As we were following we noticed a very large kitchen knife in his back pocket. Not particularly reassuring. His crib ended up being an old electrical maintenance room with a meat smoker and a bunch of cooked hot dogs on the ground. He told us the story about a kid who beat him with a red hot shovel. Then he ran off to yell at some guy in a wheelchair. Elder Bullock has some serious street cred for speaking Russian. Though it brings me great sorrow to know that he will shortly be leaving his re-assignment here in Cali, and heading out to Russian to finish his mission. Perhaps I will learn Russian to honor him.
We also went to the Oakland Temple this week. It was super sick. Beautiful and of course very serene and peaceful. Pictures will be included.
Primary program in church. Always love hearing the youngsters sing.
Sometimes the work is rough as are our lives here in mortality. But fortunately we have control over what our experience is like. For better or worse. In the latest conference Elder Uchtdorf spoke wisely saying, “Do you want to change the shape of your life? Change the shape of your day. Do you want to change your day? Change this hour. Change what you think, feel, and do at this very moment. A small rudder can steer a large ship. Small bricks can become magnificent mansions. Small seeds can become towering sequoias.”
Making big changes is rarely effective in our efforts to fill our lives with more joy, peace, and contentment. It’s the small changes, the small actions that will lead to big changes. Smile. Pay someone a compliment. Tell someone how much you love them. Pray. Read a verse or two. I assure you that you will begin to marvel at how big of an impact the small things make. As we strive to just live a little more like Christ every day, our efforts will be multiplied beyond comprehension. Our joy can be filled a drop at a time.
Choose to stay positive. Choose to be better. Choose to be like Christ.
Here are some songs for this week.
Big Sur--Jack Johnson
Gallipoli--Beirut
Amsterdam--Gregory Alan Isakov
Relatively Easy--Jason Isbell
I and Love and You-- The Avett Brothers
Olivia--The Backseat Lovers
Love is a Beautiful Thing--Theo Katzman(Heartbreak Hits)
Birds of a Feather--Vulfpeck
I have an additional request. We met this week named Xavier who gave us a track to listen to on Youtube. We can’t listen to it because of the media policy but please give my homie a listen. Also I’m unsure of the content so beware. The first picture I’ll include is the name of his Youtube channel off the back of his last CD.
Much love to you all.
Elder Winegar
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