I have malaria!

{Oct. 22, 2012}

Hey everyone,

 

Ok I think I need to make a trip to Texas. That sounds like a lot of fun. For some reason a lot of the emails seemed to have lots of surprises or stuff that I didn't know. Like Mikelle putting her papers in (I'm working on the revelation now, give me a minute), Katie going to college and all the cousins growing up, and Mom with a tablet. I think I knew that last one but it just still kind of blows my mind that Mom can handle that type of technology. I'm going to be the most outdated one in the whole family. That's embarassing. Ok for Mikelle's call I'm going to say...back east somewhere...maybe church history...Ohio? Sure. Either that or Uganda. She would fit in nicely there. Any other news on calls? No, Danielle, I haven't gotten your package yet. We were in Seoul last week and I thought it might have gotten there then, but it hadn't. But it might be there by now. I probably won't be able to get it for the next couple weeks though because we aren't going into Seoul for a bit. Unless we transfer. But that's not looking very likely. We find out tonight. I really liked Grandma's hill billy friend. It kind of reminded me of one of our "friends" who rides around town on a little motor bike and picks up cardboard. He hangs out in front of our church sometimes and smokes and asks us if we have a meeting. There certainly are some interesting people in the world.

 

This week has been pretty good. We had that blood drive but they wouldn't let me give blood. I had spent the night in a malaria-risk area and that was all it took. I was really looking forward to fullfilling the blood portion of the goal of leaving behind my blood, sweat, and tears in Korea, but so much for that. I even told them I was O- but that wasn't good enough for them. It seemed like a pretty good service project though. We also had interviews with our president so it wasn't a complete waste of a trip. My mission president is the man. Everytime I talk with him I my respect for his knowledge and wisdom grows. He gave me some good advice. We talked about goals and instead of setting goals for the end of my mission, he said to set goals for the end of the year. That way it's not like a countdown or a trunky goal and it will continue afterwards and give me something to keep working on when I get home. Genius.

 

We had a pretty cool miracle this week. Some guy who was contacted back in the summer randomly called us and wanted to meet. Apparently he had made a couple appointments with the missionaries but something always came up and he had to cancel and he felt bad about it so he called us up and met us. He's sweet. He has some good potential. We taught a pretty solid first lesson and committed him to baptism and he accepted. So it's looking pretty good so far, but we still have to keep going. Finding has been doing pretty good lately. We're just trying to get to the next step and keep them meeting and progressing.

 

Ok remember how you told me about Elder Scott Heinrich and Sister Jill Christensen? Well get this. While we were at that blood drive, one of the office elders came up to me and asked, "Do you know an Elder Scott Heinrich serving in the German-speaking Alpine Mission?" I guess he had emailed our mission about something and asked about me and Elder Stanley. It was pretty crazy. I just found it pretty funny that it happened the same week you told me about that referral. Such a small world.

 

I had another one of those "boy, I'm glad I stuck with the piano" moments yesterday. We have district conference in a couple weeks and our branch is singing at it and they wanted to practice yesterday. The girl who normally plays the piano had something come up and they didn't really have anyone who could jump in there and play, so they asked me to play it so we could practice. It was kind of rough and I've gotten a bit rusty, but it was still fun to play. But I could almost hear Mom and Allyson in my head saying, "see, I told you that you would use the piano on your mission." I quote our beloved prophet: "Thanks Mother."

 

That was pretty much the highlights of the week. Not too bad of a week if you ask me. You'll have to keep me updated on Mikelle's call and give a report on Malea's farewell. Oh and I had a question for Dad. Is there anyway to prevent those little sores/cuts that get in where the cheeks connect to the gums? Or is there something I can do to make them better? I've had a couple recently and they're kind of annoying. If you have any suggestions I would appreciate them. That's pretty much all I need. Have a good week and we will hear from you later.

 

Love, Elder Dorius