Monday, December 9, 2013

The Three Amigos

It sounds like it's been an interesting week for everybody- that's sad to hear about the sheriff that committed suicide, but crazy that it was right there next to the elementary school. Heartbreaking to think about what that's done to his family.

I've had a really interesting week- which all started with a call from the mission president on Wednesday night. I had crashed on the couch after planning, and when we went to check the phone at like 10:29 there were four missed calls from President Morby along with a voicemail and text message saying to call him as soon as possible. Well, his phone died after sending those messages so I tried calling several times and then spent another three hours awake freaking out. Usually you only get calls directly from president when something has gone horribly wrong- I was freaking out that somebody in the family had gotten in a car-wreck or something awful like that.

Well, I finally got to sleep at around 1:00 A.M. and called him early that next morning. Luckily nothing bad had happened- but we did get some incredibly interesting news: we were going to take in a missionary reassigned from Ghana after having health problems.! President told me that he didn't have anywhere to put him so he'd decided to stick him with us in Willamette. Our new companion's name is Elder Stovall from down south in St. George, UT.

So we got into contact with the mission office elders to get furniture for our apartment (like a bed, desk, etc.) on Thursday and then on Friday we drove up to a church building near the mission office to pick him up after meeting President Morby and getting some logistical things sorted out.

It was interesting- he'd spent the first three months of his mission in Ghana, Africa. Very third-world country! He was washing himself with buckets of dirty water, slept with a mosquito net around his bed, and his clothes were pretty foul-smelling and dirty! I guess he'd been pretty sick with stomach issues, rapid weight loss, etc. for about six weeks until finally his mission president decided he needed to leave. The pollution and general lack of hygiene/cleanliness wasn't allowing him to get any better so the big man upstairs reassigned him to Portland, OR.

It's been freaking cold here- today outside it's like 20-degrees (which it shouldn't be like because this is supposed to be temperate freakin' Portland). So we spent a few hours on Saturday acquiring some warmer clothing for our new elder and shoes since all he had was short-sleeve white shirts, slacks, and sandals.

He seems to be doing alright- he's still sick, but it's gotten a little bit better and now he has running water, adequate amounts of toilet paper, and a car with air-conditioning/heating. That probably beats having to blow out your bowels in a dirt-hole in some tin shack. It's crazy though- he taught around 40 lessons a week the whole three months he was there! Elder Pearson and I were pissed when he told us that- I think he's taught more lessons that I have my entire mission and I've been out three times longer than he has at least!

Either way- it's been an interesting few days for us. Our week wasn't that great besides that, most of our lesson fell through. But we're excited for our new addition to the rag-tag duo here in Willamette. Knocking doors is kind of awkward with three people though...

I'm glad that Ben is having success with his programming- he was always really good with computers. I don't understand how he doesn't do well with math though- that makes no sense whatsoever seeing as computer programming is almost the same thing in a lot of ways. I can't wait until he works for Google making bodacious mounds of money so I can finally just mooch off of him once again. I think back to those days often.. Ahhh, those were good times!

My junior year was great- I didn't enjoy like, half of my classes though. My math class during junior year consisted of me skimming by with a B, then just messing around with my buddies and flirting with the girl that sat in front of me. It was so difficult to understand anything in that class, I seriously regret not doing more to improve my math knowledge in high school- I should have taken a different math class since I didn't get half of what was being taught in pre-calculus. As long as he has the math credits to graduate, I'd say go for an easier class. If Mr. Stemle still works at the high school- get a math class with him because he's an amazing math teacher (I learned more in his class than my class- and I talked with him about math like three times). I understand Silas' struggles to stay motivated- he's just got to remember that if he doesn't get good grades and pass his classes now, it's going to suck in the long run.. There's a guy we meet with that is like 20 and still working on getting his high school diploma because he shirked off for quite a bit of high school and family problems and it's super rough.

I'm excited for the packages! Sending them to the apartment is all good- it will most likely get there faster than sending it to the mission office.

Well I hope that you have an amazing week!~

Love always,

Elder Samuel A. Burge

P.S. - Being 20 is going to be freakin' weird...

 On splits with the Nutcracker for Christmas!!!

Welcome to your new home Elder Stovall!!!

Look, Elder RC Willey brought Elder Stovall’s furniture!!! It’s really Elder Lasley, but it was a RC Willey moment.

The three amigos – Elders Pearson, Stovall, and Burge

No comments:

Post a Comment