October 17, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

This was a bit of a slow week. It really seemed to drag on because we were doing a lot of finding. And I mean A LOT of finding. We have about 4 solid people that we are teaching right now and a lot of less actives. Don't get me wrong, I love less active work because some of these people have had the worst experiences but we are helping them to experience miracles. There is just so many of them here. Like honestly, "Welcome back to the city Elder Biehn, here is your list of 100+ less actives in your area." Being a missionary in the city is mostly less active work 😂 but I do love getting to know these people. I'm so thankful that my mission has really taught me how to be a people person so that way I can connect with these people and be their friend rather than just their missionary. There are some elders in my district who are nothing but missionary robots and it's honestly pretty awkward being with them because they don't know how to talk to people about anything besides the gospel, ha! Anyways, back to the finding. Me and Elder Artinger have been wanting to grow our teaching pool of investigators so we've been hitting the streets a lot. And as we all know, every big city has its slums. Well, that's where we always go, you find some of the most humble people there.

Tracting in "Chirilagua"

For example here's me tracting in a place called "Chirilagua." I honestly felt like I was back in Mexico when I go here. I don't know why but I just love being out in the ghetto areas and talking to everyone there.

Then Sundays are always the most stressful days for missionaries. Want to know why? Well, when a random person gives you a call the morning of and says he wants to go to church and you don't know where he lives or how he's gonna get there. Then you scramble to try and find a ride only to find out he lives outside of your area but it's already too late because he is ready and the member is there to pick him up. So you just go with it and then this is also his first experience going to a Mormon church so you are trying to make sure everything works and are answering all of his questions. Then making sure he has a ride home, it all adds up to a pretty stressful day. There is a reason P-Day comes right after Sunday... haha, then me and Elder Artinger had a missionary correlation meeting with our Ward mission leader right after church.

Eating our to-go meal

Here is us sitting down for the first time on Sunday so that way we could eat our to-go member dinner and then head back out to our appointments 30 minutes later. Only to come to realize that every lesson we had planned fell through and we were stuck with more finding and contacting. Yes, Sundays are stressful as a missionary.

But other than that things are good. Stress is just a part of missionary life and when things actually work out for once, it's the greatest feeling in the world.

Another mildly shocking/scary experience we had. We were giving the other elders a ride to their apartment after our correlation meeting. As we were driving there was this lady and her dog walking on the side of the road, but the dog didn't have a leash. (I think you can already tell where this is going). Next thing we know the dog darts out into the middle of the road right in front of us, and this lady tries to grab it. Thankfully she realizes it's stupid to jump in front of a car to try and save a dog and she just watches in horror as she realizes she is about to watch her little dog get murdered. Luckily, Elder Artinger was able to slam on the brakes and swerve in order to avoid the dog. The lady was in shock but thankfully everything was ok and no one/thing died. Just a close call is all.

Well, that's basically the most of my hectic week. I hope everyone had a bit more of a relaxing week than I did. But hey that's all a part of the mission! Close calls and people's salvation!

Love you guys and talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn