2007 February 19--If You Chance to Meet a Frown...

This week marked the end of a great transfer with Elder Edgley from Maryland, and the beginning of a new transfer with Elder S from California. I remain in 67 HA.

I'm happy for Elder Edgley because he has stayed in this area (67HA) for the first 6 months of his mission, which would be rough, as this is probably the dirtiest area in the mission, among other things, and he's finally moved out. So far for companions I've had a Silver, a Stone, and now I've got S, so sometime in the future, I should get another companion whose last name begins with "S" and is found on the Periodic Table of Elements, maybe " Elder Silicone" or something.

Anyway, so far, Elder S seems to be kind of angry or dissatisfied with everything. As a result, I kind of have to be a little overly optimistic about things than I'm used to, just to combat the negativity. So far so good, I'm trying be as non confrontational as possible, because I've learned that criticism usually has a negative effect. For example; S has this way of noticing everything that's wrong with something or someone, or situation, and pointing it out to you. " Ew, what is that smell? that smells so bad, haven't these people heard of indoor plumbing?" or " This taxi's way too small, my knees hurt, this is ridiculous" or " Why does it have to rain so much? I hate the rain" etc..... I'll be honest, it's a little rough, and the first thoughts that usually come into my mind are usually something like ," You're absolutely right Elder S, it smells terrible, the rain sucks, and this taxi's too small for me too, You should write a letter to the president, and he came make Madagascar stop being a 3rd world country, relocate it out of the middle of the Indian Ocean with it's rainy seasons, get them all indoor plumbing and give them all cars designed for people much taller than them, and then this place would be almost up to par. How's that sound?" That might be the first thought that comes to my mind and I admit that it's a little harsh, but I'm trying to be honest. The good thing is, I never say the first thing that comes to mind, and decide not to say anything at all , and smile. I know that if I came anywhere close to saying that, it would probably not end up so great. It's made me very self conscious of the negative things I think and say, and I'm trying to eliminate them where ever they show up. According to all of S's last companions, this isn't new, and it bothered all of them. But I don't think any of them did anything more than just tell him that he complains about everything and criticized him for it. I don't think that helped him. So I try to bring up all of the things that I think are great, and all the things that Elder S likes to do, just to change the subject sometimes. And I do what I can to ignore the negative comments, I can't even laugh at small absurd things anymore because he'll take it as an opportunity to complain about it.But if he does talk about something he likes, I do everything I can to make him keep talking about it. It's been a little rough, because I've just been trying to be an example of something that I've never been terribly good at. But it's good practice. I've made some progress.

I've found that he's had piano lessons since he was 5 and can play Debussy, and Bach, which I think is really cool, so I make sure to bring up conversations about music and I'm trying to encourage him to teach piano lessons, because I think it would help him learn the language better and get to like the people here a little bit more. I might also get him to teach me how to read music a little bit, or something. Anyway, little by little (tsikelikely), I think he'll start to enjoy his mission ( at least more so than he seems to be currently.)

I might have to get blunt eventually, as the spirit directs, but I'm trying to be optimistic, so we'll see I guess.

I guess it was inevitable, I haven't had any problems with any of my companions so far. But I will reaffirm, I see no reason why this companionship has to be a bad experience, so I just have to do what I can to be pleasant. I think this place is changing me, I think for the better. Sometimes I think I think too much. oh well. Maybe I'll overcome that as well.

I've been reading the Teaching of Spencer W Kimball in these past two weeks. It's been really amazing. I love what he has to say on everything. For this week, something he said has really stuck out to me. In answering the questions people have about why life is so hard sometimes, and if God is so good and powerful, why does all this terrible stuff happen? He said ( sorry this won't be exact) " Had I limitless power and yet a limited understanding, I might have saved Abinidi from the flames, and in doing so would have done him irreparable damage in denying him a martyr's reward, exaltation" Something like that. Anyway, he went on to talk about relieving Paul the "thorn in his side" which represented the things that made Paul humble. He said he probably would have saved Joseph Smith and denied him his reward, and ultimately, he would have saved Christ from the agonies and death he suffered. But how terrible would that have been? It made me think of all of the difficult things I've had to deal with in my life, and I thought, " what if everything came easy to me? what if I could speak this language after only a little bit of trying, what if I was a good writer, or good looking. What if everybody liked me?" Wouldn't that be nice? But it doesn't take more than a second to realize how pointless life would be if we didn't have any problems.

I don't know how well I'm describing this, but suffice it to say, these thoughts have sustained me through a lot of hard times. I try to keep them in mind when things get tough. And things do get tough sometimes.

Well, I love you all, It's always great to hear from you guys. I pray for you always, and I know you're doing the same. Thank you.

Until next week, Veloma!

Elder Draper