Bad Back

September 5, 2011

Dear Mom, Dad, and Danielle,

Wow, Danielle passed up a Taylor Swift concert?! What a ding dong! Mom, did you really send a letter to the mission president about my back? You really shouldn’t have done that lol, but I appreciate the concern! Well, I obviously was really worried about it and I started doing a lot more stretching and core exercising in combination with heat pad on the back and ib profin to dull the pain and to try and loosen up things back there; none of these things did the trick, they helped a little, but I was still really feeling it! I started thinking about it and what could possibly keep causing me such trouble. It finally dawned on me the other day that I was bending really far over my bike while riding in fact because my bike is too small for me I had to raise the seat up higher that the handle bars lol so I was essentially bent over with my back horizontal with the ground! I decided id try lowering the seat and see if that would help and over the next couple days the pain left! Halleluiah! Yea I do also feel the pressure a bit to get some things done with a deadline in sight! The mission is most definitely no cake walk, and it is definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do! It can be very mentally and emotionally challenging. That being said, there are so many wonderful and fun things we can do on a mission as well; I suppose that whether a mission is difficult or a 'vacation' is really in the eye of the beholder!

Well work is going pretty well! We have a key appointment with our baptismal date Joyce tonight. We are really stretching ourselves and our creativity with her and our teaching to try and help apply our teaching to her life. She has opened up a bit and shared that reading from the scriptures and talking about such things is nice and important but that in the past she has had experiences where religious groups etc would talk with her about her daily problems in her life etc and then treat that and counsel her with scripture, etc. We are more than willing to do that appropriately and yet at the same time we also are very much there with her to help her come to know that the literal original Church of Christ has been restored to the earth. We will keep you posted on how things go!

Lillian is also still around and we are able to teach her now and then but its also a stretching and balancing act with her as well; she is also not so hot on 'bible study' so we are trying to find different ways to approach and teach her as well. Normally I would be inclined to drop someone like that but she still keeps on coming to church and calling us and we have a good relationship with her. Another keep you posted.

We have other investigators that we have hope for that we are meeting this week; one in particular just amazes me at how well she follows the light of Christ to discern truth from false teachings etc. She speaks great English (finally someone, most all our investigators only speak Dutch) so she will fit in well with the ward! We are just working with some amazing ppl! Our only struggle now is keeping up with all of them and helping them make and keep commitments. We are doing our very best and I know that the Lord will help us and make the difference so that we can start helping ppl keep commitments.
All things told life is good, health is good, the work is good, I can’t complain! I hope it is likewise for yall!

Love Elder Leash