A week of Learning

Dear Family and Friends,

So business as usual, I don't have much time, tis the story of my missionary life. I have received two packages here which just made me incredibly happy. I am writing this email using my new iPad keyboard and it works great! Thank you so much! and boy oh boy we now have a lot of goodies. Between mom's tim tams and Halloween candy and Stephanie's New Zealand treats I am good for probably the next 4 months. ha ha I also assure all of you, Mom, Dad, all my adoring fans and oh yeah my brother and sisters and family, that I read all the emails. we don't have the resources to print them off so i have to read them and respond all in the short time we get. But I love you all so much and appreciate every word you send. As much as I hate to admit it I am very home sick and would honestly on some rough days i feel  that I would rather just hitchhike home. But I am seeing daily the love of our Savior evident in my life and the life of those I visit and teach. I've struggled with some things on my mission, but i've seen each area of my struggle as a missionary answered through letters and emails, through general conference talks, through the comfort of the spirit as I simply keep doing what I need to be doing and so forth. There have been many times where I wallow in my own self pity of my situation of worries and the Lord tenderly inspires me to read a talk given by one of his apostles or prophets or read a scripture that hits the nail on the head. all I can do in those situations is just kneel and thank the Lord for His infinite love and mercy especially towards me who needs to learn and grow a lot on my mission. We had opportunities to serve a lot this week. I went on my first exchange and I was the one in my area which was scary because I needed to know where I was going and who we were seeing that whole day. And to be honest we went through every person on every list and then some and didn't have a single lesson, didn't get into anyone's home, but we talked with everyone on the street and didn't let a single person pass us by without talking with them. We had a Seventy come to a Zone training the first week of the mission, Elder Arnold and he said some things concerning that, that if we pass by anyone and don't open our mouths the answer is already "no". so we talked and walked all day and set up appointments for the rest of the week. It was a good day. We have been trying to meet with Robbie Gomez for the past two weeks but he keeps cancelling. yeah that is frustrating but we are trying our best. So the zone always plays basketball on Pdays (preparation days) and holidays and they found out I play so looks like I'll be playing some time soon ha ha. My testimony is growing each day and I feel I have so much to do yet to be the best missionary I can be and I'm having a hard time being patient because I want to be the best now so I don't have to wait till the end of my mission to be able to help these people the best I can. I am truly trying to love and serve everyone here. Jacky, I am so thankful you made me a Patterson recipe book so long ago because I am using it to bake brownies and cracker brittle for everyone we teach and are working with. Greg, some of my favourite places to eat out is Carls Jr. In n' out and ABC Chinese. maybe you remember some of those. Yes John I met a sister who served with you and she is in my ward, flipping awesome. I was getting really sick of people asking me "do you know so and so in Canada" and I'm like no it is a huge country. But this time I actually knew who they were talking about! We got permission to go to the ward Trunk or treat. And we also got permission to go with one of the service missionaries to help a lady out of our mission move. so we loaded two full, reclining couches, a recliner chair, three stools, and boxes of dishes and crap in one truck and boy were those couches heavy! They had so much metal in them I swear I almost broke my back. But because of this Elder and his guns we got a new couch in the apartment and we gave the other to the sisters. our place is looking flipping awesome, besides the bug problem, we kept bringing that up and they gave us more spray which we are using around the whole place now to try to stop them from coming in. But it is a four-plex so our apartment could very well be the only clean one and the rest are infested. but we are surviving. I've gotten so fed up with it I've started punching the cockroaches and Elder Cook get a hammer and smashes them. Yes John we are Hulk and Thor, and together no infestation that could drive away the spirit of our home will prevail, for we have the Lord on our side! ha ha I'll shoot yah another email with some pictures from our dinner at one house from the Cambodian Branch. I have so much to say but I am out of time! I Love you and pray for you everyday too! Take care and don't be hating on my bad grammar and punctuation. I have seriously no time! ha ha 

Love Elder Patterson