July 5th Letter

Hey everyone! Happy Independence day/Canada Day! We got to watch fireworks from our apartment on Canada Day and that reminded me of how much i love fireworks and where you see them, the beach, baseball games, it made me happy. :D Strathmore had a little Canada Day celebration and we tried to make it to the pancake breakfast but were too late. Then we walked around A LOT, (july=half-kilometer month) and later walked back to the celebration in time to see a magician. He was really talented but extremely eccentric and a little bit creepy. Later we were walking down the street and i heard someone yell, "HEY!" Me, normally curious, would've turned around to see what was going on but at the same time i felt a voice in my head say, "Don't turn around." I told Elder Wheeler the same thing and we kept walking, despite the repeated "heys" we kept hearing. We had just walked past a house party so who knows what would've happened it we turned around. Whatever would've happened i'm glad for the Spirit's little whispers to protect us. While watching the magician we also gave a Book of Mormon out to a lady who came up and spoke with us. that was neat. I bore my testimony for the last time on fast sunday. that was weird. We found out this member served in the same mission as Carrie, but a little bit earlier than her. That was cool to make that connection.
Its a bit of a struggle right now and its really annoying. We aren't receiving a lot of help from the members. this week is girls AND scout camp so we haven't been able to get any appointments set up. Its frustrating. In the 3 weeks i've been here, we've had 3 dinner appointments with members. We've had dinners scheduled each day, but people always cancel and drop food off. Its really nice of them but frustrating because I don't get to know the members as well and they don't get to know. As members of the church, we think that our purpose is to feed the missionaries. That's nice, but not the real reason. We're supposed to be in their homes encouraging missionary work and letting them get to know us better. People have asked me, "Are you getting fed?" If i say that we have 2-3 nights a month without a dinner they go crazy and are all worried. Then they'll ask, "how's the teaching pool?" and when we tell them its lacking, they shrug it off like, oh darn elders. keep working, we're praying for you. Moms will feed us and say, if i feed you i know my boy out there will be taken care of. If your son is anything close to a good missionary, he'd care less whether he didn't have dinner that night if he had 4 people to teach! bahhhhhhh!!!! sorry, a little rant. :) There are a few awesome people here though, no worries. I love you all! talk to you next week!
Elder Crippen