This was the first e-mail in a long while where Eric expressed some discouragement.
He went on to say that James is doing well, but is not convinced that President Monson is a living prophet. He's dealing with that issue, and still wants to be baptized on the 31st. Eric is confident it will happen.
In a bit of good news, there was a baptism this week. Will, whom we have mentioned several times, was finally baptized. He is a young man who is friends with the son of the stake president. He has been attending church, participating in young men's activities, and attending early morning seminary for years, but wanted his friend to baptize him. The friend turned 16 this month, and was ordained a priest, giving him the authority to baptize. Eric said the baptism this week was a very happy occasion. He is hoping that Will's baptism will spark some interest in his parents to learn more about the church.
Elders Hansen and Kacher aren't the only ones who have been having a difficult week. Other members of the zone have been struggling as well, and Eric isn't sure how to help them. He said:
"This past week went by alright. For all the miracles we saw last week it seems like we saw that many setbacks. Christopher wasn’t too keen on the gospel principles lesson taught the other week so he decided not to come back to church this week. We are still teaching him though and he is reading the book of mormon a lot. Chen Chen is feeling overwhelmed still by university and isn’t making a whole lot of time to meet with us. We haven’t had any contact with Brad this week. And Mavis… is crazy. An absolute nutter."
He went on to say that James is doing well, but is not convinced that President Monson is a living prophet. He's dealing with that issue, and still wants to be baptized on the 31st. Eric is confident it will happen.
In a bit of good news, there was a baptism this week. Will, whom we have mentioned several times, was finally baptized. He is a young man who is friends with the son of the stake president. He has been attending church, participating in young men's activities, and attending early morning seminary for years, but wanted his friend to baptize him. The friend turned 16 this month, and was ordained a priest, giving him the authority to baptize. Eric said the baptism this week was a very happy occasion. He is hoping that Will's baptism will spark some interest in his parents to learn more about the church.
Elders Hansen and Kacher aren't the only ones who have been having a difficult week. Other members of the zone have been struggling as well, and Eric isn't sure how to help them. He said:
"It has been really difficult as a zone leader. I don’t think we have too much of an impact on the success of the zone. It is hard to inspire missionaries and love them yet hold them accountable. It is tough to maintain the balance between being someone’s leader and being their friend."In the last bit of news, we heard this week for the first time about Eric's release date. Because the transfer schedules are different in the Provo missionary training center than in Preston, England where the English-speaking missionaries go, Eric's 24 months don't coincide with the regular transfer schedule of the mission. As a result, he has been scheduled to finish his mission on May 27, 2010. This is nearly a full month earlier than we had been expecting. He is disappointed about it, and asked President Stock if he could extend beyond that date. President Stock said he could for up to 30 days, if his visa wouldn't run out. We don't know yet when his visa expires. I think he will probably take advantage of that opportunity if it is available. This is what he said about going home in May:
"That is so scary to me. I need to be content with what time I have been allotted… but I still have soo much left that I’ve wanted to accomplish. The spirit of the work is urgency."As a parent, I am anxious for him to come home, but pleased and humbled by his devotion to what he is doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment