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| Pday lunch at Cafe Rio |
Kamusta kamo??
A new era has dawned on the Utah Orem mission this week. Many of you may be thinking, "Wow, serving a mission in Utah, you must be getting fed every night, that must be so nice." Well, you would be INCORRECT. Missionaries in the UOM cannot accept any kind of food from members. Nothing pre-packaged, homemade, store-bought, nothing. If it's food, it's a no. I haven't had a single meal, plate of cookies, thing of jello, or glass of water with or from a member my entire time here.
But that all changed this week. The fullness of the restored gospel continued to be revealed, and the missionaries of the Utah Orem mission can now accept any and all food from any and all people. That wondrous clipboard, where the members of the Relief Society sign up for a night to feed the missionaries, will once again be passed around. Lol, not quite, because we aren't meeting in-person for 2nd hour church meetings yet, and we still can't eat in homes with families, but dinners can be made and brought to us now haha. What a glorious announcement President Treadway made last Thursday. The four of us Elders were jumping and cheering during the mission-wide Zoom call where that was announced (we were muted don't worry hehe).
Probably the biggest thing to happen this week, and probably one of the biggest things to happen on my mission so far. We can also get rides from people now too!
Also, spring is spranging here big time. We walked up Big Donna the other day without coats or sweaters, just the classic short-sleeve shirt look, and it was so nice. Big Donna is actually on a pretty busy street (1200 E for all you Utahns) and we usually get a couple honks and waves from people driving by, but that day the honks and waves went up about 200%. Pretty nuts. It was so fun just seeing people outside also enjoying the weather going on walks and such, because it was so fun to just stop and talk to people.
An old lady we were doing a member-message with on Zoom called us Elder Hieker and Elder Peterson. I have never heard my name mispronounced in such a way.
There was one night where it was kinda colder and windy and we were about to start our 15-20 minute walk home when we remembered that we could get rides now, so we texted one of our Bishops that we're really tight with and he pulled up to where we were in like 2 minutes to give us a ride home. Not to mention he pulled up in a stOOpid nice Audi, and when we got in the car his wife was there too and she asked, "Have you guys had dinner?" And interestingly enough, we actually had not, so they took us to Cubby's!
In some other not-so-great news, Maria moved without telling us! We knew she was moving, and we offered to help her move multiple times. She totally said she'd take us up on that offer too, but some other people in the ward offered too and we think her husband didn't think they needed a lot of help and I guess didn't want to make a big deal out of things. Pretty lame, not gonna lie, but it be what it be. We'll keep trying to hit her up about her new address in Spanish Fork and try to get some missionaries at her door again!
Overall, I'd say things are beginning to look up. The beautiful Utah spring is here, the Philippines is getting vaccinated like crazy, and there is bread.
I truly am so grateful to be a missionary now. Obviously, there are hard weeks, and it honestly is mostly hard weeks, but missions were never meant to be easy. Literally, no one has had an easy mission. But people don't go on missions because they are easy, but because they are hard. We didn't choose to come to Earth before this life because it would be easy, but because it would be hard. It would also have greater joy than we could ever experience without coming here. The Lord has amazing things in store for each of His beloved sons and daughters, and through our faith in Him we can find joy in whatever comes our way.
Find the joy!
Elder Peterson ;)
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| Elder Dieker told me this is a picture of us with a truck, but I don't know what he's talking about. |
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| Crumbool! |
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| Yet another photo shoot with the Welcome to Lehi sign. |
