Week 43: The Companionship I Never Thought Would Form is Born!!! GO DARTS!!!

Hello, family and friends!


Alrighty now. This week has been completely all over the place. I'll take it one step at a time.


Health
On Saturday, we went over to an investigators home to mow her lawn. I did her front lawn in record time, but when we went to her backyard, it was rough; it looked like someone had strewn little blades of grass all over the Sahara desert. Needless to say, mowing the back yard was a dirty job. In fact, I could barely see because it was like I was trying to mow while being encased in a sandstorm. By the time I was done, my neck was covered in hives and I could barely breathe. The hives were gone by the end of the day, but I'm still waiting for my lungs to recover completely. This mission has really taken its toll on my lungs.


As far as the normal health problems, I haven't had it as bad as I did a couple Sundays ago, though the nausea and headaches are still kinda coming and going, and the joint pain definitely isn't gone. I talked with my mission doctor and he said he will work with Sis. Cotterell to find a family doctor for me to see, and tomorrow or the next day I'm going to have lab work done on my blood again, this time more extensively than the one I had done in December. In the meantime, I'm not supposed to run or lift heavy things, which totally stinks.


The Work
The work is going great! I love it as much as ever! We've had the pleasure of teaching a little family: Ryan, Misha, Destiny (10), and Junior. They're great. Destiny is going to get baptized in a few weeks, if we can ever finish teaching her all the principles she needs to know. It goes pretty slow because she doesn't have a strong Christian background like most people here, and she forgets a lot so we have to review a lot of things, but she has a great desire to come unto Christ and she knows, somehow, that baptism is the right choice for her. We're currently teaching 13 different people, all in different shapes and sizes, and it's great to see how people who are so different can somehow all be benefited by the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love it.


The Beginning of the New Transfer
Yesterday (Tuesday) marked the beginning of the new transfer (my 8th transfer in the field). Elder Farr got transferred to be one of the zone leaders in Kinston. Elder Hewlett went back to his original area in the other side of Hope Mills to train a new companion, fresh from Washington state. And I got a new companion, too, and not just any companion, but the one and only Elder Kyle Simmons from Farmington, UT! He was a close friend of mine in high school and we never thought that we'd end up serving together, but here we are! I was so excited when he showed up to our apartment! I couldn't believe it! It's still a little hard to believe.

Dart reunion - Elders Schank and Simmons

It's been a stressful last few days, because since Elder Farr left, I was pretty much single-handedly running the zone for a day, trying to coordinate the incoming and outgoing missionaries while still making a hour-and-a-half service project and two lessons. And the best part is Elder Farr accidentally forgot to leave the key to our car and the key to the shed that holds our bikes. So, we had to bum rides from members throughout the whole day... and all of today... and probably much of yesterday as well. Haha it's been fun. At least we were able to get a hold of our apartment owner so he could come unlock the shed so we could use our bikes.

Elder Schank and Elder Farr in a corn field

Today was a lot of planning zone stuff. We planned upcoming conference calls, reviewed the results of last week so we can discuss them with stake leaders tonight on a different conference call, planned and coordinated three companionship exchanges for the next month, organized the mile allotments for the companionships with cars, made calls to medical labs and doctors, etc., etc., etc. Whew! I'm bushed.


Testimony
I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth once more, bringing a long period of dark apostasy to a wonderful end. I'm so thankful for this message! Because I know that Christ lives and loves us, I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that His authority has been restored to living Prophets and Apostles, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His true church. What a blessing it is to have it in my life! Above all, I am grateful for Christ Himself, for His love, and for His matchless and eternal Atonement. I know that it is only through the blood of Christ that we can obtain happiness in this life and in the life to come!


Plea for Letters
So, yeah. In case you didn't know, I would love to hear from my friends and family! I have a few letters I've written to some friends from college and high school but I realized that with the school year being over, I don't know a lot of your addresses! So if you could write/email me your summer-time addresses, I would really appreciate it! Hope to hear from all y'all soon! :)


With love,
 Elder Schank