Missionary Monday!

Michael had a big weekend! Or at least a big Friday. Here's what he wrote:

"So this week was the week I had to decide. For those of you who don't know, I am serving a two-transfer mission. The difference between that and a normal mission is that I only serve for two transfers and after that I have the option to serve again for another 21 months. I had a very hard time choosing to serve as a missionary to begin with and even though my experience so far has been good it has also been hard. When the survey came I said that I want to go home. A few hours later my mission president called to make sure that's what I wanted and I wasn't sure anymore so I got some extra time to think about it and I also got permission to call home. After talking with Mom and Dad I realized that I am being tested. This is not a matter of whether or not I will serve a mission but whether or not I will trust God. He knows what I want and he loves me. He knows whether it would be better for me to serve or go home. All I had to do was decide whether I trust God or not. I told my mission president that I changed my mind, that I would continue my service. He told me in return that my survey has already gone in and that they will see that I chose to go home first and then changed my mind. As a result of that they may not give me another call. I am not worried about that. If Heavenly Father wants me to serve then I will and if he doesn't then I won't. The important part is what I have learned of this experience and that  is that we must always put God first because he knows who we are and who we can become. He knows whether it is better for us to do one thing or another. I had to make a hard choice this week but I know that I made the right one."

So Bruce and I thought Michael had a few weeks to make that decision. We happened to, on the spur-of-the-moment, go to my sister Melanie's house Friday night to watch a movie. Michael tried to reach us at home for about two hours before he had the inspiration to call Melanie. He talked to Bruce for about 20 minutes—and I have to tell you Bruce is awesome! He is good with people and great with his kids; I could tell he was saying just the right things—things I would have never thought of myself. (I would be more likely to express my views and wonder why nobody gets it but me.) Michael made his decision while they were talking; then he talked to me for 10 minutes or so and let me know what he'd decided. (Although I could already tell from hearing Bruce's end of their conversation.)

In today's email Michael continues:

"Aside from all that this week was pretty good. Lehi has an event every year called Lehi Roundup where they do a parade and activities for several days in a row. Because of that no one wanted to schedule appointments with us and we had no lessons planned. What we did instead was attend the parade and hand out pass-along cards...
...Next week all the missionaries in both the Provo and Orem missions will be in the Provo 4th of July parade and I suspect it will be just as slow.
...I love hearing from everyone.
Love
Michael"

Michael with Elder Mortensen after the Roundup Days parade

On the phone Friday night Michael told me that in his area the missionaries are like celebrities—people know who they are, honk, smile, wave, say "hi," and buy them dinner all the time. And, sure enough, next week they will be in the 4th of July parade. Celebrities, indeed! ;-)

The subject of Jason's email is "Some Crazy People"

"In a good way though, mostly. I did meet a murderer this week, but we had a cool conversation with him. Funny enough, we met him at the park swinging a big sword around like he knew something about what he was doing. It was an actual weight, but plastic, Gladius if anyone wants to look it up. The sort of sword that gladiators use. Apparently he's one of those people who like to dress up in historic armor and beat each other up with real, but dull, swords, most of which they make themselves.

He grew up with some kind of Christian parents, but if I recall correctly he became atheist due to some hypocrisy of his parents and also due to some questions he had, like was it really murder if the guy he killed was a serial rapist?  ... his actual big question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" is answered in the Book of Mormon. Knowing the purpose of this life (2 Nephi 2) is to experience evil to know the good as to help us to grow spiritually is a perfect answer. He needed to ponder on it, but he liked that answer, as well as our explanation of the Pre-Earth life and God's plan."

I won't copy Jason's whole email here, but he also met a woman who has been hit by trucks "at different times of her life. One of those trucks was a massive logging truck, without the logs, but if you ever see one you will know that you do not want to be hit by one." This woman had a question about divorce that they couldn't answer, so Jason and his companion are planning to study it and get back to her.

So both my boys are healthy and happy and doing good work. (Well, I assume they are healthy. I wonder if they'd tell me if they weren't? Probably not, unless it was really, seriously bad.)
And that's it for this week's Missionary Monday.