Rough week...

Hey everyone!!

So this past week has been kind of strange. The work this week has been
pretty terrible...but we're still pretty happy! Things are the worst
they've ever been in this area since I've been here (we only taught 3
lessons last week), but I'm still happy and satisfied that I'm doing
all that I can personally. Sure, we've definitely struggled to stay
focused and productive all the time, but for the most part we've done
all we could. Members haven't been signing up to have us over at all
like they used to. In the summer, literally 1/2 of the ward completely
leaves, and the other half are the families that have fathers that
travel and work a lot, so no one is home! We don't have any dinner
appointments this week. We don't really have any investigators. Since
the sisters kind of freaked out Darwin's girlfriend, he's been a
little weird(er) with us. He juked our appointment Monday.

On Tuesday we spent the entire day (yes the entire day) waiting to get
our TiWi fixed (the little box that hooks up to the internal computer
of our car and measures our speed and makes sure we drive safely and
such).

 Friday the Arends called and needed us to come over and help
them move furniture and paint their house. We didn't have much going
on that day, so we went over and ended up spending the majority of the
day there. Those poor people had no idea how to paint or put painters
tape on correctly, so I had to do a lot of it haha. I'm actually
pretty surprised about how much I actually do know about houses and
stuff (thanks dad!). I've actually been thinking, and I kind of want
something like that to be a little side income for my family. I LOVE
taking dirty, old things and making them look new. Like at the Arends,
for example, they had this really cool wooden banister thing along their
stairs that looked absolutely horrible. It was right in front of the
front door as you walked in, though, so I kind of made it my own
little project to make it look nice. I took a sharp object and cleaned
all the dust and gunk from the little crevices in it, wiped it down
really well, and painted it really nice. By the end of it, it looked
SO good! I've found that I actually do enjoy cleaning. Sorry mom for
not figuring that out when I was back home (hehe) but I love living in
a nicely furnished, clean, happy home. I think it would be so fun to
buy a run down home and paint it, fix it up, make the yard look really
nice, and then sell it or rent it out! I don't know...I'll have to
talk to dad about whether or no that would be a good idea ;)

Sunday was kind of disappointing...hardly anyone showed up really
(members or nonmembers), so all the classes were super sparse. Sister
Baez (Darwin's mom) showed up, however, so that was nice! :)
I don't know...it's just been a weird week. It's like we've been
productive, but not at the same time haha. We're happy, though. Our
companionship is doing well. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job
as a trainer. I can ALWAYS improve...a lot. But I feel like he has a
good taste in his mouth about missions and missionary work. And
hey...even though the work here is doing atrocious...it can only get
better right? :)

Haha as you can tell, I'm trying to have a good attitude about the
work. It's actually really stressful, but that's okay! Stress builds
us all up and is good as long as you don't let it get to you.

Well, I gotta get going, but I hope you all have a great week...I
really do. I pray for all of you often. Love you!!

-Elder Stafford :)