Hello!
I cannot believe it has been an entire week. It feels like just yesterday that I wrote. Today we received our transfer calls so this is the end of my second transfer! Super weird it feels like I just got here. Maybe because I did. Anyway here's the big news bum bum bum bum buuuuuuuuuuuuum. I'm going to Fredericksburg again hahaha. I will be going down to the Rock hill Ward and serving with a missionary that was in my last apartment "Elder Sherwany." It will be his first time going senior so we will have to see how this transfer goes hahaha.
Anyway this last week has been pretty fantastic. I can't believe I said that saying it now. We had a bunch of appointments set up to meet with our investigators. Like at least 5 or 6 and then every single appointment ended up canceling on us. Not for bad reasons really, but just things that came up. It was really frustrating, but I guess there is a reason for everything right. I think if anything it was something that the Lord wanted me to experience so I could grow. I was really stressed out. Sometimes I got to thinking that people just don't want to hear the message that we share. I kind of stopped doing my personal study (big no no) and my prayers were kind of pathetic. After an entire week of frustration. I felt like I was on the point where I would just break down. I prayed to my heavenly father and asked for help. It was probably one of the most sincere prayers I have ever offered. I immediately felt relieved and the feeling that everything would be ok came over me. So believe me it makes a difference when you read your scriptures and pray sincerely everyday. A lesson that I guess I had to learn. Being out here is the toughest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I think someone told me once that you will have far more discouraging experiences than uplifting ones on your mission, but the uplifting experiences far out way the bad ones. Something I learned was that you never really remember the bad experiences or the bad contacts that you run into. You only remember things worth remembering and that will help you throughout your days.
So yup that's that. Anyway guess where I got to go on Saturday?!?! You won't believe it. How many missionaries can say they have done this on their mission? Not a lot I don't think. We got to go to the Spurs vs. Wizards basketball game. It was so sweet around 80 missionaries got to go. It was a prize for hitting your "Zone standard" or goal 3 weeks straight. so for Ashburn that is 20 lessons 80% of investigator lessons you need a member. 100% baptismal invites in your lessons and 2 new investigators a week. So ya Elder Kelley and I rocked it. I do think it is kind of weird to reward missionaries with things like that and maybe a bit unorthodox, but I'm not going to complain I got to go to a basketball game in the Verizon center. In the wonderful city of Washington DC. Which was so crowded by the way. We took the metro from Vienna to the Metro Center, and walked to the Verizon center. The metro center is right below a huge Macey's store. I thought that the Macey's in our mall was big haha no way. This one had like 5 floors and the floors were giant. They had everything there. I was checking out some of the ties and they were like 60 dollar ties. So expensive! Anyway the Wizards are like the worst team every by the way. The spurs put in their starting players for about five minutes then pulled out Gorbellin and Duncan and all their power house players. They still ended up leading around 40 points at the end. It was a pretty boring game haha. But, we got to go so I was pretty happy!
My roommate Elder Brazeill is going zone leader this transfer. It is pretty exciting. He is kind of freaked out, but excited for the new experience I think. The only bad part about this is what happened to the old zone leader. He has been going into the doctors a ton. He has really bad back pain. So much that he isn't able to sleep more than about 2 hours a night. He has been getting shots and all kinds of therapy. He has steadily been getting better. Then the other day he got into a little accident and all of a sudden they are just sending him home. Elder Garlic is the most dedicated missionary I think I will ever meet. He has been dealing with these problems pretty much his entire mission. He has never once wanted to go home. He doesn't even want to go home now, but he needs to go get some help. I'll miss him, but always remember him.
Anyway guys thank you so much for all your prayers and the support. I could not be out here if it wasn't for all of you. I love you all and hope you have a good week. I'll let you know how the Burg is next time!
Elder Cameron Zabriskie
