Week 15: Surreal

April 27, 1988

Can you believe April is over already?  Almost 4 months of my mission is behind me -- time really flies.  But the work is going just as slow as usual.

Not much happened on Thursday.  It rained again on Friday, but in the afternoon we made it out to the library, the bank, the Stanford clinic, and the Stanford bookstore.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity of observing Elder Lima teach a first discussion in Chinese.  I know it went well because I felt the spirit.  In the afternoon, Lima and I went checking on referrals.  We also stopped by to see Leslie who is doing well.  She seems very interested in the Book of Mormon.  If we can baptize her, maybe we can baptize her whole family; the situation looks good.

On Sunday there was a regional conference in Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus.  President Thomas S. Monson, Elder Joseph E. Wirthlin and Elder Ted E. Brewerton spoke to us.  It was a great meeting.

I saw Elder Golf today at the conference and paid him back the money he lent me for pizza.  He is now with Elder Delta who came out with me.  Golf recently had another bike accident, and this one was worse than the first one.  It seems that he was following Delta when he blacked out.  The next thing he knew he was laying on the ground with a lot of scrapes and bruises.  Ouch.  On the other hand, he and Delta are having success down there in Santa Clara.

In the afternoon I went with Elder Lima to a baptism.  The zone leaders were baptizing a Stanford student; it was very inspirational.

On Monday I went out with Elder Able.  We did follow-up in the morning and tracted a street in the afternoon.

Tuesday was the day that transfer calls went out.  The four of us in the flat sat around that morning talking, and after some discussion, we decided that it would be a good idea to put Lima and I together in the Palo Alto First Ward and Lake and Able in the Palo Alto Second Ward; in other words, we wanted to switch companions.  Lake and Able get a long better and Lima and I do as well.  Then we had the brilliant idea to call President Douglas and suggest this arrangement to him.

The absurdity should be obvious.  Transfer call day is the busiest day of the month at the mission office, very nerve racking.  So it would make sense for the mission president to be more than a little edgy.  He was, and he chewed out Lake and Able and then hung up on Lake.

Later, when the actual transfer call came, we learned that no one was being moved.  So I am to be stuck here at least another month.

Shortly after the call, the zone leaders came down for a chat.  It was a rather big discussion about rules and calling the mission president on transfer call day.  Another big issue was weightlifting, which some of the other missionaries want to do, but which is against the mission rules.  We also found out that Elder Whopper is our new district leader.

Speaking of weightlifting, a member of the Palo Alto First Ward, who lives close to our apartment, has a home gym and invited us to use it whenever we wanted.  One night, recently, Lima, Able and Lake decided that they were going to start going to this home gym every night after our 9:30 check in call.

They also decided that I would be the one to make the phone call to the zone leaders to report that we were in for the night.  So, on this particular night, I made the call and then we all went over to the member’s home gym.  I went only because I could not be at the apartment alone.

Unbeknownst to us, while we were out, the zone leaders called back, and when we got back to the apartment they were there waiting for us.  While I believed I was in a position where I had had little choice, I still had to admit to Elder Baker that I had lied.  Then, of course, we also got a lecture on obeying mission rules.

It's been a crazy week, but otherwise, all is well here.  My health is fine, no problems.

Love
Douglas