November 23, 2021

 Everyone!

Ethan didn't write an email this week so I thought I would share what he talked to us about when he called on Tuesday.

It has been a weird week.  Ethan wasn't sure if it was the Taco Bell he ate or trying to adjust to the food in Colorado, but his stomach wasn't doing well.  He thought it had gotten better but it threw him a bit off.  His companion has also been struggling a bit to adjust to the mission so Ethan was trying to help him with that and it was just throwing things off.  When you're a trainer, there are a lot of extra studies you have to do with your companion and more details you have to see to.  It makes things a bit more complicated.

Ethan said they ate with a couple last week who was really nice.  During the conversation, the husband was asking questions that were very mission-specific.  After a while, Ethan asked if the man has served as a mission president.  He said he had and then things made a lot more sense because regular members don't ask the questions he was asking about their missions.  Ethan said it was nice.

They did an evening of exchanges also.  The other elders in their district are on bikes so Ethan got to ride a bike!!  It wasn't for too long and Ethan said he felt like he was at "race speed" the entire time, but he was able to keep up.  He said it was fun and he enjoyed it.  They only went on one visit so it wasn't very long that he got to ride but it made him miss his bike.

Ethan is serving near Estes Park and he is hoping he will get to visit there in the next few weeks for p-day.  It is so beautiful and he really wants a picture taken there.  So he is hoping they get permission to go soon.

They contacted a woman in their apartment parking lot who was interested in hearing more about the Church.  She told them she wanted to hear more and they explained that, as per mission rules, they would need to bring a member of the Church with them because she is a single woman.  While we were on the phone with Ethan, he got a super long text from her saying that they are prejudiced because they won't teach a single woman without someone else there and going off about how the Church is really a cult.  Ethan just rolled his eyes and said he would read it later.  He prefers it when someone calls us a cult to his face because then he can dispute it, but oh well.

I sent Ethan and his companion a Thanksgiving Day box with recipes and ingredients for some of our traditional meals.  I wasn't sure if Ethan was going to do anything with it and when I asked him about it, he said he hadn't gotten the mail in a while.  Crazy guy!  I told him there were homemade Oreos in the package too and that was his motivation to go get the mail. 😉

That was about it.  His district was getting together to play a massive game of Uno with 5 decks.  Ethan was pretty excited because he said it was going to get "wild."  He is doing well and is in good spirits.