Missionary Wednesday

Dear viewers,

This last Wednesday we had a zone activity which was about average. My favorite part of the day was was our appointment with "Steve" and "Hannah". Their north-side member friends were there and we taught them the Law of Chastity again, and this time with the help of there friends, we were able to commit them to live it. "Steve" told us that he admired our cajones, because he had been meeting with north-side missionaries for two years and none of them ever taught them anything about the Law of Chastity, but we taught it twice in two weeks. They also told us that they plan to get married right after their court situation is resolved and have decided to eliminate all unnecessary distractions until the court thing is resolved. They don't even want to talk about being married anymore until their situation is resolved. So the Law of Chastity is not an issue anymore and that feels good. (Editors Note: I weep for his innocence.) Now, for the next part of our challenge; helping them to gain a testimony! This will probably be harder then the law of chastity was.

Thursday there was a zone conference, it was basically a new twist on the old ways of teaching, but it was very enjoyable, I learned a lot. On Friday, as requested by the ward, we took Brother C. to an appointment with "Steve" and "Hannah". They hit it off very well. It sometimes amazes me how well members are able to teach. We also were able to obtain two other member-present lessons this week. We feel very accomplished in doing this, as we have had very little member involvement thus far.

There was a stake talent night on Saturday, which was very enjoyable. Most of the wards in Chicago are Spanish-speaking wards, ergo most of the show was too. Despite the fact that I barely understood what was being said and basically had to go along with the crowd for most of the show, it was still good. I do, however, wonder why when native Spanish speakers are present for meetings containing mostly English speakers, they are provided translator headsets, but when the opposite occurs English speakers receive nothing. Steve and Hanna were also at the talent show. I also find it very strange that while they are willing to attend our functions and attend church with there north-side member friends, they have yet to attend a regular sacrament meeting in the ward in which they rightfully belong to.
As for today, I'm on an exchange with Elder R., Elders E.'s companion. Elder R. and Elder E. have an employment workshop to attend, for those missionaries who have less then two months left in the mission.

...As far as my companions; yes, I am anxiously killing off my companions. I love to tell them of all the horrible ways in which I will commit the dirty deed, freaking them out by how dark and twisted I can be pretend to be. Then, when their time comes, I simply shake their hand and say "you're dead!".

That's all for this week,
Sincerely, Elder Fields.

Jeers and Cheers

I have an awesome friend who plays local league hockey at Peaks Ice. He's awesome and his team, the Chiefs, are pretty good.

However, I have the hardest time coming up with clever stuff based off the names of other teams. Take tonight's team, the Red Dawn, how are you supposed to mock that? They used to be the Fighting Squab, which is way easier to make fun of, considering squab are doves. But the Red Dawn? That's an awesome name, it's hard to think of clever word play jeers to shout during hockey games.

Of course it could be because all that I thought of when thinking about stuff I could use came from Lord of the Rings, where Legolas states that the dawn is red because blood was spilled that night (when they're pursuing the Uruk-Hai who took Merry and Pippin) and when Theodin was pumping his men up for the fight in Pelennor Fields. (Against the Southrons and their huge elephants.)

So how am I supposed to think of stuff like that? It's hard. And I've used up a lot of stuff cheering on the chiefs.

But I digress, I have a math final to prepare for. I have to get back to that.

- Sam.

Confusion

We all know what the SA in SARRMM stands for, right? Super Awkward. Well, even though I'm slowly raising my self confidence and all that, so I'm a little less awkward. Well, probably a tad but more than that.

Anyways, recent events only have served to confuse me. Heck, let's be honest; everything about dating confuses me. Or maybe it is girls who are used to guys who are scum and have to clarify?

Example 1: "Julia" and I were in the same ward together. We somewhat got along, I was awkward, of course, but we got along and talked fine. Then after a stake conference I ask out her out on a date, thinking it would be a good opportunity to get to know her. She then asked some clarifying question that confused me supremely, to which after I repeated myself, she said she wasn't in a dating stage of her life or something. It was odd. I think she thought I was asking her to be my girlfriend. I'm not sure. It was confusing.

Example 2: "Andrea". This was over the summer, we had hung out and surprisingly there wasn't that much awkwardness between us. Laugh Out Loud had show in June in or so, and so I asked her out. She then asked me if it was a date, or if I was planning a group thing, that wasn't a group thing, just to ask her out. I laughed. I clarified that I was asking her out. We had fun. I may have blogged about this back then, I don't recall.

Example 3: "Jennifer". She's a cool girl, she's in my ward. She actually introduced herself to me after one fast Sunday commenting on me always smiling and being happy. (Which surprised me since during the Summer I was feeling down and kind of depressed) and we've been good casual friends. I say causal because we haven't hung out. I haven't hung out with anyone really, mainly cause of school, and self-esteem stuff. But again, that's changing. I've started hanging out with people in ward.
Back on topic, in anticipation of Divine Comedy's show this weekend, I asked her out on Sunday, saying that I was planning on buying tickets, and asked her which day was better for he. We decided on Friday, she didn't care about the time. So I bought the tickets for Friday at 9 and went to her apartment last night just to confirm the time so she'd know what's going on. I went, I confirmed the time, she is starting to get sick and was probably headed for bed, ergo she didn't feel like talking much. So we just confirmed the time, and I left.

Then she calls 20 minutes later having to cancel. She told me she doesn't like date situations, being alone with guys, and apologized to me for buying tickets and offered to pay me for them and asked if we could still be friends. Obviously, we're still going to be friends. I'm the king of rejection, or rather the king of being rejected, something like this isn't going to affect me much and shouldn't ruin friendship anyways. I'm sort of confused as to why she didn't outright say no to me on Sunday, but most likely she didn't pause to register that it was a date. I got the impression that most likely she has had some bad date experiences in the past, and may just hugely feel awkward. I'm not exactly sure, and I genuinely hope that nothing major popped up.

So, yeah. Thus my confusion.

I guess the lesson to be learned is when asking someone out, use the word "date" or it may not register as a date.

I'll have to remember to use that word later today. Thinking of asking out "Shandra". I actually sort of like her, we've hung out a bit, but that's because she and her roommates always invite people over for a weekly game night thing, where we play cards and other stuff. She's a bit shy, but she's super intelligent (She's majoring in Math) but also cute and funny. So we'll see how things go. I actually asked her for help in math (cause I really needed it) and she greatly obliged. I unfortunately left after she answered my questions, instead of staying to hang out, but that's because I am a fool of a Tsook, er guy.

Wish me luck.

A Few Laughs

To detract from the seriousness of everything, here are a couple of awesome and funny video clips:





Have a good week people!

Political Hypocrisy

This is going to be short, but when watching the news and reading some News Stories about the Health Care Bill passing in the House, it was mentioned that Catholic Popes are directly influencing House Representatives. In fact, Jason Altmire, D-Pennsylvania told CNN that He must have approval from his Catholic Bishop before he can vote yes on the bill.

Now what sort of political hypocrisy is this? Catholic Bishops can directly affect legislation, can directly influence politicians and no one says a thing about it, but the LDS/Mormon Church asks it's members to donate money to Prop8, to fight what they see as a moral dilemma, and everyone gets outraged?

Come on. This is a load of bull. Really it is. There is clearly a double standard going on here, a severe double standard. Yes, I understand that people are upset because they see the LDS Church as "Voting on their marriage" and sticking their beliefs in the legal system and all that, but when Health Care Reform is being voted on, something that will actually affect the quality of life and so much more, nothing is said when the Catholic Church directly influences Congressional Representatives to vote yes or no on a bill.

I am so glad our nation is full of a bunch of hypocrites. I really am.

Post CES-Fireside Rant

Yeah, it's almost a week later, but better late than never I suppose.

First off, I have to say that Elder Uchtdorf is the man. He gave a great talk last week about not selling yourself short, not beating yourself up, metaphorically. Something that I've had to learn the hard way as I have low self-esteem.

Elder Uchtdorf also spoke on the important aspect that supposedly afflicts all single LDS people; marriage and soul mates. While it's good to hear that there is no one soul-mate, and not to despair, I don't think that Elder Uchtdorf, or the church, really has addressed the concerns of shy dudes.

While dating and going out on dates is cool and important, I think it's often overhyped and wrongly packaged. After all, our culture, in fact most cultures assume and a practice that the LDS Church doesn't resist is that it's the guy who does the asking out, and it is the girl who responds, politely refusing if she so decides. Why is that?

Yes, I know Elder Uchtdorf said that it's not just girls who may not have a chance to marry, but some guys too. Sure, that's reassuring, but that's merely playing up to, and recognizing, the gender role that has been long established, that it is the guy's responsibility to ask out the girl. Is there some gospel doctrine that says the guy has to take the initiative? Apart from reassurances from General Authorities about dating, there's nothing been said. Nothing been said to encourage females to take some initiative, to ask a guy out. Or maybe it's just not recognized in the church of shy guys having that problem.

But there are shy guys. Guys, who if they don't take the initiative to hang out, to ask anyone on dates, they aren't that social. And most girls just wait for it to come to them. (Waiting includes flirting, talking during church, being friendly, looking pretty, but discludes actually going to hang out with a guy you don't know all that well or ask someone out.)

And so where does that leave shy guys? At home alone, or in the library studying or whatever. If they don't step up and take initiative to talk to a girl, to be more social, then in my experience, it generally doesn't happen. And because of the tradition that the guy asks out the girl, girls who do take the initiative to ask out a guy are viewed in a skewed light, and thought of as weird when they should be thought of as awesome.

So that's just my rant on things, that the Church doesn't address shy guys and doesn't break the male stereotype that it is the guy's "privilege" to ask girls out.

Or, maybe I'm just shy and crazy.

Missionary Friday

Dear Family and Friends:

Wednesday we went to the Field Museum and this time we were actually able to get in. The Field Museum was awesome. We saw the Animal Life Exhibit which was basically a bunch of dioramas with animals around the world. We saw the Egyptian Exhibit which had a bunch of artifacts and mummies, etc. We then saw the Underground Adventure. We "shrunk down" and saw what its like just a few inches below the soil. Last was the Africa Exhibit with their history, countries, people, the savanna, and etc. It was a day well spent and it was even better that night when we had our teaching appointment with "Steve" and "Hanna".
We decided it was time to teach them the Law of Chastity. They both admired our guts for being able to teach them something like this to them. It actually went over very well and we had a good discussion. At least we hope so. Shawn is very good at controlling the conversation, so we don’t really know for sure how they took it. We think they felt somewhat guilty when we talked about it but all we know is they responded positively toward it. On the plus side we did find out exactly what their court situation is. If they get married right away then they wont be able to afford their kids. Their combined income is more what the two real dads support is. If they get married then the other dads can stop paying and they would get away scott-free. On the other hand if they were to wait until the court thing resolves Heathers’ income alone is less then the support the two father’s are paying and these two dad’s would have to pay child support, school, medical, act. She needs that income to support the kids and she can’t get it if she gets married right away.
This week we’ve been doing better with our referrals some of them actually keep our appointments with them and are showing promise. The ward is beginning to like the missionaries again. So if anything else the ward is back on track. Hopefully we will begin to see progress with the ward and investigators.
Saturday was Halloween and it was very different from last year. Last year it didn’t really feel like Halloween. I don’t know if it was just the area or circumstance or what. But this year it actually felt like Halloween. We actually saw trick or treaters this year. Around here the kids go out between 2 to 4pm which, at first seems weird until you realize what a scary place Chicago is after dark, then it makes since. We also got our car egged and it’s extremely difficult to remove egg stains from a car. We both wished speedy justice to come upon the throwers. That night was the ward Halloween party and we were exited to see "Steve" and "Hanna". They were their mixing it up and mingling with the ward. It was a night of fun and good times. I got compliments that night about how people admired how I would just go up to someone and talk to them. That was just a load... It was curiosity, not guts. It was Halloween after all! I wanted to know what people's costumes were. I’ve gone up and talked to people about their costumes since I was born! At the end of the night was “Trunk or Treat”. We got a load of candy. I was also surprised to see that I got a Halloween package! That was awesome. Brother V. of the ward was a DJ for the party and when it was over we followed them home and helped them get there stuff inside. We had heard that someone had threatened to steal their stuff. They couldn’t just leave their stuff out there. He told us he owes us big for that one but we were happy to do it.
Sunday at church another member, Brother C., told us that he had been assigned to be a fellow shipper for "Steve" and "Hanna". We were fine by this. Brother Cis a good guy and they need fellow shippers. The thing we didn’t like about this situation was the fact that the ward went over our heads and did not tell us or consult us in this decision in any way. They made that decision completely without our knowledge!! Honestly its like they don’t trust us to do the work at all! Other then that it’s been a good week.
That’s all this week
Love, Elder Fields.