It's a severe sprain

(This one came by snail-mail, two days after the injury)

Well, I’ve got a lot of time on my hands right now because of my hurt ankle. So right now I am spending the day with my foot up at a member’s house while my companion goes with another pair of missionaries. My ankle is pretty messed up! It’s all swollen and black and blue. Luckily the doctor gave me some pain meds, a brace and crutches. I didn’t think that I could use the payflex card on the crutches, but it turns out that I could have…

Being hurt/sick on the mission sucks. But I hope that some good will come of this. It’s weird because I have been hoping and wanting my companion to step up and be the senior companion and I think this will give him a good opportunity to step up as it kinda forces me to step down. It’s pretty humbling because you are forced to depend on your companion and the members. Sitting around like this kills me though, because I feel so unproductive.

And it makes me miss home, especially just being able to call Mom and ask questions if I need to. It’s frustrating but it will all work out, I know it will.

My only two concerns were 1) Having the injury effect the remainder of my mission and 2) Having it affect me throughout my life. I think it will all turn out alright though. I’m not too worried about it all. Well, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Dang, I can’t believe it’s already been almost 9 months!
I’m glad to hear that the brothers are doing good and I can’t wait to talk to you guys Christmas morning.

Well, I love you guys and miss you tons.

Love,

Elder Britton Winterrose

P.S. So yesterday I gave in and let a member take care of my ankle fa’a Samoan (the Samoan way). In Samoa, they are a culture of warriors - pain for them is weakness exiting the body. And they don’t have ice, so rather than sitting around and using passive and cold to reduce swelling, they massage the painful, swollen, areas vigorously and use lots of heat to basically break up all the bad blood, and then the heat helps to move it away. Now this, I originally thought. was just a few Samoans who wanted to mess with me, but literally every single member has asked me the same question, “Did someone pop it yet? Did someone massage it for you?”

Long story short, I didn’t want to look like some sissy-white boy. I know that people would just keep asking me till I caved. I figured that it is part of the cultural experience, and I had had like 60 people tell me the exact same thing saying that it would help me heal five times as fast. So I was spending the day with Bro. Sua’ava and I finally built up the courage to do it. (Oh and knowing that nothing is broken helped me decide to try it…)****AND IT HURT SO BAD! ***** He handed me a pillow and was like, “Here you’re gonna want this to scream into.” And once he had my food he wasn’t about to let go. Imagine your very worst sprain pain and then imagine someone grinding their knuckles into that tender spot. Honestly though, I think it helped, like it helped a lot. I’m still in pain, but it’s not as painful today. I have to do it again tonight, and tomorrow, but we will see how it looks and feels.

Well, I love you guys!

Talk to you soon!

Elder Winterrose

Thanksgiving in Anchorage

OH man Mom you have to get and send me Jordan C's address and Email address! I miss that guy! I can't believe he is already home.

Well I am glad to hear that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I think I would have been way more bummed if I hadn't had to stay home last Christmas. It took a lot of the sting out of it. Haha. But seriously, this week has been wonderful. We have a bunch of new people to teach next week that we found through our tenacious hunting and great clerical work. Area Books can and will be your greatest ally on your mission if you maintain them properly or they can really make it difficult to transition.

Thanksgiving was Nuts. Like so stinking crazy. We had 5 dinners. And tons of dessert. All the food was soo good though. I honestly though I was going to die. I ate way too much. And I was way tired that day. But we were able to visit a lot of families and enjoy thanksgiving with them.

AND M. was confirmed this Sunday. IT was crazy too. We weren't able to meet with him like all week and then we spoke briefly with him on Sat. and he didn't know who he wanted to confirm him. So we just figured that one of the older boys who are good friends with him would do it. So I was sitting in church and had the thought, "Dang, even if M. put me on the spot and asked me to confirm I wouldn't know what to say." So I flipped open my missionary handbook and read over what I would have to say. So we are going through sacrament meeting not understanding anything and then when we finally walk up to confirm him I just stood in the circle. Well Bishop and Bro. F. talk to each other really quickly and then they look at me and motion to me to voice the confirmation. I WAS SO SCARED. I was so nervous. And M's full name is long. It's ******'****** ***** ****. I pretty much butchered his name the way temple sealers usually do, but I tried. I think I said it all right because no one stopped me or made me do it over hahah! All in all it was a wonderful day. I am so happy for him. Missionary work is the greatest. I love these boys (M. and his friends) like my little brothers. I think its because they are all so close to my brothers' ages.

If I stay here another transfer (transfers are next week) then I will want you to send me the Uke.... actually, let me ponder on that another week.

Oh and before I forget. I'll be sending the snow pants home along with my nice gloves. You can let the bros use them as needed. Use them up, wear them out. I'll just have to buy new ones when I get home anyways. But I'll probably just take all the nice new stuff that they buy right before their missions! Hahah. Then it all works out! Same with the snowboard and laptop. Use them because they will become obsolete before I get home anyways.

I liked the first gloves you showed me in the email the other week. The pipe ones, just order and send me those ones. I don't have enough time to go and search through different stores to find them and so far all the ones I've seen have been too brightly colored. I'll send home this memory card as soon as I am able to get the pictures off of it printed.

Well transfers are next Tuesday. I really want to stay. But I know the Lord will always send me where I am needed or where I need to be. I trust him and I know that whatever happens is what should happen.

Well I love you,

Love Elder Winterrose

Well, it's Monday again. Sweet, sweet Monday. It's been a pretty good week, actually the week was pretty lame. No, Just kidding. It wasn't lame. I just remembered all the great things I learned this week. We had zone conference on Wed. and it was nice. The best part was that at the end I received this big envelope full of letters from people I love! It almost made my week! But the peak of my week was stolen by M's baptism last night. We ended up doing it on Sunday because people were busy all day Saturday fixing food for the wedding that was going on, like seriously the most food I've ever seen in my entire life. It's insane. I wish now that I had taken pictures of it. So yeah... We ended up doing it on Sunday. But M's dad had to work Sun. and we really wanted his whole family to be able to come, so we asked the Bishop and Mission Pres. if we could do it at 9 and we were able to do it at 8:30 PM!! It was weird because it was so late. But the turnout was still really good. I hate the lay out of our building though, they have the font open up in a hallway... and we held the services in the Chapel out of necessity because we had so many people. So when it actually came time to watch the baptism people were packed in the 8 foot wide hallway like sardines. It was nuts. Hahahah. But it will be a great memory.

Yesterday was just a crazy day. Our dinner wasn't able to have us over so they made us dinner and dropped it off to us, and it was like 5 lbs. of king crab legs. IT WAS SO GOOD. Anyways back to the baptism, M's friend, J., Baptized him. It was so cool to see them. Like every time I saw them I nearly burst into tears. Now I would love to baptize every person I teach because I love sharing that experience with them; there is nothing else like it.  I know I will have many opportunities to baptize people, but I think it benefits the investigator and the member more, especially if it's a young adult. I have been able to share this time with M. and J., yet someday I will be gone, and I won't see them often. Because of this experience, they have a friendship now that could last through ages. I think any missionary who takes away the opportunity from someone who could be forging a bond of eternal friendship out of their own desires to perform the baptism is committing a terrible sin of pride and selfishness. That being said, it's ultimately the decision of the investigator; I would always encourage young men to share that experience between each other because it would be their first missionary baptism. Last night, seeing M. and J. dressed in their white jumpsuits; it was awesome. I am truly thankful that the Lord has brought me to this place and allowed me to partake in this wondrous work.

Now a quick note on the morale of missionaries. Missionaries are always happier when they are finding, teaching, and baptizing. When any of those steps are frustrated then often missionaries become frustrated. Missionaries are excellent at the second two steps but the first step, finding investigators, is a step that has always been pressed upon members. Going out and tracting is a terrible way for missionaries to spend their time. It's fruitful sometimes but missionaries should be teaching. So brothers and sisters - put your shoulder to the wheel, help the good work move along, and find people for the missionaries to teach. It really is as simple as opening your mouth. Have faith, and then exercise that faith by opening your mouth and talking to your friends, coworkers and everyone else!! If you don't know where to start, invite the missionaries over and ask them to review upcoming opportunities to share the gospel.

M. and J. invited so many people to the baptism last night. We were able to meet most of them and even taught the first lesson to two people while involving as many of the people's friends and any other members who were willing to participate. Now this included 6 YOUTH BETWEEN THE AGES OF 15 - 18. I handed out two Books of Mormon and we were able to set up a lesson for Tuesday. It should never be that there is a baptism and then the work stops. One Baptism should always blossom to more baptisms.

Dang, they're going to close the computer lab in 10 minutes because of the weather... Stink. Well on the subject of Thanksgiving, I will probably die of a hemorrhaged stomach. I will spend a lot of time with the ward.

I love you all. And I miss you. Sorry for the short email. I am so grateful for all of the kind words of encouragement that you shared with me in your letters.  I doubt that I will find time to write most of you back individually but I am so grateful for all of your letters!

OH and things I want for Christmas:
1. A Helicopter.
2. A Digital Voice recorder. (So I can record talks, blessings, lessons, silly conversations, door approaches, and funny instances and transcribe them with detailed accuracy).
3. The Gift of Tongues.
4. Perhaps a new Camera, I am not really that impressed with the ability of my current one to point and shoot. And since it is most often used to take pictures of me by inexperienced people it must be user friendly.

This list is not complete, but I must go.

Love ya,

Elder Winterrose.