kicking the boot

***********NOTE********************************

Elder Preston Ferrell saw his podiatrist on Friday of this week.  His boot was removed and given a clean bill of health to go to Slovakia. However he then needed to be cleared by the MTC doctor.  The MTC doctor noted that he had limited mobility in his ankle and due to the severity of the injury, and the stress of long travel and missionary duties once in country, suggested that he wait one more week in the MTC to see how his ankle was going to respond to walking on it full time.  He is disappointed in being left behind by his district but understands the wisdom in that decision.  The letter that follows was written before going to see the doctors. **************************************************************************




Elder Hayes Rollins with Preston

 

 

Hello Everyone! Monday is the big day, I'm ready but I'm nervous a bit, more about mission life rather than the language though, as well as my ankle is nervous because I have ye to go over to the doctor today for my appointment to see whether I can go or if I have to stay. I'm ready to go, let's say that much, everything is just blending together in here, it's not a bad place it's just that I think that I'm going to prefer Slovakia a lot more than the MTC, one because the food is better and I don;t even know what the food is like and I can still say that it's going to be better over there. We've gotten to the point where we've been here for so long that we can expect what the next meal is simply based on the time since we last had it haha. We know the usually intervals that the cafeteria has for it's food, and I must say that it's starting to get better every time we have which is a scary sign meaning that I need to go.

 

Today I have a full plate on my agenda, first we have laundry, than cleaning the temple that I have to then leave early from so that I can make it to the doctors appointment. We're going to be cleaning the temple but I'm not exactly sure how that's going to go with my boot so I'm pretty much in the dark. This will be the last time that we are in the temple so I still want to do it even though they may just have me sit somewhere in the corner and not bother anybody which is fine I have to leave 2 hours after it starts anyways so it's okay. I just don't like walking all the way up there because it takes me forever to do it while I'm on my boot and then no one wants to wait for me except everyone but my companions so that's annoying as well. With the language this week has just been review and seeing if we can make it so that we can get the concepts down which I have all but a few so that's nice and good. My teacher told me that I remind him a lot of myself. I'm really thankful that the two teachers I've had have been our teachers simply because they are really good at teaching the language as well has keeping us on task, which can be hard sometimes. They are very good and have probably been here the longest which may be why but they are so much better than some of the other teachers, sometimes other classes have a ton of downtime, granted they have a lot more elders but I'm feeling like they hardly know this language at all which is disconcerting and makes me glad that I'm going where I am going.

 

We had in-field orientation yesterday which was very long at times. They said it used to go from 8 to 9:30 so I guess that's a good thing. We talked about how to be effective missionaries out in the field and how we need to be effective finding and be working with the Ward council among other things, they had some pretty fun teachers to teach all the different concepts but it just confused me a little bit with why we were going over it here where all we could do is watch and not out in the field where we could put the plan into effect. I understand that some missionaries don't wanna put some effort into things and they want Elders from the MTC to kind of pick up the Elders out in the field sometimes to get them back on track and finish out their missions strong. They talked about how don't let anyone rain on your parade and how we can effectively find and teach and then also how we can work with members so that we can get new investigators, work with less actives and then also to get members present during lessons. It was interesting and I paid attention the whole time but some others didn't think so much, I think it all just depends on the attitude that some people have and there's some that are negative as well as annoying all at the same time here and I'm personally ready to get out of here and out into the field.

 

This week in class has been fun, but long at times and eye-opening I guess I would say, the teachers are really good at having us go through the revelation process without them having to tell us what we need to do or what went wrong during lessons, their whole goal is to make it so that we are self-sufficient in everything that we're doing, with the language as well as our personal and companionship studies. As for talks while we've been here, the only time where we've had an apostle come was when we had the worldwide broadcast and that would be it. We've had some 70's. But I guess all the general authorities take this month off and take it for vacation so we've been getting some Emeritus general authorities here which is okay, we've been doing it in the marriott center and I get to ride the bus so that's pretty cool I suppose, my companions and one of the Czech's used me this last week but hopefully that's the last time I'm on that bus. We should have 2 more devotionals before we go, both on Sunday, one from the MTC presidency as our departure devotional and then one from whoever is going to do it on Sunday for us this week. I am going to pack today, maybe we have a lot of time to do it Tomorrow and Sunday so maybe I won't, I guess I'll see where I am when the time to pack comes around today and whether I can do anything else instead, but I should probably check my weight on the bags now. The bag that is already packed is at 47 pounds but I also took out a shirt tie and suit from there so I'm going to put those back in and see how much it weighs after that, probably too much but we'll see, and we'll see if the check-in counter wants to give me a hard time about weight and about how sensitive their scales are compared to the MTC's even though these are hanging scales so they should be pretty accurate, emphasis on the should be.

 

Well I got a lot of letters this week from everyone, but there was no mail or anything on Friday for pioneer day so we got a ton load yesterday, not to mention that they printed all the Dear Elders twice and then put them all in the box haha. Which would also be why I didn't answer any questions but I shouldn't be on the mailing system anyways during the week so I wouldn't have been able to reply to them until now regardless. However, thank you mom and dad for writing me and telling me all about plans and everything that's going down at Jackie's, I may miss the kids more than I miss everyone else (probably) so it's nice to hear about them as well as all of Asha's poopy and pukey adventures from Ricahrd haha. I hope the suit that I bought is nice and there are no flaws with it because that is a brand new suit and is very nice and expensive and I'm almost positive that you will be the nicest dressed at the interview, even if they won't be able to notice and /or know what the brand is, I'll know for everyone and be proud. That's also very cool with the Ferrari test drive, I figured you might say that you wanted to buy one after you drove it haha. As well as I got a BIG laugh from all the stories that you've been telling me, I get a kick out of them every time and this one was jam packed with funny stories. I hope mom can run her race, I'm not sure if it's the triathlon that she's doing or a race or something but I hope you are able to do it with Jackie, sounds like you wanna do it, and you've been taking the running classes for a reason right? That's also exciting that Samantha will be able to go home for the holidays and you can spend time with her.

 

Well I'm excited to go, and I can't wait until Monday, so close yet so far away at the same time but it'll go fast whether I want it to or not I think, but I love everyone and I hope that everyone is staying safe out int the real world, I know I will be out in Slovakia, until next week.

 

Love,

Elder Preston Ferrell