Sleeping on the Job - April 7, 2014

It is raining like crazy! We are having a huge storm. The storms are unreal here.

I am going to try and write quickly because I have a lot to say and not a lot of time. So beware of spelling and grammar errors.

Ok so I am going to tell a little story that took place last P-day. I am not really proud of this story. It’s not really bad just a little bit on the ridiculous side.

On our last P-day my companion and I finished our emails at about 4:30pm so we decided that we would go home, eat and take a nap for about 45 min. And then we would start our working day at 6:00. Normally a P-day should end at 6:00 p.m.

After reaching home, we cooked a quick meal of Spam and bread (Yes I eat Spam from time to time). We then laid down for a quick cat nap. We must have had a food comma because we fell asleep immediately. We had both been pushing it and so we were exhausted.

We were so tired that we were literally dozing while eating. As we took this wonderful cat nap we eventually woke up to an annoying sound of Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep. I sat up and saw that it was twilight outside. I thought to myself, “We need to get up and go to work.” I then realized that it was not six in the evening but it was actually 6:30 in the morning the next day!!

I felt pretty bad for sleeping through the whole day and missing all of that time. Luckily we didn’t have any appointments but we missed the opportunity of tracting. But after I stopped feeling bad, I realized the sheer magnitude of what had just happened! We had literally slept for 13.5 hours!!!! I went into hibernation mode. I know for a fact that I have not had that much sleep since I have been on my mission if ever!

(NOTE FROM MOM: As I was reading this letter, I had the impression that this was an answer to our prayers each day that Steven would be safe on his mission. What a blessing that the Lord is in charge!)

Today was an awesome day! We went to the Mission President’s home and had a meeting with the whole Zone. Today President focused on obedience and that nothing will happen in the Lord’s work unless we are obedient. I feel his message will help a lot. I have testimony that it is not just the big things in the work that make the difference but it is in the little things as well. Truthfully, the devil tries to get your focus on the big things and to forget the small things. The small things really affect the work. I was so glad for this reminder.

Ben got confirmed! He is such strength to his family now that they are all memebers.

I had a top ten event for my mission happen this week. It started out that Saturday was one of those rough days. It seemed that everything was going wrong. Almost every appointment we had planned not only “was a no show” but they had told us they would be there when we called earlier that morning and then turned off their phones so we could not get a hold of them.

During the entire day we ended up knocking doors and trying to find new people to teach. This didn't seem to be working out at all either! Hahaha But as we pushed through tracting and contacting, we eventually got into a house that was owned by a guy named Robbin. He lives in a nice home alone. His job is basically a “rent collector”. When we met him at the door, he warmly welcomed us in.

As we were sharing, we found out that he did not know a lot of English but he is better than most. We slowly shared with him the restoration. It was a good lesson—nothing spectacular. After we finished the lesson, we invited him to church and he accepted. After leaving his home, we continued searching for people who might be interested but we didn’t have much success.

That night as we went home closing our day, we were pretty beat and discouraged. As we were recapping the events of the day our phone rang. We looked at the number and did not recognize it. After answering this is the conversation:

Elder Bitter: “Hello this is Elder Bitter?”

I then heard a familiar voice that said, “Hey how are you Elder Bitter???”

I still didn't know who I was speaking to and so I said, “I’m good. Who am I speaking with?”

He laughed and said, “This is Robbin.”

I smiled and said, “Oh Robbin! What can I do for you???”

Now the awesome part: He said, “No, you don’t need to do anything for me. I just had a feeling that I needed to call you so I called.”

After that he had no idea what to say so he just chatted with us and wished us a great night. I need to explain that in Uganda phone calls are counted by “airtime”. So most people will call you and then hang up expecting you to call them back so their airtime is not used. It was such a surprise that Robbin would use his own airtime! But even more amazing, he called to check on us!! This has never happened to me or my companion.

What a blessing to see how following the Spirit during a really hard day comforted us. My whole attitude towards the day changed. It became the best day ever. I really believe that Robbin was prompted by the Spirit to call and check on us. AND he obeyed.

More good news: He came to church the next day and stayed for all three hours. He was very outgoing and made a lot of friends at church. BEST NEWS: He accepted a baptismal date after attending church for the first time.

Robbin was the highlight of my week. Things are going well here. We enjoy being missionaries. I hope that all is well back home. I sure love ya all!

Sincerely,

Elder Bitter