Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head wishing Elder Dewey a Happy Halloween...

busy week...meetings, zone conference, splits

I apologize for the weak email I sent home last week; hopefully this one will be somewhat better. I was so rushed last week and I wasn’t paying attention to the clock and ran out of time. I will try and make up for it with the email I send home today.

Where to start?????

Monday! Well it was a pretty fun p-day to be honest; I was just missing home pretty hard core. P-days are getting more difficult to take…ha-ha. We went bowling and then we all seemed to get bored early on and decided to go walk around and do something different. We decided to stop by a couple of malls so I could try and find a coat, but I couldn’t find one cheap enough. I was pretty ticked off that all the prices seemed to be unbelievably expensive.

We had an incredibly busy day on Tuesday with mission coordination meeting with K-dawg and a whole load of other meetings. We had some pretty terrific meetings with some new investigators who were actually interested a while back.

Wednesday- ZONE CONFERENCE AND MCDONALDS! That’s about it. We were stuck on a bus from Ufa to Dyoma for almost 2 hours because of some crazy traffic! Bus rides are pretty crazy here. I’m sure I have already shared that with you a few times before. Half the time I have to stand up and the ceilings are so low that I have to tilt my head down and when the bus hits a bump my head bumps into the ceiling. Some people might ask "haven’t I learned my lesson yet?" No… apparently, I haven’t.

Our water heater broke on Thursday and was spilling water everywhere! Our neighbors were getting ticked off so we had to call our land lady and she called a guy who was here for a few hours making the necessary repairs. We also made some "pies" with a member. By pies - I mean dough with cabbage or apples in it, they were actually pretty good, but nothing like the ones from home.

I went on splits with Elder Ellsworth (my good ole zone leader)  last Friday. I was back in my old “greenie” - “new missionary area" (sorry pres it slips). It was a blast being with Elder Ellsworth he is a really cool kid and I enjoyed spending the day with him. It seemed somewhat strange after being in a threesome. Ellsworth is kind of “newer” compared to me, but can hold his own...I am proud of the great missionary he has become.

Saturday was boring...... Elder Holden got pretty sick, so we all cleaned out the apartment and studied.

We had two cool investigators who we call the "rockers" (they are into heavy music) come to the meeting. They are really nice cool guys. Coming home from church we got stuck on another miserable bus. For some reason I found myself thinking about home a lot yesterday. I guess it was because I had a pretty rough day emotionally. but that is a story for another day.

Okay, so here are some of the random thoughts that were swirling around inside my head yesterday.…. I have really been thinking a lot about my family and how they are the most important people in the world to me and how I so ridiculously regret hard core how stupid I was to them in high school. I am really glad that they will all be in Mesa when I get home and we can make some more great memories. The only awkward part will be that I will be the only one not married! We will need to fix that (sorry for the trunky comment). But honestly, I miss my mom, I have always been a “mama's boy”, but with a mom like mine who the heck wouldn’t, she spoiled the heck out of me! And, my dad is probably the smartest guy I know when it comes to the knowledge that really matters in life. I find it interesting and a bit scary how everyday I find myself becoming my dad with my stupid comments that I think are so funny but no one else seems to find the humor. And, I find myself not really caring what other people think about me, I’m comfortable with who and what I am….I guess you could say that I’m comfortable with just being myself, that’s exactly how my dad is. Also, my Sister is pretty dang smart as well, always willing to offer up her great advice which always seems to help. Often time I give her crap, and hope she knows it’s because she is my sister and that’s what little brothers are meant to do! And then there is my Bro who I haven’t seen in three years. We grew up side by side and at times went head to head… ha-ha! He is an AMAZING and a great example to me. I know I have tried to compete with him and have always won…ha-ha. I really do miss him and I am looking forward to hanging out with him again when I get home. And, I can’t forget to mention the Bro and Sis in law. I hope they know I love them too. Dillon is a goof and a half, but he is a really fun guy. Dillon and Brittney make a really fun couple. And Britt my sister in-law is way cool!! It’s hard to believe they are going to be parents shortly!!..... It’s crazy how everything all happened and so fast! I don’t know if I can compete with that, I believe BJ may have won this one…ha-ha!! I wonder what would have happened if BJ didn’t get a hold of my phone with Britt’s number?? Ha-ha! You all owe me one!!

Well I need to run… out of time!

Love you all,

Elder Dewey

Well this will have to be another one of those lame rushed letters.. The following is a quick update of the past week -

Monday was a really great day. We all had a great time bowling with some of the youth. Bowling seems to be the activity that is enjoyed the most. We met with a terrific member family. We had a great meeting, and afterward he showed us his awesome fishing gear and…shotgun! I miss my shotgun and can’t wait to go shooting again with everyone when I get home. I hope you have taken good care of it and nothing has happened to it.

Tuesday- We had three good meetings.

Wed- I got pretty sick while at district meeting. I think it’s because I didn’t drink enough water. I gave a spiritual thought and then we went straight home and I tried to sleep for a bit hoping that what ever I had would go away. Later Wednesday evening we had another great meeting.

By the next day I was feeling back to normal and even had some BBQ pizza for lunch. It was funny because I didn’t tell Shreeve and Holden that we were going to Valentina’s later, she always feeds us a ton of food and certainly was well prepared once again when we arrived with a great spread. We were all about to burst, it was so dang funny! They were so mad at me but couldn’t do anything but eat what she had prepared because she is so dang nice to us!  Later we had a chance to work off some of that food we gorged by playing in a small soccer tournament. We didn’t do too great…maybe because we could hardly move! Oh well. However, we got our game back when we owned everyone in basketball! Friday, we went to place that is similar to Costco... it was so amazing!  I guess that sounds pretty hard up…huh? But it made my day when I was able to take home a bag of tortilla chips…haha. Later we had a few good meetings. Ahh I am running out of time …I gotta go!! I love you all! Bye!!

Elder Dewey

Bowling, Soccer, General Conference...and still no companion

Dear Everyone!


Well as usual this week was really good. Last p-day we went bowling with a lot of the youth in both branches and we all had a great time. I bowled with Anton Vacya and Casha in my lane and Anton kept getting mad at me for bowling strikes, he really wanted to beat me but it didn’t happen... ha! Later that evening we had a meeting and sent some more elders to Ekat. Tuesday we had a few good meetings and then English where I had to teach, it was pretty fun. We talked a lot about vacations; I think they really liked it. Elder Shreeve returned from his visa trip on Wednesday.

We played soccer with these really cool guys we met on Friday. We played in some sort of tournament and played three other teams. It was a really great time, but I am pretty sure they were annoyed with me because I’m not the best soccer player haha!!!!! Oh well. It was fun and we made a lot of really cool new friends. We also had a zone meeting to review some new rules, nothing too new. Later that evening we had an activity with all the youth. Our new member, Tanya went and so we went along with her. Saturday and Sunday... all about General Conference! Tanya came and she really enjoyed it. I also soaked it up. I believe it was one of my favorites. I took about 10 pages of notes while sitting at a desk the whole time taking it all in and writing as fast I could, it was pretty funny. I really liked all the sessions, but President Monson’s talk on service was my favorite. I especially liked the part of when he quoted from the scriptures about losing ourselves for others. I’ve actually had a lot of what he spoke about on my mind the past few weeks. Well, I am going to cut this email a bit short, I’m not feeling too great, I’m not sure if I am trying to come down with something or what it is exactly, just kind of feeling sick. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Dewey

P.S. Still waiting on my new companion to get here.

This note is for the parents of Elder Heuer -

I noticed in your son's last email he mentioned that he wanted to ask Elder Dewey about using gmail.  Elder Dewey does in fact use Gmail verses myldsmail due to the fact that myldsmail never worked and often times we didn't receive his emails home.  I'm not certain if this is actually acceptable, however we found the switch to gmail necessary. I know many other missionaries experienced similar problems and now use gmail as well.
I tried to leave this comment on your son's blog, however the comment did not publish.  I hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me anytime at dadewey1@gmail.com.

Photo of Tanya's Baptism, New Greenie with visa problems.

The photo above is of Tanya's Baptism.  She is doing awesome as a new member.

First, I would like to start this email similar to last week, sharing with you something from the soul instead of the boring brief weekly overview. Here goes another lingering thought from the past week -

A few days’ ago in district meeting we were contemplating how we could become better and more effective missionaries (the typical weekly discussion). We shared with one another all the reasons why we went on missions and what we desired and expected to gain from our missionary experience. Many thoughts were shared and most of us agreed we desired to receive the blessings of spiritual enlightenment, a stronger testimony, and all the other many blessings that most missionaries gain while serving. We expect and hope for a great deal of self improvement...You know, the kind that will land a nice young return missionary a “good looking” wife once he returns home and when the time is right. Haha!  We all agreed that we were looking to receive blessings that will give us an even more grounded and firmer foundation than what we came out with. We all expect that while serving a mission it will enable us to make necessary changes within ourselves that will lead to a better future. Many of these spiritual blessings can only come from serving a mission. The bottom line, or the thought that occurred to me, is that while we all desire these blessings that will enable us to evolve into becoming a better human being, I couldn't help but feel that this sounded to me somewhat a selfish way of thinking. I questioned the selfless service we as missionaries are to provide and what that truly means. I guess, I just want to make sure the reasons I serve others would always be for the right reasons, and not because I expect to be blessed with certain blessings because of my service.  I would like to think that I will always serve no matter what the outcome would be. I want to serve because I know others are in need and not because of the blessings that are gained. I want to serve others because I care and want the very best for them. I want them to have what I have, the truthfulness of the Gospel and a love for the Savior. I believe this is how we all feel. We just focused a little more on what we are looking to change within ourselves a little too much. Then I had this thought, which makes sense to me… "The best way to be selfish is to be selfless and serve others.” In the end this is what will lead us to true happiness and contentment, and isn't this what selfish people are truly searching for? It can only be found in loving and serving others.

Okay, a brief quick summary of this past week. -
Monday, Still waiting for my new "greenie" to arrive. He was sent back home from the MTC due to visa problems.  He should be arriving any day now, I hope.  Elder Matthews and the other missionaries leaving Ufa caught the midnight train to Ekat and all their other designations.
Wednesday, was Elder Shreeve and Holden’s first day. Once they arrived, we went to district meeting. Later, we found an amazing new apartment that we now live in! It’s amazing! It has three huge rooms with nice comfortable beds, finally!! I've been sleeping on broken down sofa's most of my mission...haha! It also has been recently remodeled, which is a huge plus. The shower is the best part it has side shoots that shoots out water like a waterfall..haha. Thursday, We had to move some stuff over to the apartment and had a meeting or two. Friday, we had to move everything else to our apartment and then had a meeting in the evening. Once we arrived home for the night, we played Settlers. It’s great living with Elder Shreeve and Holden. They both are really cool and a lot of fun. Saturday, we played sport, but not many people showed up until lessons got out. A bunch of little kids showed up and started swearing and trying to be cool so we just left.
Sunday, we had district conference and a special meeting for the new members. We went with Tanya and she seemed to really enjoy it.
Well I have to run love you all bye!
Love,
Elder Dewey

Elder Dewey, Tanya, and Elder Matthews

Elder Dewey making Snicker Doodle Cookies...yum!

Elder Dewey bowling in style! Ha! There must be a good reason for the rolled up pants...hmmm?