California Driving

Here are photos of Kodren and company, showing him with his companion and with his mission president and wife. Kodren is a man of few words and it has been interesting to see what things he chooses to share in his limited emails to me each week. He is mostly into talking about the nightmare that is learning to drive a small car on crowded California roads when he is a small town boy who is used to driving a truck on dirt roads! Here are some of his words from the past couple of weeks...

I'm doing pretty good it has been a very good week we are teaching a lot of people and staying really busy which is good. I have never been more tired in my life than I am on my mission but I guess that's a good sign, haha. We got a woman to commit to be baptized on Christmas Eve which is gonna be really cool. I really hope she stays with it. Teaching people is still weird and awkward sometimes but I'm slowly learning. We go out seeking or tracting for two hours every day which has been okay we get a lot of people who ignore us and we have some doors closed in our face but also on the good side we have passed out 10 copies of the Book of Mormon this week so we are doing our best to plant the seed in people's hearts. I really don't like driving in California haha but I have to be okay with it cause I don't have any other way. I figure if I'm tired it means im working haha. I don't like waking up at 6;30 every single day it feels like it's killing me haha. There are two elders that live right next to us in our apartment complex and they are so cool. They learned about my weapon craziness and they think I'm crazy but they are cool. I'm not really learning any Spanish like I expected but I am learning sign language which is cool. Its not too hot here, it's like in the 70s every day. I do have my bike and it looks so cool. I don't know how it rides yet but it looks awesome. I hate driving down here and I don't like the little car either and my trainer is not allowed to drive so I do all the driving every day which is fun. Also, we met a family in the ward and he loves guns and knives and he collects Spyderco knives so we talked for about an hour and half about knives which was fun for me. Mom, I love you tell the rest of the clan I love them.

I'm doing pretty good, still tired but that's how its going to be the whole time i think haha. They feed us good here, I think I'm gaining weight again but its nice that they feed us. We still have someone on line to be baptized on Christmas Eve. Me and my companion are doing pretty good. Things are good and hot here. It's so hot all the time but it finally rained which was nice. It was 97 on Thanksgiving, that made the Turkey Bowl fun haha. I still hate driving here it is terrible and I hate the car but it's better than nothing haha. I have only driven on the freeway once which is nice, but the driving is still stupid. I just miss dirt roads and my truck and the monster. I think I'm doing okay, I'm just tired every day and I miss home so much. One thing that helped was there was an elder who visited the ward I am in who served here last year and it was really cool and we talked and he helped me a lot. Thank you for everything. I love you. I love you all.

And He's Off!

I should be long ago asleep but I am struggling to shut down. It was another emotional day. But Elder Kodren Hann Egbert is safely delivered to the California Riverside Mission Home and he assured me in an email tonight that there is no need to worry, he knows he will be safe and he is doing the right thing. Yes, he is missing home and the people here terribly, but he is still upbeat. The girls and I got to have a very brief speaker phone conversation with him as he was at the airport before he boarded the plane to California. He was using the cellphone of a good man who was serving these missionaries. He had so much he wanted to share, especially about his recent experiences, with his big sister who is a returned missionary and understands what he is experiencing. And we all had so much that we wanted to tell him but he stopped us short and told us that he really needed to hang up because he was the first to use the phone and he wanted to make certain that others got ample amount of time to speak with their moms or families. I'm not gonna lie, I was not graceful about any of this and I was quite emotional as his voice disappeared. But now, tonight, as I am sitting here meditating through it all I am struck with the fact that this one small thing is a reminder to me of just why he is going to be a great messenger for the Savior. He is such a caregiver. He is going to take such good care of the people who come into his sphere of influence and people will find so much comfort in his presence. I am grateful for this reminder that even as my whole being aches for me to be comforted by one of his enormous hugs, I am not lost and I am not really in need and he has been sent out to find those who are in such need. And so it begins...