Nov 3 2008 Email

Hello everyone!
How was your Halloween? Mine was pretty dull...missionaries have to go back to their apartments once it starts getting dark, unless they have an appointment, which we didn't. So it was a boring night, and no little kids trick or treated us! Of course...I don't remember having the nerve when I was 8 to trick or treat an apartment building.
Daylight savings time ended...that extra hour of sleep sure felt good, especially since I haven't been doing too well recently...well ever since I got out here I guess. I haven't told you all because I didn't want my mom to freak out, heh. We were told in the MTC to not report any illness until it was under control.
Anyway, ever since I got out here, about twice a week my eyes would get really red and veiny, and burn like the dickens. At first I just thought it was my contacts irritating them, or something else. And it always went away the following day. But this week it got really bad. For three days my eyes were totally bloodshot, burned like crazy, and felt like I had a handful of sand in my eyes day and night...and let me tell you, it did not feel very pleasant at all, not at all.
I tell you all this because I learned something from the illness. Before this week, I relied on myself to get better. And that seemed to work alright...but it kept coming back. Well this week I just couldn't handle it, and I asked the Lord to help me. And no, he didn't immediately heal my eyes and I was cured, instead he kinda said to me, "You dummy, you have a companion who is here to support you, you have your mission president and his wife. Have them help you, that's their job." So, I did that, and after trying a few medications that didn't work, Sister Cannon told me I needed to go to a doctor, which I did. The doctor was great and prescribed me a heavy duty zirtec like drug called xyzol, as well as some antibiotic eyedrops to muscle out the infection.
Well it worked and my eyes are back to normal, to which I am very grateful. I tell you all this because it was a humbling experience for me and a learning experience. We aren't here in life to make it through by ourselves, we are here to help others and in turn get help from them. Man is not a solitary creature and though I sometimes try to be...my Father in Heaven reminds me that I need to rely on others sometimes. Also, it gave me a lot of gratitude for the the rapid advances in science and medicine that have occurred since the coming forth of the gospel. The Lord will provide for us, but we must first put forth an effort ourselves before he'll act. He could just as easily told the infection to go away and I would have been fine, but he wanted me to learn and grow, I needed that trial of my faith, to stretch and humble me, to allow my testimony to grow.
Anyway, as to what happened this week. Well we taught Markata some more and soft-committed her to baptism, which means we asked her that once she finds the things we teach her to be true, will she be baptized, and she said yes. Which is great, she is progressing well but she needs to come to church again, she wasn't able to this week..and also read the Book of Mormon.
We haven't been able to get a hold of Judd at all, which is a bummer, or Christina for that matter. Grr...sometime soon.
Buckley contacted us which was really good, we had no idea what happened to him. Apparently he moved out of his mom's house and got his own place in Pierre so we can teach him more often now. We taught him about the restoration and he said he would read the Book of Mormon, and he committed to baptism! So next time we'll see him we'll bring a baptismal calender and plot out the steps necessary to get him ready for baptism, which is really exciting.
Not much else happened besides that teaching wise. A lot of our appointments fell through this week and we didn't get any callbacks from our tracting efforts. We did get to help out Scott Olson again in his yard. We worked more on his shed. We put supports and flooring for the second story, it was fun and another good learning experience. Its fun working there because he knows a lot and kind of teaches us a little bit as we go along, which is neat. This week he's putting up trusses(sp?) and we'll be helping out with that.
Elder Daly is leaving for Rapid City on wednesday for a district/zone leader conference, and Elder Maynes, a zone leader, will be coming out the next day to stay with me for a few days. I'll be in charge I'm told..which is going to be a new thing for me, so hopefully I'll do alright. Then Elder Maynes will go up to Eagle Butte, the indian reservation I served on for an exchange, and Elder Schoppman will come to Pierre for a few days and we'll be together until zone conference on the 11th. So its going to be an interesting week coming up.
Well I wish all the best for you. I know that the Lord will provide for us as long as we are doing our part, and by doing the small and simple things he asks of us, great things will come to pass!

Love,
Elder Fitt