This week went by super fast! I look at my planner and say, 'Wow! Its already Thursday?'
Well
this week we have been using a lot of our time contacting people. We
are in the rebuilding phase of the work. As we were walking the streets
we stopped to talk to this guy. He pretended he didn't understand
English even though he was totally white! We had a good laugh with him
and it was surprisingly one of the nicest 'rejections' I've had in a
while.
We had another experience while we were walking. We
had been walking for a while and we were just super bumbed out that we
hadn't been able to talk to a lot of people. The ones we had talked to
were either not interested at all, not nice, or it was just a really
awkward situation. So we were heading to our ward mission leaders house
to have coordination and we realized that we were not going to make it
on time if we didn't hurry. So we decided to start running. I thought it
would be really funny to see two guys in suits running on the sidewalk.
Then as we were running we saw this guy up a head. We wisely decided to
stop running. As we came up to him we asked him if he had a minute that
he could talk to us. He said, "I'm on my way to the groceries store and
I don't have much time. But I've been thinking of Joseph Smith and I
wanted to study it more." Wow! That was out of the blue! It was a great
feeling to have something good happen after a few hours of rejection.
We had a good lesson with a new investigator, Kim.
She is the mom of Reece (we found him by parking our car and walking up
to him near a gas station). She is a very nice lady who is looking for a
church. She said that she has tried all of these other churches and
that she hasn't felt the spirit in them. We promised her that she would
feel the spirit in this gospel if she sincerely prayed.
She has some trouble with comprehending a lot of what we teach but we hope that she will continue to progress well!
We
had a good lesson with Armour this past Saturday. On Tuesday we met
with him and he hadn't read. So we read with him. He had some good
questions but the lesson just went super slow and seemed really boring.
So on Saturday we came up with something we thought would be good for
him. Then when we got there he didn't read since last time we came! He
asked about repentance and we explained the steps. He felt really bad
that he didn't read. He realized that the 'task' was easy and he hadn't
been doing it. He was disappointed with himself. We gave him one of our
'missionary daily planners' so he could schedule 'read and pray' into
his day. Hopefully he will read!!!
That reminds me of a quote by Elder Maxwell! To me it tells me that
we are all still gods investigators that need to keep doing the same
things to learn lessons we think we already have learned.
"Given the tremendous importance of these virtues now and in the
world to come, should we be surprised if, to hasten the process, the
Lord gives us, individually, the relevant and necessary clinical
experiments? We do not usually seek these, however. Yet they seem to
come, don't they, even when we do not remember having signed up for a
particular course? Sometimes we find ourselves enrolled again in the
same course. Apparently we were only auditing before; perhaps this time
it can be for credit!"
-Neal A. Maxwell
We had another good
experience when we went to teach Andy. We got out of the car and waved
to a woman playing with her kids across the street from our appointment.
We had seen her out there a few times before but had never talked to
her. When we knocked on our investigators door they said they couldn't
meet. So as we were walking to the car I just thought, 'we really need
to talk to her'. We did and she was really nice. She has sat down with
missionaries before and she was open to going it again. She even said,
"If i don't call you in a few days, give me a call." usually people just
give us the 'dont call me I'll call you' scam!
We talked to her again this past Sunday and she said her schedule is really hectic and we could probably meet Saturday!
We
had a really cool experience with a woman that some of our members
found. The elders quorum went to clean the church and they found this
lady who was sleeping outside the church. They asked if she wanted a
Book of Mormon and she said that she already has one. They invited her
to church and she came!!!
When she walked in you could not tell that she was homeless! She
was really well kept and I guess she does it out of choice. She has a
gym membership and an ipad but she just chooses to live outside. She
sang all the songs we did, or at least she attempted even though they
were foreign to her. Then in gospel principles, as we were explaining
the Book of Mormon, she said, "I've always thought that. God doesn't
only love the people in Jerusalem."
Also our newest convert, Jarmaris, was super good with her! at the
beginning of Gospel Principles Jarmaris was asked to give the opening
prayer. He looked at the woman and asked her what her name was. Then he
prayed. His prayer was specific to her. He didn't pray about anything
else. He asked that she would have a good time in church and that she
would find out of the truthfulness of the Gospel. He is going to be a
great missionary!!!!
We have an appointment with her tonight at 7:30! I'll let you know how it goes!
well I think that's all for this week!!!
I love ya!
Elder John
"The
Lord loves each of us too much to merely let us go on being what we now
are, for he knows what we have the possibility to become! It is all
part of the journey of going home. Developmentally, we are all
prodigals. When we really "come to" ourselves, spiritually, we, too,
will say with determination, "I will arise and go to my Father". This
true celebration of the risen Lord, therefore, is one of emulation as
well as of adoration for him. Since he is risen from the grave, let us
not be dead as to the things of the spirit! How can we celebrate the
empty tomb with empty lives? How can we celebrate his victory over death
by being defeated by the world?" - Neal A. Maxwell
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