September 12, 2016

Hey Mom!                                                                                           September 12, 2016

This week:

The terrible 10, dealing with haters, "NOTHING'S WORKING!", actually..."SOMETHING IS WORKING!", and other things too!

Well, I'm not too surprised you were able to get the nursery under control the way you did. You were always an excellent mother, dear mother, at re-establishing order back when everyone was still at home. You and Dad did a real good job of that, I'll tell you that much!

Hearing how you made Ben breakfast and packed lunch also caused me to feel awfully grateful for all you did to help us out. I'm certain all the other siblings would agree they had the best mom on the face of the whole Earth!

And what you taught me came in good handy this week, because dang, was it...odd. For starters, there was the 14 month mark, which signifies that the "months remaining" factor is reduced down to single digits. Hence the "terrible 10." I guess that's two-digit, but you get the drift. Not too much happened on that day or the days that preceded it, but come Wednesday things got awfully full of....well, ok, here's what happened.

For starters, we got a phone call from a restricted number on Wednesday morning. And without sacrificing too much of my integrity for the sake of turning the other cheek, let's just say that the fella who called straight-up believed we had no decency, at all. Kid you not, he went on a 10 minute rant and fired just about every Mormon stereotype, slander, libel, and vocal dagger at our faces. Heck, he even had the guts to call me racist at one point in a very crude, rude, and a little bit lewd way. Turned every one of our testimonies into a new ground to attack, and yadda yadda yadda later I finally got frustrated and told him if he got all his info in the right places then there wouldn't be all the problems in the world there are. At that point the signal failed.

Yeah, go...humanity? Oh well. Church is still true! I guess I can't really blame the guy, evidently he or his wife had got our number some way and he just had a concern about protecting what they believed in. That's all fine and dandy, but when you do it in such a way as to degrade or break down someone you've never actually met, then you're only hurting yourself.

But you know, thinking about the Savior, was it ever easy for Him? Remembering his teachings, it's important to remember that all good men and women across the earth that are persecuted by anyone for any reason, stand in the trenches with the greatest of all the children of God who ever lived. 

Anyway, the rest of the day proceeded with little to no progress. Let's just say in the evening we hit a wall and decided to tract the street we were driving down. Actually felt more like a prompting, believe it or not. And it actually worked! We found a super nice guy named Noah, who said we could come back and visit with him! From there the week improved, dramatically too!

For one, we got a member referral from a travelling mechanic in the ward. There was a man named Robert who had lived through a surgery he wasn't planning on pulling out of. We drove out to his place way in the country, and after seeing the house was empty after a few knocks, decided to try back again. But after we got in the car, we got a feeling to try again. Well, we came all that way, so we walked back up, and he came out of his garage! Robert was totally down for the missionaries in his area (we were outside ours) to come his way! There we go, go...SPIRIT FORCE!

Kid you not, same minute we got a referral that came from 2nd ward elders, who we later contacted. Her name is Cookie, and older lady who lives in an apartment complex. Upon meeting her we saw that she wasn't too into learning more about the church, but she was interested in family history, and also obtaining a large-print Book of Mormon. Maybe that will go somewhere! The Book can change people's lives. It really can! I can testify that anyone who has a testimony of Jesus Christ will be able to accept the Book of Mormon if they are ready and willing enough to read it. There was also news that a friend to Sis. Haysom, a member in the ward who accepted a Book of Mormon from her, was interested in learning more! Cool!

Tyler is still progressing, but we got talking to him yesterday and asked him just how Christ has played a role in his life. He told us he didn't see Him more than a historical figure that did a lot to change history. Elder Ackerman and I testified to him of Christ's divinity, and how His atonement was for all of us. Asking Tyler if during his prayers he would thank Heavenly Father for everything he had reminded me a lot of what you taught me about being grateful for all He's given us.

And you know, what better to be grateful for than life! There's a lot out there, a whole world even, for us to learn about our destinies as God's children. The sooner we start seeing ourselves as His direct sons and daughters, the more we'll see just how divine our lives really are.

Love you all! Thanks for everything Mom, you really are the greatest Mom I think anyone out there could have!

Michael

PS; that is the Mt. Stuart range. Closest to actual mountains I've seen on the mission so far.