This past week has been
full of odd feelings and great stories. For one, there's the year-anniversary
for my week-off for the Vegas mission. Understandably that doesn't really
curtail to anything important, but it was fun telling myself, "funny, this
is the time I'm spending Sep 29 to Oct 7 as a proselytizing missionary!"
Means there's only a shorter time to the deeper fall and winter, because those
are my favorite seasons for the work!
The present has been coming
around well though. We weren't able to meet with Oliver or Andrew again this
past week, but we did have some other miracles occur. On Monday we found
ourselves walking over to go see Brandon and Sis. Benderik. We caught them in
the nick of time! Had we not walked the direction or route we did, chances are
we would've missed them. Brandon's only 9, so we teach very simply to him. But
after we left we walked over to the intersection, and in the midst of the
yellow light (it was about 8), we pondered where to go next, with the time that
we had. Just then someone called out to us from a corner house, and after
walking over we got to take in the fellow who had called us, and met Nathen. He
asked if he could borrow our phone to call a few people, and we didn't need to
ask why. Because he was covered in blood. Kid you not, it looked like the guy
just got out of the fight of his life. Fortunately he was no scrapper, he had
just fallen into the corner of a counter top and gashed his jaw open.
Well, in the process of letting him borrow the phone, we got talking about the
Plan of Salvation, and he seemed intrigued, to an extent. He had met with
elders before, and we stayed and talked with him outside until one of his
relatives came to help patch him up. At the end of the week we returned and he
was outside with his friends. Got talking to him more about the Gospel, and
although his friends excused themselves he stayed and listened and we answered
his questions. He was intently listening too! And in the end he accepted a Book
of Mormon, and committed to read and pray about it too. He even was excited to
tell his Mom as she pulled up mid-conversation that he was meeting with us
again! Seems like the guy's had it rough in life, so hopefully the Gospel will
help him out.
In other news, I was treated
to probably the saddest scenic view in my life. En route to dinner on Tuesday we passed by a couple of sunflower
fields, and they were all wilted. Now I'm not the type to give sympathy for
shrubbery, but seeing the thousands of flowers turned brown and facing down was
just....depressing. I'll include a picture so you'll see what I mean. We also
locked the keys in the apartment a few times this last week, so we had to break
in through a window that we left unlocked. Previously the other elders would
break into our apartment to steal goodies like cookies or brownies. That forced
us to lock all the windows, and whaddya know, we still lock the keys in one
night. Fortunately the landlord is in the ward and he was able to come with a spare.
We've also been meeting with a
certain Teri as of recently. She's a former investigator but has the nicest
heart ever. She suffers from depression, and when we visit her we simply talk
to her and let her express herself. Recalling Bro. Slade's experience from
Yakima helped. But she loves us when we come by, it gives her hope. Last time
we got talking about how much God loves her and how much Christ suffered
personally for her. We offered a priesthood blessing to assist, and she loved
what the spirit spoke to her. We'll continue helping her out all the way
through. It's nice to simply be a comforter for someone who is brokenhearted.
General Conference was
awesome! I probably don't need to go into too much detail. But I loved Elder
Nelson's talk about how we have to right to feel joy everywhere we go, no
matter where we're at in life. I also loved the member-missionary talks as
well. Heck, I loved all of the talks! President Monson's brief address about
the Plan of Salvation was so touching. It's incredible to know that Heavenly
Father still speaks to prophets in today's world. I know that all of those men
are inspired and direct witnesses of the name of the Lord. Because in the end,
it is Christ at the head. No way those guys could do it all themselves.
Afterward we got to see Cassie
and Turk for a brief lesson on prophets. Cassie told us that the previous week
she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true or not. She told us that
only 10 minutes after she had said that prayer, she had pulled up to a 4-way
stop. And across the stop, was us evidently! We had driven right by her without
noticing. And then the next day she had walked into the Doctor's office and
Sis. Van Quill, her immediate friend who was there with us, was there too! We
told her that God has a funny sense of humor to give us signs like that
sometimes, but ultimately true conversion comes from the heart, and what we
feel. She understands, and she and Turk will do great! After dinner the next
hour, we got to meet with another fellow named Mike. Long story short, it was a
miracle we were able to catch the guy in the first place. We had set up the
appointment the night before right as he was about to drive off. He has a lot
of friends serving missions now, and he even showed us a video of one of them
opening his call. When we talked to him about the Restoration and Joseph Smith,
he got super interested in reading the Book of Mormon. He even downloaded the
Gospel Library app as soon as we mentioned it exists. All that was great, because
I recognized in the course of teaching how rust I had gotten from the lack of
solid appointments in Ellesnburg. Still, after a prayer was said, I got a
prompting that we should extend the baptismal invitation to him. We did, and he
accepted! Even told us he knew it was the right thing to do to start new!
Yeah!
In short, it's been a pretty
good week. I also got the package, thanks for all of it! You guys must've
really loved that BBQ place in Atlanta because normally we don't get merchandise from
restaurants. That's been something I've been hankering for a long while now,
good BBQ. Who knows? Maybe it will happen. Until then, love you all! How's the
house in St. George coming? I'm interested to see how that progresses. Let
every one know I love them, and I keep you guys in my prayers. Thanks for all
you guys do for me and the other missionaries serving. Little acts of service
go a long way.
Love you all!
Michael
No comments:
Post a Comment