August 5, 2013

Dear Mom,

There's also another video that I just remembered that's way cool. It's called "How Rare a Possession". It's about a guy in Italy who goes to NYC and finds a Book of Mormon but the cover is worn off and he doesn't know which church it belongs to, but when he reads it he comes to know that it's completely true and that it comes from God. He searches most of his life for the Church it belongs to. It's a way cool story.

I'm excited for August now too. I'm happy for the hot weather to finally be going away. These last few weeks it's been on and off with the rain. It's nice when it rains because it's not so hot. When it's not raining, fortunately it hasn't been nearly as hot as it was in the middle of July. I hope that it stays that way. When we walked out of our apartment today to get picked up to go to the library, there was a cold wind outside and I thought to myself that it feels like summer is starting to die off. I don't think that it'll get too cool for a while though.

That's a way cool story about that biker guy! I showed a couple of the other missionaries that I'm with right now the story and they said they liked it too!

We had a really frustrating lesson this last week with a guy named Juan. He was a referral from a less-active member in our area. We finally got in contact with him. He was maybe in his 50's and was from Mexico. He let us right in and said that he likes to listen to the word of God. Well we taught him the first lesson and we found out that he was just crazy. He kept telling us that he was born Catholic and that it would be a mockery of God if he started going to another Church. We kept trying to explain the Great Apostasy more simply and bolder. We finally got to the point where we straight up told him that the Catholic Church has no authority. He just kept telling us that it doesn't matter, he was born Catholic and he just can't change religion. We left pretty frustrated. It was crazy because he just didn't understand anything we were teaching him. He thought that we were just there to change his religion, which is partially true. But it's for the better. Some people just don't get it. I guess he wasn't ready. I question if he'll ever be ready though.

Then on Friday we were able to teach a somewhat less-active member named Rocio. She's only less-active because she can't hardly ever find a ride to church. Her husband isn't a member. But her family joined the church in Honduras so she grew up going to seminary and everything. So she knows the Gospel pretty well. Her husband has been taught by missionaries before. We didn't really know too well how he took the missionary lessons before. So this last Friday we asked him what he thinks about the Book of Mormon and he said that he believes that it's true! We asked him if he wants to be baptized but he said that he couldn't because of work. He can't ever get work off on Sunday's. So we decided to fast for him this last Sunday for him to get work off on Sunday or to be able to find another job in which he wouldn't have to work Sunday's. We haven't been able to follow up with him yet on how it's been going. We told Rocio that she should fast as well. I don't expect an immediate job right now, but I'm excited to start working with him more and trying to get him to work harder at finding a new job. As soon as he gets a new job or whatever it is and he can start coming to church, he's going to be baptized! I'm excited for that!

This last Saturday we were going to have a lesson with one of our investigators named Ishmael. He's a big black guy from an island in the Mediterranean called Antigua. He married a lady from the Dominican Republic and he learned Spanish so he could communicate with her. Well she was baptized many years ago and her mom was just baptized last year (crazy side story: I actually interviewed her mom for baptism when I was a district leader back in Plainfield. I drove up from Plainfield to interview her for the Elders that were working here about a year ago! And now I'm teaching her as the missionary in her area!) Now it's Ishmael's turn to be baptized. He's been meeting with the missionaries since about January of this year. He doesn't want to be baptized yet because he says that he's not ready. He says that he'll tell us when he's ready. So he comes to church almost every week with his wife and mother-in-law. Well our Bishop decided that it was time for Ishmael to get in the water. He wants him to be baptized soon. So we planned with the Bishop to go over to his house on Saturday night to talk to him about the temple. He wanted to specifically talk about the temple so Ishmael can start seeing that the big picture is actually the temple, not just baptism. So we go over there and we come to find out that they were actually planning on a huge family reunion for Ishmael's family. His wife knew about it but she didn't want to tell us because she wanted us to teach his family and she didn't want us to come over another day. It was sweet of her to do that but they Ishmael definitely wasn't planning on us coming over that day. We talked to Ishmael and he said that it would be better if we came by another day. But Bishop wanted to at least show all of them what we were about. So we did a quick run-down of the Plan of Salvation. None of them were really interested. They said that the Plan of Salvation was interesting, but we really didn't get any feedback. Haha, it was kind of a flop. But it was kind of fun to teach a large group of people. There was only one lady who thought that we had said that we'll get a second chance to accept the Gospel in the next life. So she kept asking us about that after we had finished. Bishop kept telling her that we hadn't said that. Some people are funny. So I started studying a little more on the Spirit World. Well it turns out that the Gospel will be preached in the Spirit World. That means that faith will be taught. So my guess is that we will still have to act upon faith in the Spirit World. However, those that have no interest in the Gospel in this world probably won't have any interest in the next. (Alma 32:34) But we can't say exactly who will and who will not accept the Gospel. That's why we have to invite everyone!

 Q of the W:

1.  Has your name tag ever worn out or broke?

Not yet!

2.  Have you had any more problems or pain with your ankle?

No. My shoes are doing okay. I think the shoes were problem

3.  Are you able to find out how the people you have taught in previous transfers are doing?

I usually just ask the missionaries in that area every once in a while. All the missionary phone numbers are listed in every phone.

4.  Do you sleep really good every night?

I'm pretty sure I get enough sleep. But I still wake up every morning feeling like I need another two hours of sleep.


Love you mom!