What a week! First off, conference was just unbelievably powerful! What can
I say more? I absolutely loved it!
Ok so this week has been crazy! We got a call from one of the APs and he
told us that the car would be in Newcastle, so we get that! We still are biking
as much as possible to make sure everybody and their 10 dogs (that's what the
expression here in Oklahoma should be because everyone here really does have
more than one dog!) knows that there are now missionaries in Newcastle! So we've
biked around 20-25 miles within the last few days. It's been fun though!
My new companion is Elder Fronk! He went to high school at Bear River, and
he played football and basketball there. He also remembers me when we played
them in basketball my senior year! Small world! Haha he's great though and we're
going to have a great transfer!
Wednesday night after I picked up Elder Fronk we were running all over the
place getting Blanchard to their apartment, and then to dinner, so we had about
40 minutes to work. We found a couple and the wife told us
she has a lot of Mormon family so she knows a lot about what we believe, but
they said we can go back and talk to them which will be sweet! But that night we
got to the apartment, got unpacked as much as we could before bed time. So we're
laying in our beds, and then I shut of the lights and there was invisible glow
in the dark paint EVERYWHERE all over the ceiling! Haha it was pretty creepy
actually... But yeah there are some interesting surprises in the new apartment.
The stairs to our apartment have spiders everywhere, and it's just not the
nicest apartment, but it has a washing machine and a washer and dryer so we
won't complain!
Thursday we went and knocked some doors. We were headed out to this
neighborhood to knock doors out there, but we stopped in a trailer park short of
where we were going to knock. We knock like 4 doorsand no one answers. The
5th one looked just unbelievably run down, like no one lived there. But we knocked it anyways and
someone yelled through the door and asked who it was, so we tell him who we were
and that we were there to pray with him. A guy came out and said, "I really need a prayer." Well we pray for him and I'll make a really long, sad
story short. He basically wanted us to drive him somewhere far away to get away from his problems. He invited us in to teach him, and he told us a little
bit about his past. I won't go into it all, but his mother got him hooked on
drugs and smoking when he was 5. When we first started talking to him you could tell he was just a wreck,
and he had no desire to even live. He told us that this was the second time
though that when he was about to fall off the edge missionaries have knocked on
the door. GOD LOVES ALL HIS CHILDREN!!!! It was just so crazy to see
how desperate and lost this guy was. Well he invited us in and we taught him
the restoration. He told us like not even half way through that he wants to be
baptized. I told him to get to that point is going to require a LOT of change,
and that it will be a long process. He said he doesn't care, he wants to get rid
of all the negative influences he's around. So we finished the lesson, gave him
a Book of Mormon, and told him "That book you're holding will save your life."
We also taught him the Word of Wisdom 1) because it will help him and 2) so we
can see how bad he really wants to change. He said he would read as soon as we
left and that he would stop smoking and drugs ASAP. He offered a kneeling prayer
with us at the end and I asked him how he felt because the spirit was really
strong. He pondered for a second and then looked at me and said, "I feel really
calm." I testified to him right then that that was the Holy Ghost. It was a
weird experience, but we hope he actually is wanting to change his life! He's
going to have a crazy long journey, but God loves all his children and will
provide a way!
We have a couple other people we're going to go back to see, but the people
we're most excited about is a family of six that we found! We started teaching
them the restoration, and I've never done this before but I felt like I should
talk about eternal families. So I did and the wife said, "I really want to
believe that! I hope that's true because everyone teaches that once you're dead
the family is separated and you just hope to see them in heaven." So that was
cool, but then the father had to leave, so we had to leave too because we
can't be in a home without a male over the age of 16. But yeah, that was a crazy
sweet miracle!
The last thing, and the most exciting thing is that the L family is
getting baptized next Sunday the 13th! They had their interviews and are all
ready to go! They asked me and Elder Owen to baptize them, so we'll each baptized 2,
then we're each going to confirm one of the children in English during
sacrament meeting, and our Branch Mission Leader is going to confirm the parents
in Spanish. We're so excited about them! They're so prepared! The father is so
knowledgeable about the Bible it's crazy! He asked Elder Owen for the lineage of
Melchezidek. Haha he's extremely knowledgeable, and he's going to make an
amazing member of the church!
Well, life here is great! Elder Fronk and I are working hard, and we're
excited to see what happens these next few weeks!
Hope all is well back home! Keep the faith and feast upon the words
of Christ!
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