This week was.... interesting. Haha it was really long, but really good! It
was just weird. Almost nothing happened. Every door we knocked, no one was
interested. Every investigator we try, no one was home, or they were sick and
couldn't talk, or their dog died and they didn't want to talk. It was just
frustrating. So that was rough, but I had a good time!
On Thursday night all of our plans had fallen through, so we went to a
Prayer Night at a nondenominational church that we were invited to. It was fun!
It was at the Pastor's house, so we go in (we were the only white people there)
and sit down and they were doing some gospel singing, then the pastor starts
preaching a bit, then he prays for about 25 minutes. It was interesting.....
He was praying to "Lord Father God Jehovah Jesus". One of my favorite
parts was when he was going on about grace in the prayer and he said, "We know
it's not the yellow lines on the road that keep the cars from crossing over into
our side of the road, but it's your grace! Your grace Lord!" He also said, "Father hedge up those who put their life aside to go out and do your missionary
work, and tell others about your grace and love and mercy, and bring them to
you!" and he was knuckle touching with us. It was awesome! Haha there were
people speaking in tongues and praisin Jesus all over. It was super fun! We
really want to go back and do it again!
On Friday I was able to give a training on faith. It really opened my eyes
to how little I knew about faith. It has been a great study topic for me. It's
really made me rethink my whole look on things. Do I trust God will open up the
windows of Heaven to the point where I will pay tithing when I have no money at
all, or do I really just think it's a cool idea, but it's not for me? Do I live
the Word of Wisdom because God has promised blessings because of it, or do I
just push it aside so that I can go ahead and live how I want to live. Faith is
more than believing that keeping the commandments will bless us, but it's
actually living the commandments, showing that we fully believe that God will
hold up his end of the promise. How many people that Christ said "rise, take up
thy bed and walk" just kinda sat there and looked at him like, "Cool, but in case
I'm not healed I'll just keep laying here. Thanks for that though!" Nope they
all got up and walked and showed that they believed they were healed! Anyways,
that was just my thoughts on faith this week.
Later that day I was on an exchange with Elder Nielson (he's from
Orlando, and went to Winterpark High School! Which is funny because that's where
Austin Rivers went, and it's the only high school in Orlando I know, so when I
asked him what high school he went to that would have been the only one I knew.
Anyways, just interesting fact!) in Choctaw, Oklahoma! Actually it's considered
Harrah, Oklahoma, the part we were in... Anyways we were striking out left and
right, trying to find anyone to talk to. We were knocking doors in one
neighborhood and we see this guy walk out to his front yard. My first instinct
was to go talk to him, but the closer I looked I noticed he had a pitchfork and
a .22 in his hands. Haha he was trying to kill a gopher or something, but I
decided not to talk to him because the early saints already dealt with plenty of
people who had pitchforks and guns, and that's what got them driven out of
Missouri and Illinois and Ohio. So if it didn't go over well for them I figured
how am I different... Haha it was funny though he basically was a one man mob!
There was no danger we just had a good laugh about that.
That was about it for me this week. I will admit that on Sunday I was
pretty much done with being a missionary. I was thinking, "Why have I not been
able to get one person to come to church? Why is it my entire mission no one has
come to church? I taught more people back home than I am out here. I invited
people to church back home and no one came there. So why am I here? I could do
more good being back home, sharing the gospel there. Why am I here?" It was a
rough day. But it caused me to really ponder why I am here. I got the
same assurance, not as strong, but strong enough to help me understand that I am
exactly where I need to be, and I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. So I
guess I'm going to keep pluggin along doing what I need to do so that I can make
it through. Something will happen sometime! If nothing else I've grown so much
out here that it's unbelievable. And I have been able to recognize how much
farther I can go, and how much better I can be. That to me is super exciting!
I'm loving the fact of how much I can progress!
Well fam/friends, that's all there is for me here. Have a good week
wherever you may be! Love you all tons! Keep up the fight!
