Interview With a Spiritual Giant

Hello all, Elder Thomson here once  again.                                                          

       Happy to have this chance to update you guys on what’s going on. That's right, it is transfers again, and just as I was starting to feel comfortable here. I don't know yet if I’ll be leaving or not. President J (the Branch President here) seems to think that both Elder M and myself will be staying for at least one more transfer, which kinda makes sense because we really did just get here. But we were down for Zone Conference this last week, and both Elder M and myself got to have one-on-one interviews with President Tilleman, which was kinda cool.

It was only my second interview with President Tilleman since I've been in the mission field. Interviews with him are awesome, and also a teeny tinny bit stressful. First of all he’s a spiritual giant, second he’s also huge on calling people to repentance, which apparently is a once in a lifetime experience (because after he does you only have one option: Go! And sin no more!). All the same I’d rather just do my best and not need to experience that.

The other thing that stresses me out in interviews with President Tilleman is that he knows exactly how to improve your missionary work in under a minute thirty! He'll usually start by asking some vague open ended question along the lines of "How’s the work going up there?” You start of by saying "Good, good..." and before you realize what you're doing you've given him the top three things that are keeping you from being the best missionary you can be, and you are ready to start confessing all the times that you were inwardly murmuring that life was hard when he holds up his hand and you shut up real quick like. He says a few sentences, which you never really remember, but you leave with the impression that whatever concern you came with has been resolved, and that you are going to try about a billion times harder to be "exactly obedient".

The main thing I got out of my last interview (aside from an increased commitment to the work) was that I shouldn't get "too comfortable here." I don't know if that means I’m going to be leaving soon, or if I should just be staying on my toes? But either way it’s going to be a challenge to not get too comfortable here. 

I just love all these people! The B’s are an amazing family, Brother and Sister B are the most kindhearted giving people, and their kids are the greatest! The R’s are so giving and are quite possibly better missionaries than us Elders are! They are fellowshipping EVERYONE on that side of town! The J's and S's are both wonderful older couples and President J and Brother S are always willing to accompany us to lessons almost any time of day.

R is doing awesome! He knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and he knows that Joseph smith was a prophet, he’s coming to church again and I think he’s working on his second time through the Book of Mormon. So really it’s only a matter of time before he is able to take that next step and accept the Covenant and Ordinance of Baptism.

R and T are both on the back burner right now. T is a boss, but neither of them have given the Book of Mormon a shot yet. Some of our investigators have also bought into the greatest lie ever told. (See "The greatest lie ever told" below)

But we do have some other people that we are working with now:

·        R - Is a lady we met when we went to go visit another member of the church. As it turns out that member no longer lives there, but R said that she would like to come to church with us on Sunday. So she’s been to church once and we've had one lesson with her. We gave both her and her young daughter copies of the Book of Mormon and R said she would read it to see what it was about. Stay tuned! 

·        D and C - D was a potential investigator found by previous missionaries, we stopped by once and she wasn't home but we got to talk to her son, C. He's awesome! He wants to serve a mission... he just doesn't know for what church! And he told us when we could come back and talk to his mom. We had a lesson with her and are going back to teach both her and C sometime. Really great people and pretty interested in the gospel. I'll be sure to keep you updated on them as well.  

 As promised, THE GREATEST LIE EVER TOLD:

The greatest lie ever told is that Truth is Relative. That somehow it doesn't matter about the way things actually are, if you believe that something is okay, then it’s okay. It doesn't matter if something is black or white, wrong or right, light or dark, true or not. It’s really all Shades of Grey anyways.

This lie is taught in school, and it can seem like a good idea at first, how else are we supposed to reconcile our differences in belief? Johnny was taught that Jesus paid for his sins, Lin was taught that he should try and become enlightened like Buddha, and Cyrus was taught that when you die that's the end of it all.

You can’t tell them that somebody has to be wrong! You can’t say that things have to be just one way. That if it’s a Brick it’s a Brick, not a Dog, or a Flower, or a Gurgling stream. Now if you had a lot of other Bricks you could make it into a house. But that would take work and a plan and probably more than a little help.

Satan is a pretty trick guy, he wants us to think that we can all be right, that we can have it anyway we like it, that it doesn't matter about the way things really are. That it doesn't matter. There are such things as right and wrong, good and bad, Salvation and Destruction. Because if he can get us to believe that it doesn't matter... we're already his.  DON'T LISTEN TO SATAN!!

I guess that's my spiritual though for the week.  

Elder Thomson signing out!

... OH! In other news: A got baptized on Saturday in PR! S is coming along a bit slower but is still progressing toward baptism. M and J are getting married, and hopefully baptized, in February. Elder C and Elder T are Super Missionaries!