Again, you are right, there are probably about a million
things that I mean to tell you each week but every time I get a few things out
and then completely blank on the rest, and by then I'm about out of time.
That being said… Before I forget I have to tell you about
the super cool experience we had this week and I will endeavor to tell it as
dramatically as time will allow:
So there I was... I mean... So there we were, tracting,
on C Street (that is a street in town here) and we are talking to people and
knocking on doors and basically running around like chickens with our heads cut
off trying to find somebody to teach. We had just stopped by a SUPER less
active member, and found that they were not home. And we had talked to a man
doing yard work but he had declined our offer of help. We had knocked the next
two or three doors down from him and had received a
rather unwelcoming attitude at each, when the man who we had offered
to help informed us that he was about to turn his sprinklers on so we had
better move our car. We joked with him a bit about getting a free car wash but
ended up moving our car anyway. It was at that point that I suggested to Elder
H that perhaps this wasn't the place that the Lord would have us be at that
time, since none of the people we had talked to thus far had seemed in the
least bit prepared. Elder H, in his great wisdom and spiritual sensitivity (or
perhaps it was laziness in not wanting to find another place to work ;)
) assured me that this was indeed the place because it was where we had planned
to work. So we carried on. We walked back past the man who had asked us to move
our car, back past the people who had been less than welcoming. And we kept
going. We knocked on doors and no one was home, we knocked on doors and no one
answered, we knocked on doors and all we smelled was weed (side note:
stereotypes work! it was about 4:23 in the afternoon.) We knocked on doors and
talked to grumpy people, we knocked on doors and talked to
disinterested people, we knocked on doors and talked to apathetic people
and then we knocked on this one door... nothin'! Do you see where I’m going
with this? And then we knocked on the next door... and a blue Volkswagen Bug
screeched to a stop behind us. There is a woman in the car and she yells
"Mormons?!?". Elder H and I looked at each other and then
proceeded to nod like idiots. We were all like "Yahwuh..?" then
she gestures emphatically with her hand. "Flyer!" she said. I promise
you that you have never seen two guys try harder or faster to get a piece
of paper out of a satchel before in your life!! Also I won. I had a restoration
pamphlet out faster than you can say "Joseph Smith was the prophet
of the restoration, called by God to restore Christ’s church to the earth in these the
latter days, and to prepare the way for the second coming of the Savior."
At least I felt about that fast. ;) Anyways, we handed her the pamphlet and she
was gone. I think she said something about it was good to see us out doing what
we do, but that was sort of drowned out by the squeal of the tires as she sped
off again. As the dust settled, Elder H turned to me and said, "Well...
that doesn't happen all the time."
And we thought that was it. Maybe she would read the
pamphlet, maybe she wouldn't. It was in God’s hands now... or so we thought.
But all we could do was carry on with what we knew. So we did. And as we walked
and knocked and talked and got pretty used to the feeling of rejection, we
spied a house around a bend in the street, with a blue Volkswagen Bug in the
driveway. Of course we knocked, and guess who answered?! A completely
different girl! But that's okay because she was the daughter of the woman that
we had talked to earlier and her mom was home so we were able to talk to them. Turns
out, they are having some family troubles and some trouble with their church
and these troubles seem to be related. So, to cut a kind of a little bit long
story short, they are looking for a different church and they said that their
search has come down to the Anglican church or ours. So we gave them a copy of
the Book of Mormon and directed her to The Family a Proclamation to the World.
We have set up to go back Wednesday afternoon to teach the first lesson. I’ll
let you know how it goes! TO BE
CONTINUED...
Oh and Elder H is as good as gone. All his stuff is packed
and he hits the road at 3:00 this afternoon with Elder C (one of the Zone Leaders
from First Ward, who is also dying-going home), at which point I will be
in a Tri with Elder F (the other Zone Leader in the First Ward) and Elder
B (from Merritt, whose companion, Elder R, is ALSO dying), we'll be together
until we get our new companions, and I think it’s pretty safe to say (like
99.9999999999999999999999871 % sure) that all of us are staying in the areas
we're in now. But you can never really be sure with President Tilleman.
ALSO: I did ask about being whitewashed so many times, President
responded that it was "an interesting theory to be sure", but that it
"had no merit" (his exact words). He went on to say some other things
that completely undermined any confidence or assurance that his previous
statements may have afforded me. I'm not in trouble, but I’m not out of the
frying pan either. I’m not exactly sure what he meant but I’m afraid I may be
finding out very soon. :/
With love,
Elder Thomson
No comments:
Post a Comment