On Tuesday we had a really awkward encounter while door knocking. We knocked on this lady's door and could see her through the glass. She did not come to the door, so we knocked again. Still no one answered, so we went on to the next house. While we were walking to the next house, she walked into her garage (the garage door was open) and stared at us. We waved and she waved back, but while waving at us screamed, "No, leave." We calmly knocked on the next door. We had a good conversation with that lady, but she was not interested. Meanwhile, the other lady was standing on her porch staring us down. We continued to the next house (it was a cul-de-sac) with her still drilling holes in our backs with her eyes. We get ready to leave and from across the street she screams (while obviously recording us on her phone), "They're not home!" We said, "Okay." She then asked, "What are you selling?" We said, "We are not selling anything. We are missionaries and we are helping people draw closer to Christ." She said okay, and we told her to have a nice day. She said, "I will" and then continued to stare us down. We left the street when she loudly started ranting to someone on the phone about us. Really awkward experience. Still not sure why she was so mad!?!?
On Wednesday, we went to Boonville. It has been a while since we have gotten to see our people there. We went and helped at the food pantry in the morning. That is always a lot of fun. After that, we decided to go biking around the area to visit people who had some contact in the past. We probably biked 6 or 7 miles around town, and no one opened their door. It was not a productive day, but we had so much fun biking! We also did not put enough sunblock on, so we both got sunburned.
On Thursday we went and helped a ward member move a chair out of a house that they were cleaning. After moving the chair, we went to the church for Mellissa's baptismal interview! We had to get a man to come to the church with us so that the Elders were not apostate. We got this sweet older couple to come to the church. During Mellissa's interview, we were waiting in the other room. The older couple loves to talk. They told us all about how whirlyball came to be (he founded the company after his father invented the sport). So for everyone in Plano who has played Whirlyball, the founder is in the ward I am serving in! Mellissa's baptismal interview went really well.
After the interview, we went door knocking. We had this lady open the door and basically tell us we were lying and did not believe what we said we believed. She also told us that she did not think it was okay that we believed what we believed. She then spent the next ten minutes bashing us. Her spiel ended with her telling us she would pray that we would be led to the truth. I wish I had a picture of her facial expression when Sister Bastian said that we would pray for her to find the truth too! I think it was the first time that I have been completely bashed on my mission.
Thursday night after our door knocking, we had dinner with the Perry family. The Perrys are super funny, and I love having dinner with them. After dinner we taught Sister Perry a lesson. I extended my first baptismal invite and she accepted! It was a wonderful lesson and definitely a good way to end the night on an upbeat.
On Friday we had district council. We drove out to Vincennes to meet up with our district. In our training we talked about door knocking approaches and following the Spirit. After district council, we ate lunch in the grass in front of the church. After lunch, we left to drive back to our area. About 15 minutes into our drive back, the car in front of us on the highway kicked up a rock (or some small object) that hit our windshield. It chipped the bottom of the windshield and created around an 18 inch crack up the window. We quickly got off the highway and pulled over to call the vehicle coordinator. He then told us to fill out an incident report. It took us about the next 45 minutes to fill out the report and then we were in a rush to get back to our area. Thankfully the crack was the only damage and our car was still drivable.
We had dinner with a member followed by a spontaneous lesson with some of our friends. They called around six and told us to come for a lesson around 7:30. That was an answer to prayers because we had been trying to get in contact with them all week and were starting to worry that they were mad at us because they were not responding.
On Saturday morning our friend Mellissa got baptized!! We decided it was best for the ward if we combined with the kids that were getting baptized. Mellissa was super excited to see the kids baptized, so it was a win for everyone. Sister Bastian and I crocheted an Octopus for Mellissa. Each tentacle represented something we wanted her to remember, and it was reversible because baptism is a two way promise with God. I was really happy with how it turned out because it is probably the most complicated thing I have crocheted so far. The baptism was great, but during that time the crack in our windshield got longer (we think the heat is causing it). Saturday night we had dinner with a member. She is super funny and was showing us pictures afterwards. She asked us if we wanted to see a picture of her mother. We said yes. She showed us a picture of he dead mother in a casket. Neither one of us knew how to respond and she thought it was hilarious.
On Sunday, Our friend Mellissa sadly woke up feeling sick and did not make it to church to get confirmed, but she will be there next week! During sacrament meeting there was a 3 year old girl sitting in the row in front of us. She started drawing me pictures during the meeting. It made me super happy and reminded me of how much joy can come from small things.
After church we decided that we were going to drop off member's containers that had been sitting in our apartment for months. We went to drop something off to our friend Alan and he invited us to lunch. We spent two hours there….we still have not figured out how to leave. He and his cousin Karen are hilarious!
We had dinner with the Mahoney family in our ward. On the way there we almost hit a wild turkey that went running across the road right in front of us. It was kind of funny. The Mahoney family is super entertaining. After dinner they let us hold their baby bunnies! They also have a outdoor pull-up bar and they let me hang on it. Sister Bastian told them that that was going to be the highlight of my week. Brother Mahoney said that they had one inside that clipped on to a door frame. He said that we can borrow the indoor one until I get transferred, so now I have a pull-up bar in my apartment. Anyone who has spent time with me knows I love to hang on things, so that made me beyond happy!!
The quote of the week by Thomas S. Monson is, "The future is as bright as your faith." This seemed like a reasonable quote to go with the wacky week. I know that sometimes life feels super difficult, but through Christ you can always find strength. The future truly does have limitless possibilities if you focus on Christ and his love.
Pictures:
- Mellissa's Octopus (both sides)
- Holding baby bunnies
- Pictures from the 3-year-old in Sacrament meeting
- Having fun with an awesome wall in our area
- Biking adventure
- Having fun on a random railroad track
- Baby geese
- Door knocking
- Baptism photos (what happens when an old lady takes the pictures...and tells everyone to crouch down)
- Cute photo of Mellissa and the Brown Family
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