On Tuesday we had a lesson with our friend Luke. He is so ready to be baptized but needs his work schedule to change so he can go to church. After our lesson with him, we had lunch with an inactive member and spent some time painting with her. Most people know I do not have a lot of artistic ability, so I was rather proud of how my painting turned out. We had a lesson with another inactive that night. I am still not sure what happened in that lesson. Basically, during the lesson he told us he was not sure what to believe and would talk about a doctrinal point he was struggling with and then jump to another point before we could address the first one. That lesson was all over the place. He pretty much has a distrust of all organized religion and thinks that they are all corrupt. Sister Heath came to the lesson with us. The lesson ended up going half an hour over … good thing we were going to the Heaths for dinner again (when we were there Monday they asked who we were going to dinner with for the 4th. When we told them that we did not have a dinner appointment they invited us to eat leftovers with them). On Tuesday we were coming up with a lesson for dinner. I suggested that we do the can smash on the Book of Mormon. My companion was all for it but had never seen it before. We showed up to the dinner appointment and my companion realized that she was supposed to smash my finger with a can. She completely refused, so I smashed my own finger. I wish I had a picture of the member's faces! They were all staring at me in total confusion. Sister Heath says she needs a video of it next time because there is no way she is ever going to try it.
On Wednesday we stopped by a ton of people's houses! We were able to set up a lesson with someone next week so that was super exciting. We also had a lesson with our friend Tara. She has a really hard life, but so genuinely wants to find peace. She wants to be baptized, but currently her mom is against it. Her mom is okay with her learning from us and being around us though (so currently we are simply being her friend and helping her feel Christ's love). After Tara's lesson we visited more people. We stopped by the Turner family to check on Sister Turner because she has been sick recently, but they were not home. When we were getting ready to leave Brother Turner got home. He said the girls were not home, but offered to show us their animals in their yard! They have goats, ducks, bunnies, and chickens! I got to hold one of their baby goats and a bunny named potato. Potato was pretty much a ball of fur. It was amazing.
On Thursday we had another lesson with our friend Luke. I am not sure who is more disappointed that it is taking his work schedule so long to change – him or us. Right after his lesson we had a meeting where we learned about using social media to spread uplifting content. The focus was on the mission page (so go like and share the Friends of Christ page on Facebook)! After our meeting we were supposed to have another lesson, but they ended up canceling on us. We did some social media work instead. After that we went to study the scriptures with one of our older members. We also played Uno with her. When we stopped playing Uno, we came home and planned out the upcoming week. We had a member drop off dinner, but we did not end up eating it until 8pm, because we had a late lunch.
On Friday we had district council. I love district council! I think the funniest part was the elders explaining their golden friend to us. They got a referral where a man wanted a Book of Mormon and Bible. They got in contact with him and set up a time to drop them off. The elders then did not think it was going to go anywhere, so they waited a few days to contact him again. When they finally call him, he picks up the phone and says, "I jumped the gun and looked up the difference between Christianity and Mormonism." The elders were then in a panic that they were about to get bashed, but after an awkward pause the man replied, "…and it's all true!" The elders were able to set up a lesson and he is ecstatic to continue learning more. The STLs also came to district council this week, so that was entertaining. I got to sit by my great-grandmother in missionary terms (Sister Gunderson trained Sister Bayne, who trained Sister Bastian, who trained me). After district council we were supposed to do service for a lady. We waited outside her house for 30 minutes, but she never answered the door. When we called her, she made an excuse about it being too hot for us, but asked to reschedule. We think she just forgot and was not home… After replanning the next hour of our lives, we went to visit some people and then went to dinner with an inactive member. We are trying to fellowship him and his children, but they are currently going to a different church. I love their family. They are super sweet, but also really funny. He said his thing about coming back to the church was that we do not sing enough praise music, I have definitely not heard that reason before. We are not sure how interested they are in ever coming back, but they love the missionaries and always want us to come back, so I guess that is positive.
On Saturday we went door knocking. We knocked on many doors and everyone told us they were not interested. Our missionary zone was having a blitz where we tried to share 50 Books of Mormon in a singular weekend. After an hour of knocking, we were walking back to our car. This lady was outside with her dogs and all the dogs came running at us. She said, "They are nice, you can just step around them." So we did, but then I had the thought that we needed to talk to her, so we walked back. She ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and said that she would definitely read it! We were really confused because when we first started talking to her she said, "I am Mormon…while my whole family is." We were confused because there were no members that lived near there. Turns out just her family are members, but she is interested in learning more because of that. It was a cool reminder to always follow spiritual prompting and talk to everyone! To make it funnier she lives in the last house before our area ends. You walk 100 feet past her house and you are no longer in our area. After door knocking we went to visit some people. We ended up having an impromptu lesson with our friends Lisa and Carter, which was really cool. We thought they were ghosting us, so we dropped by and they immediately invited us in and asked what we wanted to study. We had a cool discussion about the Book Of Mormon and they both have a testimony of it. Their current hold up is that they do not want to leave their current church and their friends. Their lesson ended up taking more time than we planned on, so we were late to our dinner appointment. To make it even better, Google routed us down a closed road, so we had to turn around and ended up being half an hour late. Good thing the Brunette family is laid back because otherwise they would probably have been mad at us. The Brunettes are super sweet and sarcastic. For our dinner lesson we gave them mechanical pencils with no lead and asked them to write their name on a sticky note. Brother Brunette caught on really quickly, but Sister Brunette simply goes, "Did you buy your pencils at the dollar store?" It was really funny. We then talked about how the pencil is like our mission Facebook page. If no one looks at it or shares it then it is like a pencil without lead. We have it but it is no use to us. After our lesson we talked about our friends and members that could use some love. It was a useful "meeting" because Brother Brunette is ward mission leader and Sister Brunette is Relief Society president. After dinner we were supposed to have a video call lesson with one of our friends, but she texted that something came up and asked to reschedule.
On Sunday I gave a talk in church. My topic was studying the scriptures and putting on the armor of God. I was supposed to speak for 15 minutes, but the second speaker canceled, so I ended up speaking for 20 minutes. After church we went door knocking again and were able to hand out a second Book of Mormon! After door knocking we chalked up a sidewalk at a park in our area. We are still waiting to see how successful it is.
I am so thankful for all the many miracles in life. God has a plan for each and everyone of his children. As we choose to make Christ the center of our lives we will find greater joy and see the little tender mercies everywhere!
[Added as a follow-up email] Also, not sure how I forgot to mention this, but My friend Dane got baptized Saturday and I got to call him. It was super awesome!
Pictures:
Pictures:
- Holding Potato (the bunny)
- Holding a Baby Goat
- Chalking
- Sister Maynard, Tara, and I
- Dane's baptism
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