It's official, guys. I feel like an old missionary. Little things keep
jumping out at me as the perfect thing to say to a certain investigator.
The spirit pushes me hard to testify to certain people, especially the
cases that seem hopeless. Sometimes I can't sleep at night because I'm
thinking about my investigators. I even think about them in the shower.
There's a sense of urgency that hasn't been present in my work in a long
time. I wouldn't have put two and two together if it wasn't for our
dinner appointment last night who
pointed that out when I was telling her about my inexplicable drive to
testify to a certain member of our ward. But yep, I have all the
symptoms. Luckily there's still lots of time.
This
email is a day late because yesterday was our meeting with Kent Richards
of the 70. He said lots of really cool things during his 4-hour
lecture. It really built my faith. But honestly, the quality of
instruction and the spirit that I felt was pretty darn similar to what I
feel when President Smart trains us. It's nice to hear it from someone
new, but I think I would have been just as happy with good old President
Smart training us. Don't tell Elder Richards that... I'm very grateful
that he came to visit us. It was fun.
Last Monday we had fun
with our laundry. I think I've told you about the woes of spending $4 a
week on the laundromat tax. Well, another fun side effect is that my
white load of clothes came out of the wash smelling like marijuana last
Monday. I'm guessing that somebody forgot about some bud in their pocket
when they used the washer or dryer right before me. Elder "H" and I
had a good laugh about it and rewashed my whites the next day at a
member's house.
Oh, and when I was pulling them out
of the member's dryer, she asked "Do they still smell like reefer?" and
I held up what was in my hands and said "I dunno, Elder "H", do
they?" I didn't realize that what I was offering him to sniff was my
underwear bottoms. He didn't want to sniff those very much.
Tuesday
marked the fulfillment of prophecy. Everybody has been telling me and
my companion that our hard work is bound to pay off eventually in this
ward. Well, on Tuesday night, we went on splits with the ward, and right
as we were meeting up at the church before splitting off I got a phone
call from a member in the ward asking if we could teach their friend on
Wednesday night. Of course I agreed. After we got back to the church, we
saw a YSA friend in the parking lot who told us that one of her friends
was asking to take the missionary discussions. I was so excited I
almost hugged her on the spot. Elder "H" got tackle-hugged instead.
She got us an appointment with that friend the very next day. So on
Wednesday we taught both referrals. Both lessons went fantastically well
and both of them committed to baptism. I don't think I would have been
more excited if I won a million dollars.
Seriously
though, this ward has been really slow lately, and both of these two
fine young ladies asked *us* about baptism before we had a chance to ask
them about it. Wednesday was one big giant miracle. Getting them to
church is going to be hard, because one of them plays softball and the
other one goes to work from 7am to 12:30 pm every Sunday. But we will
figure out a way to make it work. They both are pretty dedicated already
from the get-go.
The rest of our investigators evaded us or
disappointed me in one way or another this week. I lost sleep over one
of them. I prayed at night to know what to teach her. That night, I
dreamed that I was teaching out of a certain chapter and I knew it was
important. When I woke up, all I could think of was "Read Alma 20." So I
did, and it was perfect for this girl's situation.
She canceled on us that day and refused to give us a return appointment,
which was especially disappointing because I had baked her some
chocolate chip cookies. I kept thinking about it all that night.
I
remember thinking in my bed "Why do I care so much? Why can't I just
not care?" And I received a very clear answer to that question. "That
is your GIFT. That is your gift and there are those that wish they had
it. It is your job to figure out how to use your gift to help others." I am quite confident that was the Lord speaking to me.
So
yes, I have had a very spiritual week. My prayers have been answered in
extraordinary ways. I have been instructed and fed spiritually by
special servants of Christ. I have been blessed with two miraculous
investigators to work with. And I've come to appreciate my special
spiritual gifts and talents even more. I hope to hone them and bridle
them so that I can use them to further the Lord's work in this part of
his vineyard.
In
other news, there will be an epic Nerf battle next week at the stake
center. My companion just bought a beastly Nerf gun - the "Rampage". We
also discovered in our chats with returned missionaries that a short
length of 1/2" pvc pipe makes an excellent blowgun for blowing Nerf
darts at people with all the speed and accuracy of the guns. We have
tried it out with a foot of that pvc and it's actually pretty good. So
that may be an option for the sister missionaries that don't want to buy
a gun.
What am I talking about? Most of the
sister missionaries here are super competitive and will be blasting us
all away anyways. :P
Love you tons. Have an awesome week.
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