What a week!
Monday we had to take our car in for a repair and they said we may be without it till Friday! Biking in a huge area for a week was going to
be insane. We were lucky enough to have the Boyntons drive us a couple places.
Brandon (YSA Branch Missionary) came out with us almost all day
Tuesday and Wednesday! It was great to have him with us. Contacted some referrals and went finding people to teach. Turns out we got our car back Wednesday so that was a relief!
This week Elder Fullmer wanted to swing by Burger King on the way home for lunch. I sat down at a table to wait for him and a guy came up, looked at my tag, and sat down. We struck up a conversation. He said he was from Utah and knows about us. He just wished we were real Christians. He started pulling out a bunch of scriptures trying to
bash with us. “Sir, we do have faith in Christ – It is the Church of
Jesus Christ…” “But its not the same Jesus! You worship Joseph
Smith.” “Sir, we don’t worship Joseph Smith and we are not here to
argue with you….” “Oh Im not arguing, I just have felt a calling in
life to help people realize that their religion is wrong and to help
them come over to believe in the truth.” I stood up and told him that
we have a testimony of the truthfulness of what we were doing and told him contention is of the devil so we are leaving. As I walked off,
Elder Fullmer just stood in line for his food and as I went to wait
with him, the man yelled at Elder Fullmer (who had been over-hearing the conversation), “YOU! COME OVER HERE, NOW.” He pointed down in front of him. Intense guy! But Elder Fullmer got his food and we left the guy to fume cause he couldnt bash ;]
Gabriel received the Aaronic Priesthood this week and was ordained a Priest! The first assistant in the Priest Quorum asked him to pair up with another Priest to team-teach the lesson in the quorum next week and he accepted! He is also blessing the sacrament next week!! I am so stoked for him! We hope to get him to the temple soon in a group trip with some other Recent Converts and returning members.
In Gospel Principles class we taught about Prophets. We felt prompted to ask everyone which prophet they look up to. Of course Sylvie said a prophet from the Old Testament (Jewish Background), and other members said who they looked up to, but when it came to Rufus we were surprised to find that he looks up to the prophet Joseph Smith!! I hope he makes the decision to join the fold soon. He just needs to have his answer.
Jacob once made a mouth-guard out of hot-glue that moulded his teeth perfectly. Well I wanted to whiten my teeth as well recently (with no hot-glue) and so out came a ingenious idea! I made a face-mask on the spot that would resemble that dumb thing dentists use to move your lips out of the way! Dont judge.
Sylvie accepted the invitation to have Visiting Teachers!! We also
invited her to speak to Bishop (that he may be able to help her
spiritually the way she is looking for) and he is thinking about it.
Maya’s father said that she is not ready to make the decision to be
baptized….That really made us sad, but the father said we can still
teach her and that we can focus on the father soon.
Yaneck had his friend Gerrard (reminded me of what we call Jared
sometimes – Gerrared ;] ) and we able to teach them both. We helped Gerrard understand how to repent because he said he has been wanting to, just hasn’t known how.
We were helping a homeless center do some yard-work. Elder Fullmer ran out of cord for his weed-trimmer, so we made do with what we had! I found some small vine like stuff and fed it into the weed-trimmer. I was pretty proud because it lasted a whole 5 seconds! Ill be going to the patent office soon. Congratulate me later.
A’aight, Im gonna be completely honest. There have been many times on my mission where members have invited us to dinner and afterward I just wanted to explode. We share a great “Work of Salvation” lesson encouraging members to be missionaries and when we try to commit them to do missionary work, they just say, “We are just trying to be a good example.” Family, friends, this is already part of our baptismal covenant!
“[A]nd now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to
be called his people, … and to stand as witnesses of God at all
times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even
until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with
those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life–”
(Mosiah 18:8-9)
We should already be standing as a witness always, even until death.
If we want to have the joy our Father has, we need to know ” … that
the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare
repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that
you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.” It is as
clear as that! You will be blessed beyond measure.
Brandon has been going out on his own just looking for people on the street and at work and has found 4 people in the last week that said they’d be interested in hearing what we have to say. We make this work seem so difficult. The Lord will provide a way. He has for us. He has for Brandon. He will for you.
Love you!!
Elder Householder
