So sorry if the e-mail
ends up being a bit short, I had to write kind of a long one to our hero
President Miller so I'm a little short on time.
First let me tell you
about John, the coolest investigator since sliced bread. I think I told you a
little about him last week, we met on base and his friend from Utah referred
him to us. He went to Church last week and we talked about the Gathering of
Israel. Well, we were supposed to meet with him on Tuesday but he and his
friend ended up getting into a car accident. Everyone was fine but, it kind of
messed up the plans for the day. We rescheduled though to meet with him on
Friday and it was great! He told us that he has really bad anxiety sometimes
because of being overseas and so he was really worried when he got into the
accident because he didn't have any medicine with him or anything. He also said
that he friend (who was driving) got really mad and started getting mad a God
for what happened. "How could you do this to me?!?" etc. John said
"I was thinking about how we were talking about missionary work in church
and to share with people, so I told my friend that she should read The Book of
Mormon. I admitted that I hadn't read it yet but that I had heard a lot of
really good things about it and had a good feeling about it." And then he
said that after he shared that everyone started to calm down and he was fine
even though he didn't have anything for his anxiety with him. What the! Who is
this guy? That's actually the second time though I've had an investigator
say "I just had this feeling that I should share this spiritual thing
so then I did." Man, I wish I was cool enough to not only
recognize but to act on promptings like that! And then he went to the YSA dance
that night, the church clean up the next morning and the activity after
and took off work to go to church the next day. So, here's
the problem, he's moving in a month! Ah, the curse of the YSA
ward. So, we'll just have to work fast right?!
This week we also had
dinner with a recently reactivated member. He told us that when he left the
church as an early teenager President Hinkley was still the alive. And
then when he started coming back to church President Monson was the
prophet. He was telling us how he kept wonder "Whatever happened to the
Hinkley guy?" until finally someone told him. I don't know, it was funny
when he told it, ha ha. The other crazy thing though is that we were
talking about where we were from and Sister Bowen told him that she was from
Nevada. He said "Oh, I know someone from Nevada, we used to work
together. His name is Aaron Thomas." Ha, and I was like "His name is
what?!" But, turns out that it's a different guy. So Aaron Thomas I know
has a doppleganger running around Nevada somewhere.
We had a bit of a set
back with a few of our other investigators. One of them didn't understand the
Word of Wisdom and then was mad that we had to move his baptism date and
another one "Wants to be baptized, but isn't sure if he wants to be
Mormon" but hey, set backs are just another day in the life right? Oh the
up side, we had a good pass off lesson with a girl named Anna. She has a
coworker who is a member of the church and when she asked him how he keeps his
skin so soft he told her because he follows the word of wisdom. When she asked
him what that was he said to ask the missionaries and here we are, teaching
about the word of wisdom, and other things... Ha, strangest referral ever but
hey, it works.
Oh, I have also learned
the Souper Salads is a very disappointing place to eat. It is pretty much the
salad and soup version of Pizza Pie Café. I strongly suggest avoiding it, if
you get the chance. Also, Chubby's is a fantastic place to eat if you get the
chance. As far as I know, it only currently exists in El Paso but, if you see
it you should go.
As far as a thought for
the week, something that is good and bad about a YSA ward is that it has a good
number of recently returned missionaries in it. That's good because it means
that people are missionary minded and are willing when they can to come out
with us. It also means though that we hear a lot of "Well.. when I was on
my mission, we did it this other way!" So I have been thinking recently
about stewardship, revelation and the order in which Heavenly Father does
things.
We had one member pull
us aside after church and tell us that we were doing our job wrong (according
to her) and that if people in the ward (including her) decided to be less
active it would probably be our fault. Interestingly enough, that's
actually the second time on my mission I've had someone say something like that
to me, although for different reasons. So, maybe that means that I'm really an
apostate missionary driving people away from the church, I guess that could be
true, but probably what it means, is that we need to stop and think about
stewardship, and who has not only the right, but also the duty to say
something like that. First of all, not a random ward member, but someone who
has keys to missionary work and the stewardship over this area. So, my
companion, the ward mission leader, the bishop, the stake president, the
district leader, the zone leader, or the mission president.
But, I think the same
thought can be extended to how we view all church callings. As part of
sustaining leaders that means that we also sustain and respect their
stewardship. And as part of magnifying our calling, it means that we will do
all that we can to help and recognize those that fall into our stewardship as
well. Of course that doesn't mean that other people can't have good ideas or
help, or anything like that, but it does mean that they are not entitle to
revelation on how things should be done. Which means that, in the end, the decision
has to come down to the person who (as long as they are living right and doing
all they can) has the right and obligation to receive revelation, make
corrections, and make decisions for that area.
Anyway, a long and
rambling thought but hopefully it makes sense!!
Love you all
and talk to you soon!
April
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