Exchanges and investigators

This last week was pretty rough. Our less actives, J and M C, have been moved to a hospital outside of our area, and now we can't visit them. We found that out when we went to visit Brother P, who was in the hospital because of water in his lungs. The diagnosis was because his blood sugar was extremely low, and so water had diffused into his lungs. When we visited him, he was fine. But now, he has suffered a mental issue akin to dementia, and has been moved to the Sharp's Mercy Hospital in Downtown. This was caused by a lack of oxygen reaching his brain. He is currently in a coma, and can only have four visitors per day. On top of that, G, a less active young man that we've been teaching and preparing to go on a mission, has gone to the emergency room because of some pain that he had in his abdomen. On top of that, several members have been sick with influenza and the cold.

On Friday, we had exchanges. I went to the Eastlake area with Elder T, and Elder B came into our area with Elder T. Elders B and T were able to find 4 new investigators in one day. Don't get me wrong, I'm overjoyed that we have four new investigators. But I can't help but wonder if maybe I'm the reason that we haven't found investigators lately. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or if I'm even doing anything wrong. I've been praying and praying for the Lord to help us to find those that He has prepared, but to no avail. On top of that, J C, the man that asked us about the Church and believed everything we taught, has been deported to Mexico, and it will be very hard for him to return to the States. His wife is distraught because she now has to work to pay the rent for her family all by herself, and she doesn't have time to meet with us anymore.

On Saturday, we were able to take B S out with us to visit some people. We tried four different people, and none of them were there. We luckily had an appointment with J and C, so we took him to visit them. On the way, we tried to street contact a man that when he saw my nametag, blatantly told me that I was cursed for what I was doing, and walked away. I didn't think anything of it because I've gotten that before, but B looked a little shaken. We got to the lesson, and we taught them about prayer, and B shared a story along with his testimony. After the lesson, he asked us about what the man meant by us being cursed. I remembered when I was a greenie, and a man bible-bashed me and Elder T, and I remembered how that felt. I then explained to him that people just don't understand what we really represent, and that if they did, they wouldn't call us cursed. Elder T backed me up and gave him some sound advice and comforting words. When we got to his house, he told us that he could come out with us anytime we needed him. That following Sunday, he told us that his friend's mom was there at his house after we left, and that she asked him about the church, and desired a copy of the Book of Mormon. I gave him a copy, and congratulated him on doing member-missionary work.

S, a less-active that we've been reactivating, has decided to move to St. George to live with her aunt, and go to school. She's made a lot of progress since Elder W and I found her. And apparently there is going to be a California state-wide fast for rain because of the drought that's been going on. The Bretheren have asked for it, so we'll be fasting for that this Sunday.

SO. To contact people in the streets, I usually ask them if they've talked to missionaries before. So this girl was skipping down the sidewalk towards us, and she was short, so I figured "Skipping? Short? Must be in middle school. Nobody skips around in high school." When I contacted her and asked her if she'd talked to missionaries before, I froze and stared at her face. MAN, lemme tell you, there was NOT MUCH NECKLINE. My law of Chastity instincts were sending up red flags all over. Holy crap, it was so bad. I just kept staring at her face, keeping direct eye contact to avoid...y'know. In fact, the aversion of my vision distracted me, and I asked her AGAIN if she'd ever talked to missionaries. Makin' a fool out of myself. Whatever.

Other than that, not much has happened this week. I wish there were more, but this has just been a rough week for me. I'll be fine, though. We'll be doing a lot of street contacting this week, and we'll hopefully find some service to do.

In answer to one of Dad's questions, the only service that we've been able to render has been to clean up a car-mechanic's junk-yard, put up and take down a member's Christmas lights, clean up some parks, remove graffiti, and helping an investigator sweep her sidewalk. Other than that, people are pretty codo (stingy) about letting you help them.

Stay warm!

-Love, Elder Crook