We had a jam-packed week this week. In fact, it was so jam-packed,
that there wasn't any peanut butter packed in. *ba-dum-tss* Starting
with last Wednesday, we went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders.
He came with both of us, and we went around as a trio for the day. We
started of with some quality contacting, walking, and sweating. We
started off by a college that's in our area, to try and find students
walking around. Instead, we ended up contacting a guy at this table out
in the park area. As we talked to him, we found out that he was from
Guatemala, and that his family was still back there. We somehow got onto
the subject of God, and he told us some basic beliefs that he has. We
then shared the Gospel with him, and how the Lord can carry us through
our tribulations. We shared the Book of Mormon with him, explained its
worth as another witness of Christ, and he said that it was as though we
had given him gold. He said that he loved to study those kinds of
things. We kept talking a bit, and randomly, we invited him to prepare
himself for baptism. He surprised us by accepting, and set up a time for
us to go visit him this Wednesday.
Thursday, we
went and had some lunch with our members, L and R, and as we
had lunch with them, we were able to meet some of their friends that
they work with, and we had some quality time with them. We shared our
message, and went on with our day, trying to find people to teach, and
getting some lunch from the Sisters because they had extra and didn't
want to save it. We've been really blessed with the Sister missionaries
in our district. They've all been very selfless and eager to serve, and
they've been a great relief to aleviate a lot of the stresses that a
district leader normally has. Later Thursday night, we had coordination
with our branch mission leader, and for some reason, he asked Elder
M to share some random thought that he had. So Elder Merren went
off on this deep doctrine thought about the identity of God. At the
beginning of my mission, I would have soaked up anything like that. But
now that I've been learning a lot, teaching a lot, and doing a lot, I've
noticed that there's always a time and a place to share such deep
doctrines. Because of that, I kept myself out of the conversation, and
let them go off on their topic.
Friday,
we had district meeting, and we started it off by fixing lunch for the
district. We made Poppyseed chicken, and even though it didn't quite
turn out right, it still tasted really good to me. After finishing the
food, we had our meeting, and then proceeded to make some cinnamon rolls
for our less-active family (the Bs) since they just returned
from Guatemala. Elder M was in his element, so I just sat around
and plinked on the piano for a bit. We took the rolls over to their
apartment, and met A's wife and kids. His son is quite the little
devil. And for some reason, whenever I hear any child under 8 years old
speaking spanish, I think it's just the cutest thing in the world. I
went over and played with him while Elder M helped them make
dinner. (I'm usually the one that ends up just distracting all the kids
anyway.) We then came home, and settled for the night.
There
was a parade on Saturday, so we went out and tried contacting the
people out standing and sitting. We ran into this guy named S
M, a black guy that really REALLY resembles Samuel Jackson. His
voice, his attitude, everything. It was really funny, especially since
he was a bit drunk, and he was smoking something that I couldn't
identify. He told us a bunch of stuff, and then the marching bands came
through, and I lost the conversation. I got REALLY trunky when the bands
went by. MAN, I wish I had my trombone. Oh well. We finished up
contacting, and went back into our smoldering apartment. It was SO hot
that day. We had a lesson with F about the Gospel, and shared
scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Bible to show how each point is
found in both scriptures. After that, we went and visited the H
family, and found out that they'd been to the temple that day, so we had
dinner with them, and shared a spiritual thought about the temple.
Sunday,
F came to church, and loved it. We went around trying to find
things to do after we'd eaten dinner, and found a member named E
N. He sat us down in his apartment, and finished watching the last
few minutes of a football game. After that, he talked to us a bit about
how he came to be a member of the church, and explained his conversion.
It was a really needed boost for me, because he said that even when
things get really down in the dumps, to just keep going; because there's
someone like him that really needs us to knock on their door, or talk
to them in the street. He's a really solid member that we'll be visiting
again soon.
And yesterday, we had zone meeting,
in the which I was called upon to teach about Ammon's conversion in the
Book of Mormon. Beforehand, I had read through the story of Ammon, and
decided to take it in a different direction, moving it around the known
story, and pulling out little points here and there that I thought were
important. One of them was that after the sheep were scattered, Ammon
called to the other servants to help him catch the flock. After getting
everything back in order, when the Lamanites came to scatter the sheep
again, Ammon told the servants to encircle the flock, and that he would
contend with their enemies. I noticed a symbol of Christ in this. When
the dangers came, He told his servants the prophets, apostles, stake
presidents, and bishops to encircle the flock, or give them security and
protection. Then He went out and faced the sins "not a few" all by
Himself. Against the odds, both He and Ammon came out victorious in the
end. Both were the sons of a king, and both became shepherds. How neat
is that?
Anywho, other than that, not much has
happened in the last week. (I know, I know. That was quite the long
email, so there was quite a bit that happened.) And we'll talk
again next week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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