Tuesday last week, we visited with J.
and B., and taught them the Restoration. After we finished, we explained the
importance of baptism to those who desire to follow Christ, and invited them to
be baptized on December 6th. They accepted, and asked what the requisites were.
We told them that they'd have to understand what they were doing, first of all,
and then they'd have to come to church two more times. They agreed, and said
that they'd be at church.
On Wednesday, we had planned on doing
some finding activities like drawing the Plan of Salvation on a sidewalk at a
park or something, but our plans got carried away with something that came up.
(I can't quite remember what.) After that, we visited a member and read a
chapter in the Book of Mormon with her, and shortly after, went to teach I.
When we got there, he started with his usual questions, this time asking about
the importance of the washings and annointings with the Tabernacle. We talked
about how they were meant to cleanse Aaron's sons of their sins, that they
might administer in the ordinances and sacrifices. Then, he talked a bit about
the chapter that we left him to read from 3 Nephi 11. He really liked it, and
we segwayed into teaching him the Restoration (finally). Mostly it's just been
us answering his questions, but this time around, we got to teach him. He's
committed to be baptized, but he wants to come to church first. Soon after
that, we added a new investigator named L. He'd met with the missionaries
before, but couldn't remember much of what they taught. He told us about some
trials that he'd been having with him and his wife getting divorced, and we
taught the Restoration based on his troubles of mind. Halfway through, he told
us about some of the things that the Jehovah Witnesses believe, (since he had
been meeting with them before he chose to meet with us). He said that he really
didn't like what they believed, and after we finished, he said that he really
liked what he had seen and heard. He actually asked us to bring a specific
member with us the next time that we come. Turns out that he knows Brother
L., this member that we've been working with for the last two transfers. SO,
we now have a member-present lesson set up with L. tomorrow.
On Thursday, we had weekly planning.
That went without any hindrances, and we had some appointments fall through.
We then went and ate with our member B., who is striving to be ready to
go to the temple with his girlfriend in Tijuana. We went to El Pollo Loco, and
got some food there. As we sat and ate, he told us all of these stories about
him being a chauffeur driver, a miner, and a bunch of other jobs that he'd had
in his life. At the end, we gave him the "Preparing to Enter the Holy
Temple" pamphlet, and talked about what he could start doing to prepare
himself to go. He said that he'd read the pamphlet and that we'd talk about it
the next time that we met with him. We then went to coordination with Brother
H. and the Sisters.
For Friday, I had something pretty
crazy happen. I was sitting there studying for what I would teach for District
Meeting, and for some reason, three topics kept coming to mind; how to
recognize the Spirit, extending commitments, and baptism/confirmation. I wasn't
quite sure why, so I settled for going into depth on the recognizing the
spirit, and just leave the other two for the end. We then went to DLC, or District
Leader Council, and talked a bit about what President S. had shared with
the zone leaders. Three things were mentioned; recognizing the spirit,
extending commitments, and baptism/confirmation invitations. I was pretty
dumbfounded by the fact that I'd studied for the exact three things that
President had shared. I shared those things with the district in district
meeting, and it was a very spiritual meeting. After that, we then went to try
and visit some potential investigators that weren't home. We then decided to go
to our dinner appointment with the B. family. We met with them, ate some
food, talked a bit, and then they mentioned that their son was struggling with
math in school, so I offered to help him out with his math homework. They happily
agreed. Afterwards, we visited Hno. L., and told him about the investigator
that wanted him to come with us to a lesson. He was pretty surprised, but
happily agreed.
Saturday was rough, starting with
F. cancelling his appointment with us. We've invited him to
be baptized, he says he'll want to get baptized, but doesn't want to pick
a specific day. After that, all of our appointments kept falling through. We
helped Hno. L. to move some stuff out of his house for his yard sale, and that
was pretty much the big event of the day. We wanted to visit the H's, but they
were out of town. Luckily, their parents were taking care of their kids, so we
went and shared a scripture with them and the kids.
On Sunday, almost nobody was at church.
For some reason, a ton of the members weren't there, not to mention the fact
that our four investigators that had committed to come to church, didn't come.
Then, at 7:00, after wracking our brains for something to do, we visited
Hno. N. and his family. They hit it off really well with Elder G., and
he and Hno. N. dominated the conversation, so I just sat there. After that,
we just came home.
Yesterday, we had zone meeting. We went
over some little things, and when we got to accountability, once again, the
zone leaders and a few other missionaries decided for the rest of the zone
that our new investigator goal should be wonderfully high. I sat
and fumed for a bit, since my comments kept getting shut down. I
finally gave up and just sat and let things go. After that, I got asked to
teach a bit about Christ-like charity. The other district leaders were assigned
other topics to teach about, all related to charity. I shared the parable of
the Good Samaritan, and gave some personal insights as to why this Samaritan,
who should have been an enemy to the wounded Jew, was instead his friend and
savior. I based what I taught on understanding who other people really are, and
not as we understand it with our blood-relations. Rather, we should look at
others with the understanding that we loved them before this life with an
eternal, or pure, love, and that we were and are family. After that, all of our
appointments fell through, and we weren't able to visit with hardly anyone. We
finished the night off with helping the B's son with his homework. I
think that he has ADD, because he had a really hard time focusing. BUT, he got
the math at the end, so that was good.
And today, we went to the temple and out of
the blue, they showed the really old movie. Like, the one that I saw when I
first received my endowments. It was pretty nostalgic. I didn't think I would
ever see that one again.
Other than that, not much has happened
this week! I hope you all have a great week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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