Wednesday, we had MTE's, and I got
moved to another area for the day. I was put in a trio in La Mesa with some
Elders that are pretty new to the mission. We went and started the day off with
a less-active visit, and we read from and talked about some chapters from the Book
of Mormon. We then went and tried to find some new investigators, and were able
to add one and invite her to be baptized. She accepted after a bit of
explanation on why we invite people to be baptized. We then went to visit a
member family and have dinner with them. We watched a talk by Thomas S. Monson,
and talked about the importance of member-missionary work. We then went to a
part-member family home, and they had dinner set out for us, so we got to eat
twice. The boyfriend isn't a member, and the girlfriend is. They've been having
a rough time, and I think it's because the guy is stuck in what he believes. He
tried to defend what he believed by attacking what we believed. Now as for me
and myself, I don't tolerate that. So I asked some questions about why he felt
the way he did, and clarified his understanding on the what and why of our
beliefs. He brought up polygamy and I answered his questions using the recent
essays that have been released by the church. He sat pretty stubbornly in what
he thought, and kept saying,"Well, as a CHRISTIAN, I believe in this or
that." and when I asked,"Well, what's a Christian?", he wouldn't
answer the question. I got a little heated if you couldn't tell, BUT, we kept
it cool as we all shared our thoughts.
Thursday, I got back with Elder Y.,
and the Elder that he had been with for the MTE's was a strange one. He said
that he was really glad that I was back. I'll admit, I was glad to be back,
too. We had lunch and got our weekly planning done after that, and went on to
visit some less-actives that neither of us had met yet. We found some at home,
and were able to get some return appointments set. We then went to dinner with
some members, and afterwards, went to teach L. We had decided to teach
about the importance of the Apostasy vs. the Restoration to help her grasp the
concept of how the authority to administer gospel ordinances was lost, and
was then restored through Joseph Smith. Halfway through the lesson, however,
she had to leave because her baby started making a really big fuss because he
was sick. So, we'll just have to work with her more this week. We then went and
tried to find a referral, and actually found him home! His name's V., and
he's 16 years old. We started talking about the things that he likes, and were
able to transition into the Gospel. We taught simply, and tried our best to
help him understand the need for the Savior and His Gospel, and when we
finished teaching about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he said that
he'd like to be baptized. Elder Y. and I both spaced completely on getting
him a specific baptismal date, so I'm guessing that the Spirit just made us
forget, because you'd think that we would do that right off the bat when the
person says they want to get baptized. But no. Neither one of us thought to
ask, so we said that we'd come back and teach the Restoration. It was a pretty
awesome lesson!
On Friday, we had breakfast with some
members who were going to feed us dinner that day, but had to reschedule
because of a time conflict. So we went and had California burritos for
breakfast, and went from there to district meeting. After district meeting, we
went and did some contacting, and found some less-actives at home. We were then
about to go eat with a less-active, but he cancelled, so we went and had dinner
with R. He sent us over to Domino's on our bikes, and we brought
some pizza back. We then went and met with another man whom we thought was
a member, but he turned out to be a non-member. So we unknowingly had an
investigator lesson, even though he didn't really want us to come back and
teach him again.
Saturday, we got some things done early
on, got chastised by a guy on the street for not helping the homeless people
more, (that was fun), had lunch, and went to meet some people. We visited
a less-active whose husband came out and told us that she didn't want to be a
member anymore, so we shouldn't come back anymore. That surprised us. We went
and visited a less-active in the same complex and talked about what he could do
to be ready to baptize his daughter in a few weeks' time. We then went and had
coordination, and it went...alright, I guess. We then went to give a blessing
to a member in our area. Her oldest daughter is going through severe cancer
treatments and surgery, and the other has been sentenced to several years in
jail, so she was pretty distraught. We gave her a blessing, and gave her some
words of comfort, and went home.
Sunday, we fasted for that sister to
whom we gave the blessing, and the other Elders had lunch with a member right
after church. Right before we left to go do that, the sisters asked us to go
take the sacrament to an elderly sister who can't leave her home. We ran over
and did that, and went to leave the Elders at their lunch appointment. They're
short on mileage, so we didn't go anywhere, and just sat in the car and did our
studies. They took for-stinking-ever, and we went to our dinner appointment
afterwards. DINNER appointment. That's how long it took. We then went and visited
some other members in the same complex as the dinner appointment, went to visit
another less-active in a different complex, had a lesson with him, and
went home after a bit of not finding anyone at home after that.
Yesterday, we had some pretty great success
since it was President's day and tons of people were home from work and school.
We tried to have a lot of lessons with investigators, but surprisingly, none of
them were home. SO, instead, we went and visited tons of less-actives. We were
able to have tons of good lessons, and were out in the cool, ocean breeze the
whole day. I was surprised at how cool and humid it was! El Cajon is always hot
and dry. As we walked around, I contacted a guy in Arabic, and didn't
go very far before I couldn't say anymore. Luckily his friend came
over and started translating for us, and the guy said that he wasn't
interested. Oh well. Then our dinner cancelled on us again, so we ate at
home this time. We then went out and started biking, and as we were going, there
was this couple of girls and an older gentleman that were trying to push a
couch across the street. We parked our bikes, picked the couch up, and took it
to their apartment. They were Arabic, so they didn't get much of what we were
saying, and we didn't get much of what they were saying, but we were able to
help them out in the moment that they most needed it. I thought it
was pretty cool. We then ran into the Arabic Elders and suggested that they
could probably stop by and visit them to see if they'd like to learn about the
gospel. A few of our set appointments fell through, so we visited a less-active
guy that's 22 years old, and we were able to break the ice with him. He's
pretty "meh" about the church, but we were able to get him to express
a few of his concerns. Elder Y. and I both thought that it went really
well.
Eh-yup! That's just about it for this
week! Oh, and don't worry about the bike, Mom. Another Elder is letting me use
his until I finish the mission so that I don't have to buy one. As for the
missionaries in the branch, we have two Sister training leaders and four
Elders. We're mostly working with less-actives right now because of the huge
number that we have. We're hoping to be able to find some new investigators
soon.
Have a great week, everyone! I love
you!
-Elder Crook
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