Thursday, we got up and got runnin'
early. Once again, the temperature was above 100 by noon. We picked up CJ, and
went to teach V. at 10 a.m. We had a really great lesson with her about
the restoration, and even though she said at the beginning, "I'm a Catholic.", by the end she was super interested in reading the Book of
Mormon. She had even read the introduction and had questions about it. I think
she read your testimony before she read the intro. Thanks for putting that in
there. We then were able to answer several of her questions, including one
about infant baptism. She had a big problem with it, and said that she felt
that it was wrong, so we showed her Moroni 8:11-12, and she lit up when she read
it. She had a question about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, so we gave her the
reading assignment to read 2 Nephi 31 before our next appointment. She said
that she'd be busy all this week until after Mother's day, so we'll be stopping
by this week just to see how she's doing and how the reading's going. We then
did weekly planning, got some really good insights planned in, and went out to
try and contact some referrals. None were contacted, so we went to visit a
less-active member. The wife was there, and she asked us when we could come
back. So we set an appointment, and continued on to some other people to visit,
and ran into a couple of members on the street. We even talked to a guy named
John Kennedy. I wonder if his middle name started with an F. Hmmm. We then went
with Hno. C. to see some members for branch splits/visits. We saw the
G.'s, and shared the Because He Lives video with them. We then went to see
some other members, but they weren't able to meet with us. We then called it a
night. Because of the heat during the day, I made sure to double-check and see
if I still had eyebrows.
On Friday, we did mormon.org,
and went to see if we could find some people outside to talk to. For the third
day in a row, above 100 degrees, and I think that it's the humidity that kills
me. We tried a few places that we hadn't been to before, but found nobody. We
contacted both of our referrals, and were able to set up return appointments.
On the second one, I started feeling lightheaded because I didn't have any
water. We swung by a CVS pharmacy, and I snagged a Gatorade. Oh man it was the
quenchiest. I downed the whole thing in 10 seconds. We biked around a bit more.
We then had dinner, and from there, went to see the C.'s. I'm not sure
exactly why or how it happened, but I had been listening to Brad Wilcox in
"His Grace is Sufficient" that morning before studies, and I felt the
strong impression to share some thoughts from that. The Spirit was so, so
strong. I was mondo-major-crazy surprised. I don't know exactly what the
C.'s needed from what I said, but I hope that they got something. We then
got a call from Hno. I. to go to his sister's house, so we did. He had
inadvertently broken his car key inside of the lock on the trunk, and needed
our help with what he was doing in the trench that we had dug the week before.
We helped him out with some of the laying of the piping, and held the light up
so that he could see what he was doing. We then went home.
Saturday, we woke up early and helped
clean the church, and right after that, we went to the San Diego Family History
Center and got Elder V. trained up on how to do family history work. We then
did some studies, and went to see an English guy that is a friend of M.
L.'s. We called him up, and went to see him. He welcomed us into his
museum/apartment. I mean really, it was one of the coolest apartments I've ever
seen. He had African masks, skulls, paintings, models, molds, and all sorts of
other stuff, arranged and set in a neat order. His bedroom was Japanese themed,
and everything on the walls was authentic Japanese stuff from the 40's and
50's. His guest room was Old West themed, and had pictures, paintings, an
Indian headdress, tools, arrowheads, guns, and all sorts of stuff on the walls.
His kitchen was Civil War themed, and he has an original photo of John Wilkes
Booth. There were pictures of Lincoln, newspapers, and all sorts of stuff. We
sat down after he showed us all of this, and told us about his life, and how
everything he had collected hadn't done him much good. We talked about what we
do as missionaries, and after a while of talking and sharing, we invited him to
meet with Elders D. and F. He agreed, and we said that we'd stop by and
see how he was doing every so often. We then had dinner with the C.'s, and
they made some pretty darned good mole. We then went to see some other members,
but since it was the fight night of Mayweather and Paquiao, we didn't' have much
success.
Sunday, we made it to branch council,
and it was packed. A bunch of people from the Stake Presidency and high council
were there, so we took the remaining two seats. During the prayer, we heard a
knock, and I figured that since Elder V. and I didn't have much to discuss,
that we could leave and set up chairs/make copies of the program/set up the
sacrament table, etc., so we got up and asked President if we might be excused,
and that we would get those things done for him. He smiled and thanked us. We
got all that stuff done, and waited. Several less-actives came to church, which
was awesome! We then had the classes, and went home. After getting home, we
studied the afternoon away, and then went to see L., an investigator of Elder
N's. We met him, and talked with him about a lot of things. We shared our
message, and our expectations, and left. We had dinner, and went to see E.,
a recent convert of CJ L's. We knocked on the door, and at first, they
didn't open the screen door. We asked for E., and the guy on the other side
asked who wanted to know. We mentioned that we knew CJ, and the door flew open.
It was a bit awkward at first. The wife is E., and her husband Z., isn't a
member. In fact, right off the bat, he said that he wouldn't go to our church
because of some things that he'd read. I did my best to let him know that a lot
of times, people that attack the church with certain things don't exactly cite
their sources. The things they say are pretty much just hullabaloo until you
can find the direct source and citation. That eased his worries, and from that
point on, the visit just got better and better. E's dad dropped off their
son, G., and he was just a little ball of joy. He had no problem with
coming up to us and saying hi and giving us a high five. We talked about a lot
of things, and we had a great time with them and their family. By the end of
the visit, they were eager and exited for us to come back. We then biked around
for a bit, and turned in and went home.
Yesterday, we had one of the coolest
miracles I've had on the mission. We biked over to see the G's, but they
weren't home. We went to see S., one of the referrals, and he wasn't home
either. We then went to see the R., but only the husband was home, so we
gave him the Because He Lives card. We then went to see a particular
less-active on a street called Shady Lane. He wasn't home, so we started
walking out. I spotted this older black lady that I had tried to contact last
week. When I tried last week, she gruffly said no, and shrugged us off. This
time, I noticed that she was struggling to get around because of her legs. She
has to use a cane, so I asked if there was anything we could do to help. She
said no. I then got a feeling. I asked her how her day was going. She started
to cry, said that her name was J., and said that things had been really hard
lately, and that she was so sorry for shrugging us off last week. She said that
she had felt horrible after, and that she only did it because that's what
everyone else does. I was really surprised. She told us all of these things,
and said that she was so thankful for God and Christ. We stood and listened to
her, and after a bit, she asked if we knew anything about computers. I said
that I did. So, we walked her to her apartment, helping her up and down the
stairs, and she waited outside while I worked my magic. She uses this phone
service called MajicJack, and it had stopped working all of a sudden. So I
called up Elder J., who is a computer genius, and he walked me through a
ton of troubleshooting techniques. None of them worked. So, I got the idea to
check the website one more time, and there was an upgrade button, so I clicked
it. The software installed, and the phones worked again. She was so thankful,
and she said that we could come back any time. We said that we'd send some
other Elders, and she was all for it. I felt like that was one of those moments
where someone was changed by the Spirit, and I got to see it happen. We then
had dinner with the G.'s, and went to see the C's for FHE. We
shared a message about forgiveness, and the Spirit was really strong. We then
turned in for the night.
Well, that's just about the whole
kit-'n-kaboodle. I'm happy to report that the heat didn't kill me, and that
we've been doing well here in this area. I'm really excited to talk to you this Sunday! I love you!
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