9/18/17 New companion, Service Project

1) Elder Magalei and me

2) Fog in our exciting parking lot

3)"skyline" of Grand rapids 

Last P-day in the afternoon we had a small miracle. We felt like we should go visit one of the families in our area so we drove to their home after confirming they were okay with us coming by. The family has some crazy kids and so we offered a prayer that taught me a simple lesson. We simply asked that the kids wouldn't be as rambunctious as they normally are and then walked in. Once we said the opening prayer we had a simple message centered how God is our loving Heavenly Father by using the scripture John 3:16 and what he wants from us in return using the scripture Omni 1:26. Never have the kids been so peaceful. The spirit was so strong in that home that night it was amazing. God really answers prayers. Our prayers shouldn't be designed to change God's will, because first of all they can't, but many times he is just waiting to send us certain blessings on the basis that we ask for them in faith. That lesson was a pretty humbling experience for me because as we walked out and I just felt like why are we not always doing this?

Monday was transfer day and I picked up Elder Waters for the few days we were together. He is also training so we worked in the my area up until Thursday. He has served English speaking for the last two transfers and was able to jump back into Spanish pretty easily.

Tuesday we had one of the more interesting lessons I've ever had with someone new. As we were walking into an appointment he ran up to us and asked who we were and set up an appointment with us. Come Tuesday we knocked on his door and he came out. We talked for a few minutes and asked if we could come in and share a message. He hesitated for a second but invited us in. He had us sit down on this couch and there was this other teenager just passed out on the couch. The guy who invited us in tried to wake him up but was to no avail. We asked if there would be another place we could sit down that might be better but he said no. We talked for a few more minutes and opened with a prayer. The lesson was kind of off and we weren't really getting any participation of any kind. About 10 minutes later we heard this car come to a skidding halt and park in the yard and some yelling coming from outside. The guy we were talking with jumps up and the guy outside is just screaming for the kid we were talking with yelling out threats and other unflattering things. At this point the kid we were with was rightfully acting pretty nervous and without saying anything walks out to this guy. Elder Waters and I kind of look at each other like "what the heck is going on and what can we do." We looked out the window because the yelling continued to make sure this kid wasn't getting beaten up or anything and we saw this bigger guy yelling some stuff at this kid and we hear him mention that cops are on the way. The kid runs back into the house where we are and tries to wake up the kid still passed out on the couch telling him that they have to go right now but to little avail. We asked him if everything was okay. He told us that maybe we should come back another day haha. The car in the yard shoots off and we walked out of the house to our car thinking what in the world is going on. We came back a few days later and he didn't say anything about what happened so it couldn't have been too bad haha. The life of an Elder.

Thursday Elder Waters and I went out to pick up our new companions. That morning we had a significant amount of fog which made the trip a little exciting.  Once we arrived at the Lansing stake center we had a bunch of really good trainings and meetings. President Brennan can be pretty inspiring. Later that evening we had a few lessons set up and my new companion Elder Magalei did really well. We walked into the Aguilars home after spending a fair amount of time prepping together for this lesson and once we said the prayer our whole lesson plan didn't feel right so we tossed it and did something completely different. I was really impressed that day one of in field Spanish he was able to completely pivot and turn on basically no notice. We had a really good lesson on faith and shared a few scriptures out of Alma 32 and a scripture in Joshua 4 I think. We've only spoken Spanish together which has been pretty good.

Saturday was the first day I really wished I had my camera. There was a stake service project up in Big Rapids that we got a ride up to. We did a trail clean up and it was really beautiful. We were planning on going with the youth and the leaders, so at 5am we arrived at the Young men's leader's house. We jumped in his van and went to the three homes of the youth in the branch and no one was awake to go, so we returned to his house and had breakfast and then he loaded up his own family and we went up. Big Rapids is about an hour away and we had two really good conversations, up and down, on the needs of the branch and the need for greater member support in the missionary work. We've had pretty poor support from the branch and it's really hard to get things moving. We listened to two really good talks this week about missionary work, the first is called "every member a bird doggier" and I can't remember the other one. Basically nothing works if the ward or branch doesn't support the missionary work.

Once we arrived at the service project we were immediately given gloves and a Mormon helping hands vest and thrown into the back of a pick up truck and dropped off about a mile away. There we removed brush and picked up a bunch of trash. We were right next to a really beautiful river bend and we spent a little bit of time watching the geese fly in and make their landing approaches to the river, it was quite and peaceful.

-Eric

9/9/17 Training a new missionary

fam,

Estoy embarasado con un hijo! (missionary play-on-language-lingo saying that he's going to be a trainer)

Well I'm going to train these next two transfers. That will be fun and a definite growing opportunity. I'll be serving with Elder Waters again for about 2.5 days before we drive down on Thursday to Lansing to pick up our new companions.

Two of the people we picked up on the long day of street contacting seem really promising.

To preface, missionaries have a rule that says we aren't allowed to be in the same room alone with someone of the opposite gender. This week we slightly got wrecked on that rule, so we taught a fair number of people outside.

The first was Paty. She came up to us on the street from behind and asked us who we were. We told her we were the missionaries from the church and talked with her for a while. We talked about modern day prophets and the other awesome things we share with people and set up a return appointment. Our first lesson with her was less than ideal. We pulled up outside her house and it was just pouring down and like 50-60 degrees. She didn't have a man home and was really sick. She still really wanted to meet with us, so we met on her porch outside. It was cold and rainy and we shared the first vision and BoM pretty quickly and she looked like death. Aside from the less than ideal conditions she asked some good questions and we set up a return appointment.

The other was Gabby. Her lesson was mostly in English, but she also didn't have a man home so we met outside. Luckily it wasn't raining. In Michigan in some of the poorer areas, the homes are often split up into multiple apartments so that like +4 families live in these small-medium sized homes. She lives on an upper level apartment of one of the same style homes and there was a pretty sketchy walk way going up to the door. We sat on three chairs on this sketchy landing and shared the message of the restoration. It's always awesome that the spirit accompanies us at each of our visits that we have with sincere people. Depending on the lesson I always try to ask why people invite us back or allow us to come over and this lesson was one of those lessons. She told us as we walked up to her and talked with her that she felt something and figured it was a sign. She then explained to us the stuff she has been going through and she felt she needed to straighten things out. It was super cool she shared that with us.

The other new person we picked up we had two lessons with in the last few days. Her name is Mary and also mostly speaks English. We might be passing her off which is unfortunate. Her family doesn't want to meet with us but she really does. Our first lesson was outside on the grass and it went really well. We committed her to pray about what we talked about and read the introduction. We came back like two days later and had a really, really good lesson. We had to re-cover most of the Restoration lesson because she didn't really grasp everything but at the end she really understood. We read a few things in the Book of Mormon to answer her question on "why do bad things happen to good people." At the end we covered why the BoM is so important. The last paragraph of the Introduction to the BoM explains this, it basically says that if the book of Mormon is true then the Church is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet and we have living day prophets. We asked her to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true. She did and paused for a moment after she asked in her prayer. She told us she felt joy and a warmth as she asked the question. We explained the spirit again and reconfirmed the commitments we left with her. We will know what happens with her most likely this Monday. Monday we will have a lesson at the Weston's house with the other elders that cover that area speaking English and she will hopefully decide then. Fingers crossed. Also during that lesson her three year old daughter was outside with us and was trying to destroy the lesson. She was throwing rocks but we were able to divert her attention to building a rock structure to keep her mom attentive and the kid from distracting the lesson, it turned out really well on all fronts.

We actually got a member referral on Thursday so we immediately went to go find this person. We got super vague explanations on which house it was and were told not to use their name which was a little sketchy. We walk up to this door and knock and this tall black guy who doesn't speak any English slowly opens the door and softly says "come" in a thick accent. At that point it was pretty clear we were at the wrong house, but we went in anyway. He tells us to sit and points at a couch and disappears. We sat for a moment in silence and he comes back out with his son. The guy tells his son something and then the son translates in broken English and asks us if we were there to teach them about the bible. We said yes and also mentioned the BoM. The Dad said something to his son, who then said "what day do you pray." Turns out they wanted to know when we go to church and we told them Sunday. They all sighed and looked down. Turns out they were Adventist, but they still invited us to come back today. So we will hopefully have a lesson with this family from Rwandan who speak basically no English. It's going to be super fun. We have the 20 minute restoration video that has a bunch of different languages including french which was their second language. Haha that will be fun.

Also the weather is already slightly chilly, we've been in the 60s with mornings in the 40s. I anticipate a fairly cold winter which will be nice to a certain extent.

September 4, 2017

fam,

I think we turned the tide on the Aguilars. It didn't feel right to extend a baptismal invitation but we had a really really good lesson. One thing that is hard to do but so worth it is to have lessons in members homes with investigators. 

Members homes often have a really good spirit about them that helps our lessons. We need as much help as we can get. We invited the Aguilars to the Westons home and watched the 20 minute restoration video and read some really good scriptures. The spirit was really strong as we read through some of the parts we did. We focused on repentance and receiving answers to our questions. Part of the lesson we read through 2 Nephi 26:23-30. 

23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

29 He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfareof Zion.

30 Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish.

For the first time in a little time I think something actually touched Gilda during the lesson. After we shared our testimonies on Jesus Christ and the gift of repentance we offered a kneeling prayer where we invited Natividad to offer the prayer and to ask if the BoM is true. As we knelt and Natividad offered an amazingly sincere prayer you could just feel the love of the savior as he humbly asked. In church the next Sunday Gilda had Natividad bring Leo to Primary which seemed like an attempt to remove distractions from church time. Leo who is 5 would normally stay with his mom.  

On Tuesday we had a really funny lesson with a member. We are teaching her sister and we visited with her so that we could tell her what we wanted to do with the lesson later that week so that she would be ready. After we covered what we planned for that later lesson we read through the Joseph Smith Testimony that is right before where the BoM actually starts. About mid way through she stops and kind of solemnly say "Elders I have a question." She then unfolds this huge story about how when she was living in one place and then just completely leaves all of her possessions because she was bored. She said she loaded some things she liked into her car and drove to another city leaving a house and a car to see if she would like the new city. She left everything because obviously if she didn't like it she could just come back. About a month later she decided her old home was too far away so didn't bother with anything there. Fast forward another few years the same thing happened again and she just picked up a few things and moves to Michigan. She told us nothing has ever happened to her and it's been like 50 years and she is a little embarrassed and a little scared to go back and see what has happened to the two houses she left. Some people ha ha. With a chuckle she asked if she was right with God. We told her we didn't have any authority to say anything on that and directed her to the branch president. 

In our zone conference last week we heard that Elder Snow of the quorum of the Seventy is coming to our mission for a few days which will be fun. President Brennan has been getting us really ready. As assignment we have been told to do a good amount of things in preparation including listening to each talk he has given at the various General Conferences he has spoken at.

 We also had a really good Family home evening a returning less active family that just moved to our side. The Westons were with us and we had a pretty good lesson. 

At the end we were eating some arroz con leche and we were talking with the wife about their goals. She mentioned she wanted to get sealed to her husband who is also returning less active, so hopefully we can jump start this goal with them! The only problem is that they have a kid and both work and their work schedule like so many Hispanics here which is that one parent watches the kids until the other gets out of work and the other goes in and they switch. We'll make it work.

We had a lot of success street contacting this week. Our area has like one consistently Spanish populated area and we spent like 5 hours walking around and talking with people. We picked up more people in one day with return appointments than anything I've done before. Hopefully something comes out of all that work. Street contacting is better in every way than door knocking, but there isn't a whole lot in this area where we can actually do that well. The only true good way to contact is through the members.

August 28, 2017

fam,

This week was pretty good. Missionary work in our area slightly got wrecked due to us having trade-offs with the other Elders and a multi-zone conference at the end of the week.

Zone conference was interesting. We had missionaries coming in from the Kalamazoo zone as well as the Lansing zone. The mission isn't reimbursing miles for zone conferences so they kind of got wrecked pretty hard. 

Overall it was a really good conference, we were able to participate in a bunch of really good training by various mission leaders. The one that impacted me the most was when the zones split off and were trained by the our Zone and Sister training leaders. We talked about when Peter walks on water, which interestingly only shows up in one of the gospels. 

The leaders took it another way but what really hit me and what I spent the whole time thinking about was the effect of Peters focus on that story. Jesus asked Peter to come to him and that's what Peter did. He had the faith to act and because of that he literally walked on water as it says, "to come to Jesus." When we focus our lives on that process of coming to Christ we can do those things that we assumed we couldn't, we just have to have that faith to start. It wasn't until he looked away from Christ and noticed everything going on around him that he sank but the second he called out for help Jesus immediately grabbed him. That last part reminds me of a really good scripture in 3 Nephi 10:4-6 

Tuesday we had a really good trade off. I went with Elder Barrows. We had two lessons that day. The first one was with a contact they made which fell through. Sadly they didn't open the door. It's no fun when you know they are hiding inside. It's not like we bite or anything. After that we actually had a pretty good time knocking. It's always super awkward when you walk up to the door and the person pulls out of their house in their car, but when it happened we were able to flip it around. This lady called out to us saying that was her house and that she was leaving. We ran over and asked if we could give her our card. That's an easy way to get a conversation going because you just take a good moment to write your info on the card and your companion can start talking with the whoever you are with. We shared something small with her and got a return appointment.

 Later that day we had another lesson. We had planned to visit with this lady and drop her due to lack of progression. We walked in with the Westons and started talking with her. Elder Barrows and I both felt like the lesson we planned was not what we were supposed to do. So while Elder Weston talked with the lady about either Bees (avejas) or Sheep (ovejas), both sound very similar in Spanish, we found a chapter and then began to read with her. I really had no idea what we were going to do after we were done reading. We picked a chapter to read with her and without knowing exactly what we were doing just kept going with it. We would pause and talk a little about particular verses but nothing really focused on a specific point we wanted to cover. We were coming to the end of the chapter and the whole time I was just praying for some kind of guidance to steer the lesson in. God answers prayers and in the last verse of the chapter the testimony I have in that principle was reconfirmed and strengthened. I was still way nervous but in that moment I felt like I needed to ask a question about faith. After that we really had a good lesson.

I'm not really sure what we are going to do with the Aguilars. We had our best lesson ever with them. We watched a video from what I think is called the "Because of Him" series. It's a series of videos the church put out about Jesus that are pretty good. We talked about Jesus Christ and bore testimony on the power of repentance and the spirit there was just so strong. It was really awesome and in my testimony I learned something really interesting. As I was sharing my thoughts the idea came to mind and I shared that we get answers to our prayers in the same degree we plan on acting on them. There are other factors but that's what I shared in that moment. Natividad and Aldo are ready. They have testimonies of what we've shown them and are doing what they should such as reading and studying the scriptures daily, the problem is if Gilda won't. I doubt Natividad will take any more steps without the companionship of his family in everything that follows. If we can't put them on a date, I'm not sure what we are supposed to do with them. It's evident that Gilda is holding something back but we haven't been able to find what's going on, and if she won't share we can't help.

Omni 1:26

8/21/17

Fam, 

Life is good mid transfer. Last P-day we got an email from a former missionary in our zone who just got home and is now married. It only took him 21 days after returning which is a little insane. The previous transfer we heard of someone engaged after 4 weeks and I thought that was fast haha. 

This week we did a lot of finding work. We knocked and visited many former investigators. It's always a huge testimony builder when we prayerfully pick out a few names and visit them. This last week we caught about 70% or so of the people we chose as they were walking into their homes. That is such a huge blessing because no one likes people knocking on their doors and people are far more open when we just talk with them on the street. People get the false idea we are trying to sell them things when we are on their door step. Also we look like the migra (immigration) which is really unfortunate. 

We had two exceptional lessons this week. 

The first was with Pedro again. We had a lesson where were going to talk about the importance of the BoM and the bible. Normally he doesn't open up very much but this time he did. He expressed some confusion over why we need the BoM. He said from what he has read that it teaches basically the same stuff as the Bible, which it does. There is a really good quote I wish we used and knew about when we walked into that lesson. 

President Ezra T Benson said "It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance." 

Most of our lesson was just testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was awesome. Hopefully that was what Pedro needed to start progressing. Quietly at the end he told us that he needed to start reading and praying more. 

The Book of Mormon is a powerful book of scripture that has made me who I am and is continually helping me become a better person. I know its true because I've read it and have felt the confirmation of the spirit of its truthfulness. There is no other way to gain that witness than by reading the message it contains and asking if it really is true with a willingness to make the necessary changes to live in accordance to its principles. 

The other lesson was with the Aguilar family. The last few lessons we've focused a lot on understanding the spirit and recognizing it. We've given them little booklets to write little experiences they've had. Gilda had to leave to pick up their son from work, but Natividad had a few stories to share. He talked about the peace he felt as he read through the BoM at work during his lunch break, he also mentioned that he felt something nice as he was praying about his family the night before. Natividad is definitely ready to be baptized but his wife isn't quite ready to take that step quite yet. She has only said she hasn't felt like she has received a spiritual witness of the truthfulness of the BoM. I'm not certain but I think she is just holding something back. Progress is slower but hopefully something changes soon. 

We had interviews with the President this week. It was really good. We had quite a bit of time compared with the few I had with the previous Pres. We just talked about how I've been doing for almost 30 minute, it was pretty nice. With Elder Barrows leaving it's going to be interesting to see what happens to our district. Apparently there were two elders coming in next transfer, which would have meant Elder Rencher and I would train, but sadly one went home from the CCM. Elder Guerrero is coming up on his year mark so he is the closet to leave. Also he has trained before (me). Elder Rencher trained Elder Barrows, which leaves me being the only one who hasn't trained yet. We'll know what happens in about 2 weeks. The new elder is Elder Magalei from Utah and he is Polynesian. I'm not sure which MTC he is in.

August 14, 2017

fam,

It's the worst when people you teach disappear without explanation. Carmen won't call us or pick up our phone calls and we've stopped by a billion times. So she is either dead as an investigator or dead dead. Either option isn't all that great, but the lack of information kind of sucks. Oh well. 

Chris and Caryn have been dropped as well. We taught the plan of salvation and it didn't go so well. Interestingly the first few minutes were really spiritual and about midway through the lesson Caryn started to throw down. Caryn's Pentecostal side started to come out and she started to get loud and finger pointy and it drove away the warm comfort that came with the spirit as we talked and bore testimony about the simple doctrines. Chris was quiet and I think he could feel the difference. She kind of devolved and started pulling up a bunch of nonsense. At first we were contesting a few of the points she brought up, but then she started making some bogus accusations and mis-quoting scripture. She made a few points that I had actually studied that morning and was totally ready to throw down on. She kept going and going and admittedly I was just waiting for a moment to push myself in. As I was sitting there, scriptures in hand, just waiting for that moment a thought came to mind which said "I know you can, but don't, just sit quietly." Thought ignored, I was still pulling out scripture just ready, completely ignoring that obviously I shouldn't bash back and two she wasn't in a position where she would be willing to be proven wrong and make an actual change. The thought came back and Elder Rencher looked at me and shook his head knowing what I was feeling. So we sat quietly. That was unfortunate. Some real mean things were said that day to us. We said a quiet prayer, apologized for any offense we may have caused and left and drove to our next appointment in silence. They were so close to opening up. We tried so hard.

On trade offs this week I had an amazing lesson that taught me an important lesson. It was with a man who had left the church 15 or so years back. We basically just talked with him to see what his story was. He was baptized and was really faithful for many years. He did a lot of member missionary work, later serving in various callings including a counselor to the branch president. After a few years he said he just missed a week of church. 

No one said anything to him and that week turned into two weeks. According to him he was still reading his scriptures and living all the commandments, he just missed church. Still no one seemed to wonder where he went so two weeks turned into three, four, five and eventually turned into years. No one reached out to him, no one said anything. He slowly drifted away from the standards of the church, later starting to drink and smoke. The same happened with his wife. He told us a few really cool stories about what brought him back to church. He said he knew the church was true; he just didn't feel like he had to go to church or that anyone really missed him. Eleven years after he took up smoking he was driving in the car with his son. He said his son told him to stop smoking because it was going to kill him, but he contested and said he would be fine. He started to open a pack and had a cigarette in his mouth and as he said, a literal voice other than his own or his son's told him sternly "This is your last, you will not smoke ever again." He rolled the window down and tossed it out and told himself, "I will never smoke again." He drove home more than a little stunned. At another time, he was going through his house looking for something he had lost and stumbled upon a pack and with out thinking habitually put it in his mouth and was about to light it when the voice came back, this time telling him "If you smoke this cigarette you will never leave this habit." Stunned, he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and purged his house of all things tobacco related. He said to us "Smokers always say that the first few days are like going through hell, but Elders, I was in complete peace." In one day he stopped smoking with no side effects. A few days later he showed up to our branch. His story reminds me of a story in the Book of Mormon found in Alma 47. Read it because due to lack of time I can't write a good enough explanation. Anyway Lehonti is "poisoned by degrees" and dies leaving the evil guy he put in second in command whom he thought he was in charge of and in control of, but in reality he didn't and he died likely thinking he was still control. Poisoned by degrees is the interesting phrase. If you get a lethal dose of poison you're going to know something is up, the kicker is if it's slow, like really slow you don't see the consequences immediately. The same is with the gospel. God knows us perfectly and loves us and commandments are not made to make us like puppets where God just wants to see what he can make us do, they're here to help and protect us. The guy we talked with fell away from the church through small decisions and his children never really got taught the gospel.  They are basically adults now and are completely uninterested in the gospel. It's amazing that he is back. It's even a miracle. But if he had avoided those little decisions that slowly took his family and himself away from the church he could have been through the temple and received the many blessings found there with his whole family. Also home teaching could have completely stopped that all. Home teaching is also SO important holy cow. That's another letter in itself. That lesson was awesome though. He just bore his testimony for like 40 minutes and it was epic. 

Other points from the week 

Elder Barrows got his Brazilian VISA! He leaves on the 4th!!!

I made two ties this week that turned out awesomely, more on the way.

August 7, 2017

fam,

Long week. The first week of the transfer is always so long. We also had like no food because the P-day to P-day was super long and the proximity to the end of the month meant we didn't have a bunch of money. We had a lot of burgers this week...

The last two Sundays were really good. The first we had the Aguilars as usual but also Carmen. Carmen had a really good time from what it looked like. She has two young kids who came to Primary with Elder Rencher and me and they really enjoyed the songs and everything that goes on. Carmen had to leave for work during the third hour and they came out of Primary with huge smiles on their faces. 

In the following lessons we talked about their Primary experiences a little and that really sat well with Carmen. A lot of her motivation is to help her kids be better than she was/is. Once you know why someone needs something or what they need, teaching becomes so much easier. The Gospel is for everyone but can be hard to apply in your life if you don't have something pulling you to it. Christ said it best, "they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance." 

This week we did a fair amount of work with former investigators. It was great. We had two days in a row where we prayerfully picked people out to go visit from the old records and we caught nearly all of them as they were walking into their homes. Most weren't really interested in us coming back but one let us come back a few days later. The guy is a non-practicing Pentecostal and we talked about our message. He had a really good memory because he met with missionaries like two years ago. They had three lessons and he remembered the one chapter they left with him to read. He talked about why he didn't believe our message and by the end of our little visit he left it with "I like the Bible a lot and won't read the BoM." He didn't want us to come back which was unfortunate but even though he wasn't willing to try we left on good terms. I left him something to read in Mathew 21 to read which has a great parable about God sending servants to work in the vineyard and something else in the Book of Mormon. We left with a prayer and as we got in the car Elder Rencher saw through the door the guy opening up the BoM and starting to read. That's great but also unfortunate because I would want to come back and follow up on what he did but he asked us not to come back. Not everyone will accept our message, but not very many people accepted Christ when he taught.

Two highlights of the week 

The first was our lesson with Chris and Caryn. They were out of town for a little bit so we weren't able to pass them off like we planned. I don't like holding on the English people because they get attached and it makes the transition to the English Elders much harder. We planned to finally pass the first lesson with them, but they haven't had a solid enough foundation for us to feel like we could move on. We had a warm welcome as usual and after talking for a bit opened in prayer. Chris said something that sounded like he may have read all the way up to Third Nephi but I didn't notice at first and I failed in following up to make sure. He probably just read the first few chapters of Third Nephi, but still that's awesome. He kind of got off on a tangent on the whole day and a half of light prophesy coming true and then the new star in the sky at Christ's birth and at first it was hard to tell if he was bringing this up as some attempt to prove the BoM false but it turned out that he really really liked it. He kind of geeked out about that for a few minutes. That was funny. Caryn had some questions about that, mostly because she didn't read. Her questions were good and sincere for the most part in the first half of the lesson. We planned on going through the plan of salvation but with no time left, mostly because we had very little time to begin with, we decided to share something short. We read through the first 5 verses of Moroni chapter 10 and covered that again. We bore testimony on the BoM again and Chris and Caryn seemed touched by what we said.  That warm good feeling that always comes with the spirit was there and I could tell Caryn was feeling the same thing as we shared how the BoM has affected our lives. After that there was a little silence and Caryn was clearly thinking, but in a different way than before when she was contesting the points of doctrine we taught them. She asked us if she could ask us two questions. We told her we really had to run but we would love to hear them anyway and give answers when we would come back. She asked us, "Why do I need the BoM if I'm already saved?" and "Why do you need to teach me the plan of salvation if I've already come to Jesus Christ and been saved?" Two really good questions. The spirit has been working really hard with her the last few days and she has a whole new demeanor. It's been really interesting to watch her the last few visits we've been with her. I really hope she allows the spirit to continue to work with her and that she really starts to progress. They have been such a great example to me in the importance of the spirit. Caryn tried to pull the Bible on us to prove us wrong but couldn't, which for the most part only means we've done our homework. You can make an appeal from the Bible that nearly every church is correct and all the others are false, but with the spirit you can't do the same. The spirit testifies of truth and is the single most important factor in conversion. 

The other Elders also had a baptism this week! This kid named Diego had a great service yesterday. I played the piano as usual. We came extra early to practice for the special musical number I was going to play and Elder Barrows was going to sing and one of the English sisters was going to sing as well. They sang a duet of A child's prayer in Spanish, it came out so well. We also had great speakers and like 50 people show up, many of whom weren't members. We started about 40 minutes late and I started the prelude 30 minutes before it was supposed to start. Mistakes were made. (editorial note: sounds like Pres. Monson). The piano seat was really hard and after an hour of prelude I was dying, not to mention the hour and a half of practice we had before that.