February 25, 2013

holy crap crackas! this week flew by! I guess before I start there are a few questions that i need to answer.  We get fed almost every night. occasionally we will have to feed ourselves, but our apartment is loaded with noodles and soups from past missionaries so all we have to buy is bread and milk. haha. Elder Wright is a stud! he and i are a lot alike. so we haven't killed each other yet. haha. our district is small. it is four elders me and elder wright included. elder wright is the district leader and then there is elder ballard and elder mosely. they are both weirdos, but they are way funny! haha. they are the elders that are in the upper peninsula. there is also a senior couple up in the sault (upper peninsula). So this week i went to Traverse city with one of the Zone leaders and it was cool working there. out here in northern michigan there really aren't a lot of people in the winter. haha.

We had zone conference which was good. president hess talked to us and i really like something that he pointed out. he was talking about Doctrine and Covenants 6:36. he pointed out that it's a commandment to doubt not and fear not. those are two tools that satan uses to destroy the work and we have the agency and ability to choose what we are thinking. often times we worry about stupid things. well stop worrying about it. worrying is a waste of time and you have the ability to choose what you think about. i loved that becasue it is so true, worrying doesn't change the circumstances of anything. it really is just a waste of time. put your worrys on christ. that's why he atoned for us. he knows how we feel so get on your knees and ask to quit worrying about certain things and WORK for it. think about what your thinking about and change what your thinking about if necessary. you become and you are what you think you are and what you think you'll become. so be confident. like me! ;) haha jk. I just had to throw that in there. so friday we talked to holly (an investigator that we knocked into) about the plan of salvation and invited her to be baptized. she said she will have to think about it but that she would pray about it. and now for telling you guys about saturday. the most tiring day of my mission by far and the weirdest day and just a crazy day that i felt just about every emotion there is. So i'll give some of the highlights. so about mid way through the day we go and see an investigator ( by this point a bunch has already happened and the day has already been nuts) her name is Gina and we knocked into her i think tuesday. but we had an amazing first lesson with her. we had to clear up a lot about the church because anti material is everywhere up here, but by the end of our lesson she felt loads better about the church and was sincerely going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. then we set a baptismal date with her!!! i was SOO pumped! haha. then we went and talked to the guy that wanted help to quit smoking. we got all the stuff for the quit smoking program and took it to him. we started talking about the necessary steps and i told him to go grab his tobacco. he asked why i wanted him to grab it and i told him cuz he was going to throw it away and get rid of it. then he told me that it was expensive and he didn't want to throw it away so i kinda got blunt with him and asked if he was just blowing smoke when he told us that he wanted to quit smoking. he said he wants to quit smoking and he just can't now. so i asked why he couldn't start now and blah blah blah, moral of the story he isn't doing the stop smoking program with him anymore, but we are visiting with him about personal stuff and we gave him a blessing. Well then later that night we go and talk to a mother that has had the missionaries for a long time cuz she had kinda a bad experience happen with her daughter so we go over and we talk to her and comfort her. this lady is cool though, Elder Wright and I are able to teach her things that other missionaries haven't been able to because she tells them to stop teaching her. but it's cuz we're real with her and we aren't pretending to be someone else. so side note comment, remember the lord called YOU on a mission. you don't have to act like someone you're not. YOU can touch someone that others can't. so then we went to dinner then after dinner we go to the hospital to give a recent convert a blessing. well in the same room as this lady is an old woman who is obviously in her death bed and in loads of pain. her daughter who is in her 50's is right next to her trying to comfort her and she is crying. so we ask if we can do anything for her and we tell her we can give her mother a blessing. this lady was so grateful and you could tell felt the love and sincere care that we felt for her and so she said she would love that. well, i'm about to start when the daughter's husband walks in and the daughter tells him that "these kind young men are going to give mom a blessing." well he looks at us, looks at our badge, and says" no there not." So i looked at the daughter and wished her my best and told her we'd pray for her. then this guy says my mom's a christian! you devil worshiper! then elder wright was like "sir, we believe whole heartedly in christ and we wish you the best." I can tell you, i have never felt so bad for someone in my life and never wanted to punch someone in the throat so bad in my life. that one took a lot to just walk away from and not yell or say anything bad at this guy. cuz we just wanted to help that poor woman and her mom. so then we went on a walk with an investigator and helped a guy that was stuck in his driveway cuz of the snow and told him a little about who we are. so that made us feel a lot better, but we still had to pray hard that night to not harbor those hard feelings against that guy. cuz i really wanted to punch that guy right in the head. but i didn't and we didn't do or say anything to disgrace the name we have on our badge. but ya, that day i felt every emotion in the book. haha. it was nuts. haha. well hope you all have a great week.