Day 61- Productive Day-5-28-06
The problem with productive days is that they cause so many things to happen at once. It is hard to give everything the attention it deserves. I'll do my best, though. I'll make a list of everything that happened today that was of note. Then if I have time, I'll expound on them.
1.) W. and T. and A. all came to church today. We committed them to be baptized.
2.) I got my bike fixed.
3.) We met with N. and are taking him and A. to Ultimate Frisbee tomorrow.
Okay, those are the big events. W. and T. you already know about. I'll talk for a minute about A. We've actually been teaching him before we started teaching W. Elder Buttars was teaching him before I got out here. We'd go to his house and share a message. The problem was that we could not get him to come to church. We'd remind him Saturday night that his ride was coming by the next morning, but he would usually sleep in. We'd leave a note on the door. "Sorry we missed you". This went on for weeks. A. would say, "come pick me up" and then no one would answer the door.
It had gotten so bad that Elder Buttars said we would have to cut back the time we were spending teaching him. Well, needless to say, A. showed up for church. He is 23, single, and moved to America form Liberia. We plan to spend more time with the three who've committed to baptism in the coming weeks.
Point 2: I got my bike fixed. I'm thankful to my companion and his knowledge of bike repair. I feel confident that if my bike got another flat, I could fix it myself (knock on wood).
Point 3: Now to introduce N. N is a man we have been trying to meet for a while. He was never home. I wondered why we kept stopping by. Elder Buttars said that he was interested in the church, but that he had a very busy work schedule. We ran into him in the street. He was walking with his wife and pushing his new baby girl in the stroller. We arranged to meet with him at 7.
Elder Buttars. met N 7 weeks ago. He is a short, stout black man. We met at seven at a picnic area. He told us his story.
He had been in prison for 3 years. He saw all kinds of terrible things in there. Two inmates were murdered and many others were assaulted. He knew that if he wanted to make it out of prison, he'd have to learn to mind his own business. He tried not to think of the horrors that were going on around him. He tried to devote himself to repentance and to God. For three years all he did was study the Bible.
This is what he told us he found out from reading the bible. "Look at Noah. Only the people who were on that ark were saved from the flood." What that tells me is that there's only one true church of God. All throughout the Bible, God had only one way. There were lots of ideas about religion but only one church of God. In the Old Testament, if you wanted to know what God thought, you listened to Moses."
When he was telling us this, all I could think about was "this is THE church. You have found it."
He said that he had been going through different Christian churches to find the one that came closest to the church that was set up on the earth by Jesus Christ. He looked into the Catholic Church, but did not feel that it was the right church for him.
He talked about when he was a boy, his family went to the Baptist church. Their preacher was a friend of everyone in the neighborhood. He and the other fathers would get together on the weekends, watch football and drink beer. Watching his father and the preacher get drunk turned him away from the Baptist church and church in general. What was the point of going to church on Sunday if you would go out and get drunk the rest of the week. He told us that we needed some wisdom from the Lord about what we should and should not eat. "Wisdom from the Lord." Some words of wisdom from the Lord. I thought in my head, "Word of Wisdom." Everything he said sounded like a question from Preach My Gospel. He said that he wants to investigate our church. I can't wait to answer his questions.
1.) W. and T. and A. all came to church today. We committed them to be baptized.
2.) I got my bike fixed.
3.) We met with N. and are taking him and A. to Ultimate Frisbee tomorrow.
Okay, those are the big events. W. and T. you already know about. I'll talk for a minute about A. We've actually been teaching him before we started teaching W. Elder Buttars was teaching him before I got out here. We'd go to his house and share a message. The problem was that we could not get him to come to church. We'd remind him Saturday night that his ride was coming by the next morning, but he would usually sleep in. We'd leave a note on the door. "Sorry we missed you". This went on for weeks. A. would say, "come pick me up" and then no one would answer the door.
It had gotten so bad that Elder Buttars said we would have to cut back the time we were spending teaching him. Well, needless to say, A. showed up for church. He is 23, single, and moved to America form Liberia. We plan to spend more time with the three who've committed to baptism in the coming weeks.
Point 2: I got my bike fixed. I'm thankful to my companion and his knowledge of bike repair. I feel confident that if my bike got another flat, I could fix it myself (knock on wood).
Point 3: Now to introduce N. N is a man we have been trying to meet for a while. He was never home. I wondered why we kept stopping by. Elder Buttars said that he was interested in the church, but that he had a very busy work schedule. We ran into him in the street. He was walking with his wife and pushing his new baby girl in the stroller. We arranged to meet with him at 7.
Elder Buttars. met N 7 weeks ago. He is a short, stout black man. We met at seven at a picnic area. He told us his story.
He had been in prison for 3 years. He saw all kinds of terrible things in there. Two inmates were murdered and many others were assaulted. He knew that if he wanted to make it out of prison, he'd have to learn to mind his own business. He tried not to think of the horrors that were going on around him. He tried to devote himself to repentance and to God. For three years all he did was study the Bible.
This is what he told us he found out from reading the bible. "Look at Noah. Only the people who were on that ark were saved from the flood." What that tells me is that there's only one true church of God. All throughout the Bible, God had only one way. There were lots of ideas about religion but only one church of God. In the Old Testament, if you wanted to know what God thought, you listened to Moses."
When he was telling us this, all I could think about was "this is THE church. You have found it."
He said that he had been going through different Christian churches to find the one that came closest to the church that was set up on the earth by Jesus Christ. He looked into the Catholic Church, but did not feel that it was the right church for him.
He talked about when he was a boy, his family went to the Baptist church. Their preacher was a friend of everyone in the neighborhood. He and the other fathers would get together on the weekends, watch football and drink beer. Watching his father and the preacher get drunk turned him away from the Baptist church and church in general. What was the point of going to church on Sunday if you would go out and get drunk the rest of the week. He told us that we needed some wisdom from the Lord about what we should and should not eat. "Wisdom from the Lord." Some words of wisdom from the Lord. I thought in my head, "Word of Wisdom." Everything he said sounded like a question from Preach My Gospel. He said that he wants to investigate our church. I can't wait to answer his questions.
posted by Garden Anywhere Box | 7:38 AM
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