Day 163-Some Missionary- 09-07-06
This morning we had some unexpected visitors. At 6:30am my companion and I got up as always. Unexpectedly, two guys opened the front door and walked into our apartment. Still a little sleepy and not sure what was going on, it took me a few seconds to realize that they were our beloved zone leaders, Elder Hall and Elder Bateman. “What are you doing here at this hour?” I said. “Well,” said Elder Bateman, “we wanted to shake up our morning routine, so we drove over here to spend exercise and study time with you.”
“Whoa! Look at that!,” said Elder Bateman. He pointed to the patio. I looked and sure enough, the spider was back with another web covering the door. “Oh, yeah,” I said, “That’s Charlotte. We’re trying to teach her how to spell “Some Missionary” in her web for when Sister W comes to inspect our apartment. “Nice,” said Elder Hall. My companion was less amused. “Where’s my golf club?” he asked. He grabbed it, waved it around and destroyed the third giant spider’s web in 4 days.
After our morning jog, we came back and I made smoothies for everyone. They really enjoyed them. It sure was fun having the zls over this morning.
We were able to get in touch with A this morning. He invited us inside and we talked for a bit. A said he was sorry that he missed church. He told us that he didn’t get home until late Saturday night and just could not wake up on Sunday morning. We suggested that if he started going to be earlier, it would be a lot easier to wake up in the mornings. We asked A to review with us what he had learned so far. He talked about how important it is to have a living prophet on the earth today. I would like to think that he is close to setting a baptism date, but we still need him to come to church, read from the Book of Mormon and stop smoking. Simple, right?
W invited A to dinner with Brother and Sister G (see Day 131). I love going to the G’s home. They always have such good meals. Brother G is a great member missionary. He’s actually a convert to the church. Brother G converted years ago when he was in college. He has a really strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. He can help address investigators concerns and things. We have it all set up for Brother G to pick us up at 6:00pm and then we’ll go get A. It should be a fun evening.
Next, Sister B and her husband came and picked us up for lunch. We went out and had Chinese food. It was pretty good. Sister B is so nice to us. Her husband isn’t a member so this is a good chance for us to fellowship him.
After Sister B dropped us off at our apartment, we went out to work. We visited some people this afternoon. We were just about to start making our way back when I thought that we should go and visit S. We went by to see what she was doing. I had not met with her since she spoke with President P.
I asked S what was new since we last spoke. She mentioned that she had a nice talk with President P. He had given her some pamphlets to read. One was a pamphlet about Joseph Smith. She had a question that she wanted to ask. She excused herself to go get the pamphlet. She said, “I read this and most of the stuff I already know from the videos you showed me, but what I wanted to ask was…and please don’t be offended…but I read something that just doesn’t seem right. I was hoping you could help me with it.” “Okay. What is it?” I asked. “Well,” said S, “on page 3 it says…and you can see I underlined it with highlighter…it says that after God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, he said, ‘I was answered that I must join none of them (meaning churches) for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…’”
“Well,” said S. “What?” I said curiously. “Well, according to Joseph Smith, God came down and called all of these Christian churches abominable. Now I don’t know, but to me that does not sound like something God would say. I mean, all the different church around had faith in Christ as their Savior and God is calling them abominable.” I explained to S that our Heavenly Father said that their creeds were an abomination. “Well, what’s the difference?” said S. I told her that an abominable creed is the same as false doctrine. False teachings. It’s like saying that it’s okay to baptize by sprinkling instead of by immersion. Jesus Christ (our example) was baptized by immersion (all the way in the water) and not by just having water sprinkled on his head. So baptism by sprinkling would be an abomination or a false doctrine. That seemed to work for S.
Next, she told us about what happened last Sunday at her church. She said, “I went to my church on Sunday, begging, pleading with God to give me a sign to help to show me what I should do; if my church was right or if it was an abomination like it said in your pamphlet. We were singing hymns about Christ and His glory and power. I looked around and there were people with tears in their eyes. They were overcome with the spirit. I looked at my husband. He never cries and he had a tear in his eye. I couldn't help but feel that God was telling me that this place is good.”
“But then today, I was feeling really depressed. I was sitting around the house moping. I thought to myself, ‘S, it’s a beautiful day outside. Get out of the house and go for a walk. It’ll make you feel better. But then I thought, no, I don’t want to go for a walk by myself. At that very moment the phone rang and it was K (Sister H, S’s neighbor) asking if I wanted to go for a walk. So we went for a walk on the nature trails for about an hour. I was able to talk to her about different things and she was able to answer some questions for me about your church.”
“Isn’t Sister H wonderful?” I said. “She really is,” said S. “You know, when I was feeling sick a couple of weeks ago, K came over and cleaned my house.”
Right before we left, S told us that she felt like she was the ball on a giant ping-pong table getting knocked back and forth with which church to choose and she was “not sure which side to land on.”
I told S to keep praying and know that your Heavenly Father loves you. She said that she knew that. So, my Happy Thing for Day 163 was getting to talk about an aspect of the gospel with S.
(Sigh) we did not get to have dinner with A. Brother G came by and we went over, but no one answered the door when we knocked. We ended up going to eat with the G’s anyway. After dinner, we went on exchanges with Brother G and tried hooking up with A again. He still was not home. Maybe next time…(sigh)
“Whoa! Look at that!,” said Elder Bateman. He pointed to the patio. I looked and sure enough, the spider was back with another web covering the door. “Oh, yeah,” I said, “That’s Charlotte. We’re trying to teach her how to spell “Some Missionary” in her web for when Sister W comes to inspect our apartment. “Nice,” said Elder Hall. My companion was less amused. “Where’s my golf club?” he asked. He grabbed it, waved it around and destroyed the third giant spider’s web in 4 days.
After our morning jog, we came back and I made smoothies for everyone. They really enjoyed them. It sure was fun having the zls over this morning.
We were able to get in touch with A this morning. He invited us inside and we talked for a bit. A said he was sorry that he missed church. He told us that he didn’t get home until late Saturday night and just could not wake up on Sunday morning. We suggested that if he started going to be earlier, it would be a lot easier to wake up in the mornings. We asked A to review with us what he had learned so far. He talked about how important it is to have a living prophet on the earth today. I would like to think that he is close to setting a baptism date, but we still need him to come to church, read from the Book of Mormon and stop smoking. Simple, right?
W invited A to dinner with Brother and Sister G (see Day 131). I love going to the G’s home. They always have such good meals. Brother G is a great member missionary. He’s actually a convert to the church. Brother G converted years ago when he was in college. He has a really strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. He can help address investigators concerns and things. We have it all set up for Brother G to pick us up at 6:00pm and then we’ll go get A. It should be a fun evening.
Next, Sister B and her husband came and picked us up for lunch. We went out and had Chinese food. It was pretty good. Sister B is so nice to us. Her husband isn’t a member so this is a good chance for us to fellowship him.
After Sister B dropped us off at our apartment, we went out to work. We visited some people this afternoon. We were just about to start making our way back when I thought that we should go and visit S. We went by to see what she was doing. I had not met with her since she spoke with President P.
I asked S what was new since we last spoke. She mentioned that she had a nice talk with President P. He had given her some pamphlets to read. One was a pamphlet about Joseph Smith. She had a question that she wanted to ask. She excused herself to go get the pamphlet. She said, “I read this and most of the stuff I already know from the videos you showed me, but what I wanted to ask was…and please don’t be offended…but I read something that just doesn’t seem right. I was hoping you could help me with it.” “Okay. What is it?” I asked. “Well,” said S, “on page 3 it says…and you can see I underlined it with highlighter…it says that after God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, he said, ‘I was answered that I must join none of them (meaning churches) for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…’”
“Well,” said S. “What?” I said curiously. “Well, according to Joseph Smith, God came down and called all of these Christian churches abominable. Now I don’t know, but to me that does not sound like something God would say. I mean, all the different church around had faith in Christ as their Savior and God is calling them abominable.” I explained to S that our Heavenly Father said that their creeds were an abomination. “Well, what’s the difference?” said S. I told her that an abominable creed is the same as false doctrine. False teachings. It’s like saying that it’s okay to baptize by sprinkling instead of by immersion. Jesus Christ (our example) was baptized by immersion (all the way in the water) and not by just having water sprinkled on his head. So baptism by sprinkling would be an abomination or a false doctrine. That seemed to work for S.
Next, she told us about what happened last Sunday at her church. She said, “I went to my church on Sunday, begging, pleading with God to give me a sign to help to show me what I should do; if my church was right or if it was an abomination like it said in your pamphlet. We were singing hymns about Christ and His glory and power. I looked around and there were people with tears in their eyes. They were overcome with the spirit. I looked at my husband. He never cries and he had a tear in his eye. I couldn't help but feel that God was telling me that this place is good.”
“But then today, I was feeling really depressed. I was sitting around the house moping. I thought to myself, ‘S, it’s a beautiful day outside. Get out of the house and go for a walk. It’ll make you feel better. But then I thought, no, I don’t want to go for a walk by myself. At that very moment the phone rang and it was K (Sister H, S’s neighbor) asking if I wanted to go for a walk. So we went for a walk on the nature trails for about an hour. I was able to talk to her about different things and she was able to answer some questions for me about your church.”
“Isn’t Sister H wonderful?” I said. “She really is,” said S. “You know, when I was feeling sick a couple of weeks ago, K came over and cleaned my house.”
Right before we left, S told us that she felt like she was the ball on a giant ping-pong table getting knocked back and forth with which church to choose and she was “not sure which side to land on.”
I told S to keep praying and know that your Heavenly Father loves you. She said that she knew that. So, my Happy Thing for Day 163 was getting to talk about an aspect of the gospel with S.
(Sigh) we did not get to have dinner with A. Brother G came by and we went over, but no one answered the door when we knocked. We ended up going to eat with the G’s anyway. After dinner, we went on exchanges with Brother G and tried hooking up with A again. He still was not home. Maybe next time…(sigh)
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