Day 164 continued…Singing In the Rain

We went by A and L’s place this afternoon. I hadn’t seen A since Day 151 and wanted to see how he was doing. We went up and knocked on the door. It was answered by a woman that I had not seen before. “I’m sorry, boys,” she said to us with no small amount of annoyance in her voice, “but now is not a good time.” I’m L’s neighbor and she wanted me to help comfort her because someone she knew died this morning. “Oh no,” I said. “Was his name A?” “Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to try another house. Today is not a good day.” She closed the door. “But he was my friend…” I said before turning to leave.

I’m sad and a little upset. What made me mad was that the woman who answered the door did not know why we came. She assumed that we were tracting door-to-door. I can see why she thought that, but still...I knew A. I’d visited with him. I’d hoped to visit with him today. We were not tracting, but even if we were, today would have been the perfect day to hear a message about the Plan of Salvation. My companion and I talked about A on the way home. “Well, A is in the spirit world now, so maybe he’s listening to the message up there, “my companion told me. (A H? That’s me. And who are you? My name’s George Waters. You don’t know me, but you’ve met my grandson, Logan. Come on. Let’s talk.) Wishful thinking? Perhaps. You never know…but something I do know, This is the true church (see Day 150)

Later today Elder Pierce and I went by to try and see if we could get a hold of C. she wasn’t there, but we were able to meet with C’s dad for the first time. I told him that we were friends with C and could he let her know that we stopped by. His English wasn’t the best, but he could speak a bit and told us he would pass our message along.

That is when we heard this huge thunder clap and lightening shot across the sky! The rain started to pour. About this time we started heading back home. “We’ll take our bikes back home now, then go back out and work on foot with our umbrellas,” my companion said. “There’s no point in riding on these lightening rods any longer than we need to.”

Now Elder Pierce (my companion) loves riding around in the rain. I do not. I thought about the events of the day. Getting to meet with A and his uncle; A’s death…I thought about how A had hoped to be able to watch “Singing in the Rain” with us before (see Day 111) This one’s for you A, I thought to myself. I began to sing:

“I’m singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again. I’m laughing at clouds, so dark up above; the sun’s in my heart and I’m ready for love (well, when I get off my mission). Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from the place; come on with the rain, I’ve a smile on my face. I walk down the lane with a happy refrain, just singing…just singing in the rain.”

On our way home to drop off our bikes, we passed by Brother C’s house. We ended up parking our bikes there and going in for a visit. We talked with him about several different subjects regarding missionary work. “Let’s talk about exchanges,” Brother C said. “Most members don’t like going on exchanges with the missionaries. What can we do about that?”

“Well,” I said. “A couple of weeks ago we had dinner at the P’s house. We took an investigator with us. We were even able to have a lesson afterwards (see Day 150). That seems to work really well. I guess what I’m getting at is, what if we made it where dinners and exchanges with the missionaries were the same thing? Ideally, we would love to have an investigator be taught at a member’s home ever day. It’s hard to get them to go to a stranger’s home, but when you provide dinner for them before the lesson, it kind of takes the edge off. Meals with missionaries should be a way to invite new investigators into your home. Get to know them, fellowship them, bear testimony…etc.” We had a good meeting with our new ward mission leader. We told him that we’d stop by tomorrow with a progress report of our current investigators.