ETHER 12:7-19
Me and Elder Olson
Me and Elder Newhouse (He's so awesome)
Thank you for your letters and support. I know that I am being blessed by every one of you and your prayers.
This week was DOOOOPE. But, just like all things worth doing, they were hard. The Lord tested me and Elder Claridge.
This week I was supposed to be the senior companion as part of my training. So I made the schedule, decisions, and led in lessons. No biggy. Except we had no one to teach, so Tuesday looked like a LONG day of work.
Tuesday: BLAZING HOT, HIGH HUMIDITY. The temperature was 89 degrees from about noon to sundown, and because we had no one to teach, we went out to contact people. The people of Iowa are smart, they don't go outside when it's blazing hot. And I don't know if it's the heat, but NO ONE wanted to talk to us. We walked up to a RC house and helped him move some boxes around. A little girl that's a family friend had the BIGGEST crush on me, and would NOT leave me alone. She was jumping on me and grabbing me, spanking me and pinching my butt. I WAS FREAKING OUT. Missionaries are not supposed to be affiliated with children, and this one was getting weird! I was losing my mind, and she would not leave me alone. She would grab my leg and I would literally drag her around, while carrying boxes. FINALLY we left, and she LITERALLY chased me out the door. I ran outside and down the sidewalk, I was done. But there was no relief, no escape for us! IT WAS AN INFERNO OUTSIDE. I don't know if I had ever sweat so much in my life. Walking around, in the blazing heat, with missionary attire, and a backpack, in the humidity. That shirt was worn once, and put in the laundry bag. AND NO IMMEDIATE SUCCESS CAME OUT OF IT. No potential investigators, nothing.
On Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders. Elder Barger and I went to his area (Ames 2nd ward) and we had a really good day. We talked to quite a few people, recontacted a dropped investigator, and met this LA who was super legit. We taught him and it was great. The spirit was really strong and we scheduled another visit! We ate at a members house who were from Utah, and they made Costa Vida/Cafe Rio Salads for us (with no meat). OH IT WAS SOOOO GOOD. Between Elder Barger and I, we put down like, 30 Tortillas w/ condiments. I'm smiling on the memories.
Thursday came around, and once again, we didn't have much to do, so we got to tracting! At the stake center (my normal church) the mission president was conduction interviews, and there was a whole zone there for them. We decided that it would be a good use of time to try and schedule a ward activity with the sisters, to strengthen the ward and hopefully get new investigators out of it. We called the sisters, and they agreed to meet us at the church. We started walking over there, (thankfully it wasn't as hot today) and then they called and said something came up, and they wouldn't be available for another hour and a half. We were right by the apartment complex/park where we had found, and forgotten to get contact information, the family from Congo that was so interested in the gospel. I don't really know what was in me, but i just thought, "We're going to find that family today." We headed into the park where we first found them. We remembered that she had pointed over in a general direction where she said they lived, so we headed over there. No way to find them without knocking doors. I somehow, had NO DOUBT that we would find them. The first door we knocked on..... literally yelled and slammed it in our face. I laughed way hard. Because I was the senior companion, Elder Claridge asked, "What next?" I said something like, "Well we know they're not in there, look at all these doors." I started walking. We walked over to an apartment that had a fence that closed off the door to the front door. Well, that sucks. It's already uncomfortable to knock on someones door, but to walk inside someones fenced off yard? We weren't about to do that and get in trouble. I started wandering again, and ended up on the other side of the building. On the other side, I saw the backdoor of the fenced off place, and there was a doorbell on it! I said, ELDER! A DOORBELL! "That's someone's BACK DOOR. No one will answer their back door." Too late, I was walking up to the back door, and rang the doorbell.
The woman from Congo answered the door. I was speachless. Literally could not talk. I think my jaw might have fallen open. Luckily Elder Claridge didn't as well poop his pants on the spot and was capable of utterance. She looked ALMOST as shocked as we did. ALMOST. haha. She let us in, we talked about prophets, and scheduled another appointment. As she closed the door behind us, I stepped off the back step and said aloud, "It's a miracle." I have never felt so loved, looked after, and led in my entire life. Looking back, I KNOW we were led by the spirit. I KNOW God had answered my prayers for new investigators, and this family specifically.This morning we met with her, taught the Restoration, and she accepted the invitation to be baptised. We will be returning Thursday morning to teach her again, hopefully with her family, and set a specific date.
After meeting with her, we made our way to the sidewalk, and talked to a lady in a wheel chair. Honestly, I have no idea what we talked about. I have no idea what we said, but I was filled with the spirit, and Elder Claridge said that I was killing it. We invited her to church, she's a devout Catholic, and she considered it. We got her information and gave her ours, and she said she will think about coming to church on Sunday. She didn't end up making it, but we are following up on her this week.
We then wandered our way through the streets, and found ourselves in the front lawn of two people sitting on a bench, and of course, we talked to them! He had fell off his roof onto his head on the driveway, and lost all long term and short term memory, but it was slowly coming back. We talked exclusively to him, he was really funny, and SUPER nice. He loves going inside churches, and does it for fun. He had tried to go inside ours, but it was always locked. We gave him our information and told him we'd love to give him a church tour when we could. (We couldn't right then, we hadn't prepared it and the church was being used by the President). We left with his information and promise that we would go through the next week. I think he was actually more excited then we were. The woman we hardly talked to, was his therapist.
We got to the church, and ran into the President and his wife immediately. GREEEAAAAT. Super sweaty and also filled with the spirit, we talked for a second in the hall and then went to get a drink. We were waiting for the sisters to come when a missionary called for Elder Claridge. We turned the corner, and there was the guy and his therapist we had JUST talked to in his yard! At first I was like.. what? Did you not understand? He said he was walking by, saw the cars, saw the sign that said welcome, and the door was unlocked so they came in! Well great! So we gave them the most impromtu(help) tour of the church possible. His therapist was transfixed by the paintings of Christ, and loved all the artwork in the hall ways. We made our way into the Chapel, talked to them about everything, and it was really awesome. The spirit was really strong, and we had to rely on it, because we were not prepared. She (his therapist) was looking through the hymn book a lot, so I mentioned how I loved the hymns in there, and that they really bring the spirit. She agreed completely. She said she could feel the power of them. She asked why we were called Mormons, and we explained that it was because of the Book of Mormon. We pulled one out and gave the basic rundown. We asked if she wanted one, and she literally snatched it out of Elder Claridge's hands. She said, "I need to make a donation or something." We explained the book was hers, no donation needed or wanted. She said more passionately, "I NEED TO MAKE A DONATION." The spirit, to say the least, was filling my entire body. We finished the church tour and she asked what time our service was. We told her, and she said, I will see you there.
Unfortunately, she didn't make it. I'm guessing that there was some type of GIANT car accident near where she lived that made it competely impossible to make it. We'll be checking up on her this week as well.
Two miracles, in one day.
Friday was relatively uneventful, weekly planning, interviews with mission president went well, and his wife is awesome. Saturday we had zone meeting, and we taught invesigators for "Role play". I don't know why they called it role play, they were real investigators. I was put in a group of 5 other Elders, but ended up saying the most. What?? We got a long really well, I loved him, and I was feeling the spirit strong. He's an awesome kid.
Finally, to end the week, we got two dinners yesterday. And it was AWESOME. I'm out of time, so I need to make this quick.
Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. It means a lot, and I am feeling the blessings of it.
I know that miracles happen today, and are possible through faith. I know that THIS gospel, which was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith, is the only true gospel on the earth today. I know that God loves us, hears us, and blesses us. Never give up because you don't see the prize. It's like digging for treasure, you can't see it, hear it, anything, until you've worked hard enough and long enough to finally reach it. Every action of faith, every long day working towards it, is more digging to finally get to the prize. The Lord has a prize for all of us. I would like to challenge you all to find something inside yourself, that you think would take a miracle to change, and exercise your faith in Christ. Bring it to Christ, and work yourself on fixing it. The Lord will bless you, I know it, I've seen it.
Ether 12:27
-Elder Hollan
ps.. If any of you feel like it, you can send me ties, slacks, suits that are now allowed in the new dress code. hahaha
No comments:
Post a Comment