Wednesday we had district meeting, it was decent. It should help member missionary work for all of us at least. After lunch Haroldsen and I went out to Port Matilda to try two previous people we talked to. We ended up walking to a house that had a younger lady playing with her dog. We got talking to her, she was really kind to us, she's never seen missionaries over in her neighborhood before so she was interested in what we had to say. So we sat in the shade and taught her the restoration. It was pretty legit, she has a young family and wants to start going to church, she has an unbiased mind, and she believes that the 1st vision could've happened. We gave her a BOM, and she asked great questions that really showed her understanding of our message. One was, if I read this book and like it and was interested, where is your church at? We got to really testify of reading with real intent, opposed to just being nice to us, which is the name for so many out there. I hope she does read, I hope her husband will support her. I know the blessings that can come to her and her daughters are more than she can comprehend at this point. There's nothing more that I want then to have them be happy.
Thursday was a good day of service, at both Grace Lutheran Church, and St. Andrews Episcopalian Church. We also had a good time at the Reeds in which we read a great chapter of the BOM together and had a lot of laughs while doing it. One being when Laura Beth said to her dog, Hey Princess! What are you doin?? Then I said, oh I'm just sitting here! Good times, good people Friday same ole trying at Penn State, I talked to a few people but no dice. We had dinner with the sisters for the third night in a row, then we bounced over to a lesson with Jackie, with the Gardners there as well. It went really well, the members did more talking than we did. They're going to help her out with moving and we're going to try to get her boy into the young men's program, which would be awesome. We also gave her a BOM and she said she'd read it. It was a good hour and a half we had with her. She really likes to talk. Next time we see her we're going to go over the restoration with her. It was a good night.
Saturday we balled in the morning and we had a decent turn out. When you're not good at basketball you have to put more hustle to get the same results so I was really pooped. Smith and I went to downtown and walked around. A big music festival was happening there, but no music because it was the morning. Anyways we talked to a guy sitting at a table trying to get people to donate plasma. He admitted that he was a member and that he was baptized 5 years ago, has done baptisms at the temple, owns a quad. He's a solid guy but now he's not into things. We had a great conversation and it's obvious he knows it's true, he just needs to change and get to church. So we told him to go.
In the evening we had a lesson with Charles, Judith, Billy, and Joddy. We had a good lesson on temples. After we had time to try some former investigators, so we went to one guy named Matt. No one was at his house when we knocked but boom, he pulled up in his car. He let us in to talk, we learned he's talked to missionaries before but didn't embrace the BOM, etc. I didn't want this to get out of hand because I've gone into someone's house and just bashed forever. So I said we're not here to argue on doctrines but we're here to talk about Christ. And we did, we also talked about his life, what he wants to do, his conversion to being a Lutheran, etc. There were a couple times where he told us his struggles and I was able to give him suggestions to help him out. He really took it to heart. He told us about the struggles in his head of having Christ like thoughts, not judging, all that. And a scripture popped into my head which was, D&C 121:45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. I didn't bother with the priesthood part but the rest was awesome. He really liked it. We prayed together at the end and it's obvious that God loves His children no matter the faith. That was pretty awesome.
Sunday had a tough start, in the midst of fasting for her, Kelley texted us back and said they talked about it and aren't interested. What a bummer. That was a hard hit to me and it's just frustrating to have hope in people then it get it crushed... over and over and over again. It makes it really hard to have any faith in relying on people. Will I ever get my hopes up again? Probably. Will they get crushed almost every time? Most likely. But I'll keep trying till it works out. After that text we went and walked around in the rain. My life just oozed with Charlie Brown sadness for an hour as I walked and got wet and didn't care. But since then I've regained my happiness again. Church was a good time, I tried to get more into fasting, I've never been good at it. After we tried contacting some people, then had a spontaneous dinner with some awesome members. Got to love that. The week flew by, good grief.
Elder Simmons
The Swag Queen, Sister Williams
Playing catch with Brother Hileman
Frisbee at Penn State
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