So, this one time I got arrested...
Just kidding. Wouldn't that be a good story though?
Family!!
I LOVE you! Thanks for that giant fat envelope of letters! You guys are the best. You don't even give me a chance to miss you, you send stuff so often. Haha. I have too much stuff to write this week! This was the best week of my life. Kinda. Except that they all feel like that nowadays.
Ok, down to business. First of all I wanted to tell you about JJ, our Belge ami. He is like 40 ish and speaks perfect english because he's in the Air Force (he's an engineer, I feel like a magnet for those...) and he lived in San Antonio for 4 years. The first time we met JJ was at the bus stop, and we could've sworn he was a member. I'm not sure what it was, he just had this light about him. He just had this eternal smile on his face. Finally we went up and talked to him and he said he's seen the sister missionaries a couple times, he says about every two years he runs into a pair of them and they talk to him but he's never met with them. We decided not to waste any more time and we set up a rendezvous with him. The first time we met with him was awesome, he had so many great questions! And the apostasy and Book of Mormon made perfect sense to him. At one point he looked at the Book of Mormon and said, "Everyone needs to know about this book! If it clears up confusion in the Bible and contains more of God's teachings, why don't more people have it?" Yeah, we're working on that, if only everyone saw it that way...
Anyway, fast forward to this week where we had a dinner appointment with an American family in our ward and we decided to invite JJ. We weren't actually sure who the family was but we were banking on it working out and OH did it work out!! It was the best dinner appointment of my life. JJ is an air force man and the husband of the couple we had dinner with is a pilot for the air force (a stealth pilot, I was so excited that I knew what that meant!) so they just talked about that pretty much the whole time. Also the couple met and fell in love in San Antonio, random. By the way, part of the reason that dinner was the best was it just made me think of Grandpa and Dion and Daren and them talking about planes and air force stuff and it was just very homey and wonderful. Anyway afterward we had a spiritual thought about the blessings the gospel brings to families and the Spirit was so strong! JJ was deeply touched and afterwards said that if the Book of Mormon was the source of that kind of peace and love and hope, it had to be what it said it was. He also said that the love he saw between this temple-marrie couple had to be the closest thing to the love of God we find on this earth. It was the best feeling in the world, having him recognize the joy of the gospel and realizing that that is what he wants. The whole night was an answer to prayer, we found out yesterday that the couple had been frustrated about the push for member missionary work because they live in Dutchland and they just didn't know how they could find ways to help the missionaries out. Then through their front door walks a man who is perfect for them and who was deeply touched by their testimonies. I'm just in awe about the way the Lord works sometimes.
Also we have an ami named John who is a funny story. The first time we met him we were lost so we asked him for directions and he walked us to our desitnation and flirted like CRAZY the whole time. He asked us to come over and teach him and we thought, hey, we won't deny anybody the chance to hear the gospel but if there's any funny business we're out of there, buddy. We went and it was actually one of the most spirit filled lessons I've ever been a part of. This sunday was his first time at church and at first when I talked to him afterwards he said it was nice but that we couldn't talk him into getting baptized in our church. We had a baptism for a little girl in the ward right after church and when we were inviting him to stay I think he was afraid we were going to push him into the water too, but he finally agreed to watch. After the ordinance he turned to me and said, "can I just get baptized now?" We told him he can soon :) I love it! WE sure can't talk you into baptism, Johnny boy, but let me introduce you to me dear friend the Spirit.... haha.
I'm almost out of time but the other thing I wanted to share was that this week I've learned a ton about HOPE and always being hopeful. Discouragement is the devil's tool, never the Lord's, and having an eternal hope that when things go wrong everything is in the hands of the Lord of the harvest and he knows what's happening better than we do. My companion and I practiced this week being always happy and hopeful and laughing about things and found that our love for the work and our desire to work hard increased immeasurably.
I wish I could just tell you everything! I have a million thoughts throughout the week that I think of telling you guys, and then when I sit down I forget a bunch of them. Oh memory, you fiend. Haha. Oh, I forgot, we had Leadership Training this week! Leadership training is the best thing ever! I love being with other missionaries! Elder Dick, the British member of my district, sang 'My Kindness Shall Not Depart from Thee' and I cried like a baby. And we watched this movie, you should see if you can find it, it was kinda funny but the lesson was awesome, it's called The Quest, it's about a man looking for a vase, yeah.... Super helpful, I know. But the area presidency watched it and decided they wanted all the missionaries to see it so we did. Also President went through a whole lesson about FOD-foreign obejct damage- that happens to airplanes when little things are left on the runway that destroy airplanes and cost the air travel industry more than their annual revenue. And he warned us about the FOD in our lives; the little things we let slip that cause huge damage in the long run. He said to replace FOD with Faith, Obedience, and Diligence. So there is my little lesson to you. Golden. You're welcome :)
I hope Daryl is feeling better! Thanks for the comic strips and your letter! You are the funniest brother ever. Props, bro. I love you all!
Have a good week!
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