Time

Sometimes you just don't understand the will of Lord, but you like how
it turns out. Just about every single set lesson we had this week fell
through in great devastation; usually with a confused member behind us
going, "they probably aren't avoiding you." Wow, you're optimistic.
And no, our investigators are not avoiding us. However, we have a lot
of good contacts and drop-by lessons, which balanced out with our poor
luck with the set lessons. And, our star investigators, the C
family, came to church, as well as a ton of less active families that
we have been working with. It was a breath of fresh air to see the
fruits of our work come to pass. It made me very grateful to see that
there are people out there with a real desire to change their life and
come unto Christ. I love being a part of it all.
Wednesday and Saturday were two of the more memorable days of the
mission that I've had so far. They were filled with special occasions
and fun times. I'm glad that they were filled with memories because
this week just flew by. Honestly I don't know where time goes, but it
goes, and it goes fast.
Wednesday I got to go on an exchange with Elder G. Companion
exchanges always seem to have a specialty to them. The learning
experiences you have are astonishing.
First, a few things about Elder G. He played for basketball
at alone Peak High School. He was on the national championship team
there. The one that throttled Jabari Parker's Simeon High School,
Andrew Wiggin's crew, and averaged 110 points per game in state ball.
He's a triplet, and he's one of the most beautiful people you ever
meet. I was going to send a picture home of the two of us, but people
would go crazy at the accumulative attractiveness of the two of us.
He's been out on his mission six months now. Awesome, awesome guy. A
monster at basketball.
Anyways, our exchange started with a lesson that fell through. Elder
Goeckeritz was so upset he almost broke his toe kicking the curb. Very
passionate man. A few hours later we contacted this man who was dead
set on convincing us there was no God. Elder Goeckeritz was having
none of it, and they got into it for about 20 minutes. Finally, I just
asked the man.
"Sir, do you have faith?"
"I have faith in science."
"Do you want to have faith in God?"
"No, because he doesn't exist."
"Sir, I have faith in God. In fact, I know he exists. I know he made
the heavens and earth, he even created science. The thing is, your
faith takes millions of years to move a mountain, but my faith takes
just a few seconds to move it."
He sat there and thought about it, and then we very courteously said
thank you and we went our ways. It was a great learning experience for
sure.
Later that day, after an excellent lesson with two girls from Brazil,
we went to the basketball courts at the park to shoot a few hops and
see if anyone was open to a message. Elder Goeckeritz and I tore it up
for about minutes then shared a message about prayer with TJ and Gary,
who both came from rough backgrounds and lived for basketball. We are
going to go and teach them how to pray this week- at least we plan to.
It was eye opening to see their background and experiences. Between
that, almost watching someone die, and having an amazing lunch for
less than five dollars at Taco Bell, it was a one of a kind exchange.
Saturday was a mix of everything. It was highlighted by a contact we
had with an old Japanese woman. She walked up to us, after scowling at
us from across the street for a solid minutes, and very politely said,
"you guys are so sexy!" She was joking, which makes it even funnier.
Turns out Yong, a 78 year old lady who survived the Tokyo bombings in
WWII and walks everywhere, is really interested in our church. She
said that we could come by any time with as many friends as she
wanted. It was a great moment, a nice way to recover from the 120
dollars he had to spend replacing parts bike that morning. Poor guy.
Friday night he was trucking it up a hill, and his metal pedal sheared
off. It was a miracle.
Well, we have had a wild week. I hoe we keep it up!

Elder Richard Hall

Oh, and it's supposed to be 70 here on Wednesday. These awful Texas winters