This Tuesday, I did divisions again, this time with Elder Faas, that has 1 change less than me. The divisions went pretty well, although it was raining most of the day, meaning everybody went inside. We had a lesson with a guy from Brazil. Unfortunately that means he spoke just in Portugese. You would think since they are such similar languages, that I would be able to understand it, but yeah, that's not so true. The whole time we taught him, I could barely understand his responses. Honestly I can understand Guarani a lot better than Portugese. We also had another lesson with three guys that just spoke to us in Guarani the whole time. Fortunately they understood Spanish, so we were able to communicate just fine.
On Wednesday, it was back with Elder Richards. We found a couple of new investigators during the day. I was feeling sick on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I had a pretty good cold. My head hurt, and I had my nose running a lot, but other than that it wasn't bad. It just made it harder to concentrate in the lessons, so most of the day, my companion led the lessons and everything.
Thursday ended up being a lot of looking around, and walking.
On Friday, we taught a couple that is Catholic. The guy was super hard hearted, but the wife was actually listening and interested. We could tell that she felt the spirit, and that she was really having a desire to know. Unfortunately the guy just full out rejected what we were saying, and didn't want to accept a Book of Mormon. The wife however, asked us if she could have one, even if we don't come back. We of course left her one, with some chapters to read, and left. Later in the day, we taught a family that right off the bat, told us, yeah we're catholic, and we don't want to change churches. I was thinking in my head, "oh great here we go again." We put a goal on Thursday, to teach all really spiritual lessons. To not leave the house of a person without having had them feel the spirit first. With a lot of guidance from the spirit, and a whole new way of teaching Lesson 1, we explained the Restoration, and had a very spiritual lesson with them, in the which we could tell they could feel the spirit. We left them a BOM, and committed them to baptism in the first lesson, to which they agreed without argument. It was amazing to see that even the most Catholic people if touched by the spirit can in fact make the change in their life. Later in the day, we met a drunk guy. He found us in the street, and wanted us to go over to his house. He had his three children there, and started explaining to us that e wanted to stop drinking and smoking for his children. We had a little lesson with him, and he started crying. At the end, when we were leaving he told us: "You know, I actually HATE the Mormons, but you know who brought you here? God." Well we'll have to see how he is when he's sober.
On Saturday, we went back to an Evangelical guy that we had taught earlier in the week. Just so happened, with our luck, that his pastor and two other guys from the congregation were there talking with him. He invited us in, and had us sit down. Well, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity, so we asked them if we could share a little bit of our message. They accepted, and sat down. We started up into lesson 1, and right off the bat, the pastor guy started arguing with us. He said there wasn't a need of prophets in our day and age. I showed him a couple of scriptures showing that yes there is a need of them. Then started the attack. He started asking us if we had found the "power." I told him that the priesthood power isn't something you just find, and showed him 4 different scriptures describing how we receive the priesthood, and how Satan can give people that false power. He then went over a scripture in Revelations that says that you can't take anything out or add anything to "this book and prophesy." We explained that the scripture is talking specifically about the book of Revelations and not the entire Bible. After about 30 minutes of discussion, the pastor said, well maybe I could believe what you are saying, but I can't because you guys use that "other book." I then showed him the Scripture in 2 Corinthians 13:1 that says that every word will be established by the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses, not just one. After that, he ran out of attacks, so he said: "well I just can't believe what you guys are saying because you aren't examples to me, you're not married, so you can't be true servants of God." Then he proceeded to get up and just walk out. We finished with a prayer and left. Missionaries: 1 Evangelical pastors: 0
By the end of the day, we had about 7 or 8 people committed to go to the church on Sunday.
On Sunday, we went to pick up some of the investigators that agreed to come with us. We got to their house, and.... they weren't there. We called them, and they said they would come at 10 for the sacrament meeting. We went to church, and nobody else came. Right before sacrament meeting, we called the investigators again, and they said they weren't going to be able to come..... Well another 0 in the meeting. We had 6 people with bap dates on Saturday, and ended the week of with 0. It's kind of frustrating, but I know the Lord knows what he is doing. We just have to keep trusting in him, and know that if we do all we can, that he will make up the rest.
Well, I love you guys tons, and hope all is well. Have a great February! Talk to you next week.
Elder Ryan Griffin
No comments:
Post a Comment