Friends and Family,
This past week I went on exchanges with Elder Nunez in his area over in Cashmere. It is always a good time with him, and great practice for my Spanish since he is straight out of Mexico City. We had both ends of the extremes while out tracting and talking with people. Elder Nunez had a referral from a member family that he wanted us to go contact, so we walked to where the address was and found a man working on his truck. We introduced ourselves and asked if he needed any help, and he just kind of brushed us off and asked if we could come back another day. We said we could, gave him a pass-along card and started walking to our next appointment. While walking back along this one street, a man in a truck pulled over to the side of the road and called out to us and signaled for us to come back and talk with him. It isn't very often that people chase US down, normally we are the ones chasing others down, so we walked back a bit and started talking. I introduced myself and Elder Nunez, and he cut me off and asked us why we were serving a mission. We both told him that the reason we are out serving a mission is to help others see the blessings of the gospel that we've seen in our own lives. He told us that we were lying and that God didn't want us to be happy and all of this nonsense. We listened to him as he asked questions and recited odd verses of scripture and tried to bash what we knew to be true. At the end of his rant, I thanked him for caring. I explained that whenever people come and talk to us about things like that, it just means that they are genuinely concerned for our well-being, and in a round about way they are doing what we as missionaries do. I asked if I could share my testimony with him, and he said "Let's see how well you do." I told him what I knew to be true, and thanked him for talking with us. He told me that my testimony wasn't half-bad, got back in his car, and drove away.
Later that same evening, as we were walking down a different street to try and contact a potential investigator, we saw an older woman mowing her lawn. We asked if we could help out in any way, and kind of spooked her at first. She started to laugh and told us that despite the fact that she's an older lady, she enjoys working outside. She thanked us for being kind and human, and taking some time to stop and ask if she needed any help. She started asking questions about why we stopped to talk to her, and we began to explain our purpose as missionaries. As we talked and got to know her better, she began asking some really great questions. We taught her the first lesson, about the Restoration of the Gospel and the importance of prophets, and at the end after I recited Joseph Smith's first vision she looked at me and said, "Ya know, that makes a lot of sense. I believe in that! Can you come back sometime this week and tell me more?" It was amazing!
I learned a lot from those two experiences. I learned that there are people out there ready and waiting for the gospel, and there are people are not. I learned the importance of acting as our Savior would, no matter how others treat us. I learned that everyone has their agency, and as we use our agency as righteously as possible, we can seriously help others for the better.
"Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any goodness or joy worth having." -C.S. Lewis
Con Mucho Amor,This past week I went on exchanges with Elder Nunez in his area over in Cashmere. It is always a good time with him, and great practice for my Spanish since he is straight out of Mexico City. We had both ends of the extremes while out tracting and talking with people. Elder Nunez had a referral from a member family that he wanted us to go contact, so we walked to where the address was and found a man working on his truck. We introduced ourselves and asked if he needed any help, and he just kind of brushed us off and asked if we could come back another day. We said we could, gave him a pass-along card and started walking to our next appointment. While walking back along this one street, a man in a truck pulled over to the side of the road and called out to us and signaled for us to come back and talk with him. It isn't very often that people chase US down, normally we are the ones chasing others down, so we walked back a bit and started talking. I introduced myself and Elder Nunez, and he cut me off and asked us why we were serving a mission. We both told him that the reason we are out serving a mission is to help others see the blessings of the gospel that we've seen in our own lives. He told us that we were lying and that God didn't want us to be happy and all of this nonsense. We listened to him as he asked questions and recited odd verses of scripture and tried to bash what we knew to be true. At the end of his rant, I thanked him for caring. I explained that whenever people come and talk to us about things like that, it just means that they are genuinely concerned for our well-being, and in a round about way they are doing what we as missionaries do. I asked if I could share my testimony with him, and he said "Let's see how well you do." I told him what I knew to be true, and thanked him for talking with us. He told me that my testimony wasn't half-bad, got back in his car, and drove away.
Later that same evening, as we were walking down a different street to try and contact a potential investigator, we saw an older woman mowing her lawn. We asked if we could help out in any way, and kind of spooked her at first. She started to laugh and told us that despite the fact that she's an older lady, she enjoys working outside. She thanked us for being kind and human, and taking some time to stop and ask if she needed any help. She started asking questions about why we stopped to talk to her, and we began to explain our purpose as missionaries. As we talked and got to know her better, she began asking some really great questions. We taught her the first lesson, about the Restoration of the Gospel and the importance of prophets, and at the end after I recited Joseph Smith's first vision she looked at me and said, "Ya know, that makes a lot of sense. I believe in that! Can you come back sometime this week and tell me more?" It was amazing!
I learned a lot from those two experiences. I learned that there are people out there ready and waiting for the gospel, and there are people are not. I learned the importance of acting as our Savior would, no matter how others treat us. I learned that everyone has their agency, and as we use our agency as righteously as possible, we can seriously help others for the better.
"Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any goodness or joy worth having." -C.S. Lewis
