This past week was impressive. Perhaps I've used this subject before, but it seems fitting.
Last Sunday (not yesterday, but the one before that) we were able to have supper with the Schnider family. It was sort of a last minute thing with them calling us just a few minutes before it was to start to see if we wanted to come, but it was awesome. And what missionary wants to pass up an opportunity for free food? It was great, and afterward we spent far too long there as all of us started geeking out over different forms of classical music. Elder Hamblin is really into that type of music, so he had fun there. Then I found the Phantom of the Opera sheet music and I had lots of fun there! They also made some of the best banana pudding I've ever had. It was awesome.
Monday was a much slower PDay than some of the other ones we've had, as far as the personal time we had was concerned. The other Elders ran off to do something (we later found out it was tennis), so we just went home and slept a bit, wrote a letter, and relaxed. Later we had a quick supper with the Adam's family. We wanted to go and contact a referral immediately afterward, but shortly after getting on the road we got a call from one of our investigators saying that her son, P***, was in the hospital and wondered if we could pray for him. We offered to go to the hospital to give him a blessing and she was more than thrilled. We changed our plans and headed to one of the hospitals here in Jonesboro, meeting the family in the CCU. I think it is interesting how most of the PDay's we've had here in Jonesboro have been spent, at least in part, in visiting someone in the hospital. I love being able to help out, but still find it interesting. By the time we left it was close to 8pm and figured we would try this referral anyway, even though it was a bit later than normal for us to do so. We usually try to contact referrals about 6pm, when people are more likely to be home but not trying to get kids in bed. It turns out that it was perfect timing on our part, because she had just gotten home. We were able to give her a copy of the scriptures and also bless her home while we were there, at her request. Probably the greatest thing that happened that day, apart from D***(the woman's name) was the fact that they were selling Eggnog at Walmart. Normally I am a strong advocate of selling Christmas-related things only after Thanksgiving, but in this case I am more than happy to make an exception. Let the Eggnog pour all year round!!!
Tuesday we started off our day with a really solid study session in planning for the lesson we would have later that day with D***, probably the best one I've had on my mission. We headed over to the post office to mail off a letter and package (since the offices were closed on Monday; Columbus day or something lame like that) and spent lots of time trying to get things set up over the phone. We probably spent a solid 2 hours trying to get stuff figured out. On the plus side it was warm that day and we hung outside a McDonalds to use their free wifi! We set up a ride for one of our investigators, B***, to get to a job interview with some members who live nearby and then was able to go to this thing at the university called Conversations. There are a lot of students there who don't speak English and Conversations is just us going and being the "Native Speakers" to help them in their practice. We got to talk with a few guys from Saudi Arabia and had a great discussion on the differences between Islam and Christianity. Hopefully we get to see them again. We later had dinner with the S*** and had a solid lesson with G. E.. He's an older man, and has a hard time accepting anything. We made some serious headway though. Later we had a Great lesson with D***. We met up with Brother Brumwell at the church building and drove over there in a Camero. it was a fun experience. Anyway, once we got there she let us right in, and then proceeded to disappear into her bedroom to get 'ready' for about 30 minutes. We just sort of chilled on her couch waiting for her to reemerge. We taught her about the Restoration of the gospel and the Spirit was felt very strongly. Since we had just blessed her home the other day we were able to tie Priesthood Authority in very easily. She understood easily.
Wednesday we had Zone Meeting and that took up most of our day. Later we got chewed out by a member for not calling ahead for dinner early enough, gave up the car, had a bunch of appointments fall through, and ended up talking with a Church of Christ guy who was more converted to his preacher than he was to Christ, assuming he was converted to Christ at all. His big hold up was that unless we could arrange the Prophet to come and visit him personally and perform a miracle for him he would not believe a thing we had to say. All I could think of was the two criminals who hung on either side of Christ, one of them recieving favorable words from the Savior and the other receiving silent condemnation because he unrighteously requested a miracle before he would believe. I offered similar words to him, saying that even if a miracle was to be performed he still would not be able to believe since his heart was in no condition to receive more of God's word and if he was to make it anywhere after this life he would have to learn how to have faith first. Perhaps I should have been a bit more careful with my wording, but the only thing that was good that day was the Zone meeting and I was in no mood to mince my words and put up with such foolishness. Hopefully it did some good.
Everything that happened Thursday was not what we had planned for originally at all! First off we did service for Sis. Boudrero, an awesome member of the Ward here. She does a lot for us Elders. We spent the better part of the morning dismantling wooden pallets for a Relief Society thing she was doing. Eventually we found a system that knocked it out (literally) almost as fast as we could move the pallets into position.
Shoot, I'm out of time. We are on bikeweek still, so we are dependent on the other Elders for rides. I'll send the rest next week! Love you all!
~Elder barker
"Don't forget to read!"
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