Monday, August 29, 2016

Week #50

Hey Mis!

Glad to hear you had a decent week. I'm glad you're settling into your job and apartment! That's cool you got to see your friends! I remember when I had friends, but now I'm a missionary haha. I'm glad you like your ward too! I'd actually hate that ward haha, but I'm glad you like it! My only student ward had about a 50/50 split, but the pre-mi to RM ratio was 2:64,738,875,261. It was just me and a kid from Georgia haha. Thanks for being willing to send me a package too! No rush for when it gets here.

I had a pretty good week! I did an exchange with Elder Demetropoulos, one of the elders in Blythe. He came up to Parker and worked in my area. It was an interesting exchange. He's sort of a goofball, but he does work really hard. We had a lesson with a guy named Marcus Tuchawena (too-shoo-way-na). He's a really good guy! He's in a band, he's pretty cool. We taught him about the BoM. His uncle just passed away and was a member of the Church, and his uncle always talked to him about it and told him to read it, but he never did. Elder Demetropoulos and I taught together pretty well, so it was cool to see. Later in the week when Elder Rigby was back, we went back to his house. We knocked, and his grandpa opened the door. His grandpa was a less active member. We sat down with him, his wife, and Marcus, and we chatted for a little bit to try and break the ice. As we were talking, the grandpa, Ron, started to break down. He and his wife had been raising Marcus, they hadn't been to church in years, and he said that he feels responsible for Marcus not being taught the gospel growing up. He says that he feels that he'll be accountable for that one day, and so he wants us to teach Marcus the gospel, and Marcus agreed. It was a suuuuper spiritual experience, seeing the testimony of this man who hadn't been active in the church for so long. But his testimony was still there!! So we're going to see Marcus on Tuesday, and we're excited!!

We also visited with Josh and Iliana Grenwalt this week. We were on splits, and I was with a member named Bro. Lamb. Bro. Lamb and I taught the Plan of Salvation, and they soaked it up like a sponge! We invited Josh to be baptized on a specific date that he chose, and he said "how about sometime in October?" Elder Rigby and I had planned on inviting Josh to be baptized Oct. 1st beforehand, so it worked out perfectly! Funny how things work like that! There was also one time this week where Rigby and I were visiting people in a housing complex called 100 Homes. In the middle of the complex, there were some basketball courts (where we often pros-balled). Rigby and I approached a house, and as we walked up to it, we saw a younger guy shooting hoop. He was Native, had a black Crompton SnapBack on, shirtless, wearing some sagging shorts and white socks and high tops. As we knocked on the door and waited for the answer, we watched him shoot hoop. Shot after shot, he missed, and missed badly. We knocked on the door again, and continued watching. He still kept missing. Finally, he gathers himself and walks to the free throw line. He composes himself, and then shoots a free throw. It ends up being a brick that bounces right back to him. Frustrated, he yells, and he chucks the basketball back at the hoop, turns around, and starts to walk away. As he walks away, the ball hits the backboard perfectly, and comes straight back to the guy walking away. BAM! The ball hits him right in the back of the head, and he falls to the ground. Rigby and I lost it!! It was soooooo funny. We were laughing for a solid five minutes. Luckily, the guy didn't see us, but it was hilarious!! Easily the funniest thing I had seen the whole month. We wished we had caught it on video!

Saturday was an interesting experience. We went to visit Ronnie Thomas at 10 am. As we pull up, we see a car already out front of his house. We knock, and Ronnie answers. "Ahhhh man," he says, "the JWs are here, they sort of just dropped in. Can you come back a little later?" We told him yeah, but we also asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon and Bible and praying, which he said he had. We told him we would come back in about an hour. He said okay and we said goodbye. We left and visited some people. We came back a little later, this time at around 11:30, and that car was STILL THERE. We knocked on the door, and Ronnie answered again. "They're still here!" he said. "Dang Ronnie, that's a long visit don't ya think?" I said. "Yeah I know!" he said, "but I think we're almost done. Can you come back later today?" Rigby and I looked at each other. "Okay," I said, "but make sure you keep reading the Book of Mormon and the King James Version of the Bible, okay Ronnie? Remember, they do compliment each other, and bring the fullness of the gospel together! You can always pray about it too, Ronnie, because God will always tell you what is actually truth, okay bud?" I heard a sigh from Ronnie's living room. "Okay, sounds great!" Ronnie said. We left. (I can be a little snarky sometimes.)

We came back later that night at about 8:30pm. As we walked up to the door, we saw a "PRIVATE PROPERTY: NO TRESPASSING" sign on Ronnie's door. So, we knocked. Ronnie answers, and his face lights up. "Hey guys, come on in!" We walk in and sat down. He told us that the Jehovah Witnesses that were there put that sign up, and said that that'll keep people away from him. We were mildly amused, and then Ronnie told us after we left the second time, the Jehovah's Witnesses started to tell Ronnie all these bad things about Mormons, and how false our beliefs were, and about how we don't use the Bible. Ronnie said that he didn't like the way they bad-mouthed us at all, and that it wasn't very Christ-like. We agreed. So, Ronnie allowed us to make an alteration to the No Trespassing sign (which I'll send a picture in a separate email), we shook his hand, and we left. Ronnie has been doing very well lately, and he's getting even closer to baptism! We're super excited.

That was my week! Pretty crazy stuff. We have a baptism this Saturday which I'm stoked about! It's a part-member family that's getting baptized. Parker hasn't had a baptism for a while. The font has been so dry that there were cockroaches in it when we cleaned it last week. Yick. Things have gotten better in this area! I'm excited. I hope you have a great week!

Love you Mis!
Trev

"We thought the sign was funny, so Ronnie let us alter it a bit. :)" (Sent 8/29/16)

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