Heya,
This week was an office week for sure. The first of the month reports needed to be done! On Tuesday night we went on a team up with our Stake Patriarch Brother Crossley. That guy is amazing. He took us to dinner at Chipotle and after we had ordered our food he looked at all the seats and said: "Elders, who do you want to talk to?" I was pretty surprised. Usually I'm the type of person to just find an open seat and mind my own business but that's not very good as a missionary... I ended up choosing a bar stool by this younger couple. They were in a pretty good conversation and eating their food like normal people do so I was a little nervous to just say "Hey, what do you know about Jesus?" Hah I was praying for help and the only thing that would come to mind was to ask them if there were any other good food places around so I did. We ended up having a good conversation with them and inviting them to learn more. It might seem small to you, but it was a good reminder to me that I'm a witness of Jesus Christ even while I'm enjoying some fine Chipotle.
We finally got to see Bro. Dougherty this week. I've been here for over three months and this was the first time we got into his home! He went less active a little over a year ago and past missionaries have been working to get him back to church. He's a really good guy and at the end of the lesson he told me something like this: "Don't say that kind of prayer where you thank the Lord for letting us meet together, I hate that; pray for something else." Good man.
Thursday was MLC which is always great. It always uplifts me and I feel like it's the boost you need to keep going. We can't really go to the temple so I feel like these big meeting with other missionaries provide somewhat of the spiritual boost that the temple always gives you. Elder Parke and I trained on the upcoming Christmas initiative and how we can best use it in a variety of ways. We got a lot of participation from missionaries so hopefully this initiative goes well!
We finally picked up some service in this area. Most areas have some sort of weekly service that gets you out in the community helping people. We haven't had anything here so we decided to change that. We're now volunteering with an interfaith group at a food pantry. We went on Friday for our first day and it felt really good to just serve!
We met with Justin again and it's kind of turning into a stalemate with that guy. He doesn't see that there was a Great Apostasy so it makes it hard for him to see a need for Joseph Smith. When your as Catholic as him I guess you can't see why there would even be an apostasy... we ended it with this quote from a Catholic man in an old LeGrand Richards talk: "The issue is between Catholicism and Mormonism. If we are right, you are wrong; if you are right, we are wrong; and that’s all there is to it. The Protestants haven’t a leg to stand on. For if we are wrong, they are wrong with us, since they were a part of us and went out from us; while if we are right, they are apostates whom we cut off long ago. If we have the apostolic succession from St. Peter, as we claim, there is no need of Joseph Smith and Mormonism; but if we have not that succession, then such a man as Joseph Smith was necessary, and Mormonism’s attitude is the only consistent one. It is either the perpetuation of the gospel from ancient times, or the restoration of the gospel in latter days.’” My testimony is that it is the restoration of the gospel in the latter days. The restoration is an ongoing event and it's a blessing to be apart of it! God loves all of his children and he again reached out in love to one of them in 1820. This is the truth.
We raked leaves for the Bortz family which was great! They needed the help and it felt good to be out there serving. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it. They took us out for dinner that night at a hibachi grill kind of like Tepanyaki back home. It was so good! That stuff is expensive so I was super grateful for them taking us out!
On Sunday we got a new bishopric! Our current bishop is moving to Vegas for work so we needed a new one! Our new bishop is Bishop Miracle and I'm pumped. He's a cool guy with a sweet Air Jordan collection. He has 5 young kids and he loves missionary work. I think things are looking up around here! We had dinner with Pops Greenwald who may be the funniest guy in the ward. He's an older guy and is constantly cracking jokes! We had a little meeting with the Pres. And Sis. Johnson that night and it's always good to see them. They've had a super hard week so it was good to see them working through it and lifting their spirits up. I think being a mission president is one of the hardest jobs you could have. I respect that man so much.
Random thoughts
- Cowboy Elder Wilson was emergency transferred to Warren, PA to fill the spot of a missionary that went home so I'm not cowboy cornered anymore. We now have Elder Huff from Brigham City and he's a baller.
- My roping percentage is getting better. I think I went from 10% to 20%. There's hope.
Life is good and the mission is better. Everyday is a blessing and I'm thankful for my time out here! I've been studying the Book of Mormon in depth and slowly lately. Taking time to answer my questions and understand the story. I know the book is what it claims to be and the families and people described were in fact real people. I find as I read that I feel peace in a world of turmoil and that my thoughts turn to the Savior. I hope we take our time to study it ourselves!
Stay classy,
Elder Halls
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