Week 26 - "I wrote it down in my diary so I wouldn't HAVE to remember!"

Hey, everyone. This week has been pretty hectic. I'm beginning to lapse on my journal writing, which is bad, because the busiest weeks may be the weeks I need to be trying to record and write down the most in the way of memories, but when we get home and anywhere near bedtime in the evenings I just want to sleep. I'm noticing also that I'm so focused on the present moment that it takes me a second to remember what we've done earlier in the day, and I usually have to check our Area Book schedule to jog my memory. That's why I felt like the quote by Henry Jones from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was appropriate.

A lot of good things have happened this week. First, the training specialists came again, only it was a different pair this time: Elder Hepler and Elder Barnson. When I saw on the calendar that they were coming to Warren I was pretty stoked, because I've wanted to serve with Elder Hepler since I met him, and Elder Barnson was my district leader when I was in Worthington, so I knew that whoever I went with, I'd be happy about it. I ended up being with Elder Hepler, which was great. I learned a lot on the exchange yesterday about listening to the promptings of the spirit, how the Lord helps us when we act according to plan, and how I can be a better missionary in contacts and things like that. For example, in "The Great OCM" we have a "mission culture." It's a statement that says everything we are and do as missionaries in this mission. One of the culture points is "Talk with everyone and testify of Christ." That culture point is very difficult for me, because there have been times when we've tried to talk with people and they've cussed us out. It feels in most of those cases like there's a severe absence of the Spirit, and most of those moments are difficult for me to forget, so sometimes when we see people I'm just like, "They're probably not interested," so I don't even try. I might give them a friendly wave or a greeting, but I don't go beyond that. And in some situations I don't necessarily think that's inappropriate, but I feel like I'm not doing quite as much as I could or should. So I have this inner conflict of "I know I should talk with everyone, but I really don't want to." I was able to talk about that with Elder Hepler yesterday morning before individual study, and he gave me some advice on a few things to study and said we would work on it during the day. Later that morning we were on our way to an appointment when we saw these two guys walking across the street. They didn't look like the type of guys who would be interested. They seemed like they were avoiding us a little bit. But Elder Hepler was like, "Let's go talk to them." So he headed that direction and was like, "Hi! How are ya? How's your day going?" Just kind of asking those sorts of questions, and at first they didn't respond, but then they started talking with us just a little bit, but they kept walking, but then they pointed us in the direction of someone else across the street who they said might need the message, so we headed back over to talk with them. They seemed willing to tolerate us, but not really interested in learning more, and then, while we were talking to them, a woman walked over from across the street and was like, "Are y'all Mormons?" We told her who we were, and she said she needed a prayer for someone she knew who was in jail. So we had a prayer, and then we talked to her a little more, and she told us about how she and her boyfriend are homeless, but recently he's been helping her renew her faith in God, and we talked to her for a while about how our message blesses others' lives, and we offered to meet with her and teach her and her boyfriend. We gave her our number, and she hasn't gotten in contact with us yet, but either way, it was a good contact, and the kind of thing I think she will remember in the future. But if we had just gone straight into the appointment, we never would have seen her. It took us talking with people who weren't interested, having them direct us to people who also weren't interested, and standing out on the sidewalk where she could see us, late for our appointment, in order for us to be able to meet her. It also felt like we were in the right place at the right time. The Spirit lets us know when we're on the Lord's schedule, and I forgot what that felt like. I felt it several times in Worthington, pretty consistently, in fact, but I hadn't felt it that much here yet. And it ended up being fine--we ended up being able to meet with the people we planned on meeting with. In fact, after we met with the guy who we had the appointment scheduled with, a man who had come down to get his mail asked us if we did Bible Study groups or something. We told him that it was more of an individual thing, but yes, we could study the Bible with him. We scheduled a time to do that, and Elder Anderson and I will be meeting with him later tonight. So not only would we not have met the homeless woman, but we wouldn't have met this new person that we'll be teaching tonight. What this and past experiences have taught me is that when you know what you're doing, and the Lord knows that you know what you're doing, when you have a plan and you stick to it, the Lord can put people in your path who are ready to be taught. When you behave consistently, and you have your mind set to behave a certain way (like, for instance, talking with everyone), the Lord can use that to bring people closer to Him. Elder Hepler also helped me identify a principle on my Belief Window (if any of you haven't heard The Belief Window by Hyrum Smith, go look it up. It's a great talk) that was bad and helped me think more about true principles that can better meet my needs as a missionary, so I'm trying to implement those principles.

Some other good things that happened this week: One of the people we're teaching came to church and said that he's going to need to make a habit out of it. He seemed more at peace after being at the meeting. We also got to give one of the people we're teaching a priesthood blessing--we told him about what the priesthood is and taught him a little about the Restoration of the priesthood, and then we gave him a blessing of healing (he was at the hospital), and the Spirit was very present. It was good. I think that's going to make a positive difference for him. We also had an exchange a few days ago with the elders from Ashtabula--they doubled into Warren, and I went with Elder Lewis. We actually found someone for the sisters to teach (they've been sending us a lot of referrals recently), and then later that night we met a little family street contacting who we invited to come to church, and the mom said they would like to. So we're going to try to follow up with them and see if they come this week (I think they couldn't this past week because they were going to be out of town for Memorial Day). I didn't want to contact the dad, who was out on his porch, but then his little daughter, who's just over 1, kept waving at us and saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!" It's my personal belief (and may not be doctrinally correct) that younger children aren't completely under the effects of the veil, and it felt to me like that little girl was urgently trying to tell Elder Lewis and myself that her family needed the gospel, and when she kept saying "Hi!" even as we were walking away, that thought came to me, and I was like, "We have to go back and talk to them." I would have felt awful if we didn't. And we did, and the contact went OK, and they may be interested in learning more. So that's cool.

Earlier that day we took someone we're teaching named Rick on a church tour with our recent convert John (the person we baptized most recently). We were able to take Rick through the building, and he seemed like he liked it, and when we got back he was like, "I know you guys want to baptize me," and he seemed open to the idea, so that's pretty awesome! We may be able to put him on date soon or something. He would benefit a ton from the gospel.

Another cool thing that happened was that there's a family in the ward whose son isn't a member and is dealing with some issues with addiction. We gave the family an addiction recovery handbook, and the last time we were over there, he actually showed up and talked to us during a lesson, which he's never done before! He said he's felt drawn to the church, and he said he has been reading through the handbook, so that's awesome! We may be helping him turn his life around!

Also, there's a guy we met a couple weeks ago, Jason, who we haven't been able to get in contact with. While we were on exchanges Elder Lewis and I were going to take a route near his area and end by knocking on his door, but then I felt like we should knock on his door first. He wasn't there, so I kind of disregarded that prompting. But later, as we were walking the route, we ran right into him coming from an adjacent street. He said he was possible about to become homeless, so I realized if we hadn't met him right there and then, and instead had dropped by his house later that night, we might not have seen him again. He talked about how he was losing faith, and later we got in touch with him and were able to meet him for lunch and talk about some things. He doesn't seem very interested in what we had to say, but I hope we had a positive impact on him, and I hope we're able to help him in the future. It definitely wasn't a coincidence that we ran into him that day, and I need to remember that.

I'm sorry there's not more here this week. I'm going to make a diligent effort to try to catch up on my journal and record at least the most important events. I love you all! Thank you for your emails and your support. They keep me going.

Elder Davis

Pictures

1. Elder Hepler and me

2. A better picture of Elder Hepler and me (Elder Hepler is 6'9"

3. Elder Hepler, Elder Anderson, Elder Barnson, and me

4. "Execute Order number 66"