Week 27 - "What are the Finger Lakes? What is Lake Titicaca? What is the Rhone?"

Hi, everyone!

Again, we've had a pretty busy, crazy, week, and there's a lot to cover, so I hope all of what follows makes sense. You'll see the reason for the quote, which is from Groundhog Day, later on in the email.

The first thing I want to talk about is the baptism we were able to be a part of on Saturday. The sister missionaries have been teaching a young man, Logan, who's 9. He was baptized on June 1. Logan's mom asked if we, the elders, could perform the baptism, so Elder Anderson asked if I wanted to do it, and I thought it would be cool to do another one, so I did. It went well. The next day we got to stand in the circle while a member of the ward confirmed him. It's a different experience being a part of a baptism for someone you hardly know. I didn't feel as invested in it. But I think Logan will go on to do big things, so I'm happy for him and for the sisters.

I'm still not being great about journaling. I keep telling myself I'll do it later, and then we come in for the night and all I want to do is sleep. I'm a little frustrated with myself. I'll have to really plan on carving out some time tonight to at least go over the basics of some of the cool things that have happened over the course of this transfer, especially the last two or three weeks.

One of the cool things that happened yesterday at church is that one of the people we're teaching, Forrest, basically told us he wants to be baptized and set a date. We had talked about baptism and a date before, but it was cool to have him bring it up. He's got an older brother who it sounds like is giving him guff for it, but we're trying to work on him, too. I think their whole family would benefit greatly from the gospel. I guess everyone would.

Speaking of people who would benefit from the gospel, do you remember that family I mentioned whose daughter kept saying "Hi" to me and Elder Lewis? We visited them again, and the dad was there and said he's been reading the Book of Mormon, and he's about 1/4 way through. He seemed open to learning more, so we scheduled a time to visit them tomorrow, actually. I'll let you know how it goes next preparation day (which, by the way, will be Wednesday, because transfers are the following Thursday). We also got to visit a father last night named Brandon who we've tried to visit twice now and haven't been able to land a lesson with. This time he said he just completely forgot, and we apologized and said that it was all right, and we started sharing a micro version of our lesson, and he was like, "Can I ask you a question? What do you guys believe?" Elder Anderson basically started going through the articles of faith, talking about the Godhead, modern revelation, etc., and then Brandon was like, "What denomination are you from?" So we said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" And he was like, "What's the name?" Elder Anderson was like, "We're Christian," and he leaned back into his house to his wife, and he was like, "See? I told you they were Christians." Then he turned back to us and was like, "My wife was confused because she saw 'Mormon' on the card that you gave us." Elder Anderson was like, "Yeah, that comes from The Book of Mormon--that's another book of scripture that we read." We kept talking a little bit, and Brandon said they were just super busy all the time, and he was sorry, but it may just be easier for them to simply come to church. He was like, "We need to find a church. We've been looking for a church anyway." He said that he wants his children to be raised with a religion. So we gave him a card with the church address and emphasized that everyone, including the kids, is welcome, and that we'd love to have them there. So now we have two families who we might be teaching in the near future. When we got into the car after that contact, Elder Anderson and I were both freaking out a little bit. We're really hoping that they come to church one of these Sundays.

Earlier this week we got to visit a guy named Joe. Last transfer we were at interviews at the Youngstown Stake Center, and he just walked into the building. He was looking for directions. The Youngstown Elders (the Zone Leaders) contacted him and referred him to us. We've been trying for a while to get in touch with him, and we finally landed a lesson for the other night. Do you remember those pictures of kittens I sent a while ago? That was actually at his house--we tried to stop by earlier this transfer and weren't able to reach him. Well, a few nights ago we were able to go there, and there were a ton of cats. It seems like they've all started to congregate there. Joe has a good heart, and he doesn't want to take them to the pound and see them put down, so he's just been feeding them and hoping to find someone to take them. Joe is also a big fan of Jeopardy, and he was in the middle of it when we got there and very engaged. We asked him to mute it, but he said it wouldn't be long until it was over, so we basically just sat there and watched Jeopardy for 30 minutes. We tried to talk between the commercial breaks, too, but the TV was pretty loud, and the breaks didn't take very long. We're going to make sure to plan later lessons with him sometime outside that time frame. It was kind of enjoyable, though--I was able to answer some of the questions he wasn't, and so I hope I earned a little bit of cred with him. He's actually met with missionaries before and read part of the Book of Mormon. We invited him to church, but he didn't end up coming, but I think we'll get him there sometime in the future. He seems like a really solid person. He knows the Bible very well (that's one of the things he dislikes about Jeopardy contestants--they know about all sorts of things, but when it comes to questions about the Bible they have no idea how to answer them). He's also read part of The Book of Mormon, but he hasn't finished it, but he seemed open to reading it again, so that's good.

Earlier this week we also visited a woman in our area who we had visited when I first got here. Her husband is pretty aggressively atheist, and he was also a little drunk, and he kept talking to us about how a church was a business and nothing more, but he's also a very giving and generous person, so we were able to talk to him about it and basically come to agree to disagree, and it actually went pretty well. I think we showed him that his desire to be a good person is commendable, and that we weren't there to condemn him or to ask him for donations. But while we were there, his wife got pretty serious for a minute and said that she needed us to come by and talk to her and help her. She was also very, very drunk, but I wonder if a part of her, the part of her that feels the spirit when we're there, shone through in that moment, past everything else, and tried to let us know that she needed our help. As far gone as the two of them seem, when we got back in the car, Elder Anderson was like, "I could see them being really strong, awesome members of the church." I agreed with him, and I shared with him my theory about why there are people who do lots of wrong things still living on the earth (not that this woman and her husband are, but the conclusion of this principle still applies to them in my mind). I mean, if God exists, why wouldn't he take away the people who were doing really, really bad things so that we'd have a better world, right? What I've realized is that God wants to give his children as many chances as they can, and he wants them to ascend as high as they can. What that idea and Alma 34:32 say to me is that if someone is still here on earth, they've still got a chance. That has been an encouraging thought to me and has helped me be motivated to talk to everyone--there's not a person on earth who is too far gone to be helped. If any person ever was, I think God would take them home. All this is to say that as far gone as some people appear to be, they're still redeemable. They've still got a shot. I think that's the attitude we have to have with this woman and her husband. In a sense, we have "to be willing to march into Hell for a Heavenly cause," to quote Man of La Mancha again. And to quote Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's Atonement shines." And it's silly to think that those words apply only to us and not to other people, but I think we sometimes see people in dire straits who have made a lot of wrong choices and just think, "Well, there's nothing I can do for them," or "They would never want the gospel." When I was in Worthington Elder Thomas and I spoke on the phone with a member one evening, and she gave us some great advice. She was talking about doing door-to-door sales, which she used to do, and how some people would say that their friends wouldn't be interested in the product when she would ask for referrals, and she was like, "How you gonna decide for someone whether they want something?" That hit me hard. I realized that I can't look at someone and say that they don't want the gospel. I have to give them the chance to say no. That's another thing that has helped me to talk to people and offer them the truth that we have.

In summary, things are going pretty well here in Warren. We've got a very healthy teaching pool with some solid people in it, and we're continuing to find new people to teach. I appreciate your continual prayers, and I know that they make a difference. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Elder Davis