Week 60 - "Get used to disappointment."
Hey, everyone!
The quote this week is from Wesley, as played by Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride, to Inigo Montoya atop the Cliffs of Insanity.
Disappointment has sort of been a theme of this week. A lot of people haven't followed through on their commitments, and one of the people who came to church didn't have a good experience with services and didn't come back the next week. I'm hoping there were extenuating circumstances, because this person seemed sincere about planning on coming back, but so did everyone else we invited to church who didn't come. She said that it felt like a daycare, considering the amount of noise the children were making. She also noticed that a lot of people didn't seem to be paying attention to the speaker, which was sad to me. I've noticed that most of us don't seem to take Sacrament meeting very seriously--we're just there to... I don't know, partake of the Sacrament and then just sit there? ("Dozin' off while the preacher's dronin' on.") We don't expect spiritual nourishment or an uplifting experience. It seems like we consider the speakers just background noise while we divide our attention to other things, like we're putting on music to clean the house or cook or something. We don't expect the speakers to have insights or information that could really change our lives. But as I've listened intently to the speakers, I've felt the Spirit, and it feels good. We need to do better at valuing what is taught and what is done in those meetings.
So anyway, she didn't really like it, and apparently she didn't feel anything significant. So that was a bummer. Also, we were going to take a recent convert of ours to the temple to do baptisms, but he got sick. We gave him a blessing the night before, but he didn't get better by the next day, so he couldn't come. That was disappointing.
But it's OK--there were a lot of good things that happened this week, too!
For instance, we were able to finally meet with an 8-year-old girl whose grandma is an active member and wants us to teach her. We've been trying to figure out good ways to help her understand the lessons we're teaching, likes games and object lessons. We used a matching game to teach her the first two principles in the lessons: God is our Loving Heavenly Father and The Gospel Blesses Individuals and Families. It went pretty well, and she was also at church this week! (She's been absent for the last several weeks).
We also got to meet with a guy who found us in an Auto Zone when I was with Elder Sears. He just came up to us and was like, "Hey, Elders." We hadn't seen him in the ward, so we weren't sure who he was, but he said he had met with missionaries like us before, but he didn't believe that just one denomination was going to go to heaven. Elder Sears said he didn't believe that either (obviously it depends on your definition of "denomination" and your definition of "heaven," but we definitely don't believe that if you weren't a member of the church on earth that automatically precludes you from salvation). He told us if anyone in the city was hassling us, we should give him a call, and he would take care of it. He said that people know him around here, and they respect him so he'll help us out. Later, he met us by our car, and he told us he was going through a rough time and was going to be busy during the holidays but would love to meet with us when he got back. We got in touch with him, and we met with him at a McDonald's, and he told us the things he admired about our faith, and he said that whenever he goes through a rough time, it seems like the missionaries are always there. He gave us some examples and then talked about when he met us. He was like, "I walked into Auto Zone, and there you were." So it seems like he's getting a message from God and that we're going to be able to teach him. Although a lot of things have been getting in his way--it seems like whenever we've wanted to have a lesson with him, there's been some obstacle. So we'll be praying for him. You can, too, if you'd be willing to. His name is James.
We also had some great visits with members of the ward. There's a place here in the Delaware Ward called Ostrander, and we've met a ton of members there who are super solid and are actively doing missionary work. One of those families we taught the first missionary lesson and we think it had a real impact on them. It was good. We also met a family who's going to try to set up a meeting with their neighborhood to teach people about family history and have us come and teach people how to use FamilySearch, so that's going to be super cool. On Tuesday we helped out at a food pantry for a few hours and met a super cool kid who's trying to get service hours for college applications and stuff and had a lot of questions about what we do, so we told him about missionary life and stuff. Hopefully he asks us more about our actual beliefs as well. We also had some great visits with some of the families in the ward over the past week, and they're trying to share the gospel with several people that we can follow up with them about, so that's exciting.
We've also gotten a TON of food from members. Delaware is proving to be a land of plenty when it comes to temporal things. There's one member who works for Morgan Stanley who took us to the grocery store and encouraged us to buy anything we wanted and bought us about $110 of food. So we're doing just fine that way. We made burgers the other night and have a lot of good food from him, and it seems like every time we visit members they send us away with something to stock our fridge with. So that's nice. One family sent us home with salami and fresh mozzarella yesterday; another sent us home with a tupperware container full of soup; another sent us home with a tin full of this caramel-white-chocolate-dark-
We also had dinner with a less-active family the other day, and the dad came to church this Sunday! It was awesome! It seems like he has trouble feeling welcome and accepted, so I hope the ward members put an arm around him and let him know they want him there. Just as an aside, his son is a genius: He's 10, and he just messes around with hardware and electronics and stuff and makes things. They're a really cool family. We hope they'll make connections with ward members and recognize that they have a family here who cares about them.
Again, I've learned more and more as a missionary the importance of the ministering program. Reach out to your assigned people. If they won't give you ways to serve them, find creative ways to brighten their day or lift them or let them know you care and you're ready to help. Everyone needs a friend, even the people we think can stand on their own and don't need anyone. They may be among the people who need the most help. Everyone can benefit from a person who loves them and makes sure they know that. If you've been lax on your assignments, repent and help the people you're assigned to. you'll feel Heavenly Father's love. You'll feel the Spirit confirm to you that you're doing his work.
That's about all I have time for. As a random aside, I met a bantam (sp?) rooster and a black chicken and a group of alpacas on Sunday. The elder's quorum president in our ward owns the alpacas, and apparently people pay to come take selfies with them. Pictures attached.
Elder Davis
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