Howdy folks! I hope everyone had a good week. It started off pretty slow for us. We've also been struggling to teach people in person because it feels like the only interested people are single baby muddas that have zero men in their life and we aren't allowed to teach them in person without a man that's 18 or older there with us. We also have like 1 member that has time to come do missionary work, but was busy this week so we ended up doing a lot of finding and teaching lessons over the phone.
Last Monday evening, we had a tropical storm that had potential to become hurricane so we had an early curfew that we had to be in 5 for, which didn't really give us too much time to go play basketball or do anything else since we have an adjusted P-day Schedule. We decided that since I only had like 3 or 4 pdays left to full send and we had a good time playing basketball. We ended up getting home later than we expected to. The storm that night was pretty pathetic though. The clouds looked big and scary, but I've proselyted in worse rainstorms than that.
It's also been raining on and off the whole week because of the storm. All of Tuesday we were locked inside making calls, but that didn't stop the work from progressing.
Highlights:
- We had some good lessons with our friend Courtinique (I believe I called her Dechanel in the last email, but as since told us to call her that). She's been eating up the Book of Mormon and repeatedly told us that November 24th (her baptismal date) was an, and I quote, "a done deal". Sadly she didn't come to church early enough today for her to come to church twice before November 24th, so we had to push her date back to Dec 1st. (We have stake conference and one of the weeks doesn't count towards sacrament attendance)
- Some guy from the high council came and taught Elders Quorum yesterday and it was awful. Apparently he got put on assignment to help the branch know more about the priesthood and he did it in such a terrible way. There were 5-6 guys that were there for the first time, and he refused to explain what the priesthood is and went straight into the offices in the Aaronic priesthood. Nobody, besides the long term members, had any clue about what he was saying and were verbally expressing their confusion, and he would not answer any of their questions well. We, the missionaries, tried to step in and explain some things but he would not budge on his terrible explanations. Needless to say, nobody learned anything and left more confused than when they came in.
- Honestly, that's about it. Pretty standard missionary week. We had 1 or 2 cool friends come to church this week that we'll start working more closely with. Prayers up for Milton Jones
Spiritual thought:
I love that this gospel is true and that we can have the Holy Ghost confirm the truth to us. This week I spent a ridiculous amount of time staring at John 3:8 which reads, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." In this section, Jesus Christ is talking to Nicodemus, a pharisee/rabbi, about what it takes to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and mentions needing to be spiritually reborn. This verse mentions specifically how important it is that we look at things from a higher and more spiritual mindset. We wouldn't be able to understand what wind is if we couldn't feel or hear it, neither can we understand what the spirit is unless we experience it ourselves. This is crucial in being converted to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I forget how bold our message is until we have some guy yelling at my face saying, "You're telling ME that I CAN'T enter Heaven unless I'M baptized into YOUR church." and I get to answer with a little smirk and say "Well yea, but that's what I've learned from the Holy Spirit. As you come to church, read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it you can learn and realize this same thig for yourself". Being open to the higher and holier way of God is the only way that we can truly be changed by Him so that we can prepare to live the way He lives, and do the things He does.
Love you all,
Elder Turnbow
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