เฮลโล Hello!
What is up dog? How's everyone doing? Hopefully good! This was quite the week. A lot happened without much happening. Confused? Me too. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up!
I BLESSED A FRIEND DOWN IN AFRICA
Technology is cool! We met a guy named Samson who lives in Nigeria! He's really interested in the gospel. We were able to actually video call him and share the restoration! It was dark where he was, so he was lighting his face by shining a flashlight directly at his face. So I guess Joseph Smith wasn't the only one who saw a pillar of light, huh? Do you wanna hear something else that was pretty cool? I got to teach the restoration in Thai!! It went really well, and the person I taught (over the phone) wants a Book of Mormon! So hopefully I'll be able to meet with her this week and hand it off in person!
KARENS. KARENS EVERYWHERE.
While we were tracting at a certain apartment complex, we met three different ladies who all had a bone to pick with us, I guess. The first one slammed the door in our face when we were talking to her. Nothing out of the ordinary, so we moved on to the next door. While we were sharing with the person at the next apartment, the first lady opens her door back up and starts yelling at us about how we can't be soliciting at this complex. My companion calmly starts explaining the difference between soliciting and proselytizing while I just ignored her and shared about the Book of Mormon to the kind person who was actually hearing us out. After a bit, she finally went back inside. The second lady found us when we were going back to our car. I was standing behind the car to back my companion, and this lady rolls down her window and says, "you can't park here if you don't live here!" So I responded, "in the visitor's parking?" Then she said, "I have your license plate number." So I kinda chuckled and just said, "Okay." And she drove off. The third and final encounter was actually a few days later. We were doing more tracting at this same complex and a lady answers the door and politely rejects us, and was actually on her way out of the door already, so she walked past us. We stood there for a minute to write something down on a card, and from the bottom of the stairs, she starts screaming for us to get away from her door. How we were encroaching on her place of residence. We didn't want to yell back at her, so we just said ok and started finishing up the card. And almost immediately she screams again how we need to leave now. So we told her what we were doing and she didn't have anything else to say. We heard her walking around the parking lot talking about how she went to bible college and that there's a scripture that totally debunks our entire doctrine. She never mentioned a reference or even paraphrased, but I'm sure it would have been devastating. At an entirely separate complex, we have 2 cranky old men yelling at us from all the way across the parking lot about not soliciting. We ignored them until they screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU, DEAF?" And we just said that we aren't soliciting and left them to sulk in the darkness. They were like the two old men from the muppets but not funny and just angry haha.
FINISHERS WANTED
I'll be completely honest with you, for the most part this was a HARD week. Lots of hours of work with very little to show for it. Sometimes it can get tough to get myself out of the apartment to go knock on doors if it hasn't been yielding any results. All around our zone here in Seattle, the other missionaries have been having a ton of success and miracles on a daily basis. But we haven't seen comparable blessings. Why is that? We've been working as hard, right? Well, one of my favorite talks came to my mind while I was looking over this week, so I'm going to share a little bit from "Finishers Wanted" by Thomas S. Monson:
Though disappointment, heartache, and trial were to beset him, yet Paul, at the conclusion of his ministry, could say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Paul was a finisher. He admonished us to “lay aside … sin” and to “run with patience the race. … Looking [for an example] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. …”
Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;
Beginners are many, but enders are few.
Honor, power, place and praise
Will always come to the one who stays.
“Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;
Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;
For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile
Will come life’s victories after a while.”
God needs finishers! He called me out here to be a finisher, not a beginner. Anyone can start a task, but it takes some real character building to finish one. If I just came out to start a mission, what would I have learned? That a mission is hard? Ok, cool. But through trials and difficulties, life's most important lessons are learned. I didn't baptize nations this week, so what? Many times, the impact that we make on others is never noticed by our own eyes, but I'm confident that through my efforts and continuing faith, I'll recieve life's victories... after a while.
LAST THINGS LAST (sorry about these, mom)
- We had a guy whip open his door with a gun in his hand. He was actually really nice.
- We heard a drive by shooting happen just about a block away from us. About 9 shots fired. Yes, we counted.
- Ghetto spots really like shopping carts.
- A bunch of Mexico missionaries and even some Africa missionaries were sent back to their original assignment this week!
- Don't think I could forget about you. I love you! Have a great week.
เอ็ลเดอร์ นักกฎหมาย (Elder Lawyer)
Elder Barrett
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