Rapping for the Redeemer

สวัสดีครับ Hello!

This was quite the week. Lots of adventures, lots of good times, and some guy dropping BARS in the back of his truck. More on that later...

BUSHMAN

We've been trying to find people in more creative ways than just knocking doors recently. One of those ways is river finding!! The Carbon River runs right along town, and it's fishing season! Lots of people catching king and pink salmon, but we went out there to fish for men. Not a ton of people showed much interest in the gospel, but there were a lot of friendly people out there just trying to hook a fish. I was just praying they wouldn't hook me when they cast. It was close. We found a cool spot under a bridge with clear water and a ton of fish. Elder Jones sharpened a branch into a spear and actually speared a fish. It was pretty impressive.

BOLDLY TESTIFYING

When we came back from the river one day, we ran into two people who wanted to talk a little bit, even though they were busy. The first one was someone I've knocked into before and he doesn't like the missionaries too much. Elder Jones started talking to him, unaware of any of this. I just kinda stood by and let them talk for a bit, figuring that he would tell Elder Jones he isn't interested and we'd get on with our day. That's when he said that Joseph Smith was a hypocrite and a liar. In the words of Michael Jordan, "I took that personally." I threw my hat in the ring. "Joseph Smith is a hypocrite and a liar? OK. Prove it. Why is he?" "....because!" "Y'know thats a good point, I hadn't considered that." "All of it is made up! Joseph Smith, golden plates, Moroni (pronounced Moranee)." "OK, can you prove that it didn't happen?" "..." Elder Jones and I went on and bore our testimony of the restoration and how by reading the Book of Mormon, he can know for himself. Of course, he was a grumpy old man who didn't want to read it, so we left him with our testimony. A few houses down, we started talking to another guy rolling tires out of a trailer. At first he didn't show much interest, but as we shared more with him, he got more engaged and involved. He started asking questions like why would a loving God not have us live with our families forever. And if we knew where we came from and where we're going. We left a Book of Mormon with him, even though he told us he wasn't wanting to learn more. But I can tell something clicked in his brain when we were talking to him. It was cool.

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

As we were driving past the high school, we saw someone sitting in the back of his truck in the parking lot with a big speaker next to him. What was he doing? Rapping like a pro. Elder Jones flipped around and made a U-turn so we could talk to him. This guy has been writing rap songs for Jesus since 2000. Apparently he likes to come to Orting to rap because the police like him. He said he won one over by rapping once. Legend. We asked him to rap for us a bit and he was happy to. It was actually kinda awesome. He said he was working on rock songs, and he wanted us to help him with those one day. I hope we can get that going. 😂

สู้ๆ วิสุทธิชน

I found a really cool verse in my personal study this week. It's in Romans 8:24, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." All things work for good if you love God. Talk is just talk. You have to show you love God through your actions and through the intentions of your heart. Just remember to love God. Rely on him and keep him in your hearts. You'll get through hard times. You'll overcome any obstacles that impede your progress. All will work for your good.

LAST THINGS LAST

- GO. COUGS.

- Balloon animal balloons are impossible to blow up. Even a hurricane couldn't fill those things with air.

- Take a look in the mirror. You are an incredible work of a divine creator. You are miraculous and I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ชาวประมง (Elder Fisherman)

Elder Barrett