First off, as promised, here is a summary of what Elder Ballard taught us 2 weeks ago. He drew what looked like a giant "M" on the blackboard. Two mountains side by side. On the peak of the left mountain he wrote "Pre-earth life" and on the peak of the right mountain he wrote "Eternal life." How do we get from the top of the left mountain to the top of the right mountain? Well, we have to walk down the valley and walk up the right mountain. There is no other way. The valley is earth. The way that we climb up the mountain to eternal life is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is only one path that will take us to the very top. Our job as missionaries is to help people to find that path, and members of the church are the only people that know where it is and how to climb up it. Everyone else, right now, is wandering around in the valley and they have no idea where to go or what to do. They don't even know how they got there or why they are there. We need to help them find the path.
He also said, "A lot of people complain to the general authorities because we say the same things over and over. Pray, read the scriptures, have family home evening, pray with your family, blah blah blah. Well, if everybody did those things, maybe we'd be able to tell everyone stuff like...where Kolob is." We laughed pretty hard at that one.
This week has been good. The zone leaders found an investigator for us named Jason. Apparently they contacted him on the other side of Windsor and he wasn't interested so they gave him a card. He took the card, went to mormon.org, got in contact with the zone leaders again and said he wanted to hear more because the church had the same values as him. Just so everybody knows...that doesn't happen very often at all. I've never even heard of people calling the missionaries back after saying they weren't interested. But it turns out that Jason lived in our area, so the zone leaders reluctantly handed this amazing investigator over to us, and it is now up to Elder Eatchel and I to lead him into the waters of baptism.
So we set an appointment with him on Thursday and taught him about the Restoration. Like 10 minutes into the lesson he asks, "So how do I join your church?" (WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!) And so we set him with a baptismal date right there. On Saturday we taught him the plan of salvation in the church(which I've found to be really effective), and on Sunday he went to church and we taught him some more on Sunday night. Wow. What a guy!
I've learned, however, that every investigator has their stumbling blocks before baptism. Here's Jason's situation: He has problems with depression and has tried to commit suicide more than once in the past. He lives with his girlfriend, who is Muslim, in a Muslim apartment complex. His girlfriend is physically handicapped(but super nice and all there mentally) and she can't really live on her own. Jason is also age 22 and unemployed, his girlfriend owns the apartment. We haven't taught Jason the law of chastity and I have no idea how we are going to solve this situation and have him baptized. I guess this is where we do all we can and pray that God will do the rest.
We also met with a less-active named Sandra who is awesome. She's a really nice lady, probably late 20's and seems completely normal. But she has severe problems with drugs. It's weird because I'm used to most people with drug problems looking like meth-addicts. So we met with her and I felt like we did a good job at offering her spiritual help. I committed her to read the scriptures every day at 9 pm. Then we arranged for her to get a ride to church. She's really nice, and I mentioned to Elder Eatchel that we needed to get some winter gear soon, and that I needed a scarf.
She said, "Oh! I can knit you a scarf, I love knitting."
I said, "Sweet, that would be awesome."
"Yeah, I can't wait. I love knitting. You know what's good about knitting? It keeps me from smoking."
"I want a blanket!"
We all laughed pretty hard at that, it was a good ice-breaker. And guess what, she came to church!
The weather today in Windsor is actually....quite warm. It feels like spring time. Elder Eatchel and I are going to go play frisbee after this. I went on travels with out Chinese-speaking district leader this week and slept in their massive palace-apartment. They have a weight-lifting room! The best gym equipment in the whole mission, hands down. So I decided to do some hardcore squats for my morning exercise. The next day I realized how dumb of a decision that was. A missionary in a walking area with ridiculously sore legs...I'm lucky we weren't riding bikes.
Working with the Chinese-speaking elder was pretty interesting, we basically just stalked Asian-looking people in downtown Windsor and I couldn't understand most of the conversation. Later that night we ate what's called Balute (however you spell that) at a Phillipino member's apartment. It's basically a fertilized chicken egg that they age and then take out of the incubator. Then it's boiled and eaten like a regular boiled egg. Tastes like egg, looks like some sort of alien life form. So that was interesting. I'd probably eat one again. Wow, I think this might be the longest email I've ever written.
Love you all!
--Elder Wade
