We sang a duet in sacrament meeting yesterday, Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy, Hymn #335. It was really scary, we just stared at our hymnbooks the entire time. It was ward conference, so we were in the chapel for the full three hours. Some of the members were asked to bear testimony about recent missionary experiences they've had, and most of them mentioned the Living Christmas card. Hopefully somewhere down the line some baptisms will come from those, but if not it gave the members valuable experience.
We got into a door while tracting the other day, it was the first time for Elder Sorensen in the 5 months he's been here. It was a guy that thought we looked cold, so he made us some hot chocolate and asked us about our beliefs. He wasn't really interested, but at least he was nice.
Earlier in the week we dropped by a local soup kitchen. Immediately one of the workers informed the lady in charge that the "Mormons" are here, and she brought us to a table and talked with us. She was fairly abrupt at first and explained that missionaries had volunteered there in the past and there were some really good experiences and some really bad experiences(this was like 18 years ago). She told us if we wanted to work there we would have to drop the uniforms and the name tag, go by our first names only, and there would be absolutely no evangelizing. My first thought was "Well, forget this place." But she started being a bit more kind, I think her heart was softened by our cheerful, innocent countenances. We will give it a try; we need to find some way to change everyone's negative perceptions around here.
Have a good week.
--Elder Wade
