Monday, November 7, 2016

11/7/16

11-1-16
We stopped by to visit Kristin today who is a less active's wife. She was busy, but told us to come back Thursday at the same time. We tried by some other people who weren't available or home. We had another lesson with Ana and the Bishop came with us. It was a great lesson and the bishop gave some great input. Ana is super solid, but she isn't married to the less active guy she's living with. That is only because she is trying to file for a divorce, but can't locate her husband. It's an odd situation. We went over the Restoration even though she's already been taught it. We refreshed her memory and focused on the importance of reading the BoM to find out if it's true. She hasn't done that yet, but she committed to baptism if she knew this was the right path to take. She is coming to church on Sunday! 

11-2-16
This morning, we had Mormon.org time which we get to do up at the apartment office since they have computers there. After that, we had an appointment cancel last minute, so we tried by some other people who weren't available. We were able to set up a couple return appointments though. We went to go track down a referral to see him, but he wasn't home. There is an older less active couple who live right around the corner from him, so we went to go and meet them. They are nice people, but have trouble getting around. We talked about their conversion stories and some of his stories when he was in Desert Storm. We shared a scripture with them, then asked all of them their favorite BoM stories. The wife said that she like the part where it outlines the Plan of Salvation, so I told her to look up Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from this last Conference! We left to go and meet with a less active we had an appointment with and talked to him about receiving the priesthood. He seemed excited about that, but won't be able to come back to church for a little while since he will be traveling the next couple weeks. After dinner, we went over to Bro. Taylor's house to have Ward Coordination. We scheduled a BoM/Bible study class tonight, so we invited an investigator of ours to come. She confirmed that she was coming right before dinner. Luckily, she didn't show up for whatever reason. Let me explain; The sisters invited a recent convert of a couple months and an investigator they have. They showed up and the investigator was very weird... the first thing he told people is that we can call him "Catdaddy." When we got started, he kept interrupting with these off-the-wall comments and questions. The whole time he was just trying to start a debate with us. Supposedly, he wants to have a vision of God or just proof that He is out there. We tried to explain faith and how we should walk by faith and not sight, but it wasn't good enough for him. He asked all these questions to the recent convert to try and tear down his newly found testimony of the BoM and it was making us mad... he brought of Revelations (of course) where it says that we should add to the Bible. That's when you know the people aren't very educated in their rebuttals. We ended class early because we couldn't get him settled down and no one could feel the Spirit. He was definitely on something. 

11-3-16
This morning, we had an appointment with Kristen and her kids were crazy! It was hard for all of us to focus- especially her. I am convinced that Satan gets in the way of lessons through children. That has happened a lot on my mission. Haha after that, we went to go wash the car and then grab some lunch at Panda Express. We ran back to the apartment to go get some food that the Clark's dropped off for Taimi and his family. We took that over to him and had a good visit with him. Then we went over Sis. Cooper's who is a less active. We were going to teach her granddaughter, but she had to leave. Sis. Cooper talked about the rough times that she's been through and how she became converted to the gospel. We went to visit the Reynolds again and had a nice visit as usual. Her son, Michael is really warming up to us and he read Alma 36 that we left with them last time! I really want to see him go on a mission! We had to rush out and go to choir practice. 

11-4-16
We had ZTM today and interviews with Pres. Turner as well. They both went really well because I was "nourished and edified." Haha then, there was a Mexican guy who catered the meeting and brought a ton of authentic tacos and taquitos! We had exchanges today, so I went to Ridgeway with Elder Michaelis. We had a couple lessons with some less actives and brought a member with us to fellowship. E. Michaelis is a cool guy and plays the guitar really well! He came out on his mission when E. Winn came out. We got trapped on a porch because there was a dog that was going to bite the crap out of us if we stepped off the porch. We waited to catch the dog off guard, and took off for the car. It was pretty scary! Dogs don't like Michaelis most-likely because he is 6'6. Haha 

11-5-16
This morning, we were heading over to a member's home to do some service before we finished up exchanges. We ended up getting in a pretty bad car wreck. We got T-boned on my side of the car by a truck going about 55mph. It totaled the car and knocked me out. We were luckily, wearing our seatbelts and the airbags deployed. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance where they got me all fixed up. I was so out of it! I got some X-rays because it felt like I had broken a rib and I had bad whiplash. Everything seemed to be normal, but I did get a CT Scan and it showed that I have a concussion. I started throwing up while we were in the room. Haha but I am so thankful that the Lord watched out for both us. I truly believe in the ministry of angels because there's no way I could've lived from that-let alone not break any bones. I crawled out of the car by myself and I have no recollection of any of it. I joke around and tell people I stopped the car from hitting me with my hand, but I truly believe an angel must've stopped it from seriously injuring me. I don't remember this happening, but Pres. Turner called to checkup on me and I was probably way out of it. It was amazing because I managed to get the only nurse that was a member to take care of me. Haha 

11-6-16
I am so freakin sore this morning! My whole body just aches and the right side of my torso is swollen. Haha my right pec is a lot bigger than my left. It was hard to get up and go to church, but we went! We stayed for sacrament and gospel principles, but left after that because I was starting to get a headache. Bishop Lenker invited us over tonight for dinner with a recent convert and the sisters came too. They made some really good lasagna and salad! We visited with their son the whole time who is a senior in high school and talked about his plans to serve a mission after he graduates. I went by Rite-Aid to add my insurance card to get a refund on the prescription I got and to buy some Aleve. Pres. Turner called me again to make sure I was doing better. I asked him if I seemed out of it on the phone yesterday and he said, "I think you were in another universe." Haha
On the bright side, Ana came to church with Oliver's daughters who are members and it was great to see them!

PS: Ford Fusions have great crash ratings! 😂

-Elder Mitchell