Week 48 - Little Tender Mercies

Hello Everyone, it has been another week. But it has been a pretty good one.

1. ZL Exchanges: Tracting

2. William

3. Paul/Saul Church tour

4. Little Tender Mercies

1. So, as many of you know, and are probably thinking, I don't like Tracting: Aka, going door to door knocking. It was a pretty common thing back in the day, but with today's age of technology and people not liking you coming up to the door as much, it hasn't really been a thing. But, it also depends on the area. Our Zone Leaders are in the area just below us "Granite Hills", and they have been doing some tracting and have had pretty good success. They use this method where they have a survey, asking 10 questions pertaining to God, Family, and the Restoration. Some examples include "Do you believe in God?", "Is a close, strong family important to you?" and "If there was another book of scripture, written by prophets that testifies of Christ, would you read it?". Its worked pretty well for them, and this general area of Lakeside/El Cajon area people are more humble and generally more open to people coming up and knocking on your door (again, depending on the area). So we tried it when we went on exchanges with the ZLs, and have been doing some of it here. It's been ok the past few days that we've tried it. Haven't met anyone who's interested but a few people agreed to take the survey. It was just more frustrating when they would say yes to some questions, like the one about additional scripture, and they still said no to learning more. It was a bruh moment.

2. We have been teaching a guy named William and it has been so awesome. He has read the Book of Mormon through 1 Nephi 11 and is understanding it! We had a good lesson with him on Saturday talking about just what he's reading and any questions he has. At the end we reviewed Moroni's promise and told him that he can know that the Book of Mormon is true. He said he will continue to read. It makes me happy just because of how uncommon these kinds of experiences have been for me so far. 90+% of the time no one wants to talk to you, and if they do, they struggle with keeping commitments like coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, or even simply meeting with us! It's been a pretty big surprise for me to realize how common these issues are with people. At least in San Diego. But William has been reading, and has an open mind, and is simply golden. 

3. An interesting experience happened just yesterday. We came to the church to use the computers for some Facebook work and to call members to set up lessons. And as we were walking up the steps to the church there's just this guy with sunglasses and a hat standing at the top of the steps with a Big Gulp. He looks like those random, possibly homeless guys, that just do their own thing. But when I first saw him it scared me for a second because he was just staring back at us in silence. He was a pretty weird guy. He told us he was walking by the church and saw the Visitors Welcome sign so he decided to come check it out. It didn't occur to him I guess that nobody was here on a Monday at 2pm in the afternoon. He asked if he could come in and worship even though he didn't really go to church before. We told him our services were on Sundays and we'd love to see him then. He said he wanted to see the church, so we decided to give him a church tour! We showed him the foyer, chapel and then when we got to the foyer on the opposite side he asked for our card and said he was going to leave. He said he might come back on Sunday, but he didn't want to come at 9 am when we started. He might go to the Granite Hills meeting at 11. So that was an interesting experience for me.

4. I just wanted to point out some little tender mercies I saw this week. While they're not huge, I like the quote that says "If you only look for God in the big things, you'll miss him in the little things". These things have just made my week better.

- My old trainer who went home, Brother Hayes, came to San Diego this week! It was fun because he originally wasn't going to be able to for another month or so but then I guess things worked out! We met up for lunch and got some Mexican food. It was good to talk to him and see him again for the first time in 6 months! Weird that it's been that long.

- I also saw another old friend this week. But he didn't see me. Since I am training Elder Johnson, we have these in field workshops over zoom from the MTC. There's another certain someone who is also being trained that I saw on the zoom meeting. It was none other than my good buddy from home, Elder Jensen! If any of you don't know, we grew up together, went to all the same schools, same ward, etc. It was really fun to see him there.

- The kids I taught in my last area, Aidyn and Alexis, got baptized this week! I didn't go because I didn't actually know about it much in advance, and I don't know if I would've been able to. They were on date for baptism the whole time I was there, but it kept getting pushed back because of their mom who we're also teaching. I won't get into that. But it was sweet to see them finally make it. They were first put on date back in February and have been ready for a long time.

- It also rained this week which is probably the most minor, but it still made me happy. Plus, it never rains here. But the feeling of seeing thunder clouds coming in is so cool. It rained pretty lightly, but it was still nice. I love gloomy weather where there's rain and overcast weather. I ought to live somewhere like Portland Oregon, or Alaska.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I love you all and am grateful for all your prayers and support. Until next week!

- Elder Wride

I didn't take any pictures, but here's Aidyn and Alexis baptism