Hello Everyone! Hope you're all doing well. This week has been really good!
1. Run-down
2. Highlights
3. Demon Caster
1. The area is doing ok. We came in with 3 friends we were teaching. One of them is actually in the other Elders in our apartments area so we sent that record to them. The second one is going to be sent out to Oceanside because he actually lives there, which leaves us with 1 person. The one non-member we've met with a few times is named Connor. Things have been good. We taught him the Restoration and also read 3 Nephi 11 with him. He also came to church on Sunday! He's not working right now though and is also homeless. We're working on getting him into the LDS Employment services which would be good. But, he's also YSA, so we passed him off to the Missionaries in the YSA ward because we thought it would be better for him. So, right now we don't have any friends that we're teaching. Hopefully we'll meet some new people as we continue to meet with members, go to parks, knock on doors, find on facebook, etc. The bikes have been ok, but it's been kicking my butt. We haven't biked that far from our area yet. To get from one side to the other takes literally an hour and a half, with what google calls "very steep hills". We've only biked around this side of our area with moderate hills and it's been pretty bad. It's a little humid, and after a 12 minute bike ride to a member lesson, I am sweating really badly. Maybe I'm just out of shape. I'm hoping that either a miracle happens and we get a car, or I get used to it soon, or we could just always ask members for rides. I don't know, but I think our area is way too big for a bike. I think I included last week the fact that our area is bigger than some car areas. Anyway, sorry for the rant. My new comp is Elder Rainhart from Boise, ID. He's doing really well so far, and seems to be loving it. It's really good to hear him talking a lot about the things he's enjoying day to day. I also love being in an apartment with another set of Elders. It's so much fun to be around more people and we've had a lot of laughs already.
2. Here are some highlights of the week.
- We had a member lesson on Wednesday, and the youngest daughter was getting baptized on Saturday. We invited them to think of someone they could invite and they did! They invited us to come as well and it was fun. The non-member coming didn't lead anywhere, but hopefully they felt the spirit.
- We also had the ward chili cook off and trunk or treat this week! It was fun, but after being there for a long time for the set up and the party, I was pretty beat by the end of it. It was still good and we got to meet more of the ward members there.
- The biggest highlight this week was having lunch with my aunt and uncle! My extended family has been in Newport this week, and my aunt and uncle were coming down to the San Diego temple to perform baptisms. I talked to the MP, and we were able to meet up for lunch! It was really fun to be with family again for a little bit. It was initially kinda weird to see them again, but after a while it felt like I never left.
3. We were visiting some old records of people previously taught this week. At our first visit, it was the wrong address for the lady we were looking for. The guy said he didn't know her, but while we were talking, I noticed inside that he had a picture of that painting by Harry Anderson of the second coming. It's the one that I'm pretty sure is in every church building. It's the one where Christ is descending from the clouds in a white robe, and there are tons of angels around him. It's a pretty popular one, and I guess I thought it was exclusive to our church or something. I asked him about it and that led to a very long discussion. Basically, this guy is Christian, and is somewhat familiar with the church, but believes the church to have the doctrine of demons. He talked to us about a lot of things like Joseph Smith, Kingdoms of Glory, etc. He said he had done his research and knew what he was talking about, and while some of the things he said were correct, he also had a lot of partial truths, and complete lies. I guess that's what you find on the Internet. He also told us about his church and how they cast out demons, perform healings, and speak in tongues. It seemed like he believed that our church is not true unless we have people screaming as demons are coming out of them because of the power of the holy spirit in our church services. He was probably the most nice and gracious anti I have met, but it was still a little weird. Near the end he asked if he could say a prayer with us. He grabbed our hands and in a circle he gave us a prayer and a blessing. During the prayer he prayed that demons would be cast out of us and that we would realize our false doctrine. It was a nice gesture, but nothing really happened. We said goodbye and put it in the notes to probably not go back.
Love you all! Thanks for all your love and support.
- Elder Wride
Pictures:
- Picking up my Greenie
- Lunch with Family
- Halloween Party (Elder R was trying to do a last minute costume as a vampire)
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