Week 95 - "Let us Labor Diligently"

Hey Everyone! Happy Independence Day

We have dropped more and more people this week :( but it has not been without highlights

One of my favorite lessons was yesterday. There was this lady that the missionaries worked with before and did some yard work for her. She wasn't interested, but said maybe we could meet again and that she would reach out (P.S. when someone says they will reach out, they don't actually mean it 99+% of the time) and on Sunday night she did! She texted us thanking us for the help we provided in the past and said we could meet tomorrow to "discuss beliefs". We went over and she had a bunch of questions for us like "Do you baptize infants?" "Do your priests get married?" and questions about the temple. She is a long time resident of San Diego and remembered touring the San Diego temple when it had its open house in the 90s. It was a really good discussion and I felt like we answered her questions well. After she didn't have any more questions I asked her what she knew about the Book of Mormon. She said she didn't know much and I asked if we could read the Introduction with her. We did, and it was really cool. After reading it she flipped through a lot of the pages and was deep in thought. We told her that Christ came to the Americas and asked if we could leave the book with her to read. She was very quiet when she was looking through the book and I felt the spirit quite strongly. I know she felt it too. She said that the Book was good and interesting, but she declined the invitation. NOOO!!! It made me sad. How could she admit it was good and then still say no? I don't know. She wasn't interested in meeting again but really appreciated our visit. Over my past 20 or so months of experience in San Diego I feel like I have had a lot of experiences that play similarly to this. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to read and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon! I suspect that it is just the culture of America to not talk about beliefs, and to also not try to share them. It seems everyone already has their own thing, and wants to stick with that. Most people seem to already have an idea of what we do as missionaries and when they see us maybe they think "Mormon", "Polygamy", "Weirdos" ,"Religious" and decide they aren't interested. It seems that most everyone we see has already seen missionaries and are already prepared to tell us "no". Nevertheless, as Mormon says: "let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God".

Our friend Evelyn just had a baby. She has been in the hospital since I've been here so I have not yet met her, but she seems to be our most interested friend in the gospel. Hopefully we will meet with her soon.

We are also working with a couple who are "eternigators" or "eternal investigator".The wife wants to be baptized and is ready, but wants to wait for her husband to be ready. He has a couple of other things that need to be worked through before he gets there. I also have not met them yet because they have been sick, but they are better and we have a lesson on Thursday.

A big highlight of the week was when my Aunt and Uncle came down from Utah and took us to lunch! We talked about missions and it was good to see them.

Here are a couple of other little things:
- Tuesday night (last week) we went to dinner with a member family. As we pulled up I saw this on their walkway

It was really sweet because I remember doing the same thing for the missionaries years ago. We didn't have the missionaries over for dinner many times (Utah missions are different. I am covering one ward here, but they cover multiple stakes there), but when we did it was a big deal for us kids I guess. We wrote all over the driveway and porch, and then I also remember drawing a parking spot for their car along the side of the road. I was so disappointed when they arrived because they didn't park in it. But we still let them eat.

- On Tuesday last week I decided to treat myself and buy a little speaker to listen to things when I'm in the shower. So far it has ranged from listening to calm study music, to "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage, and General Conference talks. On maybe Thursday or Friday our bathroom light went out right before I hopped in the shower. I decided to grab the tall lamp from our bedroom that has 3 different lights, and one of them is this dark blue light. We have kept it in there since then, and it has made my showers quite fresh and hip.

- A member, Sister Bullock, gave me a book by S. Michael Wilcox about finding personal meaning in the temple. It's a tradition that she has with all the missionaries that come through. I am enjoying the book so far and I recommend it. S. Michael Wilcox is awesome.

We're keeping busy. I just got a haircut today and my hair was a little blond! I guess it's a little sun bleached which is some evidence that we have been out and about. I am enjoying talking to people more than I ever have and it is fulfilling.

Love you all!

- Elder Wride