So
we got transfer calls on Saturday, and 3 out of the 4 of us will be leaving!
But guess who's staying? I am! I'm going to miss these guys but I will get a
new companion who will also be the district leader for Huntersville Elders,
Lake Norman Elders and Sisters, and Mountain Island Elders and Sisters. There
will only be one companionship in Huntersville now.
Probably
one of the greatest miracle contacts on my mission so far was this last
Saturday. Elder S and I were riding through a neighborhood and we saw a dad and
his 9 year old daughter out bagging leaves. Elder S called out and asked if we
could help and the man just looked up at us and then looked back down. This is
a common rejection we get so we were about to ride off, but I had ridden past
our turn over by them and so I called again to ask if we could help them. This
time he looked up and said, "Sure, if you aren't worried about your clothes."
I told him we were dressed casually today, we didn't even have suits on! We
believe he just hadn't heard Elder S before. Anyways, we hopped off our bikes
and started helping them bag the leaves. As we worked, the man told us his name
was T and his daughter was H. He asked us about our missions and he seemed to
know a bit about the church, but not tons. We talked with him all about
missionary service and then he started "quizzing" his daughter on us
in a kind of educational way. He asked her "H, do you know what is
different about their beliefs and ours?" She didn't know so he asked us to
tell them about the Book of Mormon. Then he asked how they could get a copy of
one!! T told us he and H read lots of books together and that they would like
to read it and see what it's like. We were able to give them a Book of Mormon
and a Restoration pamphlet and we will be visiting them to follow up and teach
them more about the Restoration.
We
are super excited to teach them and we are praying that they will be open and
accepting. Miracles do come as we get out and do our best to love and serve
people. As 1 Corinthians 13:13 says: "And now abideth faith, hope,
charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Or, in other
words, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you
care"
G
hasn't come to church yet so we will keep working with him. He did give us a
super nice calendar made of pictures from the horse rescue though! We did some
service for him at the rescue.
A good General Conference talk I studied this week is "Which Way do You Face?" By Lynn G Robbins. He says:
"When
people try to save face with men, they can unwittingly lose face with God.
Thinking one can please God and at the same time condone the disobedience of
men isn’t neutrality but duplicity, or being two-faced or trying to “serve two
masters” (Matthew 6:24; 3 Nephi 13:24).
While
it certainly takes courage to face perils, the true badge of courage is
overcoming the fear of men."
He
also shares 4th Nephi 1:27. The world today tries to change Gods standards but
his standards never change. So yeah, it's just a fantastic talk, so take a
look! ;)
Hanks
for all yuns do! (yuns is like yall I found out. There is also yins, younguns,
Dear, honey, baby, and "Normans" haha, all good nicknames) :)
Loves!
Elder
Branch
