Love to hear about Johns week!!! Hey Everyone, The last couple of weeks have been pretty tough with the holiday. I think I told you on Christmas but the city is pretty empty during the holidays and the people that are there dont really have any interest in talking to us. We havent found a new investigator in 3 weeks and our investigator that had a baptism date has kind of fallen off the face of the earth. I guess that that is just part of the work. We have had a couple really great things happen this week. We were having a pretty slow week up until Thursday. The best thing that had happened before that is that we had permission to stay out until 10 on Wednesday so we got together as a zone and played games and did a zone testimony meeting. It was a really cool experience and was a great way to end the year. On Friday we had an experience that I will probably never even be able to come close to for the rest of my mission. I didnt feel very good all day so we were moving a little slowly with our day. At one point we talked about going back home so I could get some rest but I decided that I felt good enough that we should be out working. We needed to go to the library to get on facebook (we arent allowed to use facebook on our iPads as of right now) so we started walking from the branch to the library and on the way we stopped to talk to a few people. One of them was an inactive member who lives in the same building as one of our members that we are teaching. We talked to him for about 20-25 minutes and we got his information so we can try to stop by and talk with him later. When we got to the library we had another former investigator run into us and he stopped us to tell us he was wanting to come to church again so we talked with him for a few minutes and then when we were leaving the library we had someone else stop us and ask us about some things that we believe. When we left the library we were going to head back to the branch to make some calls so we started back up the street. As we were passing the grocery store that is on the way a man came out and stopped us and asked if we were the Mormons. We talked to him for about 20 minutes on the street and found out that he was a member but hadnt been active in about 20 years. He told us that he had been in jail for the last 3 years on heroin charges and had just gotten released on New Years Eve and had no idea what to do with his life and that he felt like everyone had treated him like he was dirt since he had gotten out. We invited him back to the branch with us to just talk and get to know him as well as teach him a lesson. He agreed and so we went up to the church and sat down with him. We talked to him about the restoration and how much God loves us. He was interesting because he told us that he didnt like putting labels or names on deities even though he believes in a higher power. The spirit was so strong in the room while we were teaching him and it was the first time since I got here that I can remember sitting with someone and felt love for them without any judgment of them at all. It was awesome, especially since I have been spending a lot of time studying Christ like Attributes in preach my gospel. I cant really explain what was said or why it was so special during the lesson but we talked with him for 2 hours getting to know him and about his life as well as taking about the gospel. When we were finished talking he got up to leave and I got this really strong impression that we HAD to say a prayer with him before he left. I said the prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help him and watch over him. When we ended I looked up and he was crying which he was so happy about. He said that he had been trying to cry for about 10 years and that he couldnt even when he really wanted to. He told us that he may never come to church or become active again but that he really felt the love that we had for him and a love from somewhere else that he couldnt explain. He told us that he had thought about going and buying some heroin and just letting himself die from an OD but that he had a new perspective after talking with us. He said he would never forget the time that we spent with him and knew that we had been lead to be where we were when we were to be able to talk to him. It was crazy to think about the things we had done before he stopped us and that if we had done anything differently or spent more or less time with anyone we talked to or anything that we did we would probably have missed him. It helped me realize the blessings that we can recieve when we are diligent when doing the work of Heavenly Father. Even though I was sick I decided to keep working which led to us finding people to talk to and was able to help this man which was such a great experience. On Saturday we were at our investigators apartment who is going to be re-baptized soon. We left his apartment at about 9 and while we were in the elevator on the way down Elder Dierks started to jump up and down just like he does in every elevator that we get in. When we got close to the first floor he jumped and the elevator stopped. We realized that it stopped half way between the first and second floor and that there were 3 basement floors below us so we were still a ways up. We called the emergency people from the elevator phone and they call a technician to come help us. It took an hour for him to get there and about 10-15 minutes for him to get us out. In totally we were stuck for an hour and twenty minutes. While were in there we read scriptures and Ensign articles so we werent totally bored. We called our investigator and he kind of freaked out and rushed down to the corner store to get some food for us in case we were stuck for a really long time. It was pretty funny and definitely something I never thought I would ever have happen in my lifetime. We didnt get home until 11 that night because we were stuck for so long so it was an excuse to be walking around late I guess. To end the week we were walking home last night and we went by a convenience store that always has a bunch of homeless people hanging out by it. There was a group of three people there last night that stopped and talked to and 2 of them were inactive members. We invited them to church some time so maybe they will show up. The other guy was a spanish guy with a guitar who was pretty drunk. He started talking to me and asked if I wanted to hear a song about Christ so I said sure. He started playing the guitar and then started to sing. We couldnt really understand anything he was singing but we knew the chorus because all he said was oh Jesus Christo. It was a fun experience and pretty cool to have a guy sing to us on the street. Even though we arent finding new investigators right now we are teaching between 8-11 lessons a week. It was nice to have some great experiences that will be with me for the rest of my life. I really needed to have some good experiences this week because I am still having some hard days. I miss you all so much and love you but I know that I am supposed to be here. Have a great week. Love, Elder Bishop
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:41:44 +0000
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