Jk. We didn't actually get a car. But how many of you are actually reading it now?:) Gotcha.
W5 of T5 2/15/16 - 2/21/16
Bike Stats
Total: 472.56 mi
Week: 59.598 mi
MaxSpd: 28.6 mph
AvgSpd: 11.0 mph
ElapsedTime: 5:21:49
We had pday today! I played bball for about 4 hours straight today! It was a lot of fun! Every pday is zone pday cause there is only one church building in the zone... So we can get some big bball games going. We also play soccer and that is a lot of fun. But these are full blown soccer games, not chair soccer.
After pday I am sore. I am very sore. I love it.
We had a lesson after pday. It was with a fellow that we met the other night and he told us to come back. It was a really cool experience finding him and we were super stoked for the lesson. We had called him and been in contact with him throughout the weekend and throughout the day today. He still wanted us to come over and see what we had to offer.
Well, we biked like crazy to get there and on the way there were gunshots to our 1430. We kept biking. Then there were more gunshots and then there was the squeal of car tires to our 1600 and we started biking faster. And then the sounds got behind us and kept getting farther away from us, thank goodness. We were pretty terrified, but it isn't the first time that this has happened. We hear shots almost every night, but they aren't too close.
Anyway, we got to the lesson and locked our bikes up. Oops, let me back up to the end of pday. We got home and had left our helmets in the other missionaries car and they were at dinner by the time that we realized that our helmets were gone. So we spent a little while frantically searching for some extra helmets that we could get on super short notice. We finally ended up borrowing the Hermanas around the corner. So we were already late and that should've stopped us, but it didn't. So we biked like mad to get there. We turned out of our complex and there was a fellow there that yelled out us to stop. He ran up and wanted to know what Psalms 23 said. Don't know what it says? Neither did I, but I do now. The one about the Lord being the Shepherd? Yep, it's that one. I know what it says now. He read it to us about 7 times. So we were already pressed for time, but now we just spent 10 extra minutes contacting this guy and listening to him read Psalms 23 over and over and over and over and over and over. Then one more time, he read it again. And again. All out loud. Then he made each of us read it cause he 'couldn't see very well.' He read very slow. I kid you not, I don't think anyone in their right mind could read it slower than that. So yep, I am pretty much an expert on Psalms
23 now. If anyone else asks, I don't think that I will pull out my Bible for them to read it, I think that I might just quote it to them.
Then I will recite the Joseph Smith story to them just to see what they think. Then I will get their information and promptly leave cause there are other souls out there that are more ready to be harvested.
Then the gunshots happened and as we were pulling up to the neighborhood, a fairly large dog appeared out of a dark corner and started snarling and barking and chasing and nipping at us... So we had trial after trial getting to this lesson. That's the point that I am trying to get across here.
We got to his house and looked for a front door, but it was behind big metal bars and we couldn't get to it, so we were kinda stumped about what to do. We didn't want to walk back to the bikes cause there was a large dog out lurking in the dark somewhere and we didn't want to stay in their driveway cause their house was super dark and something like that... All of a sudden we get a really bad feeling about this all. We had felt uncertain on the way over to the house. But we kinda looked at each other and asked each other how we were each feeling. Neither of us were feeling good about it all. We say a prayer to confirm the feeling and we both felt like we needed to leave now. So we "briskly walked" (to protect my honor and manhood, I wasn't scared or too worried, but we walked very, very swiftly) back to the bikes, ignored the dog, and hopped on really fast and pedaled back a little bit. We got to a tee in the road and prayed about it. We had come in from the left and the Spirit told us to go right through this super dark neighborhood, which we decided that it would be smart to follow. So we did and that was about the end of the night.
Bottom line, I don't know what would've happened, but we weren't supposed to be there. At all. Not then. That's for sure. I have only felt that a few times. I was super confused about what we needed to be doing as we were biking there and as we got there. We both had a pit in our stomach and after we left, it felt completely different. The difference was night and day. It took a slap upside the head from a dog and a few gunshots, but I eventually listened. Goes to show that Heavenly Father won't ever give up on you, no matter how stubborn you are. I also learned that Heavenly Father is watching out for His servants and His children. He knows better than all of us do. It brings to my mind one of my favorite scriptures, Proverbs 3:5-6. It is truly inspired.
We spent a while biking around today. We had lunch with the AllenDale Elders. They are super fun and are very good missionaries. Elder Asay
(AC) came out with me and is training an Elder Woodhouse. They are doing very well. We made them frozen chicken, frozen fish (yep, the same one that I have been eating), mashed potatoes, and brownies. It's probably one of the best meals I have made as a missionary to be honest with myself. Well, other than Pancakes and Eggo waffles. Can't beat those.
We went to the library today to do Mormon.org time today. We go almost every week and there is always the same homeless guy in the library.
He says the same thing every week. He makes Mormon jokes and about how his brother in law is now a Mormon and he tells us the relation between the Speed of light and how it is so big that they couldn't figure it out without the help of Jesus, which means that Jesus must be real. This is one of my favorite jokes.
Old man: "The Soviets were the first ones in space, but our technology was better, so we were the first ones to go to the moon."
Me: "Uh-huh."
Old Man: "The Polish scientists wanted to join in. So they told the world that they were going to go to the sun. What do you think the rest of the world said to them?"
Me: "They would burn up?
Old Man: "Yessir. That's what they told them. What do you think that the Polish scientists told the world?"
Me: "I don't know, what did they say?"
Old Man: "Nope, we won't burn up. Cause we are going to land on the sun in the nighttime when the sun isn't out."
Me - *laughter* *smiles*
Old Man: "Boy, let me impart some wisdom. Don't try to go to the sun in the nighttime cause you will burn up and die just like those Polish Fellows did."
See? I find it funny. Until the fifth time.
Then we biked around and tried to talk to a bunch of people. Remember how last week I called a drunk guy to repentance? Well it's escalated.
Today I called a homosexual guy who doesn't want to be homosexual to repentance... He took it well. But if he is going to get baptized then he is going to need a 2nd interview for sure.
Half way through studies this morning, Elder McD fell asleep. He was snoring. So I videotaped it! He doesn't know I have the video, but I will probably give it to him soon as we find out if we are getting transferred. I was going to do some stuff to him...But decided to not cause that much contention today.
We biked quite a bit today and taught a bunch of lessons. It was really cool to see the Spirit work on people.
There was an apartment complex here that we went to this morning. We walk around back and it looks like a nice complex, which is strange, cause we don't find lots of those here. But we walked around back and there was a swimming pool! Only it was filled it with dirt and cement and covered with grass. But you could still see the outline of pool in the grass. Totally ghetto. At one time, I am guessing that there was a nice pool with a bunch of water inside of it. Not anymore. People down here can't have nice things. Two things happen. A) They get stolen. B) The break it. It's totally true though too! I'm guessing that someone would've tried to steal the swimming pool. I don't know how, but they would've tried.
I learned what happens if you give a black kid a picture of Jesus. If you give a black kid a picture of Jesus, chances are he's gonna want another one. When you give him another one, he's gonna ask to see what else is in your pocket. When you show him what else is in your pockets (all of em...), he's gonna want to take it all and show his friends.
When you don't let him do that, he's gonna bring all of his friends to show them what he found in your pockets. When they see the picture(s) of Jesus, chances are they are gonna want some. But they all have to have the same amount of them. Or else chances are, the there will be bloodshed. When they get the pictures of Jesus, they are going to want to see what else is in your pockets. When they find out, they are going to want to go through your backpack too. When they find the camera, good luck trying to get it back. They will take pictures all day. When one of them takes pictures, the rest are all angry that they haven't gotten to see the picture or take pictures of their own. So the camera goes from hand to hand to kid to kid and back again. One of the kids was a Jehovahs Witness. So we made sure to send him home with copies of the Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlets, along with a bunch of pass along cards. Well, I made it out of the mugging alive with everything, I think. One of the kids asked for my watch and another asked for my bike and another wanted all of my keys and another asked for my Wallet. I didn't give them any... But I have a lot of pictures to tell the tale:) And I made sure to keep my iPad in my backpack. They tried pulling it out a few times. I made that mistake with some back in Beaumont... The camera was bad enough.
We had a stake conference today with Elder Richard J. Maynes of the Presidency of the 70. It was a very good stake conference and there was a lot of good things to learn about member missionary work!
Hopefully it will spark something here in Broadway cause Broadway has been a little slow these last little whiles.
We had a lesson today with Abel. There was an old Mexican lady there with us who didn't speak any English, so our investigator was trying to translate for us.
*Rapid-Fire Mexican*
"She said that you are going to be a prophet when you grow up for showing her this scripture."
*More Mexican* *Gestures to me*
"She said that only you are going to be a prophet cause you know what is happening in her life and how to help her"
*Gestures to comp*
"She said that he doesn't take it seriously enough and that he is a jokester and won't be a prophet"
*Mexican speaking*
"She said that I need to stop kidding around and join the Mormons already."
So ya... I got told that I was going to be a prophet when I grew up cause I knew everything about her and I could see the "future." I told her that it was the Spirit that was making these things known to me.
Kinda a cool experience. And our investigator got told off by his
neighbor:)
Anyway, I love y'all very much! That about sums it up for my week.
Transfers are next Monday and we will see what happens! Rumor has it that our area is getting shut down this transfer, but I don't know how much water that boat will hold.
Anyway, pictures! Here! I am getting complaints about not sending pictures. I'll see what I can do to avoid this problem in the future(s?).
-Elder Allen
