This week was a good one- however, the bonsai is still growing. It came with several seeds, and a few of them should start to sprout so I can share the pleasure of bonsai with others. Namely by creating a "family tree". A bonsai plant handed down from generation to generation! It's going to be awesome!
We had some good successes this week! We received like four media referrals (people referring themselves or their friends online via Mormon.org) and we actually picked one up as a new investigator. Her son was recently baptized in Eugene, Oregon and she was asking him lots of questions. So he finally told her he was going to send the missionaries by to talk with her. She lives across the street from a strip club on Barbur Blvd. We were tempted to park in their parking lot because the complex had no parking, but decided we probably shouldn't and parked down the street instead. Two missionaries strolling through a strip club parking lot... Probably not the best situation to find yourself in!
We were able to talk with quite a few people this week as well, so we've been working hard to find more people to teach. But we had some good things happen this week— hopefully we will keep seeing weeks like this.
We had an encounter with a crazy pizza guy this week. We were doing service weeding a garden for some people and they bought us pizza. Well, the pizza guy was surprised to find four missionaries awaiting him as he walked up to the house. He has a brother who is a member of the church, and he thought it was crazy and took it as a sign. Well, that sounded great until he started talking further.. He told us about how the church could influence the entire world, and how easy it is for a single person to impact things... Like he did by influencing the feminists. Hen he told us about how he didn't believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that his being hanged in the Wild West was inevitable. He then proceeded to tell us that he had an angel appear to him as well, like twenty years ago. He was nice, but crazy. Crazy pizza guy.
Another crazy experience we had was on an exchange. I was with one of our ZL's, Elder Beus, when the elders in the Raleigh Hills ward called us about a service opportunity. Interesting side-note: I told him to bring service clothes for our exchange, but I didn't know why..! #prophecy
Anyways, we get the address to this apartment building. We show up to a dresser being shoved out of a three-story window and the other elders picking up the broken pieces and throwing them in this dumpster. So we had been enlisted to help these people clean out an apartment for a recently institutionalized woman.. It was a pretty gnarly scene. The house was filled with clutter, the kitchen was destroyed (food splatters on the wall, disgusting concoctions everywhere, garbage, etc.) there was a very neatly kept bag of recyclables in the corner though. Only in Portland..!
So they just needed the garbage cleared out, and the furniture was not worth keeping so they asked us to get rid of it too. We found a lot of interesting things, a couple of really dark things (magic books, tarot cards, bad magazines, etc.) so that was an experience! The people were grateful for our help though and we were glad to lend a hand. She was a relative of the lady that lived there and I felt so bad for her. It must be hard to have dealt with this kind of stuff as much as she did.
But yeah, went one quite a few exchanges this week. With Elders Jacobsen and Beus. We have a lot of great missionaries in our district/zone, it's pretty great.
I can't believe my wing-man is getting married! Brock emailed me during the week and I was totally shocked. I am excited for him though! He told me all about the experience, and it was pretty funny. It will probably be the same as before, I don't expect much by way of our friendship to change- and hopefully when they make the wedding invites I can be included (like a picture of me laying between them in a bed with a big grin on my face, just to name an example). Slowly my life is turning into a sit-com. They will be the married couple, and we'll always hang out at their apartment. It's going to be awesome! (Hopefully that's where it goes.)
Well, that's okay. Ben and I can find another roommate for our sweet apartment in Salt Lake City. When is Ben going to move out? Well, whenever it's happens we can both move in together. It will be awesome, I can find us a sweet place to live. He just might have to pay the rent for a few months after I get home..! Haha, it'll be great!
Sorry to hear Silas' failed movie project. That's a bummer- deadlines are terrible. I showed some people my videos on the internet and I was ashamed. They are just terrible. I could do a much better video.. #lowbudgetfilms
I wrote Josh, and he was funny. He got all bent outta' shape about us having iPads in my mission! Haha! He's going to be our third roommate- I am excited for him to get home, Ben will have one of his friends back!
Well, I love you guys. Don't don't go hanging out with any unbelieving Gentiles now! ;)
Elder Samuel A. Burge
No comments:
Post a Comment