Hiya Fam!
This week went really well. We had
another ZIT, we had Stake Conference, we have an investigator with a baptism
date, the sun was shining the past two days...
So Monday we did some service for a
woman that's friends with a member of the branch. After helping her out, we
went to M and A's for FHE, which went well.
Tuesday we had lots and lots of
things happening, it got a little crazy!! The first few hours of the day was
quite calm. Then we had a ton of appointments, just boom boom boom boom! First
D S had us over for lunch. We had a good time with them! Then they were so kind
to give us a lift all the way to Bo'ness! Normally that's about 45 minutes of
Bus travel! But we made it in time for the potential to tell us she wasn't
available. Shame.
So we went to knock a few doors when
we met H! He let us in on the condition we not speak about the Book of Mormon.
We were a little apprehensive about that, but we went through, we sat down in
his living room and a had a really good chat! He is very familiar with the
bible in all sorts of different translations. He's not sure if there even is a
true church to join. We asked if we could come by later and he said sure, so
hopefully we'll see him again this week.
We were super late though to our
next appointment with A M. Oh A... Our Branch Mission Leader put it this way:
"That man should never have been baptized." That sounds harsh, I
know, but he doesn't believe in the church or anything we teach. He's
Pentecostal, and believes in the Trinity and that the Bible is the only word of
God we need. He doesn't believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, and doesn't really
read the Book of Mormon. But we didn't know all this until we came for our
appointment. It was a really interesting appointment, we'll put it that
way.
We finally made it to M and A's to
teach Ma about the Plan of Salvation. That was his best lesson yet! He's
usually all over the place, like any 7 year old. But this time he wasn't. We're
thinking it was because his mother wasn't there. No idea why, but that was the
only variable that had changed.
Wednesday we had a lunch appointment
with TJ and S. That didn't go well. They had completely forgotten about it, and
they honestly didn't pay too much attention to the lesson anyways. It was
really disappointing. We'll have to figure out some way to get them excited
about the gospel...
Then we went to teach Ma. M came
along. We taught him the Restoration. It's weird signing it, cuz I still don't
know my signs... But I did my best. We then all went to E's, who'd asked for us
to help her with her car. That didn't go as planned ha ha Elder Stoker would
call it a "10 Minute Job". He was a carpenter back home, which in the
States we would call a construction worker. He was often asked to do
"simple" tasks, like put up a fence, that the customer would always
say takes only ten minutes. But it never does. For whatever reason (usually a
lack of the right tools) it takes over an hour. That's what happened here. It
was a little frustrating, but we were able to help out, which is the important
part.
We made it just in time for Branch
Council. A lovely older Sister, Sister Major, bought us a TON of food, which we
afterward brought back to the flat.
Anyways, Thursday was Zone Interview
Training. That was fantastic!!! Loved it!! There were so many good trainings.
During my interview with President Donaldson I got my Temple Recommend
interview done. So I've got mine redone! I'm all good!! :) My favorite training
was on using the scriptures in lessons. It's always interesting using the
scriptures because you have to remember that most of the people we meet with
have never even touched the scriptures, much less read them. So we have to go
through them slowly, explaining it very simply. It takes a lot of patience ha
ha But you should give it a try! When you study, "study to teach". I
got a new insight on something because of that!
It was 2 Nephi 2:11. Great scripture
about the need for opposition. But the last half was confusing. The part that
says "All things must needs be a compound in one;" But, because I was
using this system to study, I figured it out! All things must be together, both
the good and the bad. You can't have just one or the other. You must have it
all. It was cool!
So after ZIT, we got back just in
time for BSL class. We hadn't prepared for that because we had been in
Edinburgh, but we did our best. We learned the months and the numbers. Nice!
Friday we met with M the LA. We
talked with him a bit more about the Book of Mormon and he committed to coming
to Stake Conference, which is always the hardest one to commit people to! And
he came too! So we're not too worried about him anymore. He's doing well. :)
We did our weekly planning, then
went out to do some finding. We later went to the McM's for dinner. Another
member, W, was there too. We read from Alma 26 and committed them to open their
mouths and talk with people about the gospel. Cr has a friend, Ta, who's really
interested in the Gospel, and he's trying to get her to meet with us! She came
to Stake Conference (we never met with her, unfortunately), so that's really
good!! Hopefully I'll have some more good news next week...
Saturday (my 21 Month mark) was
absolutely gorgeous!! Sunny and warm!! :) So we were determined to do as much
finding as possible. Which we did! In between our finding times we met with E
and talked with her about enduring our trials. We watched the Refiners Fire
Mormon Message and read from D&C 121. She was touched. She and M then went
with us to visit Ma, who's birthday was that day. We had baked him a cake
during our Lunch Break, and we brought it to him after E's. He loved it! We
signed the Happy Birthday song (I would have done the Swedish song if I knew
how!) and ate some of the cake. Elder Ward and I then went back out
finding.
That night we met with C. He's 20
years old, and Elder Ward and Elder Giles taught him the first lesson, but then
he went on a holiday (or vacation as we Yanks put it), and he only recently got
back from that. He's really cool! We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and committed
him to be baptized on April 9th! He accepted!! He even came to Stake Conference
with us!
Which leads me to Sunday! E gave
Elder Ward and I, C and Ma a lift to Stake Conference. The conference went
well. Nothing particularly significant to say about it. There were quite
a few musical numbers! After church we had lunch, then we had 2 and a half
hours to do some more finding! Because, like the day before, it was simply
GORGEOUS!!! Elder Ward didn't even wear a jacket! First time in a looooong
time, he said. We spent our time in Callendar Park. It's a really nice big
park! I'll be sure to send pictures. It's named after the family that had owned
the land, but within the past century or so one of them gave the land to the
city, who turned it into a park, and their mansion into a museum. It's
cool!
Remind me
sometime to tell you about the Buckfast Triangle.
Falkirk is located by the Firth of Forth. Funny name, I know. But
yeah, it's the ocean! It's similar to the Puget Sound. Falkirk is surrounded by larger hills (they
call them mountains, but they're not that big...)
Mom asked if I
would want to continue on with BSL, but I never would. I much prefer speaking,
ha! plus ASL is WAAAAAY different from BSL.
Don't worry about
Easter! The Stevensons are having us over for an Easter Supper. Sounds good! :9
Anyways, that was our week! Typical
missionary work ha ha love you guys! Hope you all have a great week! :)
Elder Bates
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