My legs ache, my arms are limp, my feet are killing me, and I'm loving every minute of it!!!
(Okay, maybe not every minute of it)
Some
awesome things (and yes, some hilarious things) have happened over the
week! To start with, I want to explain that last week I didn't get my
full two hours of computer time. The librarian kicked us off after a
little over an hour! Elder Massey said that that's never happened to him
before, and this week we're at a different library so hopefully that
doesn't happen again.
Before I tell you more, here's a story:
Last
Thursday, I think, Elder Massey and I were knocking doors in this
neighborhood. This one door, this old man opens the door. We start
talking about the gospel when he cuts us off and just started talking.
He wasn't bashing the church (that's the funny thing out here. Nobody
bashes us; everyone says they admire what we do! They don't bash the
church either, I really don't know how to describe what they do) he just
started talking and talking. We brought up Joseph Smith, but once we
said that he was from America that's when he really got going. "I might
have believed you if you'd said he was born on an island somewhere. But
America?" According to him, America is evil, and is responsible for all
the bad things of the world. He says we're responsible for the Civil war
in Ukraine. HOW!?!?!? He also said that nothing good has come
from America (Television, airplanes, United Nations, GPS, Internet) and
when we talked about the Revolution and the similarities between that
and what they're going through now, he said that all the men that wrote
the Declaration and the Constitution were Scots. What!? He was
very clear that he wasn't bashing us, though. Just America. And that it
was pure evil. We said that the Book of Mormon tells us how to have
peace. He asked if it tells us to bomb the White House. We said no.
Suffice to say that he talked to us (not with us, but to us) for nearly
an hour. Next door a woman left her house with a baby trolly (that's
what they call it here) and when she came back from her walk, we were
still there!! We laughed about it afterwards, but it was so hard to not
argue with him! We could do nothing, because we're not supposed to
discuss politics and that's all he talked about. Anyhow, funny story! We
thought it was hilarious.
Anyhow, this area is pretty interesting! Like I
said, there's only houses here. It's very dirty and "ghetto" as Massey
puts it. It's patrolled by "hood rats", gangs of three young men that
seem to spend all their time walking, smoking, and joking. And every
single one of them loves us! They're constantly talking to us,
asking us questions, and asking us to play football with them. None of
them are interested in the church, and even if they were, we couldn't
teach them because they're too young. So we don't hang out with them
long, but they're all so nice. Ish.
This week hasn't been too good. For one thing,
there's the World Cup (It killed us to miss Germany vs. Brazil! 7-1!!)
For another, there's this music festival down in Glasgow called "T in
the Park". The T stands for some alcohol company. So everyone's down in
Glasgow for that, listening to their favorite bands. We've had ten
cancelled appointments this week! It's been killing us! We've been doing
all we can, but it's still awful.
Our apartment is nice. I'd show you, but I obviously can't right
now haha. We have this long table where we do our studying, and where we
eat. We listen to talks
and devotionals during many of our Companionship study times. "An
Unlikely Mormon" By Glenn Beck. Look it up. Same with "His Grace is
Sufficient". They're epic. Elder Massey's chair is a plushy armchair,
while mine is this awkward foldup chair, that makes my rear end fall
asleep when I sit in it. On the other hand, Massey has to climb out of
the Armchair whenever he has to get up! Ha ha ha!
We really don't have much food, the way you might think of it. We
have mostly cereal and microwave/oven meals and canned things. So if you
ever send me a carepackage, send food! But only food that doesn't need
anything except what's in the box. Does that make sense? Like the
Macaroni and Cheese boxes? Most require milk and butter and such, but we
honestly don't have any to spare. Wheras the Velveeta shells and
cheese, you boil the noodles, pour in the sauce, and you're good. But if
there's one thing that I'm dying for it's junk food! Candy bars and
soda, in particular, though chips (crisps) are good too. Just letting
you know now for future use.
Now, I thought that it'd be very difficult to adjust
to Mission life. But it really hasn't. At least, not as difficult as I
thought it would be. The walking has really been the only problem, and
it's not a problem as much as a nuisance. That and the waking up so
early and going to bed so late. I'm able to do it, but I'm tired pretty
much all the time. Massey says that never goes away. When I get home,
I'm sleeping for three days. You think I'm joking?
Okay, some more stories! The other day we taught
this one guy, Brother McGuiness. He's a less active. His story is
amazing. He used to be a part of the mob. He would give people "Glasgow
Smiles". What's that? You remember the Joker in the Dark Knight? Glasgow
Smile. And he gave people those. Finally, he became Mormon. I don't
know the story of how, but he was an awesome Mormon! He was the Ward
Mission Leader at one point, and he would go on splits with the
Missionaries all the time. He was legendary, apparently. But eventually
he left the church. We visited him the other day and we found out why.
He saw people in the church not being Christ-like, like inviting some
people to parties but leaving others out. He said there were feuds
between two families over who would bless the sacrament. It made him
mad, which drove the spirit away. Finally he left the church. So we had
to tell him to find love for his fellow men.
Of all the things I thought I'd have to help people with on my Mission, love was the last thing
on my list!! It's just not hard for me!! I never thought it would be
hard for others! But yeah, he's an interesting character. He broke a
boy's back, arms and legs for hitting his daughter.
We're teaching this guy, Fanell. He's from Romania. There's a ton of
Romanians in this one part of town. And few of them know English. We
have to have Fanell's kid be an interpreter for us. But we never know if
he's interpreting us correctly. For instance, Fanell thought we were
telling him to pray to the Book of Mormon! We tried to explain that we
wanted him to pray about the Book of Mormon, but we don't know if
he understood or not. He also has a concern I've never heard before: He
didn't like the name of the Book of Mormon!! We're still trying to fix that. Any ideas would be great.
This man named Gordan we bumped into on the street
one day. He was initially fairly antagonistic towards us. Not too bad,
of course, but he let us know clearly that he didn't believe in
organized religion. He said that we don't even need scriptures. "You
look at, say the American Indians! They didn't have written records and
they were very spiritual!" He literally opened the door for us. We
talked with him about how the Ancient Americans did have written records
and how the Book of Mormon is one of them. His interest was piqued, and
we gave him a Book fo Mormon and set up an appointment. When we got
there, he said he'd read the entire "prologue" as well as a few
chapters. Not only that, but he had watched a documentary on it! Elder
Massey and I were a little worried when he said that, because there's
this telly show called "Meet the Mormons" that portrays us in a very
negative light. More on that later. We asked which show it was, and it
was the same one I watched in my Book fo Mormon class back at BYU!!! We
discussed it a bit, shared the first lesson, and we're meeting him again
later this week. I'm really excited about him!
This one member, Brother MacDonald, is often going
with us to appointments. He was baptized into the church about ten years
ago, so never served a mission. And, honestly, it shows. He's awesome
and has a strong testimony, but he sometimes says just the wrong thing
haha. He also can talk forever (a trait I've noticed in almost every old
Scot here). So we sometimes have to cut him off before he says too
much! He never says anything contrary to the gospel, but it's not
necessary, you know? For instance, he apparently went on a tangent for a
minute or two explaining to an investigator exactly how Joseph Smith
translated the Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim etc. Don't get
me wrong, he's awesome. And when he gets it right, he gets it right!!
Last week was actually very sunny and hot! We
loved it, even if we were a little sweaty. Some people we talked to
said they wanted the rain to come back. So they were basically insane.
But they got their wish Saturday. It's been overcast ever since, with brief showers every once in a while.
I gave a talk yesterday! They have a different
system of giving talks out here. You have to check this calendar, which
says who's speaking and what they're speaking on. Nobody calls you or
anything, so you have to check. Luckily, we did after a coordination
meeting with the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Cattell. My talk was on
Preparing for a Mission. It was a difficult topic, as there isn't
anybody who's leaving on a mission anytime soon. Every kid is in
primary, not one in YM/YW. Though the Bishop's daughter is becoming a
Beehive in a month. So I had to explain that the way you prepare for a
mission is also how you should prepare for your Earthly Mission. It
wasn't my best talk, but I think I did fine considering I only had
Personal Study time to prepare for it.
But yeah, everything is going well, overall. I
appreciate all the emails I've gotten from you guys! Keep them coming! I love you guys so much and I love the gospel just as much! The
Book of Mormon is awesome! The more I study it, the more I come to love
it! Read it as much as you can, because it's awesome!!
Love,
Elder Bates
PS Today, Elder Massey and I are going off to some Roman ruins north of town!! So cool!
