My new trainee is Elder Jackson. He reminds me of a mix between Sterling, Elder Calhoon, and Kip. We get along great. He helps me calm down when I start feeling responsible for the spiritual nourishment of all our 150+ less actives. He reminds me that we just need to be obedient and find new investigators. For example yesterday I was getting stressed about something and he suggested we just go outside and talk to people. We looked at the map, said a prayer, and started going wherever we felt prompted to go. I felt like going to a park I've seen a few times but have never visited, but there was no one there. On the way to somewhere else we felt like going, I saw a middle aged man leaning against his car a good ways away from us. He was far enough that Satan convinced me not to go over to talk to him but as we walked past I kept looking at him and when we made eye contact I greeted him. He got excited and asked where we were going so we walked over to him and started talking. He apparently studied American history so he knew about Utah and stuff. He was catholic we talked about religion and it was really hard to get him to understand that we weren't just another branch of Christianity, but once he figured out our message he seemed very interested and asked if he could keep the pamphlet I had been reading with him. He wants to meet again so that could be awesome.
My brain has been so fried. I'm happy and working hard and learning, but my thoughts are just gone. I just need to slow down and focus on one thing at a time.
One thing that isn't fried is my love of the Book of Mormon. I love it and know that it is true.
Ooh, another principle that was reinforced with me this week was the necessity of member missionary work. Members are just undercover missionaries. If I try to be nice and show interest in people or offer help it is often rejected because my motive can appear to be impure. "He's only talking to me so he can eventually talk about his church" Just talk to everyone! Be friendly, ask questions, make friends with people. I sometimes feel like it would be more effective if I didn't wear a tag and just wore casual clothes everywhere because then people would talk and believe that I wanted to be their friend and am talking to them because I am genuinely interested in them. That's were the real missionary work happens. The real Christlike fellowship from members. The full time missionary's job is to leave the heavy commitments and make sure they understand the doctrine.
I love you all, pray to know who will accept your friendship and be a real friend.
Elder Brown
Elder Brown
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| The Korea Burgerking guy. He's the mascot for a bagillion companies here cuz he's super handsome. |
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| Elder Jackson learning how to use chopsticks    |
I'm doing a video journal thing. This was an especially stressful day.
