Every Wednesday, we have district meeting. This is where all of the missionaries in the area get together, discuss how the work is progressing, and our district leader (who is Elder Vallejo, if you remember him) gives us some instruction and counsel. And, since we're all together, we usually end it all by going out to eat. We went to this Chinese Buffet, and naturally stuffed ourselves like we didn't know when our next meal was coming. If we did, we probably wouldn't have eaten so much.

 

An hour later, we went over to visit a recent convert named Madeline. She's Puerto Rican, the mother of Maria Galloway, only speaks Spanish, and is a wonderful cook. Oh, and she won't take no for an answer. No sooner than we sat down to share a lesson, we found two brimming bowls of Puerto Rican potato soup. Forgetting the number one rule of dealing with members (never say no to food), I thanked her and tried to give it back. She just smiled and said "No, no, for you." Consigned to my fate, I began to eat. It was very delicious, just a lot to eat, especially after eating so much at the buffet. I was stuffed.

 

The food wasn't over yet. We were invited over to a members house for dinner just another two hours after that! I was halfway through my plate when I decided I was done and stopped eating. The non-member husband turns to me and reminds me that my hamburger isn't going to eat itself. I sigh, pick up the burger, and finish it off. That night, I weighed myself. I gained 6 pounds that day.

 

Speaking of that dinner appointment, a lot of remarkable things happened while we were there. The member wife had invited us over, mainly so we could have a positive influence on her non-member husband. He's in the military, and as such has a very disciplined, quiet attitude. We weren't very sure how much he knew about the Church, or even if he did go to church, so we directed most of our lesson at his wife and let him listen in. We were teaching the Gospel of Christ, which, as I mentioned last week, is a miracle-working lesson. When we started asking her questions, though, he was the one answering most of them! We had drawn a picture of what we were teaching to illustrate it a little better, and when we finished, he hung it on their fridge. Despite his quiet nature, I think he is much more interested in our message than he let on.

 

Later that night, we were supposed to have a Book of Mormon class, but nobody showed up. We even had the commitment from Jamie, who we hadn't seen in a very long time, that he would be there. Disappointed, we decided we'd stop by Jamie's house to see if he was there. He wasn't. Even more disappointed, we started walking through the rain (yes, of course it was raining) over to the home of someone who showed interest in learning about the Church, but hadn't set an appointment yet. Every time we've gone over, she hasn't been there, and we were just about to give up on her. As we walked, I prayed 'Lord, if you want her to learn about the Gospel, you had better let her be home right now, because this is probably the last time we're going to try.' We walked up, and knocked. Lo and behold, she was there! Apparently, she worked in the evenings whenever we came over, but this day, she had work off for some odd reason. She was super excited to hear what we have to say, and we set up an appointment for this coming week. We kept walking down the street, planning on going around the block to get back to our car, and we walked up to a couple walking the opposite direction. In my usual way, I started talking to them about the Church, and they said "Oh, we already know everything about you guys." Taken aback, we ask what they know, and how. Apparently, missionaries had been talking to them last summer, and they were really interested in the message. Since the missionaries got transferred, the new missionaries weren't able to make contact and dropped them. They said that since the missionaries stopped coming, nothing was going right in their lives, and the recognized the difference the missionary lessons made. We set up an appointment for the next day. Needless to say, despite the disappointment, I was pretty amazed at how things had worked out so well.

 

The rest of the week was pretty rough. It can be especially difficult when plans which you are almost certain will carry out fall through, and even more painful when that happens constantly throughout the day. As missionaries, we are instructed to make backup plans for any time someone or something doesn't work out. Feeling like you are effective is pretty hard when all of your backups don't work out either. Then, as a last resort, we find a street and tract. Sometimes that works out pretty good. Sometimes, it's miraculous, like on Thursday when we knocked on a few doors in an apartment building, and were able to set appointments with every single home in that building. Other times, it's incredibly dejecting, like on Saturday, when we had door after door of people who a) thought religion is evil, and doesn't have a purpose in life (I felt so sorry for that guy. He must not be very happy), b) wouldn't even say a word to us, or c) griped at us about some point of doctrine. I was incredibly relieved when Sunday came.

 

One thing I do have to say. In spite of all of the missed appointments, in spite of all the rejection, in spite of every negative thing which ever happens to me, the positive things, the spirit-filled lessons, the amazing people who we meet... they all make up for it.

 

One highlight: John, our chain-smoking, alcoholic investigator with a heart as pure as gold. He's had a rough week, and was super depressed Thursday night. We came over to visit him then, and he told us about how he's potentially lost his job, how he wants to go back to drinking (he's been sober for about 9 weeks now), and how he keeps going back to cigarettes. We gave him a lesson about Faith, Hope, and Charity (Moroni 7), and encouraged him. When we saw him again on Friday, he was still a little depressed, but doing better. We kept talking about faith, hope, and charity again. Sunday, when he came to church, he was looking great. He was as sick as a dog, sniffling and coughing during sacrament meeting, but one of the sisters in the ward came up to us and said "Wow. John looks different. He looks much brighter." We noticed it too. He's got a lot of really difficult changes to make, but he keeps working on it. He had a lot of support from the ward, and especially since our lessons this week, has a lot of hope. He tells us his vision of what he wants his life to be: "No addiction, no dread, livin' in a house with my one and only true love." Like I said, this guy has a true heart. I've learned a lot from him.

 

We also started teaching another of Madeline's grandchildren, Rick. He's 18, and has done just about anything anyone can do. The elders have talked to him before, but he hasn't really been interested. Then, he sat in on a lesson we were teaching to Maria Galloway's three daughters, his cousins. He became super interested, and asked us all kinds of questions. We answered as best we could, and he began to tell us that he's been thinking about the stuff we were teaching about for a while. He agreed to start taking lessons from us! Guess which lesson we were teaching the three girls? The Gospel of Christ. Yep. It work's miracles. Also, during that lesson we asked the girls to be baptized on the 17th of March, and they accepted! This will be the first baptism we have while I've been in Lebanon. Their step-dad, Darren, is hoping to get the Aaronic Priesthood by then, so he'll be performing the baptism. We're all very excited.

 

Well, that's about all for this week. Take care, everyone. Do the right thing. If you ever have any questions for me, or want to know more about something I write about in the blog, write me! I'll love to answer.

 

Best Wishes!

Elder Anderson