July 16, 2012

Missionary Slim: Is not superstitious? and gets a lesson in "French" (Week 23 in Pennsylvania, Week 5 in Pittsburgh, PA)

So many cool things are happening, but I can only write about a few of them. This post will probably be like last weeks - a few random, isolated occurrences. 

We were walking back to our apartment after having an excellent dinner with our Ward Mission Leader (who, by the way, is awesome. Just saying) As we were walking, I noticed a car go by. The driver kept swinging his head to look back at us, then swinging it back to see the road, then flinging it back to look at us, gawking. *Huh. He must have seen the musical* I thought. We keep walking, turn the corner and see he's parked right there. My alarms start going off. He gets out of the car. I put on my happy "Hey! If I'm friendly at you, you'll be friendly with me, right?"

"You Mormons?" he said with a thick Russian accent. We nodded and introduced ourselves. "Oh, great! I'm Bart. I've been looking for you!" My fear turned into the thrill of victory. He had studied the Church while he was in Russia as an investigative journalist, loved what he learned, came over to the States and has been looking for it ever since! We got him the address to the church, ordered a Russian Book of Mormon for him, and hopefully will be meeting with him soon.

While I was away on exchange, Elder Walker and Elder Lucio found an incredible woman. Her name is Brenda. She's in her 50s, has been going to a baptist church for her whole life, but has been struggling with it lately. "I love to serve," she said, "But I hate doing it out of an obligation to the Pastor. In the past few weeks, she's been struggling spiritually, and told the Elders that she felt her meeting with them was not a coincidence, and that we could definitely help her. They couldn't set up a return appointment right then, but they did invite her to church.

A few hours later, they got a call from Elder and Sister Neal, the senior couple who run the Institute classes. Immediately after the other Elders met her, she went straight to the church, hoping to find the Elders. She ran into the Neals instead, and they gave her an excellent lesson right there and set up a follow-up appointment for us. It's been going onward and upward from there. She loves the Book of Mormon, she came to church and loved it too. She goes walking with Sister Neal in the mornings, and is always willing to have us come over and teach her. Her husband is cool with us teaching her, and I get the feeling his curiosity will be piqued soon enough. She's definitely one that I'll be talking about more.

We were walking through Homewood, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh known for it's crime. In fact, whenever we mention that we are teaching people in Homewood, they always get really nervous and worry about us. It's not that scary though. It's mostly hearsay. Anyway, as we were walking through, we saw a guy sitting in his backyard, trying to start a mower. Elder Walker bounded right back to him, took the mower and clipped his entire lawn in no time. I was able to talk to him and learn more about him - how his wife has died, how he's never met his 20 year old grandchild, how his house is permanently going to be foreclosed, but never actually will be (long story, don't ask). He told us he never prays, never reads the scriptures, and never goes to church, "but I need to." We taught him briefly, gave him a Book of Mormon, and prayed with him right there. HE cried openly. "Thank you," he said, "I feel so much better already."

Friday the 13th. I'm not superstitious, but I'm always going to watch out for myself more if chances of bad luck are higher. Well, we got a double barrel on Friday. We were walking down the street, talking about a recent encounter with a lady very fluent in *French* (if you know what I mean), and who didn't have a filter. Elder Walker and I have a code word for *French* words - we just meow instead. Yep, we literally say "Meow" It keeps it clean, and makes it ten times more funny. With that being said, we were meowing down the street when suddenly, a wild black cat appears. We stop. It stops. We gaze one at another. Then, it does it - the unthinkable - it crosses our path. Yep. That *meow* feline knew exactly what it was doing, and it did it with no regret. We looked at each other, then looked at where the cat crossed us. "Oh, shoot!"

Fortunately, nothing bad happened that day.

So, now that I think about it, this isn't actually very cool. But to me, at the time, it was. Remember all those months ago, when I said the Mission President had something cool for me to do? Well, I finally get to reveal it! I'm making the yearly mission video! *Fanfare! Cheering!* ... Yeah, it's actually not all that cool. It's basically a slideshow, with video segments intermingled, set to missionary appropriate music and distributed to all the missionaries for Christmas. It's certainly a unique experience though, and I'll definitely have a lot of fun with it. I went to the mission office to work on it for the first time this week. Elder Huber, the elder who made the last video, showed me all the software, all the things he did, gave me some ideas, and basically brain-transplanted. 

One question for the masses - I have a problem. The mission office is 15 miles away. I don't have a car. How do I get there to make the video? If you want, leave comments on this blog post. I know I won't be able to read them till after I get home from my mission, but 18 months from now (Holy cow, yes. I'm 1/4 the way through. I only have a Sister's mission length left) I'll be able to read them.

Like I said though, that isn't all that cool. 

What is cool is what happened afterward. Elder Huber and I went to a baptism. A guy who Elder Huber had previously been teaching, and who was nowhere near baptism (he was on probation) unexpectedly was given the okay. That is to say, his case was brought before the First Presidency, approved, signed, and sent back. He got the Okay letter on Friday; his baptism was Saturday. It was an incredibly spiritual experience, and I learned something from it.

Every baptism is a miracle. From the 8 year old who's been preparing from the womb to the 75 year old who only heard about the church 4 months ago, every baptism is a miracle. There is no way that we can do the work we do without the help of the Lord. All of the success that Elder Walker and I have been having - it has nothing to do with us. We are nothing. We are scum. We are terrible missionaries. It is only through God that we are able to even do anything. Let the glory be to God always and forever. (See Alma 26:12)

God loves us. We are his children. What a blessing it is to know this simple truth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true - this becomes more and more apparent as I read it and teach about it. It is essential also that, while we should focus on many different things, that we focus on the most important thing - Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Study that. Then share what you learn. I know that as you do that, you'll come to an incredible understanding and testimony of God's love for us.

And I love you all too. Take Care! Happy Pioneer day!
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Popular Posts