We went to a Christmas Party, put on by probably one of the oddest members of the entire church (he's certainly 1 in 14.5 million!) He invited a goodly number of 'distinguished guests' to his lovely home, and did a wonderful job of being a host ("Here's a plate of candy for the little boys.") We were planning on having dinner there, so when we arrived and found that it was mostly snack food, we were a little disappointed, but decided to make the most of it. Somebody finally arrived with what looked like real food - a slow cooker full of little sausages covered in what looked like a rich barbecue sauce, which, by the way, is one of my favorite things. I didn't want to make a scene, so I restrained myself from darting over and helping myself right away. My companion got there first and, after trying a few, pulled me aside. "Those sausages - they aren't very good." Oh. Well, thought I, I'll be the judge of that! I took one of his sausages and popped it in my mouth. In three words, he was right. It was really.... bad. Bitter, nasty. It had a bite to it at the end. "Yeah. You were right. That was nasty."

Bear with me, I'm getting to the point. No sooner than I said that, than two ladies came over and were talking about these little sausages: "Ooh, they're so good. So bold, so much flavor. I love how mild it is at first and then WHAM! It hit's you with the Jack Daniel's." You couldn't have staged it any more perfectly. Elder Colvin and I looked at the remaining sausages on his plate, and then looked right at each other. I asked him how many he ate "Well, probably not any more than 6." I was surprised he was able to choke down so many. It was impressive. We went over to one of the ward members who was there and asked her to try one. Sure enough, it was loaded with alcohol. In her own words "Wow! There's enough booze in those things to kill a horse!" 

Interestingly enough, I've broken the Word of Wisdom (unintentionally every time!) more on my mission than any other time of my life. Between second hand smoke, the suspicious cups of tea which investigators hand me, and then this experience, I've certainly had quite enough.

Saturday was probably the most interesting day for us. A few days before, a member told us to knock on his doctor's door, so we did. The house itself was pretty incredible, with scriptures engraved in the front steps, and window markers declaring it to be "The House of the Lord." I was impressed from the get go. We knocked. The man and his wife stepped out and were more than kind to us. They themselves were 'born again' and had been saved, but were very polite in their conversation. At the same time, they were trying to plant seeds of doubt by asking us some very anti-Mormon, anti-Joseph Smith questions. We responded to the best of our ability (when the wife pulled out how at the end of the Book of Revelations it says "Do not add to or take away from this book" and said that the Book of Mormon was an addition to the Bible, I lost my temper and totally destroyed her argument with the counter "It says specifically 'The book of this prophecy.'" and the question "So is it talking about the Bible, or the Book of Revelation only?" To which her husband said "Prophesy and Revelation mean the same thing." Yeah. The Church is true. So is the Book of Mormon. Anyway, long tangent. Back to the story.), but regardless of our kindness and our sincerity, they wouldn't have it. They both told us their (very long) stories of how they came to God, but wouldn't let us share how we know the Book of Mormon is true. When we offered to leave them one, the husband hesitated, but the wife said immediately "Oh, we have one." (Come to find out, the member who told us about them already gave them a Book of Mormon, but they gave it back two days later...) That was an annoying experience.

Right after, though, we decided to stop by Shane again. He's the gentleman who we met two weeks ago and who let us right in. He did the same this week, and sat us right down, and said "Okay, guys. What do you have for me today?" We taught him the entire message of the Restoration, to which he did the same thing as before - agreed, shared his insights, asked his own questions, and was pretty much the coolest guy ever. He asked to say the prayer at the end, and said one of the nicest things: "Thanks for bringing these guys into my life at this time when I have been asking for guidance." Oh yeah. That means the world to me.

On that note, we had a similar experience with Gretchen. At the end of our visit with her this week, she asked her son to pick somebody to pray. He pointed right at her. She had no choice. After a little bit of choking to find words (it's obvious that she hasn't prayed like this in a long time) she came out with saying "Thanks for bringing the church back to me and for letting me know that I am still remembered and loved." I'll say it again, the Church is true and for sure there is a loving God in heaven who hears the prayers, even the idle thoughts and wishes, of every one of his children.

I'll share one more story. We went over to a members house for dinner. It was a very Mormon house - lots of temple pictures, prophets, Christ, etc. Oh, and 7 kids ranging from 15 years old down to 1. With that many young kids, it was easily pandemonium in that house. So many kids making noise, banging on the table, running around, playing. Can I say this, though? That home was so peaceful. So incredibly peaceful. There was so much love and tenderness, even though the house was a mess, the kids were everywhere, it was still peaceful. The Church is true. So is the Gospel. The Spirit in that home was real, and it was there because the family loves God, Christ, and each other. I learned a lot from that experience.

Well, folks. Thanks for everything. Happy Hanukkah. Well, it was last week, but regardless...

Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim