July 22, 2013

Missionary Slim apparently lives his life being 'Prayed Up' and he is very happy about it (Week 76 in Pennsylvania, Week 5 in West York, PA)

Last week, I mentioned a family that we've been teaching. Well, a semi-family. They consist of Rene and Canie (they're together), and Rose and Donald (they're together). They're all living in an apartment together and we've been teaching Rene, Canie, and Rose, and they've been loving it. To me, it seems like one of those situations of someone finding something they've been looking for their entire lives, but not knowing they were looking for it. Donald has been aloof from our visits.

Well, last week, we stopped by unexpectedly. Rose and Donald were there, and we started talking to her about the things we talked about the last time we came by, etc. We've got a pretty good relationship with Donald when we're not teaching lessons, so he came over and we started chatting with him. He opened to us. "Guys, I've gotta tell you. I've been avoiding y'all, coz I'm not really sure who you are anyway. But ya know? I can't deny it anymore." He basically told us that he wants whatever it is that we have. He explained that all his life growing up in the Bronx of New York, he's had a lot of negativity, and it's been really hard for him to look up and keep a positive attitude when there is so much bad stuff going on around him.

"Now, you guys," he said, "I'm sure you guys have a lot of bad stuff going on too. But for some reason, it's like you've just got this positive energy with you all the time. And it's contagious too!" Every time we came over, he noticed this 'positive energy,' and it really intrigued him.
At this point, I was feeling really great. You always hear stories of people actually noticing the Gift of the Holy Ghost which missionaries carry with them, but very rarely does anybody actually tell you "Hey, you've got the Holy Ghost with you right now." Only a very few have ever said anything like that to me during my mission, and usually, they have a hard time describing it: positive energy, looking so happy all the time, being 'prayed up', that sort of thing. This was one of those moments that I do not want to forget.

We explained what it was, and then asked him "Do you want it?" Of course he said "Yeah, I do." So we've started to teach him too.

We had a really cool lesson with Sarah, the lady who was taught all the lessons over the internet. Yeah, we finally taught her a lesson! We brought her over to our Ward Mission Leaders house and basically just figured out... her. Why she chose to investigate the church, what it was like being taught online ("It was pretty good, and I definitely felt the spirit, but it was weird typing out our prayers. It was good though!"), and where she expects this going ("Well, its going to be REALLY hard to send my boys on missions, but I think I'll be ready to do it by then." For the record, those boys are toddlers. She's REALLY looking to the future.). She'll be all set for her baptism this coming weekend. I'm pretty excited about it - she's super solid.

Same goes for Juan, the 12 year old who is also being baptized at the same time. We taught him about the Sabbath Day this week, and then decided to get really bold with him. He LOVES Poke'mon, the video game. (If you don't know what Poke'mon is, don't bother - it's not worth your time. And I bet I'm going to get flak for that comment...) So, I asked him "Juan, what are some things that you should give up for the Lord on the Sabbath Day?" He pondered it for a little bit, and then it came to him. "My DS." (The DS is a hand-held video game device with dual-screens. Hence DS.) "Okay, Juan." I said, "You know what this means? It means that during the Sabbath Day, you won't be able to use your DS. Will you do that?" He thought about it, and said "Not even for 90 minutes?"

"Nope"

"What about at midnight?"

"That's okay, but you should probably go to bed anyway."

"Okay. I'll do it."

Well, sure enough, we got a text after church. "Hey, this is Juan. Can I play my DS now?"

We left it up to him: "Pray about it, and then do whatever you feel is right.

And as far as I can tell, he chose not to. He's awesome.

That's about all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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