January 28, 2013

Missionary Slim has a Senior moment. " Blog post? What blog post? (Week 51 in Pennsylvania, Week 15 in Washington, PA)

Uhh. so I totally forgot to write anything for the blog. I have no idea why. It just totally slipped my mind. So... I guess... nothing this week. I feel really bad. I've been dipping around while my companion took forever on his emails, and completely spaced the blog. I don't know what's up with that. I'm tired, I guess. Anyway, this week has been a good one, we've been safe and healthy, we did work. I'll talk about all of that next week. But for now, I feel really dumb.

Anyway, love you lots!
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
 
Alex sent this to me and I thought it might make up for his lack of a blog entry. 
 
Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

Video:
Men on Earth have the opportunity to become fathers and experience some of the same joys that our Heavenly Father feels for us. Fatherhood is a divine responsibility to be cherished.
http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng
 
Have a great week. Missionary Slim's not so slim father. :) 
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January 21, 2013

Missionary Slim Reaches his Hump Day ( What Hump? ). (Week 50 in Pennsylvania, Week 14 in Washington, PA)

Elder Colvin and I were driving down the street, rushing to the church for our appointment with Dan. And we were late. So, with a keen eye on the speedometer to make sure I wasn't speeding (too much), and an even keener eye on the twisty road ahead, we chatted about our plans for our lesson. "Why don't we show him a talk from General Conference, and chat about the importance of Prophets?"

"Yeah, that'll be good." I said. "We should show him Elder Bednar's talk. That one will really help him."

"Well, I think we should show him all the pictures of the apostles and prophet, and let him pick."

"Okay, but we'll download Elder Bednar's just in case."

"Okay."

We got to the church. Dan was waiting. We ushered him inside, sat down in the Family History center, and pulled up the pictures of all the apostles and the prophet on LDS.org. With a quick prayer, and a quick scripture to set the mood, we invited him to pick. Without a moments hesitation, he said "That one. The young one in the bottom left." Guess who he picked? Elder Bednar. Pretty cool coincidence, but even cooler was how the talk made him feel. We watched the full talk, and then chatted about what it said. The spirit filled the room and Elder Colvin and I both testified of the joys that come from conversion to the true gospel. As we were closing our lesson, Dan said "I really need to work harder towards baptism." Aww yeah! It was awesome.

We had an appointment with a lady who lives way out in the boonies, so we called up a member to come with us so we wouldn't have to waste all our car's miles. (The two enemies to missionary work: Satan, and miles.) Elder Colvin and I were just about ready to go out the door to meet this member when we get a call. It was from the lady we were going to go visit. Yep. She cancelled. 

Not wanting to disappoint the member we were taking with us, Elder Colvin and I did a little brain-storming to figure out who we could visit, or as I phrased the question: "Who needs a visit right now?" The name "Felicia" came to my mind. Felicia is a member who also lives way out in the boonies. The last time we visited, she was pregnant like a balloon. Seriously, she was so close to having a baby it was unbelievable. My thinking was she either was just about to have the baby, or already had her, and as far as I know, that's as good a time as any for a visit from the Church. 

So we start driving out, over the hills and curves of Pennsylvania back roads  We pull up to the house, knock on the door. The only greeting we receive is from their baby rottweiler who, by the look of things, has just torn up a brand new box of diapers. Disappointed, dejected, we began to walk off their porch. I was sure it was the spirit that told me to visit them... 

I saw a minivan driving up the road towards the house. Something told me that it was the family. Sure enough, they pulled into the driveway, and the first thing we heard was Felicia's 8 year old daughter saying "We have a new baby! We have a new baby!" Ralph, her husband (who is an awesome guy, but is absolutely crazy) hopped out and shook our hands, and then pulled out a brand-new, two day old baby (it even still had the 'new baby' smell). They invited us in and we had a nice chat.

We had a visit with a guy named Bro. Pawlish. He is a super interesting guy, but I don't have nearly enough time to give and adequate background. We were actually planning on visiting another family in the area, but they canceled, so we decided to stop by his place. We told him we'd be there in 10 minutes, but ended up getting there in 5. Not wanting to be there too early, we waited in the car. Two minutes passed by when I suddenly hear the back door open and Bro. Pawlish hopped in. It was kinda weird; certainly something which doesn't happen every day. We had our entire visit right there in the car.

With all of that being said, Elder Colvin and I have been sharing a message with members and investigators lately. Any time we just need to pull out an off-the-cuff spiritual thought, we share this well-polished message with them. I start by sharing the story of Christ coming to America in 3 Nephi 11:1-8. I especially make mention that it took the people three times before they "Opened their ears to hear" the voice from heaven. All too often, it's that way with us. We need to open our ears to hear the spirit. Elder Colvin then shares the following story:

"There was once a man who had a question: why do some people hear God's voice better than others? After weeks of studying the scriptures, praying, and pondering, he finally asked his Pastor. 'Meet me downtown tomorrow morning,' was the reply.

"So, the following morning, the man found himself taking a walk with his pastor down the busy streets of downtown NYC. They had to raise their voices to be able to have conversation amid the din of the bustling traffic, the pedestrians, horns, birds, etc. The man asked his question, to which the pastor responded, 'Watch all these people, going to and fro. Pay attention to them. Watch what they do.' With that, the pastor drew a handful of coins from his pocket and dropped them on the ground. Despite all the noise, many people turned to see where the coins landed. The man saw this reaction, which brought even more questions to his mind. Before he could ask, the pastor said, 'These people could hear because they trained themselves to do so.'"

Without exception, this story makes the people we teach ponder. How do we train ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord? Or, better question, what are we training ourselves to hear? Food for thought.

Have a wonderful week, all!
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
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January 14, 2013

Missionary Slim is in the right place at the right time. (Week 49 in Pennsylvania, Week 13 in Washington, PA)

Man, we've had a crazy time trying to keep up with Jon. He had his incredible change of heart last week, and then promptly went and got himself a job. It's a good thing, but it does make it difficult to get a hold of him when he is never at home and always has his phone off. After we missed an appointment with him, we decided we would stop by his work.

We get to his work, a fast-food pizza restaurant, and watch a little scene play out. The girl on the register calls back for some buffalo sauce. The manager mishears and puts together some buffalo wings. She corrects him, to which the manager replies "Well, you'd better sell these wings then." I'm feeling like being a little angel, and was planning on buying something anyway, so I say to her "I'll buy your wings," which she was very grateful for. I mention that we are there to see Jon, to which she replies, "You're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, right?" I was a little taken aback. Not only did she know exactly who we were (big surprise, we've got name tags), but she just spat out the entire name of the church. "Yeah," I said.

"Oh, well, I used to go to church there all the time when I was in Florida."

"Really? How long have you been here?"

"Oh, about a month."

"No way! Do you want to get back into it?"

"Sure. Here's my number."

Yep. Things like that don't happen every day. That was just another case of being in the right place at the right time. Or, perhaps, it was all planned out by the Lord from the beginning, including both her and Jon getting jobs at the pizza place (because I would never intentionally buy pizza there, meaning little chance of running into her there). Or it could have been a big coincidence. Who knows? Anyway, we should meet with her this coming week.

Another quick story about following the spirit. We had another night when everything we had planned was falling through. So, on a whim, I just said "Lets go see sister Southern." Just a reminder, Sister Southern is the Louisiana native who probably has decedents who persecuted the saints. Just saying. But she herself is the warmest, friendliest, kindest, most outgoing and crazy and interesting member I have ever met. And she's been away from church for a while. So, we packed up, and drove out to go see her. We get there and pound on the door (shouting "OPEN UP! IT'S THE MORMONS!") We come in and sit down, and then she and her husband tell us "You know, we were just talking about you. We were wondering when you were going to stop by again." Hmm... Funny coincidence...

We had a fun time on Sunday. We got the ox stuck in the mire.... Pretty much literally. We went to visit a family out in the boonies, and being the polite driver that I am, I pulled over to the side of the road when we got there so that the cars could drive past. We had a good visit with the family, and leave.

Quick side note: We had a really good snowstorm the day after Christmas, and it was snowy from then until last Wednesday. Since then, it's been really mild, with temperatures between 40 and 65 degrees. That means mud. I tried to reverse out. Nothing. I pulled forward a bit. Slid all over. I tried to drive back up to the road and nearly slid down the hill into some trees. The guy that we visited noticed us and came to the rescue! With his trusty Bobcat, he chained up the old (gutless) Malibu and towed us to safety.

On a more spiritual note, we had a wonderful opportunity this week to visit with a woman who truly needed a little spiritual uplifting. She is a longtime friend of a member, and her twin brother, whom she lived with, died recently. She's been heartbroken ever since. The member brought us over and she sat us down. We began explaining the plain and precious truths taught in Alma chapter 40. Our spirits return to God, and live in paradise if we do what's right. Eventually, we will be resurrected and have our bodies back, perfected and glorified. Then came her question. "Will my brother look the same when I see him?" With reverence, I looked her in the eye and said "Yes. You will. And he will recognize you." Then, (almost prophetically) I told her "When you see him, he will be the same, fun loving joyful person you knew when he was here." The waterworks opened and she cried tears of longing. Still, a sweet spirit was present.

There was another woman we talked to at the hospital. Her daughter is a member, and she herself is Lutheran. She has many questions, though. For example: "If we lived in Heaven with God before we came here, and we are trying to make it back, why did we ever leave in the first place?" Oh, what a good question! And what a pleasure it was for us to be able to tell her that the purpose of existence is to gain more knowledge and intelligence and experience, so that one day, when we return to our Heavenly Father, we may be like him.

The Church is true. The answers have been revealed. We have a prophet and living scriptures. It's true. It's all true.

By the time you hear from me next, I will have been a missionary for a full year. It's incredible to see how far I've come, and the things I've been able to do, but especially the lives I've been able to touch. My mission has meant so much to me - it's meant everything. I've tried my hardest to put everything that I have and everything that I am into it, and it has given me one of the greatest returns I ever could have wanted. I have gained knowledge, skills, experience. I've learned about life, death, marriage, divorce, apostasy, faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost. I've truly learned who my Father is, who my Savior is, and who I am - a Son of God, a foot soldier of righteousness and an advocate of truth. It has come with a price - no longer can I deny what I know. No longer can I sin in ignorance. No longer can I keep my testimony within myself. With the light and knowledge which I have been given, I have no choice but to share it with others. The irony of it all is no matter how much I share, no matter how much I sacrifice, I am continually blessed, sustained, and uplifted.

I've seen a lot of missionaries - some excellent, some mediocre, and some downright apostate. One thing that I've found - the mission (and life, I suppose) is what you make of it. Some things you can't change - there will be rejection, there will be trials, there will be weeks where you don't teach a single lesson or all of the people you are teaching decide to stop talking with you, or months where you have to endure the companion from your worst nightmares. But, like the Lord said to Joseph Smith: "all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever." By trusting in the Lord, but turning my life over to him, I have found the peace and comfort that can only come from service in the vineyard of the Lord. It's been a hard year, but it's been a good year. And the best is yet to come.

Take care!
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
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January 7, 2013

Missionary Slim Falls for a great prank ( You mean his isn't really a murderer and a cannibal? ) (Week 48 in Pennsylvania, Week 12 in Washington, PA)

This has been a good week. It's been a challenging week. It has been a week of much laughter; it has been a week of many tears. As usual, and above all, it has been a week of miracles.

I'll pause here for a moment to just make a note - transfers are tomorrow. Yes, once again, that great transfer machine has hustled and bustled the whole week through, making missionaries nervous about what might happen. Such was the case this past week when I, being district leader and having charge of telling the missionaries under me whether or not they are being transferred, was badgered and pestered and hounded (isn't that funny? All three of those words are talking about animals...) day and night by those missionaries asking if there was any news from the Zone Leaders. "Nope. Nothing yet. I'll let you know as soon as I know."

I'm going to say this next bit with the note that I try my hardest not to paint the picture of missionary work with rose colored glasses. Life as a missionary is tough. It's awesome, it's amazing. Like I said, there is laughter and joy and such, but bad things happen. Sometimes it's hard to keep of the image of chanting a chorus of "Called to Serve" between doorsteps. Sometimes it's hard to keep that smile on your face.

We had a change very early in the week. A missionary serving in my district decided he just couldn't handle it anymore. He took me aside before District Meeting and bore his soul to me, telling me about his frustrations and difficulties and then finally concluding "I'm going home." After talking to him about it for a few minutes, showing my love and appreciation for him, I managed to change his mind and he said he would stick it out. Well, that only lasted two more days when he was hit with more challenges and gave me a call letting me know that this was for real, and there was no going back. 

If the missionary of whom I am speaking is reading this, I want him to know that I do love and care for him, and hope that everything works out well for him. The Church is true, as true as the Gospel. And that's about all I have to say about that.

That's about the most difficult part about my week. Everything else was pretty good, fantastic even. Elder Colvin and I have been 'Tearing it up,' so to speak. We've been teaching people, finding people, giving service. I got to interview a guy for baptism. Oh. This is a funny story.

I go out with those Elders to the apartment of the guy I'm going to be interviewing. They introduce me, tell me a little about him, and then leave. We start talking, chatting about the baptism, any questions he has, etc. Then I start asking him questions. I get to "Have you ever committed a serious crime?" to which he replies "Yes." *shoot* I think to myself. This means that I have to call the mission president to have him Okay the baptism.  "Okay," I say, "Don't tell me the details. How long ago was it?" I ask a few more questions, finish the interview, and then go to the other elders. "Can I see the phone?" I take it and make my call. President doesn't answer, so I leave a message. I come back with the others to find them all in a state of shock. "Wait, you really called him?" They go on to say that it was all an elaborate prank, that the plan was for the guy to tell me, "Yeah. I committed second degree murder and cannibalism..." and to top it all off say "Mmm... I'm hungry." I got a good laugh out of it, but we had to cover it all up with the mission president. 

There's a guy we've been teaching named Jon. He's said that he's half-and-half on everything. He halfway believes in God, halfway believes in modern prophets, etc. Well, we had a lesson with him. We sat down, and he started talking. He said, "You know, guys. I've made a decision. I'm going to keep the law of chastity from now on." Both me and my companion stared in disbelief. That was a total surprise to us. He then asked when he could be baptized. For the sake of irony, he chose February 14th. He's been investigating on and off for over a year now, but it looks like progress will finally be made!

We were out a little way from town driving down the road when we got a call from a member. "Elders, I'm really sick and could really use a blessing." Incidentally, we were pretty close to his house and had a couple of spare minutes, so we diverted course and were there in no time. He was in pretty bad shape, too. He's old, has been really sick with the flu, and to top it all off has been having some other abdominal problems which I don't really care to describe in detail. Needless to say, this was a man who was very sick. He had already canceled all of his appointments for the coming week. We stood around him and laid our hands on his head. He invited me to give the blessing. 

I'm going to jump off track for just a second to tell about another blessing. (Incidentally, we had the opportunity to give three blessings this week) A member's son was very sick and asked for us to help him give the son a blessing. After the father finished, his 9 year old daughter asked "Wow. Did you memorize that whole thing?" He explained that it all came through the Spirit, and that Heavenly Father told him what to say. 

With that being said (jumping back to the first story), I was told specifically to say that he would be healed in no time. It surprised even me, but I said it. When the blessing was all done, we shook hands and he thanked us and we went on our way.

The very next day we got a call. "Elders, you've done a miracle! I'm healed!" He got up in church and bore his testimony, very powerfully, about how each of us can perform miracles on behalf of the others. It was pretty awesome.

Not much more I have to say or need to say.  I'll just end by saying Happy New Year!

Love,
Elder Alex Anderson

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December 31, 2012

Missionary Slim has almost reached a milestone. He will be 1 score old on New Years Day. Happy Birthday to Slim!!! (Week 47 in Pennsylvania, Week 11 in Washington, PA)



Since I'm still in the holiday spirit, I would like to wish everyone a happy Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, and New Years. As well as (can I do this?) a happy birthday to myself. Yes, chances are by the time you read this I will have sailed on down the river of time through the rapids of teenage years and on to the even more treacherous and dangerous years of the 'responsible adult.' ("Wait, I thought I was a responsible adult when I turned 18!") Also, this will be one of the few times in my life when I can refer to my age as being a score. 

As an early celebration, I had a rum ball this past week. A member had a cookie platter which someone gave her, and I thought I was sampling a delicious glazed brownie bite. To describe my reaction: YUCK! Seriously, people? Quit putting booze in my food!

Jokes aside, it's been a good, cheery, windy, snowy, week. We kicked it off with some Christmas Caroling on Monday. We sung the usual stuff like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Joy to the World," some of the more unique carols like "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells," and then some downright unheard of carols like "The Holly and the Ivy" and "Bring a Torch, Janette, Isabella." So Elder Anderson got a little Christmas cultural education, at least as far as carols go. 

I do have to admit, I was pleased to find out that Pennsylvanians celebrate Christmas just about the same as I did back home - no surprises there. (I've heard stories of some interesting international Christmas traditions) We party hopped between members' home, Skyped home (I, being the Apple fan that you all know, used Facetime), and shared a couple of Christmas messages.

And then it snowed.

This was the first real snowfall of the season out here. And it was a good one. Or a bad one, depending on your point of view. The roads were slippery (I even got word that the Mission President slid off the road and needed some missionaries to come bail him out), we did a lot of shoveling, and of course threw the occasional snowball. Oh, and I made Snowman Slim:



I don't really have a whole lot to say about the actual missionary work. That's taken a little bit of a slump, so we worked extra hard this weekend to set us up to make next week a great week and hopefully we'll see it pick up after the New Year. 

I will share a short, little story about one investigator, Laurie. She's the mom of a member of the church, and has been meeting on and off with us ever since I got here. She's an example of someone who I can see has been able to see and recognize the change the Restored Gospel has had in her own life. We've met with her intermittently, simply because of conflicting schedules, but every time we meet with her, there is a marked change in her, for lack of a better term, light. There's just a brighter glow about her. She's been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, she even wants to pay tithing right now, and hasn't even been to church yet. She's being held back by a boyfriend of sorts, and she cannot go unless he goes with her (long story, and not one that I feel at liberty to share at the present). So if you all are hankerin' for something to pray for, pray that Gary will want to go to church. Because then, Laurie will be able to go to church, and then she'll be able to be baptized, and the whole family will be so much happier!

I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year, and that 2013 bring many blessings, joy, happiness, peace, love, and all that other good stuff to all. And don't forget:



Love,
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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December 24, 2012

Missionary Slim Wishes you a Merry Christmas (Week 46 in Pennsylvania, Week 10 in Washington, PA)

Happy end of the world, everyone. Well... Almost. I honestly completely forgot about it until Wednesday, spent all of Thursday trying to calm people down and let them know that the world was NOT in fact going to end ("No really, Jesus said nobody would know when he is coming!"), and woke up rather cheerfully Friday morning. Yep. Nothing. Well, nothing here in Pennsylvania. I have yet to hear if the world ended anywhere else yet.

Good news, though! If you really think about it, the 'world', being all of the wickedness and sin and such, really isn't such a bad thing to end anyway. I don't know about the rest of you. - I'm personally looking forward to living in a world without the 'world'. Just sayin'.

For those of you worried if the poor, starving, missionaries in Washington, PA are... poor... and starving, don't. We are certainly not all that starving, especially after the generosity of all of the members out here:



Yeah. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to gain 200 lbs. this Christmas season, seeing as Elder Colvin doesn't eat any goodies. Seriously. ("Well, if you aren't going to eat all these goodies, who is?"  "Elder Anderson, I think you know the answer to that question.")

We met an interesting gentleman this week. His name is Mohi. He referred himself, so I gave him a call.

"Hello...?"

"Hi. This is Elder Anderson. I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day...."

"Ah, yes you beautiful person. It is so much an honor to speak to you this wonderful day. I have heard much about you and your church, the Mormon, and Joseph Smith, oh I'm so sorry about what happened to him, it's a true tragedy, the heavens weep over him. And Brig-man Young, he is a hero! A true hero! A yes, thank you for calling, you beautiful person. I was just calling to request that you and your bishop would honor my request to grace me with your presence. I am available in the early afternoon. Feel free to stop by any day. Thank you so much, you beautiful person." *click*

Okay...

So we stopped by at the address listed, went inside the apartment building, up the elevator and over to his door. I wound up my fist to give his door a knocking, but heard voices from within:

"So, if you wouldn't mind following along, I'll read this part here: 'The bible is instruction given from Jehovah to His prophets. 2 Timothy says All scripture....'" Yep. He was meeting with Jehovah Witnesses, and by the sound of thing was in the middle of their first discussion. As tempting as it was, we chose not to interrupt their meeting and stopped by another day.

We get there, and he sits us down and starts to tell us about his plans for doing a 'Galaxy Gallery' of 1000 hand-drawn pictures. And he wants a picture for the Mormons. ...Okay... I'm not really sure where all of this is going to go. But he certainly is one of the most interesting individuals I've ever met.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm super stoked for Christmas. For real. I've been able to do some of my favorite things of Christmas here and there too, which has been super happy-making, like caroling for Salvation Army, and helping a member wrap Christmas presents for his son. And of course, Christmas day will be spent with an awesome member family, and I get to talk to my family. 

I'll close with an awesome thought that my brother sent me today. A lot of people are looking forward to spending Christmas at home with their families, having big dinners, lots of presents, etc. At the same time, though, there are many who have no choice but to go without during Christmas. Trust me, I've met many of them and been in many of their homes. It's humbling and makes me grateful to see how little they have and how much joy that little bit brings us. As my brother told me, Christ was homeless on the first Christmas. There is something in that which is both profound and vitally important to us.

Another thought: My parents have a VHS tape which has a bunch of old Christmas cartoons on it (really old, like circa 1990). I looked forward to December each and every year so I could watch that tape over and over and over - it was my favorite! One of the cartoons is Garfield's Christmas special. He, Jon, and Odie go to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner and presents and such. One of the last lines of the show though really strikes me. After all is said and done, Garfield exclaims "Christmas isn't about the giving, and it isn't about the getting. It's about the loving." Isn't that so true? Isn't that the biggest message of Christmas, Christ's life, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and all the Prophets? Love God and love everyone else. On this hangs all the scriptures. How true it is.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

PS. If you want fantastic, non-stop Christmas music, mormonchannel.org has got it!

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December 17, 2012

Missionary Slim is thinking " So that is what Jack Daniel's tastes like.... " (Week 45 in Pennsylvania, Week 9 in Washington, PA)

As the days of advent slowly count down, the work of the Lord continues in that lush land of Pennsylvania. By the way, if I were to take a guess right now, I would say that we probably won't have a white Christmas out here - it's been above 50 degrees for the past five days. A little wet, but my Arizonian companion is loving it. 

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
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