July 15, 2013
Missionary Slim slips in a reference to " Horton Hears a Who " (Week 75 in Pennsylvania, Week 4 in West York, PA)
I got a call this week from the Referral Secretary. She's in charge of letting us know about people in our area who called Salt Lake City to learn more about the church. This time, she said she had an odd referral. It was for a lady who was investigating the church online with a missionary on Facebook, and had progressed to the point where she has a baptism date... for two weeks from now!
Her name is Sarah, and I actually have met her before. We've talked on her porch, but due to the circumstances, she's never been willing to invite us in and we haven't sat down to teach her. Now she has a baptism date! What do you do?
Well, fellowship is pretty much the best thing you can do! She came to church at our ward this Sunday, for the first time (she was attending another ward in our building) and after church was over, she was literally bombarded by members of the church (in a good way). People inviting her over for dinner, the bishop giving her a warm hand of welcome. It was great. We don't know a whole lot about her or her situation, but it will be exciting to see what comes of this.
Another investigator family lives in downtown York. I'm not sure if I've mentioned them or not - we were just walking by when we needed a garbage can to throw away a banana peel. They were sitting on their porch ("Pennsylvania! We're a porch kind of people!") and we asked if we could use the can. They said sure. Then, they asked that question which always leads to something good: "Why are you guys dressed up so nice?"
From that fateful moment, we've been talking to them about the gospel, and a remarkable thing has happened. I've seen it before, but it always amazes me. As we visit with them, a light ignites in their eyes. They find purpose, they find reason for everything. That's happened with them.
Something really cool happened yesterday. This family is actually four non-married friends all living together, split into two couples. Because they speak Spanish, we invited them to our Spanish Book of Mormon class, which the two girls came to. It was great! They learned a lot and got to meet a lot of the stellar members of the church. As we were talking after the class, they were telling us about their difficulties in managing their finances, and especially their boyfriends. To that, we said "Well, at our church we sometimes hold a marriage relations class." I don't think I could even describe how much their faces lit up. It was almost funny how excited that made them. I think and hope that will be a turning point for them to realize just how much the church and the gospel can help them with everything in their lives.
We've also started teaching an 8 year old girl. She's living with members right now because her parents are both in prison for an undetermined time. You wouldn't be able to tell if you saw her though. In fact, when we went over to teach them, I brought a missionary from another area with me - he didn't even know that the girl we were teaching wasn't part of the member family that she was living with. As we taught her, she actually taught us - a lot of things. She radiated with goodness, she was very innocent with the answers to our questions and said some funny things without realizing it, but was totally open when we gave her the correct answers. She said the prayer at the end, and it was full to the brim with faith and hope.
Missionaries sometimes give other missionaries a hard time when they teach 8 and 9 year olds. I don't agree with that. A person's a person, no matter how small, and like the Master said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the Kingdom of God." This little one has such a strong desire to learn the truth and follow the Savior, and that, to me, is an incredible example.
Our lives are about to be flipped upside-down. We had interviews with the mission president this week, and he informed me that sisters were going to be moving into the area - that our area would be split and the sisters would be working in the York area. It's going to be tough - York is our most productive area right now. But, there is a purpose in everything. It will all work out great.
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
Her name is Sarah, and I actually have met her before. We've talked on her porch, but due to the circumstances, she's never been willing to invite us in and we haven't sat down to teach her. Now she has a baptism date! What do you do?
Well, fellowship is pretty much the best thing you can do! She came to church at our ward this Sunday, for the first time (she was attending another ward in our building) and after church was over, she was literally bombarded by members of the church (in a good way). People inviting her over for dinner, the bishop giving her a warm hand of welcome. It was great. We don't know a whole lot about her or her situation, but it will be exciting to see what comes of this.
Another investigator family lives in downtown York. I'm not sure if I've mentioned them or not - we were just walking by when we needed a garbage can to throw away a banana peel. They were sitting on their porch ("Pennsylvania! We're a porch kind of people!") and we asked if we could use the can. They said sure. Then, they asked that question which always leads to something good: "Why are you guys dressed up so nice?"
From that fateful moment, we've been talking to them about the gospel, and a remarkable thing has happened. I've seen it before, but it always amazes me. As we visit with them, a light ignites in their eyes. They find purpose, they find reason for everything. That's happened with them.
Something really cool happened yesterday. This family is actually four non-married friends all living together, split into two couples. Because they speak Spanish, we invited them to our Spanish Book of Mormon class, which the two girls came to. It was great! They learned a lot and got to meet a lot of the stellar members of the church. As we were talking after the class, they were telling us about their difficulties in managing their finances, and especially their boyfriends. To that, we said "Well, at our church we sometimes hold a marriage relations class." I don't think I could even describe how much their faces lit up. It was almost funny how excited that made them. I think and hope that will be a turning point for them to realize just how much the church and the gospel can help them with everything in their lives.
We've also started teaching an 8 year old girl. She's living with members right now because her parents are both in prison for an undetermined time. You wouldn't be able to tell if you saw her though. In fact, when we went over to teach them, I brought a missionary from another area with me - he didn't even know that the girl we were teaching wasn't part of the member family that she was living with. As we taught her, she actually taught us - a lot of things. She radiated with goodness, she was very innocent with the answers to our questions and said some funny things without realizing it, but was totally open when we gave her the correct answers. She said the prayer at the end, and it was full to the brim with faith and hope.
Missionaries sometimes give other missionaries a hard time when they teach 8 and 9 year olds. I don't agree with that. A person's a person, no matter how small, and like the Master said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the Kingdom of God." This little one has such a strong desire to learn the truth and follow the Savior, and that, to me, is an incredible example.
Our lives are about to be flipped upside-down. We had interviews with the mission president this week, and he informed me that sisters were going to be moving into the area - that our area would be split and the sisters would be working in the York area. It's going to be tough - York is our most productive area right now. But, there is a purpose in everything. It will all work out great.
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment