Monday, September 12, 2016

Hey whats up! I am now in White River training Elder Allred who is pretty cool! He's from Gilbert Arizona he is 18 he is as old as my brother! The new area is slightly familiar because Tafuna brought me here when he was training me so I knew a few members already! Its not really a place where its at all safe to bike so we walk!

Our First day we were walking around and checking out our area and walked up to an abandoned swimming pool with a pub building attached to it. It is all fenced off so we walked up to the fence to get a closer look. well there were two black dudes sitting on the steps and had a Rifle with a scope leaning on the wall haha. They looked at us and were like "what you guys doing?" and I told him we came to check out the abandoned pool! How are you guys doing? they said "We good" and I said alright well have a nice day! and we walked off and my comp as we were walking looked at me and asked "Do we mention the sniper rifle?" I just told him to keep walking and ignore it.

But other than that we have had a lot of success! We work hard and wake up on time! We study when we can and its been great! We had a couple experiences to share so ill start with the first Neighborhood we went to. We knocked on a door and waited for a minute or two and heard the garage door open. I told him this happens alot where they leave right when we knock. So we walked around the corner and saw she wasnt in her car. So we asked if we could give her a card, and she for sure wasnt interested in talking to us. She was upset that we were there but she said sure to taking the card. So we gave here the card and she said ok thanks, and just kinda sat there for a second because I was seeing if my comp would say anything. He didnt so I started the conversation off nice and friendly and immediately she opened up. I forgot to mention when we gave her the card she said she had 2 sick kids. so before she turned around I offered some help if she needed any, and thats when she opened up. We spoke with her for a long while and she was very friendly and waited patiently and a little awkwardly as I waited for my companion to speak haha. But we gave here a Bom and a Restoration pamphlet. Well after her we spoke with another friendly fellow and continued on.
Well we headed to a different street and a mail man drove up to a mail box. I asked him if I could give him personally some mail and he said sure! (this is often what we do if we see mailmen) well when he saw Jesus on the front he took it the wrong way. He said "THATS NOT MAIL" and repeated it several times, so I asked You dont want it? and he looked at me nope thats not mail. he (Looked closely at the name tag) and mumbled "Mormons. LYIN MORMONS! YOUR A LYING MORMON!!! Im a pasture of a church you both need to go and repent you lying Mormons! SHAME ON YOU!" I told him im not lying sorry for offering you a pamphlet. and he replied "You said it was mail! YOUR A LYING MORMON!!" and got all heated, which put me in a bad mood so I replied to him "AND YOUR A MEAN PASTOR HUH!!!!" and walked off. and that made everything even more heated but he said "Both you need to repent Ill pray for you God bless you" I said in return GOD BLESS YOU TOO and he said "YOUR LYING CAUSE YOUR LYING MORMONS" So I just said yup and walked off and ignored him. Well after that we came to a ladies door and my comp knocked and we sat there for a while so I knocked, hitting the loos screen door which then banged against her door right when she opened it. She just sat there staring all angry like with wide eyes. and sat in silence so I said " sorry if that was loud" and she just went off! "IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMEONE WAS GETTING MURDERED OUT HERE! YOU SHOULD BE SORRY HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT JESUS KNOCKING LIKE THAT AND BEING SO DISRESPECTFUL" and after just getting done with the mailman I wasnt happy. all i could say was sorry and she continued to poop herself. So i just interrupted her and said have a good day as she continued to spit venom at us. As we were on our way to more doors I saw the mailman and I waved him over to us. He pulled up and I reached out my hand and apologized for being so harsh to him. He reached out and shook my hand and said "Ok" I told him to have a great day and again apologized and he said God bless both of you a lot more gentle this time. After that we headed home and had the thought to bake some cookies and write an apology to her and give her a book of mormon and a card offering any help if she needed it. As we arrived at her house I had the cookies in our plate in my hand and began walking, little did I know the paper towel the cookies were in slid so easily on the plate, and I spilled 3 of them) OOPS! So we put those to the side and rang her doorbell this time. She didnt answer so we left the note and cookies on her doorstep and went on our way.

Later this week we were knocking in some apartment complexes close to our place and didnt have any luck. So we moved on and I asked my companion which complex he felt we should go! I felt that we should go to the left but I didnt communicate that with him. He said lets go left, so we were there for a while and began knocking with no success and I saw a cool looking pond and wanted to check it out. We arrived at the pond and a voice from behind us asked "What are you guys selling?" We turned around and answered back "We arent selling anything but we are here to talk about Jesus" and we broke out in conversation. Well we began with talking about our missions and what we do and why we do it and she offered some food and said she is a life insurance salesmen. She told us where we should knock doors and where not to knock doors. We offered here some pamphlets and I gave her a choice and she asked if she could have all of them! She wanted to know about many religions and wanted to learn more about ours and to see what the Book of Mormon is all about! Then she told us to go try her neighbors she said "they are old and love Jesus so go talk to em" Then looked at my companion and said "You are being trained arent you? I know cause I train many people in my work" WEll When we went to talk to the Older couple my companion felt like knocking on the other door instead of the one that was recommended, and a man named Wondm answered and was excited to see us. We began speaking about Jesus Christ and his original church and had a great conversation. He then Invited us in and we watched part of Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration up to when Joseph had his experience. We left hiim with a challenge and offered to help him move all of his things inside. Well a few days later he called and was wondering if he could come to our house on his bike or if we could meet somewhere to teach him more and help him with his moving! It was very great to have an experience like the one we had that day! Thats about all I can think of to tell you about!
LOVE YOU GUYS

Thursday, September 1, 2016