For those of you who are wondering, I am thinking a week ahead. I will know if I am getting transferred next Monday, not this one. But hopefully I know before I email!! If not, well, you'll find out where I am the following Monday.
This week has been a good one! Nothing really exciting happened
on Monday, we had dinner with the Kauffmens at the local Hospital since that's where Bro. Kauffmen works.
On Wednesday we went to Ji's house (J is a Less-active member who we saw on the street and started talking to. When he saw us he said "Oh, hey Elders!", which is usually a tell tale sign that they know who you are, since no one else even wants to call us Elder.) and taught the Restoration with him and his girl friend, who is not a member of the Church. It went super well! They were going to come to church, but J was having some health issues a few days before, so they couldn't make it. We taught L the Word of Wisdom and it was pretty good. He brought up the concern that "Jesus drank wine, so why can't we" which really, the answer is that God has revealed through a Prophet today a health code, just like the one in the Law of Moses, or when that was changed when Peter saw in a vision that they can now eat the animals considered "unclean". Times change things. The logical answer would have been that back then they didn't have water purification systems, so they would drink juice, but they didn't have a way of keeping the juice from fermenting, so it turned to wine after a short time. But, their wine back than didn't have as much junk as the alcohol today, I'm sure (that is mostly a guess, but lets be honest. There is no such thing as "all-natural food" anymore.). Plus, in the revelation that the Word of Wisdom came from, it said that it was to protect us from "conspiring men", and we see examples of that today, when people get drunk and end up spilling the beans or doing something they would regret, or even being killed since they can't defend themselves. All of Gods commandments come with blessings, ones that bless us temperally, but most importantly, they bless us spiritually. Gods commandments liberate us, not restrict us. when you follow the commandments, your agency expands, not decreases. I've probably already preached about that a boat load, so I'll shut my mouth now.
Thursday we went down to Oakes again and taught R. As we came in, we talked to him about his background, particularly religious so that we can know where he stands and what his needs are. As we did so, we ran into something that I have seen quite a bit lately. He had grown up in a family who's parents both claimed religion, but didn't participate or even act like they did. He would ask questions but they would never be answered, and if they were, he didn't understand the answer and they didn't try to help him understand. Than, when he was married he started going to church with his wife, and the whole time he never learned anything because no one ever explained it to him in a way that he could understand. So, long story short, despite all of his questions, he never got answers that helped him understand, just answers that confused him more. So now, after living for 78 years, we have come to his home to teach him. And we get to start from ground zero. The very bottom. And that is who God is, and who we are in relation to God. As we talked, he would say things along the lines of "well, finally it makes sense, even if I don't quite believe it yet." So, we asked to exercise just a particle of faith, even if it is just a desire to believe, as Alma teaches us in Chapter 32, and to pray to his Father in Heaven, for that is exactly what He is, and to begin a relationship with him. He told us he wants to, but it's been a long, bitter life and it's going to take some time to get up the desire to actually take that step. We asked him to say the closing prayer, and after some prodding and encouragement, he did say the prayer. It was a great experience to be there with him.
While in Oakes, we went to a nursing home to do some volunteering, and we were welcomed super warmly! Apparently they love us there! Of course, Elder Allen throws me under the buss by telling them I play piano, so they got excited again and said they were going to start wheeling everyone in so that can listen! Pretty stressful, considering I haven't really played the piano in quite some time.... And my music folder is pretty small. They did have some music that I could play, but sight reading after having sight read only Hymns for the past 7 months (which is totally different than sight reading anything else) and only very seldom at that, is a bit on the scary side. But, they seemed to enjoy it, so i was okay with it.
We went back to the Bible Study as well. I stopped in just as they were about to start and apologized for the things I said. One of the guys apologized back and said that they didn't realize they were talking about things that we obviously don't believe, but that they can only teach the things that they think are true, to which I responded that I had no right to get upset with them for doing the same thing that I am doing. Than we had to leave for an appointment, and that was it!
Friday we had District meeting and then I went to Aberdeen on exchanges with Elder Barber. It was a blast! Loved it! Elder Barber goes home in a week... Crazy! Saturday we exchanged back, came back to the apartment, had dinner, went to our lesson with Alan, then came home, planned for the day, and (hense the title of my letter) we noticed a ton of water in the kitchen! than, we realized it was all around our carpet (we have a tile floor in our apartment with a square of carpet that is about a foot away from all the walls, just in case we get flooded.), so when I went upstairs to tell the Adams, the carpet on the way to the stairs was soaked. got up there, told them, came down, discovered the washer was leaking and was flooding the basement! We had 2 inches in our bathroom, and now our chair's are on top of the couch, which is in the middle of the room with the carpet being blown of again. Never a dull moment in VC!!
And that concludes my week. Love you and miss you all loads!
Elder Carter V
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