random things we do on companion exchanges with random things from our storage closet
i broke the tire...
a funny decoration we saw
bundled up in winter coats in May
Last Tuesday I killed our tire. Oops. I was turning into the car wash and it was a sharp turn. I tried to avoid the curb on my side, and I overcompensated and hit the curb on the passenger side. It cut into the tire just enough to make it dangerous, so we had to get a new tire. Thank you all you faithful tithe payers. :)
We met Barry Coughlin on Wednesday while tracting. He's Catholic and his wife is Christian, and they're not going to a church right now because they want to find one where they can go together, and one that's family oriented. INSERT THE TRUE CHURCH HERE. We talked with him a little about prophets and about our church. We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and he said that we could come back the next day and talk with him and his wife. He's a really nice guy, and he seemed receptive to the truth. We went back Thursday at the scheduled time, and no one was home. We tracted their street and soon they got home. We went to talk with them as they were getting things out of the car. Barry was in the house, so we introduced ourselves to his wife Ayrin (pronounced "Erin"). We talked with her for a few minutes, but unfortunately, she wasn't as receptive as Barry seemed to be and said she didn't want us to come back. :( :( :( I was pretty bummed. Barry has our number, and the church website, so hopefully he'll use one of those resources and learn more about our church.
This week we discussed Lehi and Nephi's vision/understanding of the Tree of Life with Paul. We talked about obedience, following the prophet, prayer, and scripture study. Paul is so awesome! He had some good questions and he told us that he was finally learning how to really read/study the scriptures and apply them to his life and get a lot out of them. On Wednesday he told us he was glad that neither of us got transferred and he said when we do get transferred, he'll be sad, and the one thing he would say to us is "thanks for knocking on my door". He then bore his testimony about how he knew he wanted to be part of Christ's church and how it's changed his life. Wow. The Spirit was amazing. He's going to be a great Priesthood leader some day soon. Friday we had the lesson at the Norton's home. Their 14 year old daughter Coli participated and shared her testimony too. It was pretty awesome.
Wednesday we met Brittney, a lady the elders tracted into about a month ago when they were accidentally in our area. We set up an appointment for Friday. When we went, she was busy, but her mom answered the door. She was very nice and friendly and asked us who we were and what we were doing. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and said we could send elders to her house if she was interested. She told Brittney to set up another time we could come back and talk with her (Brittney) and said she would call and remind her about it. Then she gave us a referral! She told us about her brother, and asked if we would go see him and his wife. It turns out that they live 2 houses down from the Wilson family in our ward. We asked Sister Wilson if she knew them and she told us that the elders had been in contact with them about 3 years ago and taught them a little about eternal families - which they really liked - but that they were both very busy, so the elders couldn't ever sit down and teach the message of the restored gospel with them. So she told us when they were usually home. Hopefully we'll be able to catch them and begin teaching them.
Friday we met the Booles family tracting. Mr. Booles answered the door in boxers and a t-shirt and apologized and said he'd go get dressed. (The funny thing is that he was the most dressed person out of the last 3 people we'd talked to, and he was the only one who cared.) He invited us in, and his wife and 15 year old son joined us too. They are from Egypt and attend an Egyptian Orthodox church in Indianapolis. We talked with them for a bit getting to know them and then shared a brief summary of the Restoration, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. Mr. Booles then suggested they would come to visit our church this Sunday. Wow! What a surprise. Mrs. Booles loves to read, and really loves history. INSERT BOOK OF MORMON HERE. :) She told us that she loves to read in her native language, which is Arabic. We just so happened to have an Arabic BOM in the car! (That's not usual.) She was so happy to hear that so we went and got it for her. They are very nice people and said we were welcome in their home anytime. Unfortunately they did not make it to church on Sunday. I hope it's because they got lost or something, rather than a decision not to come. We're going to stop by tonight to see if Karim is interested in going to Young Mens tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to get them on track to attend next week. Mr. Booles works from 6pm to 6am usually as a correction officer, and he works every other weekend, so it might be hard to get him to church. Hopefully the Lord sees fit to bless him with desire at this time so that we can teach them all.
Saturday we met with Farduce at the church. She's originally from Syria. She was at a friend's house a while back when the elders showed up, and the elders gave us her name and address. She's such a sweet lady. Her best friend growing up was a Christian, so she went to Christian church a lot with her, and she even went to Christian schools part of the time. But she is Muslim. We gave her a tour of the church and began teaching her a little bit about prophets, the Restoration, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. She speaks English, but there is still a language barrier. It was hard to teach her. However, she did feel the Spirit, and that was neat to see the Spirit transcend the language barrier. When we talked about the BOM, we gave her a copy in Arabic, and she was so happy to receive it in her own language. (It's very uncommon to have 2 Arabic BOMs floating around and also very uncommon to give them both away!) She wants to learn. She sees a lot of similarities in our religion. We will definitely need the Spirit with us as we teach her because of the language barrier. I'm not sure how much she understood of what we taught, but at least she felt the Spirit, and she has a BOM to read from.
Yesterday we had an experience that started out sweet, but turned out sad. We were tracting and we saw a lady in her driveway talking with a neighbor. As we approached, her husband came out, and he introduced himself to us (Doug), and asked what we were doing and what we were teaching. As we talked with him (I don't even remember what about now), we asked if he'd be interested in us talking more with him. He said he was, and he even had time right then. We went out to his back porch and he asked what he could learn from us today. We talked with him a little first to get to know him. He told us he "wouldn't walk across the street for religion", but he loves Jesus, and he loves walking with Him and learning how to do so better, and he loves to seek truth. We shared the message of the Restoration with him, the calling of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and the Book of Mormon. I felt the Spirit as we talked, and he seemed pretty golden. However, he rejected a BOM, a Restoration pamphlet, or even a card to call for a free copy of the BOM. :( He explained that he had the Spirit of God in him (just like in Acts 2) and so that gave him all the authority he needed, and so he couldn't accept Joseph Smith. We tried to explain about church organization and order and God's pattern of dealing with His children. I testified that I've come to know of the truth of Joseph Smith being a prophet, the BOM being true, and the Bible being true as I've read from the BOM and encouraged him to read to find that truth. He told us about 10 years ago someone gave him a copy and he started reading it, but then he felt "the Spirit" tell him to not read it. :( What do you say to that? It's very rude to tell people "well, you obviously weren't reading with real intent". He seems like such a good guy, an honest seeker of truth. Yet, he is kept from the truth. I kept thinking of the verse that says people are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. Sister Summers and I marvelled that he wouldn't accept the BOM or the pamphlet from us and wondered what it was exactly that he felt when he read from the BOM before. Maybe he did feel the truth of it and it scared him because he would have to act. I don't know. He told us we were always welcome to come back and talk with him and he hoped that we would. He told us he saw us coming and he prayed that we would stop and talk with him. Before we left, he suggested offering a prayer, and he offered a wonderful prayer. If I didn't know any better, just from the prayer alone I would've thought he was a Mormon. He seems so close to finding and recognizing the truth, yet something is hindering him, and so he is so far from finding it. Maybe he just needs some time. I don't know. They say people need about 7 interactions with the Church before they'll accept the gospel. He's had at least 2 now. Maybe we'll drop by again and see if we can help him feel the Spirit again and have a desire to accept the truth.
Well, I believe that's all for this week.
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