We also had baptismal interviews to do on Friday and Saturday, in another city. We were counting coins to pay for the buses. While we weren´t able to follow-up that well with our investigators, we managed to have eight people in church this week, including the woman who hated church last week. This week she loved it--because we invited her to see what the other ward was like. She went this past week from smoking a pack of cigarettes per day (about twenty) to a full stop on Saturday. She has a lot more willpower than I gave her credit. This could go in our favor or not, because if she lets God answer her, then nothing on earth will stop her from being baptized, but if she decides to be stubborn...anyway. She has her baptism marked for this Sunday, with her three children. Her kids loved church, and brought a friend as well. On Saturday night when we were in another city she (the mom) called us and said that no one could go to church the next day because the neighborhood had its water cut for maintenance. I talked her into at least her going and to plan to bring the kids. At midnight, the water came back on and Sunday morning everyone was ready and waiting when we came by to pick them up. She has such a better vision then almost all of the members in the ward. She sees the sacrifice that we make and how important our work is and said that members should be lining up to give our investigators a ride to church, instead of us having to hunt a ride with a member who´ll complain the whole time. We talked with the ward council about this (which was really hard, because the member who is the biggest problem is part of the bishopric, so we treaded topics carefully), and I really think the bishop is starting to like us and see that we aren´t just the same annoying elders that fight the ward and do things without permission. When we told him that our investigators weren´t feeling welcome at church, he out of his way after church to introduce himself to them and treated them very nicely.
Later that night we had our very rescheduled movie night with the ward. Since we´ve watched Meet the Mormons like four times this transfer with our investigators individually, we watched a different "church" movie. And when I say church, I mean made by church members, not the church. It´s a movie called "Charly", and when I saw the main menu I thought it would be really dumb like Home Teachers or Church Ball or Baptists at the Barbecue (I saw most of Home Teachers at a bishop´s house while they were finishing making lunch a couple transfers back) and in the beginning, it was. The acting wasn´t very good, it was a little dated and just weird. Then it actually got good, when the caricatures became characters. I liked it because it was the first movie that I´ve seen that treats religion, true religion, and a conversion story (albeit mixed with a romance). My companion got pretty trunky (meaning he missed home) because of several reasons.
1: He goes home in six weeks
2: The couple in the movie visit a restaurant called "The Roof", that overlooks the Salt Lake Temple, and it is also where his mom works.
3: The couple also visits the same supermarket chain where he worked (not the same building, just the same chain)
4: Also the movie is a freaking romance and the get married and there is a scene in front of the temple and everything!
So even though I totally was close to crying in the movie (I have no shame in admitting that. I like films and crying is a reaction desired by the creators), I thought it was good. So did some investigators who we found that day at lunch at a member´s house. They´re dating and they watched a movie about eternal marriage.
Short side note, Jameson is like driving me crazy with his awesome vacation pictures! His cool hat and beard, horseback riding, hot air balloon, baby birds in the window, like freak man, trying to kill me? And I am a cat´s UNCLE now?! (ps that is the terrifying title he put for his email. from the main screen you can see the subject and a little of the body and all I saw was "You´re and uncle!" and "It´s a boy" and I had a heart attack and then opened to find a cat. It´s a cool cat.)
As for transfers, we´ll both stay here in Salto. Elder Jillard took it pretty hard. He had been wanting to leave the slow life of Salto for the capital for his last transfer, especially because he hasn´t reached the goal he set. I´ve been trying to help him stay and not ask for an emergency transfer.
I´m super glad to see that Parker made it safe and sound to the MTC. He looks like he´s doing well, a lot better than I was. I like the pictures you guys took as he hugged everyone. I hope everyone´s taking to the adjustments easily. Love you guys
Elder Blaylock
No comments:
Post a Comment