Hey familia! I love ya. Tons! =]
This has been a fantastic week. So many good things have happened. First of all, I saved $70 on 3 ties I bought last P-day from J.C. Penney's. I spent 18 bucks total and they were some sweet ties! That was a great way to start off the week ha ha. Tuesday came and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Brown. That was so much fun! It was super cool to be with my trainer again; I learn so much from him all the time. He is one of the best missionaries I know. I can't believe he goes home in 6 weeks.... aaah! Oh, and good news! Nobody in our apartment got transferred (calls were this past weekend), so we will all be staying together at least one more!
Tuesday night we were at an appointment with a guy named M. We were sitting on his front porch, which is like a screened-in place with chairs, talking to him about the gospel. He is 86, and was one of 2 people to survive out of the 29th platoon on Omaha Beach. Well, as we were teaching him his wife basically went nuts. It was one of the weirdest things I have seen. She was seriously possessed or something... she came out of the house yelling like crazy at us! She opened the door just a crack and started yelling at us, and as she did so her dog (a big blue tick hound) started going crazy too. Well, she couldn't hold the door back and the dog came running out trying to kill us. Elder Brown had already made it out the door by that time and I was on my way, but didn't quite make it. The wife was screaming to her husband, "GRAB HIM! GRAB HIM!" And I was just standing there thinking that I was toast. Well, I just stood there really calm with a prayer in my heart that the dog wouldn't eat me (although if he did I would've went all Nephite on him), and he just jumped on me a couple times barking like crazy, walked around, and I just walked out. Then M finally grabbed him as we were out the screen. The lady had this wild look in her eyes and screamed at us, "DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK! If you do I will call the police! Get out!" How rude. That's alright though, we just smiled and told M goodbye and left. Some people have anger issues, and really it just makes me feel bad for them more than anything. I think that is one thing the Lord has blessed me with - to be able to not get offended when people are mean, but rather just love them and feel sad for them instead.
Wednesday was super cool... it was one of those days where you just have NO doubt that the Lord is completely in control and guiding things. Wednesday Morning we had an appointment with an investigator in an area. He gave us his street, but couldn't remember his house number. We called and called him but he never answered, and so we decided to just go to his street and see if we couldn't find him. Well, we looked for him, and couldn't find him. We decided to tract a few houses until our next appointment, and so when we went and talked to this lady outside (the first person we saw) she was on the phone. It turns out that she was on her phone with her mom, who is LDS, and she has family in our ward. Cool! Well, we asked if we could come back sometime and share a message about Jesus Christ with her family and she said she'd talk to her husband and see. We followed up yesterday, and they weren't interested, but the seed has been planted! Now the Spirit will keep working with them and soon they'll be ready.
We turned around to go back to our car to go to visit our next appointment, M... (that is his name - you'd be surprised at how many people I've met named M...). Keep in mind that we are on this random street in Daytona Beach... well guess who we see riding their bike up the street? L! One of our investigators we've been trying to get a hold of. We talk to him, get a church tour set up (which went great by the way), and keep going. Same street, we keep going and see a member "just happen" to pull in her driveway as we drive past. We had tried visiting in the past (she is less-active), but she wasn't home. Long story short she wants to come back to church and has 2 kids that aren't baptized yet! A and J, 16 and 12. We are teaching them tomorrow.
That day kept going, we met another way cool person in the park, and that night found another part-member family with the husband who wants to be baptized. And then this morning we set a date with Grandpa's good friend B! Bis so cool. Him and Grandpa are the funniest people to watch together ever! We are going back to teach him Thursday.
We had 2 investigators at church yesterday! B and J. It was so sweet. I was asked to speak at like 9:50 saturday night. It was just a short little talk though, no biggie. Wow, I'm out of time... yet there is still so much more that happened this week! Ahh lol. You'll just have to read my journal when I get home.
Other highlights: It was Grandpa's birthday, we had some awesome teaching appointments, we had some sweet dinners, I got some nice letters and cards, and basically the Lord just blessed us immensely! That's one thing I am learning more and more - that it's not about me at all. I do my very best and work as hard as I can, but then have to realize that it's really all up to the Lord on how things work out.
I love you all!
-Elder Andrew Beckett
Hooray for Andy's successful day! I love to hear how enthusiastic he is about his work but I'm completely blown away at his great attitude towards the angry people who are soooo unhappy. I loved how he put it about not getting offended by them but how Heavenly Father helps him feel sad for them instead. I'm going to remember that!
ReplyDeleteThat street sounds as if it was just waiting for these two missionaries to stract it. What amazing experiences. I wonder if the man they were looking for will get found?
ReplyDeleteToo bad about M's wife. If he's in his 80's, she probably doesn't have much time left in this probationary state. I hope she softens before it's too late.