This has been a really eventful week.. Oh boy. Where to start...
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| Sister Missionaries singing the Ohio Cleveland Mission Song |
We met this really nice guy, J., and his friend, L., tracting last week. They're both born again Christians and J. told us he spent a week in Utah knocking on doors telling people about what he believes.. Kind of ironic. They were both super nice but definitely questioning what we were saying and kept asking us what we think different scriptures in the Bible means. J. went to school and graduated in something like Biblical Studies so he was quoting scriptures left and right.. I know absolutely nothing so I just stood there. Sister L. is amazing though and she could keep up. But we just bore testimony the whole time and we were late for our dinner appt so we had to go. Fast forward to the next day. We're in a completely different neighborhood tracting and nobody was really talking to us but we could see this man walking towards us from afar. So we started walking towards him to talk to him and guess who it is.. J. So he said he lived on that street (crazy, huh?) and he was just driving home from church and he had picked up a pamphlet he thought he got for L. but when he saw us he realized he actually got it for us.. It was the testimony of some man who used to be Mormon and is now born again or something and it was super anti but we were polite and took it. We gave him a Book of Mormon, a Restoration, and Plan of Salvation pamphlet in return. He got our number and said he wanted to meet up sometime to talk about the Bible. So we met him and L. at a coffee shop to talk about the Bible. He had a print out of all the scriptures we were going to look up all about the Godhead to pretty much prove us wrong. We didn't let them though. I don't know how to Bible bash which is probably a really good thing so we just bore our testimonies and said that's awesome that you have such a strong faith but we do too and it kind of ended like that. They're so nice though.
So another interesting story.. We got a referral from Headquarters and she was busy so we tracted her street and met A. He let us right in and said he was going to definitely read from the Book of Mormon and that he was looking for religion and he just seemed super solid. A few days later we got like a 7 page text from him about how he can't join a church that blah blah blah.. I don't know. Pretty much he was looking up anti stuff online so we asked if we could come over the next day and just talk to him about everything. He said yes. So we went over and he was waiting for us outside and when we walked in there was Pastor D. and his copastor wife sitting on the couch. Awesome. So that was a really interesting conversation of Pastor D. and his wife trying to teach us what the Bible says. It was nothing we hadn't heard before but they were telling us how we were wrong and whatever. It was dumb. I'm so tired of people telling me I'm wrong. I'm sorry, but nobody can tell me that. Especially after meeting all of these anti's... My testimony is stronger than it's ever been in my life. So I'm definitely grateful for meeting them.. I just hope that's over.
On a brighter note. We had been doing this ward 40 day fast and it just ended last week and it has been amazing. The members have been seeing so many missionary opportunities in their lives and they've been sharing the gospel with their friends and we have TRIPLED our teach pool since we started. We are teaching 3 times as many people and our investigators are progressing. It has been so awesome. Fasting was whatever before this but now I love it. It seriously works!
Sites has been amazing too. We took this family from France on tour. The dad knew a lot of English. The mom not so much and the 2 older boys a little and the youngest boy not at all. It was one of the coolest tours I've taken. The dad had to translate everything into French (which is totally amazing on it's own) but even though we couldn't understand what he was saying you could hear his testimony in his voice and the spirit was so powerful. In the school of the prophets we read some testimonies by some of the men that met in there and he was translating it as I was reading it. After I asked them what they were thinking as they were listening to it. And the dad bore his testimony and told us he was trying to fight back the emotions but that he shouldn't and he started tearing up. It was so cool. And even though his sons probably didn't understand anything he was saying I knew they could feel the spirit and they knew their dad knew these things were true. After the tour they said this was their favorite part of their trip so far and they wanted us to be their guides for all of the church sites :] I WISH! That family was so awesome.
So, every Monday we go to the E's for ice cream, right? Well, they had guests this Monday so no ice cream. We weren't okay with that so us and Sister H and Sister N decided to sneak into their house and just take it. They keep the ice cream in the laundry room which has a door that goes outside but it was locked. So Sister H snuck in through the front door and unlocked it for us while everybody was hanging out inside. One of the training sisters caught us but she said she wouldn't tell. So we took it. The next day we told Elder and Sister E and they were laughing SO HARD. They had no idea we snuck into their house and they thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
Yesterday was Pioneer Day. Yeah, people only usually celebrate that in Utah.. Thank goodness most of the missionaries are from Utah ;] We had a picnic at the Morley Farm and it was so much fun. Of course, we didn't get the memo it was Pday clothes so I was in my skirt and Sister L threw on some bball shorts. After dinner we played a little game of flag football. I'm so horrible at football. But it was the best game ever. Sister L was our quarterback and people know how bad I am at football so nobody was guarding me and she passed it to me and I scored a touchdown! Yayyyyyyyy :] President was very impressed. Then we had to go back for the program. On a more spiritual note. I can't even explain how cool it was to celebrate the early saints on Pioneer Day in Kirtland. I'm sure they were all there having a little party with us :]
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| Sister Maynard and team after the touchdown |
Love youuuu!
Sister Maynard.
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