Another week come and gone, and we are officially down a ward! We are now in just one English ward. It was a little sad for us, but our remaining ward is really happy to be able to have a set of missionaries dedicated to just the one ward. As another bonus, Sundays are a little less crazy with half the meetings.
Transfer week is always one that is a little crazy! We got up really early to take home the departing missionaries, and picked up the new missionaries, which I really enjoyed. We loaded them all in the van and had a trailer full of all the suitcases that we towed along behind us, and I managed not to get us into an accident. I think my proudest moment of the transfer was when we had to unhook the trailer and then back the mission van into its stall which requires a little bit of an s-turn. After backing it in, Elder Stewart told me that the elderly vehicle coordinators muttered a somewhat reluctantly surprised, "That was actually a pretty good backing job!" I'll rack that up in my list of successes.
We also did a lot more talking to people on the streets. Interestingly, I think most of the time when you imagine rejection as a missionary it is a pretty intense and angry thing, but generally we have pretty positive experiences even with people that say no. It is often just us asking if we can give them a card or share a message, and they say something like, "Sorry, not right now, but thank you! Take care!" and we wish each other a good day. Then there are the other people that won't even look at you or acknowledge they heard you, but it's not so bad.
In the later part of the week, things were kind of tough just because we lost a lot of people we were teaching to the other ward, so it was a little discouraging. But if I've learned anything on a mission, it is that the sunshine is usually just around the corner when things are tough. So on fast Sunday we were praying and fasting that things would turn around and sitting there in church. The lady we met not too long ago moving furniture had said she would come when we had some members of the ward reach out and invite her, but she wasn't answering our calls or texts all of Saturday night or Sunday morning. We were a little worried that maybe we scared her away or something. We were sitting at the back while the meeting started, when suddenly in walked a few people. My companion elbowed me and pointed to one, and at first I didn't recognize her, but it was the woman we were teaching with her hair dyed bright purple! We started to our feet and helped her find a seat with a member we had introduced her to. We saw them whispering things now and then during the meeting and she seemed to really be enjoying it. Afterwards we said hi again, and she just loved coming to church again. The members have done a great job making her feel welcome and introducing themselves to her. We were chatting with her and the relief society president came and said hi, and then the bishop came over, who we had introduced her to last week, and she said, "I know you! You're bishop!" and gave him a solid handshake. It was funny because she is an older woman that's just full of personality and the comment seemed like something a member would say. Then she was asking us to make sure she had all her names and dates right between Joseph Smith and Moroni and Lehi's family and who lived when. It was just a great experience.
Then, we got a text from another man we are teaching who had watched the broadcast! We hadn't been able to contact him the day before either, so it was a really pleasant surprise. He talked about one of the testimonies that really touched him. Being on a mission has made me much more aware of how nonmembers feel when visiting. We always really appreciate when members talk and have a simple message focused on Jesus Christ and his teachings. Sometimes us members can throw in a lot of foreign vocabulary (even little things like "relief society," "stake," "mutual," etc.) or kind of give "Thank-imonies" where we just talk about people in the ward. And there is nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but it is very relieving when someone just bares a simple, straight-forward testimony.
Another fun thing on Sunday is that there is a family whose son always draws us a picture of a dinosaur during church and gives it to us.
Then, to top it all off, there is a family where only the mom is a member, and they have not come to church in a long time, but the relief society president invited them. The daughter who has not been baptized yet told her mom she really wanted to go, and they came! We met them, and they are a great family.
So anyway. Things were looking kind of down, and then at church, things just turned around really quick. It doesn't take much for things to get better, so keep hanging in there! God loves us and loves when we do our best, even (and maybe especially) when it is hard. I love the line from the poem "Invictus" that says (if I remember correctly), "My head is bloodied, but unbowed." Grit is a Christ-like attribute that is worth noting, I think.
'Til we meet,
Elder Harris
No comments:
Post a Comment