Well, we have a pretty tall apartment. There are two other guys that are my same height, one that is two inches or so taller, and my companion is probably the shortest at about 5' 10". There aren't many places with so many tall people sharing the same bedroom.
My current area is really close to Nellis Air Force Base here in Las Vegas, so there are always a lot of jets and planes screaming through the air. We were in a meeting in the church building and the whole room started rumbling and shaking a little bit as a particularly loud jet flew overhead.
You can tell we all live in sunny Las Vegas based on our incredible watch, shirt, and neck tan-lines. They are looking mighty fine. A couple people in our apartment have even developed the legendary "bike helmet chin-strap tan-line." It was up around 108 this week. One day had a high of 108 and a chilly low of 95.
We were biking down the street a little later one evening, and a middle-aged man with a pink mohawk stopped us and said he wanted to talk to us. He said he'd like to talk to us more in the future and asked for our phone number. Then he said, "so, how often are you out on your bikes like this?" We said, "every day from about 11:00 am to 9:00 pm." His eyes got really big, and he said, "two white boys in shirts and ties on bikes in North Town!? All day? I got the chills when you said that! Be careful out there!" Got to love the safety rating of someone who has been arrested over 100 times. It makes me happy, though, being right in the heart of Las Vegas.
We did a video-call with a sweet older couple that comes to our English class to practice English. Afterwards, we were going to share a short scripture, so we held up the Book of Mormon and asked, "Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon before?" The husband reached out and picked up something next to the computer and held it up. "Is it this?" Sure enough, it was the Book of Mormon. The English missionaries that overlap our area (Which coincidentally are my trainee's trainee and his trainee. So in mission genealogy, that is my grandson and my great-grandson.) had given him a copy just the day before.
We had a couple really cool experiences lately with people recognizing the Holy Ghost. The last week I spent in my last area, we were visiting a family where the mom is the only member. After our lesson, she said, "maybe in your next visit we can talk about the Holy Ghost. After your last visit, Tabitha (her teenage daughter) said she felt the chills several times while you were here." I think there is nothing that could make me happier than being part of someone's first experiences with the Holy Ghost. It was really special.
Another time, we were sweating and pedaling along and came across a younger man sitting outside and smoking. We shouted hello and asked if we could pray with him. We did so, and he shared with us a little about the recent loss of one of his family members. We shared a scripture about the resurrection from the Book of Mormon and left it with him to read before we pedaled away. It seemed like a pretty ordinary interaction for us, but when we went back the second time, we got to know him a little more. We asked about what he hoped to get from our visits or why he let us come over. He said that the day he met us, he just felt really stressed. When we came over, though, he said, "I felt like someone put an ice-pack on my forehead. My mind was just clear and calm. I can't explain it." Sometimes we are around the Spirit so much that it's like a fish in water. We forget what it is like without it. It is always really cool when you interact with someone who hasn't felt that. It is a large contrast.
There is an awesome family we started teaching with the parents and 5 kids at home. After we had gone about three days without a visit planned, they texted and asked us if they could have us come over the next day. That almost never happens! They are so cool. In one of our visits, we talked about how the gospel blesses and strengthens families. I shared about how I learned a lot about the importance of the scriptures from Grandpa Harris who would call and read with me every day. Several days later, when we visited again, the dad told us thank you for inspiring his family and said that he had gone out and bought several copies of the Bible and his family started doing family scripture study. Is there anything happier than that?
I also found my first person door-knocking this week! We knocked on a door of a member, and it turned out the member had moved. There was a really nice mom there with her young son, though, who asked us about what church we went to. She said that she studied with several churches before, but she had never brought her kids to one and thought that now was the time to do it. We set up another visit to come back and teach her whole family.
One last cool experience was when a pleasant-looking fellow walked past us. We said hi, and he said hi, and kept walking. He had gone a couple steps farther, but I said, "Hey, quick question!" We started talking to him, and he told us that he had actually met with the missionaries before, but had stopped. He said, "but I want to read the Book of Mormon again and go to church!" And to think that he would have just kept walking. Fortune favors the bold.
'Til we meet,
Elder Harris
No comments:
Post a Comment