Dear Family and Friends, Monday,
September 29, 2014 at 10:46 a.m. (EDT)
Zone Leader 1: Carlton
Jensen
Zone Leader 2 is Elder Vaughn from Bountiful
UT. has been out since I came out. We were in the same group.
Brand New Missionary is Elder Hannig from Pleasant Grove UT.
has been out since September 10, 2014
Where is Elder Holley
serving as a Zone Leader? He
is in Saco Maine.
So how common is
it for Zone Leaders to train a brand new missionary? It is completely uncommon. This is the first
time that I have seen it. It is sure different. I like it because it takes away
a lot of the stress of training someone. But it is still really stressful. I
hope I can get along with them both better in the coming weeks.
Selfie with highschool
girls. The other day we were
walking in the park. We talk with everyone. There was a group of 3 high school
girls laying on the grass, so we went and talked with them. We found out that
they were taking "selfies" to put onto facebook. Somehow we got
wrangled in to taking a picture with them. We invited them to watch the video "Because of Me". They ended
up being a little interested so we set a return appointment. One of the most
awkward experiences on my mission. We went by on Sunday. Two of the girls
werent there, but the one that was most interested was. Her dad came out. He
asked us if we were Mormons. We said we were and he told us, "Great! I
have always wanted to learn about the Mormon church! I would like to listen to
your message with my daughter." It was pretty cool. Missionary work can be
so awkward at times but it works out.
Pizza Party. We had a good week with talking to everyone
this week, so we had a pizza party. We bought 2 Little Ceasars pizzas, some
Rootbeer, Mtn Dew, and Moxie. It was great.
Muslim guy chewed out his
wife
Theres a lot of refugees in
Manchester. A lot of them are Muslim. We were talking to this lady on the porch
the other day. She didnt speak any English so she got her son. They told us
they were not interested, that they were Muslim. We said okay, so we asked if
they knew anyone that we could do community service for. In the middle of us
asking her husband came out. He started yelling at his wife in whatever their
language is. He was chewing her out for talking to us. I stopped him right in
the middle and told him. "She hasnt done anything wrong. She didnt listen
to our message. She told us she was not interested, so dont get mad at her for
something she didnt do." He looked like he felt pretty foolish. Another
guy saw this whole deal going down and came over and told us. "I have my
own religion but I dont force it on others." implying that we were forcing
our religion on others. I told him that we were not forcing it on others but
just inviting others to learn." He walked up the stairs and said a bunch
of really unpleasant things to us. Missionary work can be a blast! haha
Miracles are real.
The other day we ran into an atheist. Our conversation revolved around whether or not God existed. He told
me that he wanted proof. I told him that God gives us evidences of his
existence. The kid said, "Like what, miracles?" The funny thing is
that no atheist has seen a miracle. I responded that no atheist believes any
miracle he sees. He asked me if I had seen any miracles. I told him I had. He
asked if I believed miracles happened like people said Christ performed, like
raising people from the dead, in our day. I told him that I did.
Pot Smoking Kids
So a couple of weeks ago we ran
into some high schoolers at the park. They were all higher than a kite. As a
rule of thumb I never talk to people that are drunk because they are
unpredictable and they never remember everything, but people smoking marijuana
are game because they do remember, you just have to be a little slower with how
you present your message. I usually ask them a lot about what they believe God
to be. My companion did not want to talk to these kids. He informed them that
they needed to read the Book of Mormon and that that was the only way to know
God. I saw some potential in one of them. She seemed to have questions herself
about if there is a God. We talked with them for a while as we listened to what
they believed. We then asked if they would like to hear our message. None of
them gave us their address, but the girl told us that if she ever saw us she
would talk to us again. Well we saw her again the other day. She saw us from across the street and yelled at us. She came over and
we got a return appointment. She is staying with some friends. When we showed
up her friends had no idea who we were. She came running out of the next room
and shouted "My Mormon friends!" (She was a little high again.)
We eat delicious goat.
We got fed by Thak the other
day. He fed us some Nepal food. It was dumplings and goat. It was so good. They
like their food really spicy. The goat was covered in a very spicy sauce. It
was so good!
Elder Jensen