So it's been a crazy week. Like really quite weird. So on Wednesday, I arrived at my new area to meet my new companion. He's super funny. Just this short, stalky wrestler/hunter who loves joking around. I love him. But anyway, he just came from Kona, so we were both new in the area. Well, when we got there, we didn't have a phone, we didn't have a map, we were completely lost. It was pretty amusing actually! That night we went to bed and we didn't have a phone, so I thought to myself, "If anything happens, we won't have a phone to call for help, we don't have a car (oh yeah btw I'm in a walking area), and we have no idea where the nearest gas station is. We're done for." Luckily, we made it through the night without anything bad happening, but since then there has been some crazy things happening. I'll label them in bullet points so you can easily follow my train of thought.
1) Thursday, Elder Humps and I were walking down the street, completely lost . We had no idea where we were going. So I was like, "Let's go down this street". After a while, we noticed a dude walking behind us, and he comes up to us and is like, "Why did you decide to go on a mission?" And it was weird because that's what my comp and I were talking about before he asked us. And then we told him, then the next thing he asked was, "What are the steps for joining your church?"...Well that escalated quickly. So we walked with for about 45 mintues, and we were like, well we'd like to meet up with you again soon. And he was like, "How about tomorrow?" and so we agreed, and we told him that we were going to teach him about the Plan of Salvation, and he was like "Can I start now?" and so we taught him some, and he was the most solid investigator I've ever talked to. My companion and I were like, "This is stupid. It can't be this easy. It never happens." And then so we went back the next day and taught him the rest of the POS along with almost everything about the church, and he agreed to a baptismal date. He was then like, "I don't want to go home. Can I see your church?" So we took him there, and he like, "Man I like this." And my comp and I were seriously considering that we got punked. That he was a return missionary messing with us. But we focused on a few things during our lesson: POS, service, the Atonement, doing work in this life, and eternal familes. Well on Sunday, he came to church. We were like, "No way, this is too good to be true." THEN at church, the three talks at sacrament were on the POS, service, and the Atonement. THEN the Sunday school lesson was on doing work, THEN the Elders Quorum's lesson was on eternal families. It was weird. It was like everyone in church was playing a giant prank on me. He told us as he was walking out, "It feels like Heavenly Father has been talking to me all day today. I feel like I'm walking on air."
2) Right when Elder Humphreys and I became companions, the first thing he says to me was, "Oh, by the way, I was teaching a guy in Kona, and he came to Oahu becuase his mom has cancer. He wants to be baptized., so we might have a baptism here any second." On Friday, he calls the kid, and the guy was like, "I don't want to wait till I'm back in Kona. I want to be baptized here. You're here. I've prayed about it, I want to be baptized tomorrow. You call your people, I'll call my people. Let's get the ball rolling. Let's do this."...That escalated quickly... All he wanted at his baptism was his Mom, the branch president of the Tongan branch, and us with another set of missionaries. So we called the Tongan branch president and we were like, "Hey, we have a baptism tomorrow." Anyway, we had a baptism at 8 pm that night, and only seven people were there. It was crazy! He is 6 foot 5 in, and we couldn't find a suit that would fit him, so my comp gave him his white pants. The bad news is my comp is 5 foot 6, so they came up to his mid calfs on him. Plus the water drained a little so it was only to his knees, so when we baptized him, we had to have him lay down while he was in the water so he'd be completely under. Regardless, it was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been to.
3) We were visiting all the people on our part-member list, and we came up to the last house before we were going to dinner. the kids were like, "ELDERS!" and went and got their dad. So this HUGE Hawaiian bruddah with no shirt on, tatted up, walks out and was like, "Hey Elders, I thought you were coming at 6. why are you here now?" (So there are four missionaries in this ward now, and there was one who had been there before me and my comp came in. And so he was referring to their lesson with those elders at 6, but this family was in our area so he should technically be ours.) "Oh, well we didn't know." "Oh, you're not the other guys, Where are the other missionaries. Tell them we are meeting at 6! We have to start the lessons for baptism." "Wait, who's getting baptized?" "My kids!" So long story short, all four of us went over and taught his kids and set them up with a baptismal date.
4) There is an awesome Hawaiian guy who lives below us, and we introduced ourselves to him our first day. a few days later we went up and talked to him while he was waiting for the bus. he was like, "Hey Elders!" We talked to him for a little and then we noticed that he had a "Island Air" shirt on and we were like, oh do you work for an airline? "Yeah. I can get you buddy passes so you can fly to any of the islands for free if you guys want." ...Well, that escalated quickly... We've only met him once and he wants to give us free airline tickets.
Well all in all, from the span of Thursday to Sunday, we got three people with baptismal dates, baptized a future missionary, and free tickets to any of the Hawaiian Islands. You could say it's been an interesting week. If you've made it to this point, you're probably sick of reading my Email, but I just want to say that I know this work is real. That God lives. And that the church is true. I hope you are all enjoy this weather as much as I am! haha jk
LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder "I'm not sure if that's his body or a potato with a head" Gleave
No comments:
Post a Comment