No pressure; just speaking the truth

April 11, 2011

Not much has happened this week.  We are still dealing with drama about Anna getting permission.  Her uncle has the form for him to take to her Mom to get signed but it hasn't happened yet and we are all very frustrated.  Also she got moved from Sis. Widener's (formerly Sis. Titus) house to her cousin's house which is on the other side of the valley.  We have decided that in order to make sure that she gets baptized as soon as possible, we should just baptize her and transfer her records and not leave it up to other missionaries that don't even know her situation.  Plus she wants me to baptize her.  She just needs to get baptized before I leave or else I will have to come back, because I am NOT missing her baptism.  That would be too much to ask.  I have witnessed too many miracles with her to miss it.

 

Remember the 11 year-old girl with the family that hadn't been to church in years that we had a breakthrough with.  She is going to be baptized on the 23rd and we are going to have the Dad meet with the bishop so that he will be able to baptize her.  It's going to be great.

 

We had a discouraging experience the other day.  I don't know if I told you about the guy that we tracted into that let us in to teach him.  His name is Mark.  We went over and met his wife and she is super anti-.  Supposedly she was baptized a number of years ago but she probably got fed some anti stuff and has never been back since.  She was very rude and told us that we didn't worship Jesus Christ but we worshipped Joseph Smith and that we thought that black people are inferior to us.  I told her that that was completely false but she would not listen for she was convinced that it was true.  I asked her if she read the Book of Mormon and she said that she had and that it really made her mad when we said that it was scripture.  I told her that it was Another Testament of Jesus Christ and that I knew that it was true, but again she would not listen.  I asked her if she had prayed about it.  She said, "I know deep in my heart that it is not true."  I was not satisfied with this answer and asked her again if she had prayed about it.  She knew that I knew that she had never read and prayed about the Book of Mormon but she said anyway that she had prayed about it and she knew that it was not true.  I hope she realizes that she broke one of the 10 commandments and what is worse, she lied to a servant of the Lord who could discern her thoughts.  She has ruined the work that God has done with her husband and I hope that she realizes that and can repent before it is too late.  After she lied to my face, she told us that she knew that we were under a lot of pressure to say these things, that this is true and this is not true.  We left before I started yelling at her.  I was only sad until she had said that we were pressured into doing this, but that is one of the few things that makes me really angry- when people say that I am forced to do this.  I had to end the conversation real quick because I couldn't let myself be compromised and lose the Spirit.  I guess things like that have to happen in order for me to appreciate the miracles that I have been able to witness in the mission field.  I hope the best for that lady and I hope that her conscience compels her to accept later what she boldly rejected, especially since she claims to be christian.

 

Elder Weed is getting along very well.  He is an interesting person.  He follows my behavior a lot and I don't think he realizes it.  He tries very hard to be accepted and relate to people and they recognize that he is trying too hard, which kinda weirds them out.  He exaggerates a lot in order to be dramatic and he brings up topics kind of inappropriately, such as, "When I was homeless..." etc. People don't want to hear those kinds of things unless they really do, in which case they will ask more questions.  I don't think he has a lot of social skills.  I hope that he is able to develop them on his mission, but I have resolved myself to address the issue, because I have realized that he isn't learning by example so I need to be more direct.  I didn't know training would involve this though and it is an interesting trial that I did not expect would come along with the opportunity to train.  So in answer to Tami's query, training is hard but it sure keeps me on my toes and it keeps me working, so I guess it's worth it.

 

Well that is about it.  I love you all.  I will see you in a few weeks! :)

-Elder Blakemore