Companion: Elder Monroe
Well, transfers went well! I am still in the Fleming Park ward with Elder Monroe! That blew everyone's mind. 4 transfers in this area and 3 of them are with Elder Monroe. He will be my longest companion that I will have had on my mission and I will be his as well. This is a 7 week transfer as well due to the 3 week switch on MTC time. Kinda of crazy to think that the next area that I go to will probably be when I die as a missionary... I don't even feel like I have been out for very long!
We have had some really great experiences this week. Again, most of our appointments fell through due to sickness, laziness, and who else knows what kind of excuses come up. But, we had some good opportunities of service come up this week. We helped this RLDS family move for most of Saturday and afterward they fed us pizza. Elder Monroe walked right up, grabbed a piece of pizza and chowed down. Everyone looked at him and said, "since you partook before the prayer, you get to say it!" I was laughing so hard! Here we are, Mormon missionaries supposed to be setting this great example, and we get called out. It was a really funny and ironic situation. After, Elder Monroe said, "I didn't know RLDS blessed their food..."
We also ran into probably the craziest guy I have ever met on my mission, and I have met some really crazy people! He claimed to have just gotten out of jail and that he was now a self proclaimed Reverend whom now goes by the name of Reverend Peace. He babbled our ears off for over 30 minutes before we could even realize....we were just trying to somewhat even follow what he was saying! We didn't catch any of it, but it was mostly on Gods, yin yang, and death. He also had the worst bipolar I have every seen where he would cry out of the middle of nowhere. Just start bawling! He ended up being homeless and had met with missionaries a lot of years past. He must have got the crazy bug from all the time he spent incarcerated.
We had a part member, less active family do something really cool this past week. We were talking with them and they said that they were fasting for a client that they had at their hair salon who they thought needed the gospel. They were trying to figure out what would be best for her and how they could help her out. They had never fasted before so they just went for it. That was really cool to hear!
We had the coolest testimony meeting with probably my favorite family in this ward last night. They have a less active son that we are trying to help return to activity and he is coming along. It was so powerful! It brought back the many memories of the testimony meetings that we would have at cuzins kamp. Almost everyone bore very powerful testimonies and personal stories of how the atonement has changed their lives and how change is possible and that forgiveness will come. After the testimony meeting we had a little jam session with a bunch of instruments that they have.
As I was thinking this week about what the gospel is all about, I kept having the following phrase come to my mind given by an Elder M. Russel Ballard. "I say we keep our antennas up!" We need to reach out with love to everyone that we talk to, meet, have interaction with, whatever the situation may be. The gospel is about love and that is what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are all about!
1 John 4: 7-9
- 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
- 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
- 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Elder Shoemaker
Love you all!
Our last p-day together bowling before transfers!
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