We went on exchanges, kind of. A zone leader spent the day with us, so we had my favorite thing, a trio! Anyhow, here's the story of how I was "trolled by the holy ghost." That's what I call it when it lies to you to make you go the right direction. I felt strongly we should go and visit this old man who lives in a trailer park. He ends up not being home, so Elder Haws feels that we should walk over to the restaurant. As we are going, we pass an RV with tents and some angry dude smoking. Me and Haws both had no desire to talk to him, but the zone leader strolls on over despite that man's complaints. After a couple minutes of not much, the old man's wife and grandson arrive on bikes. It was quite interesting, each one of us talked to each one of them for a minute and then traded places until we had each talked to each person for a couple minutes. Old man softened up, and his wife and grandson ended up really wanting to hear more, so that's the story of how we netted 3 new people to teach in one go.
We were able to have a lesson with a potential investigator family which turned them into two new investigators on Monday. We taught the restoration with lots of power and all that jazz. Due to weird schedule stuff, we sent me in alone with a member to go and visit. The husband had been called in for work, so it was just her. As I talked with her, I was very surprised to hear that not only did they keep their commitment of reading the introduction of the Book of Mormon, but he just kept going and in two days made it from 1st Nephi 1 to Alma 26. Like geez, man! I haven't even done that before. I also learned that he really wanted to go to church, and she was thinking about baptism in the past. I bet we can invite them to be baptized shortly. Woot. Anyhow, before I went to that lesson, I had expressed to Elder Haws that I was hungry. As I waited at the members house to be picked back up, they fed me a roast coupled with jello and a protein shake. Couldn't believe it. Miracles.
One day, I didn't really know what we were doing, I was just following Elder Haws. We mosy our way into a home that has a big ol buffalo sticking out of the wall. We talked and hung out for a while and I really had no idea who they were. Then Elder Haws asked me to share a message. I started by asking them who they even are. I was dealing with a less active woman of 30 years and her nonmember husband who would love to join. It was satisfying to open the book randomly and know the contents of that specific chapter without skimming. I shared with them a message that basically says that when you show God you are willing to listen, he will guide and direct you. He thoroughly enjoyed the message and he said that they had many missionaries in the past, but for some reason, I was the first one she had allowed to even open the Book of Mormon. I don't know what was special about me, but I know God prepares very specific people for the missionaries in an area, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon one for me! Now we are teaching him and his granddaughter as his wife participates. Nice.
Something that I have fallen in love with in Orofino is the presence of berries everywhere. You can't walk very far before scoping them out, growing along fences and trees. I was wary at first of just picking a berry and eating it without washing, but after seeing enough locals and Elder Haws eat them, I finally went for it. Now I am always picking berries and staining my fingers with their purple colors. There was one day where we just kept coming across berries, and so I must've eaten over 300 berries. None of the locals bothered to tell me about Montezumas revenge, so now I understand to chill on the berries and only eat 300 or less.
We had the great privilege of having Elder Stevenson of the 12 apostles come and visit us. It was so cool to shake his hand and look into his eyes and feel the spirit so intensely. He is basically like Peter or Paul or any other ancient apostles. I got to sit on the front row and was in awe at how he made eye contact with me so many times. You can really feel the love that he has for all of us, despite not really knowing us. He is so kind and genuine and really wants us to be happy and successful. The coolest thing to me is, that's how they all are, even the scariest of them all, Elder Holland.
So that about sums it up for this week. The once dead area of Orofino netted us six new people for the week. Berries galore. I'm having so much fun driving my sweet rav4. My mission is almost done and I haven't given up and won't give up until that stake president says to go hug girls.
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| Behold, the berries |
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| We drive on lots of mountain roads |
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