Our friend Donald has been progressing so well, it has been awesome. He wants to get baptized, but since he is on parole the process takes a while longer, unfortunately. We're going to continue having studies with him, we're hoping that he'll be able to get baptized this year. We'll see. We had a lesson with him and his friend Ray yesterday. Ray is also progressing well, but he isn't so sure about baptism yet. He's in the same situation as Donald though, so he wouldn't be able to be baptized yet anyway. So we'll continue to help them develop their testimonies so when they are able to, they won't want to waste anymore time.
We finally got a hold of Robyn on Sunday because she showed up to church. Here's the problem though, she is way too busy. So she says. I would like to make it clear that it is absolutely impossible to be too busy to keep commandments and follow Jesus Christ. You all know that, but you would be surprised by how many people don't understand that. Even among us! We had to explain to her that if she thinks she is too busy and won't be able to answer our calls, then we're going to stop reaching out for a while. I think it's a good thing this happened though. I don't believe that she was fully prepared for baptism. I'm afraid that she isn't developing a testimony and that she just likes having a bunch of good friends that will drive her around and help her with things. I don't know though, time will tell. I thought that we could find out by asking her, but she disappeared when church was over and we, as usual, can't get a hold of her. In case you are wondering, we also cannot contact her in person. She is almost always at the hospital and we can't get there. Besides, if she wanted to talk she would answer the phone. She said that she does see our calls. It's so frustrating and so sad. She's missing out on so many blessings and I don't think she even realizes that.
Elder Green and I had a funny spiritual experience yesterday. We decided to go to the top of our area, since we have never been up there yet. We found a neighborhood that looked pretty new and pretty nice. As we were taking a break in the car's AC, making some calls, I figured out that the car has it's own wifi. It only works right now because the car is new, so we get a short free trial with the wifi. Another Elder was quoting the movie Despicable Me the other day and for some reason that movie popped back into my head. I changed the name of the car's wifi to Vector, a character from that movie.
Bear with me here.
We then got out and continued walking around the neighborhood. Then, I noticed a house that had a sign in the front yard. The sign said "Vector Security." I thought that it would be funny if that was some kind of sign from the spirit since I had that name on my mind. We were about to keep walking when I thought 'Only one way to find out.' We knocked on the door and a lady answered through the doorbell camera. She eventually opened the actual door and we talked with her for about 15 minutes. She ended up taking a copy of the Book of Mormon, really excited to read it, and we made an appointment to come back on Thursday to talk more about it and explain more about Joseph Smith and how Jesus Christ restored His church through that prophet. IT WAS AWESOME! We waked away and I went 'what just happened...' and we laughed as we got back to the car to head to a lesson. The Spirit works with us in strange ways, I guess. That's why you should never doubt a spiritual impression, no matter how strange it may seem.
On Saturday we got invited to go to the temple with some of our ward members for the Endowment of a convert in our area. We got permission from President and went with a couple other missionaries in the member's cars. It was so cool. I learned so much this time, just like every time. I get more and more every time I go. I feel so much joy as I learn more about the Gospel, I'm so excited to go again next week with the zone. I rode by Victor on the way there and he fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back, it was pretty funny. I also got a good picture of him after he destroyed me at rock, paper, scissors.
It's been a good week, and exact obedience has proven to be the best way to be a missionary. The little things matter so much more than anyone thinks. It's hard to get yourself to do them sometimes, but we receive so many blessings from the Lord as we show him that we can be trusted. Not patting myself on the back, I'm just so grateful for the blessings that have been given to us. We have been having at least one lesson every day and it has been awesome.
Have a good week!
- Elder Peterson
- temple picture
- Victor after he destroyed me
- me being confused during our missionary coordination meeting
- a dog begging Elder Simpson for food
- Gabriel Martinez and his family came up to see me. I met them a year ago in Pasadena. He also gave me a new Astros hat.
