Family and Friends!
It has been another amazing week here in
Alabama. Huntsville is great and Elder Holm and I are loving it. The members
are awesome and the people aren't usually too rude to us. We've been able to
find quite a few potential investigators and are looking forward to starting to
teach them more.
We finally met Matt! It wasn't a super
long experience or anything but it was worth putting at the beginning of the
email. Last night we were riding back home from teaching another investigator
and we saw that Matt's garage was open. We had rode by before and he was
outside but we didn't think it was him, long story there, but we slowed down
and couldn't see him so we just kinda kept going. Elder Holm was leading and
after we went a couple houses past he turned around because the Spirit told him
to--go Elder for listening to the Spirit. When we pulled up Matt was walking
from around back of his house and we were finally able to meet him. He has been
someone we've been trying to see for over a month; he was on date but is getting
bombarded with life and all sorts of things. Not really in a good place right
now but it was a miracle to put a face to the name and introduce ourselves,
assuring him that we are here to help.
We started to teach the Latham family
this past week. Mom has been in and out of activity depending on how much she
has to work. She is basically supporting five kids by herself so she's playing
the role of SuperMom (all Mom's are that way by the way, just a side note).
Anyway her son who is nine years old wants to be baptized and she wants him to
be baptized so we are taking the opportunity to teach the whole family. They
are hilarious and full of energy so it's been fun and exciting. Just pray that
they'll be able to start coming to church so that the little boy can get
baptized!
Tasha was a lady we met last week I
think. I may have mentioned her name in last weeks email. But, we had thought
she gave us a wrong number and turns out she accidentally messed up one of the
numbers. With that though we didn't think she was going to be a solid follow
up, but she was! Gotta love how God surprises you sometime. When we went to
teach her this past week we shared a little about the Restoration and answered
some questions about the Book of Mormon. She was really receptive and
interested to learn more. Right now she has a goal to be baptized on the 30th
of June so hopefully that works out! It was a really cool lesson and amazing
that we were able to teach her so tailored to her needs and questions.
Cathy is doing good, we've talked to her
this week but we haven't been able to teach because she's been sick. Torries is
becoming hard to catch because he has a ton of stuff he is working on for the
summer. But still high hopes there. We talked with Mike again this week, had a
good conversation with he and his neighbors. Things are just getting hectic in
his life but he hasn't really given up on us so that's good. We had a good
lesson with AL this Sunday as well. We talked to him about Modern-day Prophets
and how we receive revelation. He is a logical man, but I think he will do what
we've asked him too so that'll be exciting to see where that takes him. Logan
was another investigator we talked to this week. His mom is a member and he's
not really Christian but when we went over yesterday we answered some questions
he had about baptism and the succession of a Prophet. It was good to sit and
answer his questions again without the distraction of Mom and Dad being there.
Logan is in his 20s by the way, we weren't over there teaching a teenager
without Mom and Dad I promise. Also had another good lesson with the Harris
family about baptism this week. The Spirit was there and it prompted Sister
Harris to ask how to keep the Spirit with her after she's not felt it for a
while. That was really cool to see her open up.
This week we went on exchanges and I went
out with Elder Hanratty (throwback to the MTC). We had a lot of good, funny,
interesting experiences but one of them was meeting a guy named Marlon. We were
talking to this lady in an apartment complex about the Book of Mormon and
Marlon came out and asked for the Book. He lived above her and cut me off while
I was explaining it. But, she ended up not being interested so we went up and
talk to him. He asked for the Book, said "Thank you!" and started to
walk inside. We set up a return appointment for Sunday afternoon and I didn't
really know what was going to happen or expect anything to come of it. Annette,
Marlons mom, answered the door yesterday and invited us in. We talked briefly
about the Restoration and both her and Marlon were interested. She told us a
little bit about Marlons conditions which made sense of why the situation was
weird when we first met him. And, we are going back this coming Sunday. The
Lord sometimes let's people come to you, and He is always in charge of his
work.
We had a couple other cool finding
experiences this week. One was when the Spirit spoke to Elder Holm's stomach
and directed him to Sonic at the end of the night. The lady we were ordering
from hooked us up with a $5.00 sticker that gives you .99 cent Route44 of
anything for the entire year. Pretty solid; anyway back to the cool part...
While we were waiting for our drinks a guy pulled up and asked who we were. His
name is Brian and Brain literally told us, "Hey I'm interested in learning
more about what y'all believe." So we are currently trying to set up an
appointment with him.
Also, before I forget we talked to a guy
named Kyle who I didn't think was too interested and when we texted to confirm
our appointment he canceled but he had read out of the Book of Mormon! The Lord
was just proving me wrong this week.
Another finding experience was Nick. We
talked to him for a couple minutes only to find that a youth in our ward was
one of his student and he (the youth) gave Nick a Book of Mormon. Go him! We
explained more about what the Book of Mormon was and what it testifies of.
Considering he was Catholic we also talked about Authority and where we each
believe our authority comes from. It's was an interesting conversation but he
was very accepting and I hope he will read from the Book of Mormon and we'll be
able to talk to him again.
We found some other possibilities but no
one to really mention yet. We did re-contact this family that Elder Matthew's
began to teach about a year ago, the Folies. We went in and talked with them
about things they remember and stuff. They loved the missionaries but
apparently had a bad church experience and so they haven't been interested
since. Mom also said that they are "very Catholic" whatever that
means. I'm going to figure it out. I'm determined. They made the comment that I
was "Matthew's incarnate," lol. Shout out to Jax!
Some funny stories from the week:
●
The Book of Mormon Play just ended up here in
Huntsville and a lady stopped us at the store last week and asked if we were
Mormon. She then told us about the play, what she liked and didn't like, and
then she asked for our picture.
●
Elder Hanratty and I got caught in the pouring rain.
We got drenched and I almost got hit by a car. It was chill though.
●
Got some bomb Tacos on Tuesday.
●
A guy named Bobby was talking to us about how he got
his bowels taken out and he was very upset about it.
●
We were told that we needed to come to christ on a
doorstep.
●
I told a joke to an older guy who wasn't really
interested... Why did the referee blow his whistle in the leprosy hockey
game?.... Because there was a "face off" in the corner. He thought it
was funny.
●
Met a guy named Mr. Lovelady and talked to him about
Family History.
●
A guy named Austin took us on a tour of his car
collection this week.
●
Brother Messervy called and took us out to Burger
King for lunch again this week. These older guys hang out with the missionaries
a lot haha!
●
We went out with a guy we met last week who was
somewhat contending with us about Jesus and the nature of God. He took us out
to lunch and us and he and his friend “talked” about the Bible. Long story
short we don’t believe in the same Jesus because they believe that God the
Father is Jesus Christ. The end of the conversation was, “Well, one of us is
right and one of us is wrong…” ….yep. Probably to be continued.
Lastly, before I get into my finally
comments, we were fasting this past Sunday for our District to find more people
to teach. Right before we were about to break our fast we got a phone call to
help move some furniture for a guy whose wife is/was a member of the church. We
went to help and it was a miracle to me how the Lord gave us that opportunity.
He has been gone for 18 months or so but is now home and he's very
knowledgeable about the church and about the lessons. He loves the church and
the people there and we are hoping to be able to teach them a little bit in the
coming weeks. He wants to feed us for helping them out so we already have a
foot in that door.
It was a good week and a lot to learn. I
had a couple take-aways but one of them was my testimony of Preach My Gospel.
There were several instances where, had we had to teach a wrote lesson, people
would've been frustrated, confused, or simply not interested. But since we are
able to use the Spirit in determining the needs of the investigator and then
share with them what we know it makes the gospel so much more applicable and
meaningful. Also, we had a change in our Bishopric this past Sunday. The Stake
President taught Sunday School and talked a lot about the Priesthood and the
offices of the Priesthood, etc. But one thing he shared was a training that a
Seventy gave years ago when President Vaughn (our Stake President) was in a Bishopric.
There was a pyramid with six steps on it and it read, beginning at the bottom:
Doctrine, Principles, Procedures, Programs, Policies, and Style. He said that
the bottom two never change. The Doctrine or Christ will always be foundational
and will never change. He said that the middle three sometimes change depending
on various circumstances, but they are not set in stone. The last level is when
Leadership changes and that happens frequently. Everyone is human, and everyone
has their way to do things. That pyramid is how the organization of the church
works. I thought that that was an interesting thought.
The church is true, and miracle exist today! Read your scriptures, say
your prayers, and have a blessed week!
Much Love,
Elder Milius
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