Happy Summer!
I love Memorial Day Weekend. It's marked Summer vacation for years and I have good memories playing baseball up in Prescott, AZ, over the weekend. This one was better than them all though, a lot of learning and a lot of miracles and a lot of good things.
First of all I'll give some updates. The first one can be the Latham Family. We have started teaching them consistently and the boy is on date to be baptized on June 23rd. The only stumbling block is church... Mom works a lot and they all have a desire to come back but I'm hoping that that desire will work in them a little bit faster so that they can make it by the 23rd. We have several members though who are helping us out so fingers crossed and arms folded for them. They are hilarious by the way, Sister Latham and her kids crack us up. She is a single Mom and doesn't take crap from anyone, especially her kids. Super protective and straight to the point--it's great.
Wil (with one "L" not two) is awesome as well. He is the guy who we tracted into and shared the principles of the Spirit World and the Three Kingdoms of Glory. We went back this week and taught him the Restoration. Just as we answered questions the first time we met we answered some more and helped him out a ton. He loves the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration was great as well. He does understand the big deal with baptism and so he is thinking about that. All in all he is a great guy who is willing to read and pray, which is awesome.
Yesterday we went by to teach Annette and Marlon. Elder Hanratty and I first met Marlon a couple weeks ago and he asked for a Book of Mormon over the balcony as we were talking to another lady-it was really weird-but we went and had a great lesson yesterday about all the good the Book of Mormon can do for them. She opened up a lot about specific struggles she's bees going through in life and Elder Holm bore a powerful testimony of his own experiences. It was cool. And if all goes well we will have them to church in Sunday.
James is another guy worth sharing. Elder Hanratty and I met him as well and went back to teach him this last week. He was really open to what we were sharing and why we believed in a certain way. In his own words he said he needed to "chew" on some things but all was well and he was thinking hard about what we shared. It's nice when people are at least open to your biblical explanation about why we believe in certain things.
Tasha is another person on date for next month and we taught her a little more about the Book of Mormon. We are going by again today so hopefully that goes well. We taught AL again on Sunday about Revelation and the fruits of the Spirit. He took it well and committed to pray to know if the things we were teaching him were true so we will see how that goes. We talked to Rose again too! On Thursday we went by to see her with Brother Lewis and she was pulling in as we were walking out. It was nice to see her again and she told us she is still interested, just busy. Her heart is in the right place.
We've meet a few other people as well. Janice and Herold are super nice. She's dealing with a lot of health challenges and so hopefully will enjoy meeting with us enough that she will do something about what we share. We also tracted into Brian. We actually met him a week and a half ago at Sonic and there he mentioned to us that he was interested in learning more. Fast forward to yesterday we were riding past this cul de sac and previously I had felt to knock there so as we rode by I looked at my watch and said, "Sure why not?" We knocked two houses and ran into a guy named Brian. We did our spiel and talked to him about the Restoration and didn't figure out we had all met before until we were getting his name and number. Crazy right? Thanks Spirit. I just wish I would've listened sooner so that we could've found him sooner and then he could get baptized sooner, but oh well. It'll happen anyway!
Other pieces of information that you may or may not be interested in but I'm going go write them here anyway:
- Number One from this week was Elder Holm and I crashed 3 1/2 times on Saturday. The first time I ran into his back tire (it was actually the disc brake which wasn't really good), the second he cut me off and threw me off my bike, and the third he just slide out taking a turn too fast. The 1/2 was him hitting a curb with the frame of his bike making a turn. It wasn't a super awesome wonderful day but what are you going to do, right?
- Side Note: Don’t pray for patience… :)
- We went to $0.50 corndog day at Sonic and met a guy named V1RU5 (Virus). He's a rapper.
- I cut a couple Elders hair for the first time this week. Didn't do half bad if I do say so myself.
- Another lady named Sheron stopped us riding by and said that she had just seen the Book of Mormon Play and her husband checked out a Book from the Library to study. We were hoping to be able to go see them but she hasn't responded to our texts.
- Walking down a street we talked to a guy who wasn't really interested but said that we should go try his neighbor. When we knocked on the neighbors door he wasn't interested but told us that his neighbor (same guy who told us to try him) needed a message about Jesus. "But don't tell him that I sent you!" Haha.
- We did some more service for Miguel and Jennifer. Add electric work to my list of skills I've learned on my mission.
- Brother Terry taught Elder Holm how to play Magic. *Cue eye roll now*
- We were playing the word game while Tracting... Starbursts and Unicorns, check.
- I am really bad at math.
By way of announcement, we got a new Ward Mission Leader this past week. It's Brother Lewis! We are excited haha, he has been a Ward Missionary and we've worked pretty close to him so it'll be fun having him be our main "go-to." With a new Bishop and a new WML we are really excited to pick up the missionary efforts in the ward. They both feel like service is going to be the key in getting the members more involved and interested in doing missionary work. We are all for it and will be looking for more opportunities to serve from now on. With that same thought I was talking to another Elder on the phone Sunday night about our mission and keg indicators. It's really tough to watch how great our mission has become and to not necessarily see the results via key indicators and Baptisms. However, because of God's great plan we all still have agency. People may just not be as prepared as they are in other parts of the world, but that doesn't mean that we as missionaries or as a mission in general slack off. In fact it means that in order to feel "successful" we have to work our tails of everyday with consecrated effort and obedience. We the Lord is shaping and molding the Alabama Birmingham Mission, and at least for me, He's making a convert. I posed the question to this Elder, "If President Nelson were to knock the last door you did, do you think the results of that door would be different." We'd both like to say yes, but in pondering it I don't know if it would be different.
There were a lot of lessons learned and a lot more to come. The Lord's is preparing His servants and His soldiers and I'm grateful to be serving on the front lines. Miracles happen everyday and I am so thankful for the opportunity to see them up close and personal. God is truly blessing His children, so let's work to see those blessings and to be those blessings for others!
Thank you all for your support; hope you have a great week!
Much Love,
Elder Milius
PS: We got transfer calls and we are both staying here in Weatherly! :)
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