The most successful and probably spiritual week of my entire mission so far. Holy moly...
Service! I love painting. Tannah O'Bannion is a very active recent convert but her dad is a less active and her mom slightly anti. Some of the ward, ourselves, and the sister missionaries, painted their whole house outside! A bright blue with white trim. The mom had bought us all food and gave us hugs at the end! Small and simple steps :) Other fun fact, we ran into a mom who was LDS with a fiance that was not. We were on team ups with the Zone Leaders so Elder Payne was with us. Payne and Bonaro took the loveseat which left me with the massage chair...darn :) The LDS lady turned it on and I got a massage while the other two were talking haha. Then I shared testimony at the end.
So as always I'll start with last Monday! It was P-day so I actually went with Elder Davis, one of the AP's to go golfing! Ministers get to golf for free on Mondays so we just show them our ministerial certificate and play! Meanwhile, Elder Bonaro was with the most annoying Elder in our mission haha. He said he didn't want to play cause he never has before! He regretted it later.
Tuesday, Elder Palazzo (other companions in our apartment) thought it would be a great idea to drink a bottle of magnesium to "clean his system." He spent more time in the bathroom than outside of it the whole day. He destroyed our toilet. Anyway, we got a call that there was a guy named Alex who had recently been in an accident, was now out of the hospital, but needed someone to buy him and his mother groceries. So we went to the hotel by Billings clinic and it turns out that Alex is the SON of that lady we gave a blessing to last week! Same accident, he had a broken neck and arm. Larissa (his mom who we blessed), was now sitting up, in a chest and back cast, and could now walk! She looked so much better! Her bruising was going away and she said that she was already feeling much better. It was so cool to see the results of a Priesthood blessing work so quickly! And while we were there, someone shouted, "Elders!" Another out of town LDS lady wanted a blessing before going into surgery. Her daughter (probably in her 40's) gave us a a card that had 30 bucks in it. We aren't supposed to take money but she said it was for dinner. We didn't have a dinner appointment so we used it at Denny's!
Every Wednesday we do splits with the ward. We had 3 members show up originally. I went with 2 of them named Clark and David. Both recent RM's, and Bonaro went with James. Almost to a house, we got a call from Bonaro saying to come back to the church. We went back and Bishop was doing interviews with sisters so there needed to be another Priesthood holder in the building. RIght when we got there, Tyler Nelson showed up for splits. Clark said he would stay. but then Tyler volunteered. We joked that Clark must be needed on the splits! We went to see a less active named Ryan Baker. He talked to us outside on the porch and Clark hit it off so well with Ryan! Both do extreme sports (wakeboarding, snowboarding, skydiving, etc) and so they talked for a good 20 minutes and I didn't have to say anything :) Ryan came to ultimate frisbee that night and came to church Sunday!
Thursday. AWESOME. A member of the 70 (Elder Arnold) came and spoke to us at the stake center in a conference with probably 90 Elders and Sisters. Something SO COOL happened. We were all in the cultural hall and Elder Arnold was speaking. Out of no where it starting hailing and pouring rain harder than I have ever seen in my life. The building was literally shaking and all the power went out. This occurace happened during a spiritual high point. Elder Arnold said that Satan was crying. Angry because the spirit was so strong. With the power out, we continued our conference. As a general authority, Elder Arnold gave us all "clean sheets." A brand new start, re-baptism. In the dark we sang, "I know that my Redeemer Lives." We walked outside...and it was one of the sunniest, clearest days I've seen since being here. Not a drop on the car, no water spots on The Lord's vehicles (our trucks). It seemed like 2 different days. We saw tfull grown trees uprooted, and the streets littered with tree branches.
BAPTISMAL DATE! After eating lunch at Subway, Tyler texted us saying that Chase Slade wanted to meet with us that day. Chase Slade was a past investigator who had a baptismal date and then moved. He moved back to here with a job at Target! We taught the Restoration with Tyler present. I had the opportunity to share the First Vision. Never before had the spirit hit me so strongly when sharing Joseph's words. Afterwards, after a short pause of silence, I asked Him if he would be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God. Watery eyes, he said Yes. I am SO EXCITED! It will eityher be this weekend or in two weeks.
Service! I love painting. Tannah O'Bannion is a very active recent convert but her dad is a less active and her mom slightly anti. Some of the ward, ourselves, and the sister missionaries, painted their whole house outside! A bright blue with white trim. The mom had bought us all food and gave us hugs at the end! Small and simple steps :) Other fun fact, we ran into a mom who was LDS with a fiance that was not. We were on team ups with the Zone Leaders so Elder Payne was with us. Payne and Bonaro took the loveseat which left me with the massage chair...darn :) The LDS lady turned it on and I got a massage while the other two were talking haha. Then I shared testimony at the end.
Happy Father's day Dad! It was a great Sunday as usual. We had two less actives there, and an investigator that we taught after church. In the afternoon we came across a Jewish guy in his 30's locked out of his house for two days till his wife got home. He was just watering the grass and was SUPER nice to us. He said he would never convert but he does admire the LDS people for how much zeal we have in our proselyting efforts.
Bishop called us to go give another blessing at the hospital in ICU. In the waiting room a man said, "You call yourselves Elders? You're to young to know anything!" He thought he would show us how little we know by asking how we get to heaven. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. He said we were wrong and asked if we knew what John 3:16 said. Of course we knew it and he said that we don't understand it. I swear he repeated it 20 times close to our face (the three of us) like we were kids. He said we don't need to be baptized we only need to believe in Christ. We corrected him that like 2 verses earlier it says we need to be born of water. This guy said it meant birth. Which is funny because Christ is talking to Nicodemus who had that same thought and corrected him. He tried to convince us that the guy on the cross next to Christ was told he would be with Christ in Paradise and that he wasn't baptized, yet a thief. First of all, we have no idea if he was baptized. Second all thieves have never been baptized? Third, God was referencing the Spirit world. Long story short we left and gave two blessings. Sorry for venting, I just despise naive people.
Dad, I hope you had an amazing Father's Day because you are an amazing father! You have always been an example to me and have given me strength in times of need. I love you and miss you!
P.S. Jesse's room looks sweet! And the backyard! And Torie is doing awesome things it sounds like! Lacey sent me a package of those big balloons you can hit each other with, and a CD :)
Service Project / Blue House