Life and Times

June 24, 2013

Well it's been another week gone to who knows where, but I've had a pretty good week. Might I say first how much missionary exchanges are starting to wear on me? I really don't have a lot of energy left for the whole deal, as we went on the 4th exchange of the transfer with a 5th being prepared for in the coming week. That's kind of nuts.

 Okay, this week. This week was good. I got a strong impression not to see the Satanist guy anymore so we didn't see him. But we have had a great week otherwise. One moment was really great. A couple (the wife is a nonmember) finally came around to see us after an incredible 4 week stretch of not seeing us, and the brother told me that I was his favorite missionary that he had in his home and that at first he thought I was a cocky doctor’s son but now really loves me and he said that I changed his life and helped him through some of the hardest times of these last few weeks and calls us all of the time now asking if we need rides. It was really neat; he got really emotional during the whole thing.

Another highlight was church. We had an incredible 6 nonmembers in sacrament meeting and another 5-6 less actives as well. So things really did turn out pretty well. I'm excited for everyone to have been there. It was a blast. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to wrangle everyone to class (like 20 people or so were in gospel principles, from last week’s 5)

Last thing, the mission president broadcast. Wow that was neat. One of the big jokes I have with brother McCann, (who was sustained yesterday as ward mission leader after his September baptism last year!) is that missionaries need I-Pads to electronically store all the info of people we teach (rather than a mess of teaching records and bad addresses known as the "area book") so that we can better function more efficiently as missionaries. He was cracking up at the broadcast when Elder Perry talked about "mobile devices" that the missionaries would get with the change to a more cyberspace approach to missionary work. The other thing that was cool was that apparently the churches will be opened at other times during the week for guided tours by the missionaries ???  Not a lot of specifics there but he said one of the complaints received was that "people would get the courage to come to an LDS building, only to find it locked and empty."  But missionaries using Facebook and other resources to proselyte?? That’s nuts. Too bad by the time it gets implemented I will probably be returning home. But how exciting for future missionaries.

Another cool thing is that Bishop asked Elder Wallace and I to each give a 20 minute talk in sacrament meeting. He said "I want you to speak as if the whole congregation was investigators, and you were trying to convert them." He gave me an assignment to speak on the restoration, and Elder Wallace the plan of Salvation. This will be awesome. He said the object is to set the tone for the 5th Sunday lesson (which is on the Mission president broadcast taught by our convert ward mission leader Brother McCann) taught in the 3rd hour.

So it has been eventful, wonderful things are happening and it will continue to grow!

Elder Bringhurst