This week was a great week here at LSU! Time flies when you are having fun. I would like to share a few cool experiences with y'all.
We decided to go tracting up at a different apartment complex that we had never hit before, and ended up meeting this girl named Allison who actually works with a member of the ysa ward at a little flower shop. It was cool, because as soon as we made a connection with a "normal person going to LSU" she opened up a lot more and seemed quite a bit more interested. Not to say that missionaries aren't normal people, but sometimes you just have to get passed that white shirt and tie barrier :) They just have to realize you are "cool" and I mean let's be honest that is just too easy ;) Anyways, it is always interesting to see people's responses when you ask them about a modern prophet.
Free speech alley story of the week: On Wednesday we went to FSA and had a blast talking to everyone we possibly could. It was hopping too! There were tons of other booths and people giving out samples and such. It was funny though, because we put up on our white board, "How has God blessed you today?" to try and get people to write up on the board. Now, other than the occassional chuckle with what I wrote being : Butter.. haha it was a challenge to get some people to write. So we decided to make a deal with the Food Bank booth right next to us and started handing out their flyers like they were hotcakes right off the griddle for them as they wrote up on our board :) Hey, whatever works right? We talked to some interseting pentacostal people later that day about speaking in tongues and what not too so that was fun. Another thing here in the south is that people can receive the Holy Ghost basically on command and it knocks them out. Kinda like Dragon Ball Z :)
We then had Zone Conference on Thursday and got to hear some great instruction from President and Sister Hansen. It was funny because Pres Hansen gave another instruction on confronting adversity and anti-material/people. He asked if I would share my story about the Antioch group from Texas A&M confronting us as well haha. He is totally addicted to confrontational missionary work. He even called us the next day for FSA and asked if the Consuming Fire Fellowship were there and if so he wanted to come again. HAHA bless his heart! I told him he must have scared them off. Elder Teare and I then gave an instruction on having effective district meetings that hopefully helped.
We also had a great lesson with Samuel from Nigeria about the priesthood and Book of Mormon this week. Unfortunately it is giong to be hard for him to make it to Institute this semester, because of his work schedule but we are going to keep helping him. It is difficult because he is so busy all of the time, but we just need to help him realize how important it is that he gives time to the Lord, because that is when the blessings come. It was awesome too, because even though Samuel worked until 6 a.m Sunday morning he was still able to make it to Church at 10:30!! He seemed to enjoy sacrament meeting and also stayed for Gospel Principles. We had a great discussion on the Atonement and how incredible of a sacrifice Christ made for each of us. I am looking forward to continuing to teach Samuel and getting back with some of our progressing investigators this next week.
Last experience that was awesome: On Friday night, a guy we met on Free Speech Alley named George who is a bit autistic had his family invite us over for dinner. The Mom, works at the Old State Capitol building and a few other sets of missionaries volunteer with service there, so she loves the missionaries. She is Christian and the Dad is atheist. George is such a nice kid that now that he is going to LSU has realized he doesn't have too many friends... It was cool though, because his Mom told us that we made a huge difference just saying hi and reaching out to him on FSA. George is currently Hindu, but is very smart and open to learning about the Book of Mormon. Before dinner we had an awesome discussion about the B.O.M and he seemed excited to pray to know if it is true. He showed us some of his idols as well that were interesting. It's all good though, he is still learning! They fed us some delicious Louisiana Creole gumbo that was actually quite good. People here throw shrimp in almost everything so it is definitely starting to grow on me. They even showed us their tandom bike which we of course had to take for a spin! Proslyting with that puppy would be quite the sight. It is hard to explain how great of an experience it was and the happy feelings, but it was just so cool to help bring their family together in such a small way. We got George and the dad, Gregg, out of their shells. Apparently that was the first time Gregg had ever spoken to missionaries, and we even ate outside which was a first for him in years. We also talked with the older brother named Bentley who had a traumatic experience recently and has been sitting in his room by himself for weeks playing video games. We talked with him about some of the games he had been playing and Caroline (the Mom) said,"That was the first time she had seen him talking with someone and smiling." She was so happy! It truly was incredible. I felt like we really did something amazing for their family just being there. The spirit was strong and everyone seemed so happy. I love being a missionary just for those times where I feel like I touched someone's heart for the better just for accepting the call to be a missionary.
I love this gospel and know that it is true with all my heart. As we have general conference this weekend, what a great opportunity to receive answers to our questions or concerns from a living prophet and apostles. I know that if we sincerely ask in faith we will recieve personal answers from our Heavenly Father through his servents. Amos 3:7
I love y'all so much and am so thankful for the examples that you are to me. Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Wilson
