We had a fantastic week here in Mustang! I some great spiritual experiences with Elder Bolan this past week doing missionary work here. We finally got some good lessons in with some of our investigators this past week.
Last week I told you guys about TJ, the guy that stopped us while he was dirt biking in an unfinished section of a neighborhood. We met with at a coffee shop--of all places--and had a discussion about the Restoration with him. He is a very spiritual and knowledgeable man. He doesn't affiliate with any church around here, but he wholeheartedly believes in the Bible and in God. As we delved deeper into the discussion, Elder Bolan and I found out that TJ and his son have some very...unique spiritual gifts, I guess you could say. TJ's son (who's about 8-years old) has made some prophesies about the world, about people, about whatever, and TJ told us all his sons' prophesies came true. TJ told us he's healed broken bones on the spot and restored blindness to peoples' eyes.
Sound crazy to you?
Needless to say after the lesson Elder Bolan and I came out scratching our heads. We had a very powerful lesson with him, but we were left with a lot of questions. TJ had no problem accepting a modern-day prophet, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and even a baptismal date. We definitely questioned his faith--and our faith! TJ lives a pretty decent life--nice house, nice kids, nice cars, all that stuff. We definitely feel that he's pretty levelheaded if he lives the way he does. Is he joking with us? We hope to explore the validity of his statements as we meet with him more, so stay tuned on TJ.
We also met with Alex earlier this week. We had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. Alex is trying so hard to because more extroverted and be more involved socially. He doesn't know if he's ready for church and being around lots of people. He accepted a church tour.
So hot story of the week: This story is about how someone pushed my buttons--someone that performed the perfect mix of actions and used the perfect balance of words--and caused me to be quite bold to them. Elder Bolan and I went to go try people on our ward roster. One day we attempted to see a less active member named Jeff--a guy we'd tried a couple times but to no success. The first time someone answered the door, it was a lady who said "sorry guys, I'm busy right now" and slammed the door without even letting us speak. "Okay, so you're busy. We'll just try back later," we thought to ourselves. Earlier this week we tried them. It was very obvious that they were home. We could see their silhouettes through their window, and one of their cars in the driveway was running. We knocked on their door twice. After waiting a few minutes the same lady, who we assumed to be Jeff's wife, answered with the following tirade,
"Guys I really don't want you coming back here anymore," she said rather rudely to us. Oh! That's funny...you never told us that the first time we ran into you!
"Fine, all we want is to ask you a question," I said before she had the chance to shut her door.
"What??" she said as she impatiently fluttered her eyelashes.
"Is there a Jeff [their last name] that lives here?" I asked.
"Yes, but he's not interested so please leave us alone," she grouched at us.
"Okay, thank you! Ma'am, that's all it takes. If you had answered the door the first time we could have figured that out much sooner," I stated very forwardly to her.
Was it rude of me to say that? Some might say yes, some might say it was necessary. Did it sink in? I sure hope it did. For the sake of her sanity and our time, I hope she learned that missionaries would have stopped trying her if she had just been honest with us and told us from the beginning. It seems that people like that who choose to shun the truth and shun what's right become very resentful and even hateful towards what's good. It really does to show that wickedness never was happiness.
I hope you guys learned something today. Just don't treat good people with good intentions with disrespect... No matter how good it makes you feel, no matter what you're trying to accomplish, it's going to turn around and bite back. So please...just don't. Have an awesome week, and be a good Samaritan for someone.
Elder Garner
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