General Conference week! What amazing talks that were given! We spent a lot of time inviting people and handing out #BecauseHeLives cards to people. We had a great turnout and had a lot of less active members and recent converts watch and enjoy General Conference. Memery even tevoed it and told us she would watch it. Zavior loved the Priesthood Session.
Well Monday was rather...shocking. Trust me, it gets punny. We had dinner at the Schuette's house. Somehow we ended up getting on the subject of getting tortured, and getting tazed came up. One thing led to another, and the member decided he wanted to show us what it was like to get tazed.
I was volunteered to be tazed.
So Elder Swensen, then Elder Tanner, then I got tazed. It was like a got a pinched by a giant. Definitely the most painful pinch I'd ever felt! All three of us got tazed right in the rear! #PhasedByTheTaze
The next day we did more service at the boot shop. We rearranged the store to fit more merchandise they'd ordered. I used a price tag gun for the first time! Really, I've had a lot of firsts this week. That evening we taught Book of Mormon class on Alma 42 about justice and mercy and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, preparatory for the Easter weekend we just had. I shared the covering up of the nicotine analogy as part of the lesson.
On Wednesday was April Fools! We got the sisters and the Lemmerts sooooo good :) We scared the sisters and all four of us elders knocked on their apartment windows all at the same time and then run off. It was a lot more exciting than I'm making it sound! And then we doorbell-ditched the Lemmerts, but they saw us pretty quickly. Older people are so vigilant... #ToCoolToBeFooled
That evening we met with Rusty once again. He's still working on paying off his debts and hopefully avoiding jail time. He has a friend and her two daughters currently living with him. His friend, Jamie, was a friend we'd met back in November around Thanksgiving time. She and her now ex-boyfriend, Tony, were the ones that my old companion and Bro. Bunner taught and testified to while I was pep-talking Rusty into choosing not to get drunk anymore. Funny enough, the pep talk worked...about three months later. We haven't seen Tony at all since then, but Jamie talked to us for a little bit, and we got to meet her two daughters, Patience and Cetieva. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and answered questions. Rusty even had questions about it, so we got to teach and testify to them of the Book of Mormon and taught them how to receive an answer to praying about the Book of Mormon. We told them they needed to pray and wait patiently to receive an answer. Patience enjoyed that :)
On Friday we had a pre-General Conference district lunch. I made pancakes and bacon, and Elder Tanner made scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. They turned out pretty yummy! Saturday morning the sisters and the other elders got a turn to make US lunch :) The elders bought the food, and the sisters, of course, cooked the food. It was perfect food for conference.
Which by the way, General Conference was fantastic and so enlightening. I kept getting nudged during the talks on marriage and post-missionary life. It's like that stuff's going to happen soon or something... And I don't understand what would get someone to oppose sustaining the prophet if they don't really mean to do it. 3rd Nephi 13:5 and 16 give us a good answer though: "...thou shalt not do as the hypocrites...that they may been seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward."
And wow, M. Russell Ballard's talk on raising the bar. I remember hearing that talk for the first time as a youth, and he followed up on it years later! And he told perspective missionaries and RMs to keep the bar raised! A couple conferences ago he even gave a talk on following up, and he did just that. Good job, apostle.
So, one last story. We got invited to a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses for their Easter services on Friday. None of us had ever been before, so we thought we'd check it out. It was very interesting, and it was an overall spiritual service. They passed around the bread and wine in remembrance of the last supper. Only 144,000 people (the Anointed Ones) are allowed to partake of the bread and wine though. Respecting their beliefs, we passed it on. This made me so grateful for the sacrament and the renewal of covenants. Funny enough, we found a less active and an excommunicated member at the service. We hadn't seen both of them in a couple months, so I'm pleased that there was a purpose in all that. We got tons of fellowship after the service, and they gave all of us a New World Translation of the Bible. They were very respectful, and I have a lot of respect for them.
Okay, one last story pertaining to the work. Some interesting events took place with Memery and Zavior. They got attacked by their neighbors... The cops have been involved for a while now, but now they've decided to get out of the situation. They are moving to Holdenville this week, and they will be attending the Seminole branch. They are both on board with the Church still, and they're excited to watch their recording of General Conference. It'll be sad watching them leave, but this will allow them to live in a better situation, and it'll get the ball rolling for Memery.
Not to leave this update on a sad note or anything--this week really was fantastic. A lot of great things happened, and it's going to keep up! We'll work through the mess, even when lightning strikes in a summer storm. God will lift us higher than ever before. I know it.
Elder Garner
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