Switching things up today. We're having the spiritual thought come FIRST. It was humility week for us Sulphur elders. In fact, it was humility week for a lot of people in Sulphur. My studies this past week were all about humility. Quite honestly--as unplanned as my study choice was--there's no surprise that humility was to be my topic of study for this week.
A couple stories: On Tuesday we visited Brian, our incredibly prepared investigator. Seriously, he's golden. Whenever we testify to him about the truthfulness of the gospel he stops us and says, "I ain't sayin' I don't believe!" It's sweet! It caught me off guard when he stopped us because we as missionaries are so accustomed to testifying to everyone to help them gain a belief and a knowledge of the truth. But Brian already knows! Anyway, we got over our biggest hurdle with him: teaching the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. He totally understood those commandments and committed to keeping them! His new girlfriend was actually going to stay the night at his house the night we taught him the law of chastity, but then he told his girlfriend she needed to stay somewhere else for the night! Hahaha you go, Brian! The last few visits we've had with him were incredibly spiritual. He really opened up to us about his feelings and why he feels depressed all the time.
Humility story #2: Our inactive member named Mark. Remember the guy that feeds us Pizza Hut and only talks about Hawaii and fishing? Mark is that guy's son. Mark's father, Charles, is a very active member of the church. He's a good guy, but his son is the apple that fell very far from the tree. Mark loves his missionaries. He takes pleasure in stopping by our apartment and asking for professional help. A couple months ago he even called us while he was drunk and asked us to see his wife and get her to talk to him (they were fighting at that time). So you can tell that Mark can be a handful at times. This past week we worked on quitting smoking with him, along with his other word of wisdom problems. Working with him on that is trying everyone's patience. His excuse for not coming to church and not keeping the commandments is because "the scriptures tell us to act like a little child!" He was quoting Mosiah 3:19. Funny he should quote that because THAT would mean that you'd also have to submit to the Lord and keep His commandments! Not only do we teach him how to conquer his addictions, we seal off the loopholes he's made up. We had to explain to him that drinking alcohol is against the word of wisdom no matter what day of the year it is, because he thought it was okay to drink on special occasions such as New Year's Day. So that's Mark.
Our miracle for the week: We met with two less active families this week! The Tinneys and the Riddles! We had dinner at the Tinney's home on Saturday, and we had STEAK! It was SO BIG! And I ATE THE WHOLE THING! Honestly it was the biggest steak I'd ever eaten! I felt like such a man. After dinner we had our little spiritual thought and all. Then Bro. Tinney asked for a blessing to help him with his word of wisdom problem and for the strength to make it to church! It was amazing to witness their whole family being blessed for his courage to ask for God's help. Awe man....what humility.
In other news, the weather is bipolar! It feels like Spring one day, and then it's freezing temperatures the next. Also, transfer calls are coming up next Sunday. I've felt more and more of a feeling that it's my turn to leave. We've really had to humble ourselves before the Lord this week We worked so hard this past week, but it felt like nothing was working and no one was progressing. In all honesty though, the work still moves forward! Have an awesome week, and don't forget to humble yourself and ask the Lord for help.
Elder Garner
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