What have you been doing on P-days (besides writing us)?
Cleaning, Emails, Shopping, Sleeping/Drawing, and then back to work. Although today was different. We drove out about an hour and a half to go meet with a less active and go on a hike with them. It was absolutely beautiful. We took some pictures, but I don’t think they did the hike any justice. We got Fish and Chips afterwords (Good seafood isn’t cheap, and cheap seafood isn’t good, so the seafood we had must not have been cheap).
We are going to try to go fishing one of these days, but we just haven’t yet. There isn’t really too much more to do around here, it’s just the two of us, so we can’t really play very many sports, and the ones we could play Elder Phillips, as he would as be amused to hear me say would “kick my trash”. To be honest, we’re so tired from the rest of the week, sleeping is pretty much the best thing ever.
What is your favorite thing about missionary work?
Meeting good people. It’s always a joy to find good people, even if they’re not at all interested in our message.We ran into a lady the other day who seemed like she was going to attack us and force us to drink car cleaner fluid because we talked to her, her neighbor screamed at us before we even made it to the door step, and their neighbors had one of their kids come to the door to tell us they weren’t home (we saw them in the house, and it was a little funny because the kid had a tough time lying to us.) However, we did meet one person on that street who was very kind to us. He said that he wasn’t interested in our church, but could appreciate what we did, and told us that we were good young men. That made that entire street worth the tracting.
We also recently were invited by some Baptists to an informal meeting they call “arise”. They saw us walking down the street, and asked us if we wanted to come. We said sure, and while walking through town, we saw them writing on a sign “Happy hour” the hour before the meeting. We got kind of scared by that, so we practiced telling them that we couldn’t stay if they were drinking alcohol. However, when we got there, they had finished writing the sign which said “Happy Hour, $1 hot chocolates and coffee”. So we went in. We sat down, and they had what they called a “testimony meeting”. Elder Phillips and I both though that we were being set up because of how nice they were being to us, especially when the last speaker went up and started talking about how some people are lost. But it was just a good meeting. We were able to talk to some of them afterwards, and they genuinely wanted us there. They were just being nice, and they fed us and gave us free hot chocolate. They said that they were trying to create an informal type of meeting where people could come and learn about Jesus, and that they felt like we would appreciate it. The lady who stopped us said she “just felt like I had to feed you”. It was awesome, and they even asked if Elder Phillips wanted to share his testimony next month. I think we found a great place we may find investigators, or at least be fed every month.
How long has Elder Phillips been out?
Five months. He’s great, although he doesn’t laugh at any of my jokes, and we have totally different interests, but it has been great.
What do you do on Sunday’s, do they give you assignments at church?
I have had to teach a lesson, give a talk (less then 24 hours notice, 20 minute talk), sacrament every week, and we’re on the roster to clean the chapel.
Have you been able to teach a lesson and what is that like?
We have only had sit down lessons with one investigator, Mark (I think I’ve told you about him before, he has a mental disability). It was alright, but its very different from how we’ve been trained to do it. He doesn’t really answer any questions we ask him, and pretty much takes everything we say as true, except for the pre-mortal existence (unusually stubborn about that, we’ve taught the book of Mormon, prophets, dispensations, asking God to know his own answers, and he believed it, but any time we bring up the pre-mortal existence he doesn’t really let us get a word in edgewise) and he doesn’t want to be baptized, even though he knows what he needs to do to be with God again.
As far as everyone else goes, mostly just quick doorstep lessons. We talk about their lives a little while, share a scripture, share our testimonies, and then leave. Teaching people on the streets has been hard, mostly because I have a hard time talking to people about things I know nothing about (the usual topics are the rugby teams, Islander ancestry, and Elder Phillips favourite, surfing). I have had a little success talking to fishermen though (thanks Dad! (PS, it was father’s day yesterday down here, so happy fathers day)).