August 15,2016

We have an investigator named Isaac who came to church and is second
guessing baptism. It seemed like he was bored. It's ridiculous to
think that most churches are all about entertaining the crowd, that
isn't what it's all about. Most churches will provide refreshments
when you walk in including donuts, coffee and muffins. Then for 30
minutes they have rock bands playing that you can sing along to. Then
after they are enticed by worldly things, then the preacher thinks
it's ok to talk about God. It's like fishing, they lure people in with
things that look good but it's not. A lot of churches change doctrine
and ignore most of the bible that doesn't seem pleasing to those
listening. Christ always taught things that many people didn't want to
hear and he never hired bands or passed out refreshments. It's like
the scripture "They draw near to me with their lips but their hearts
are far from me." They talk of God but they are in it for money and
pleasure; not happiness and building up the kingdom of God (see 1
Nephi 22:23). And there's a church around here that has a sign which
says, "tired of following rules? Come worship the way you want to."
What the heck? If you look at 2 Nephi 2:13 it blows that statement out
of the water. Church isn't about fun. In a few churches they also talk
horribly about Mormons and teach incredibly false doctrine. Christ
never talked bad about another church or told people what other
churches believe. He only taught his gospel and invited others to
follow. I just don't get how people can claim to be on God's side and
do things so contrary to Christ's teachings. But that's how Satan
works. He entices people with what they want to hear and distorts the
truth and causes people to hate those who are doing good. This is the
true church. If you read my email last week the talk "The blueprint of
Christ's church" was quoted and I explained how we are the only ones
who follow the same set up and teachings of Christ. There's a
scripture in the bible, I believe it's Paul talking and he said, why
would you name your church after anyone other than Jesus Christ? Did I
die for your sins? Did I make this church? No, Jesus did. I think
that's so interesting as well because every church I can think of that
revolves around the bible seems to miss that. I don't know of any
other church named the church of Jesus Christ. Nor do I know of any
other church with prophets, apostles, bishops, priests etc like it
says to have in the bible. But they seem to miss that.

That's my little missionary input for the week. Hopefully as time goes
on they'll get better and sound less like lectures or rants. But
that's just what I've been thinking of. Now for my week-

Monday:
Someone got a bunch of groceries for us and it was very nice. There
are times when you feel very loved and very hated. It's very ying
yangy, black and white, no gray. Today I felt what they call drunky.
It's like homesickness. I just miss everyone but it's ok, when I work
tomorrow I'll feel better. I find that when I work harder I am less
homesick. So work hard.

Tuesday:
Well today we had no lessons because that's how the cookie crumbles.
But most of the day was crazy anyways. We had meetings and we moved
the two elders who were staying with us into their new apartment. And
I'm kind of jealous. It's a really nice apartment with new everything.
But oh well, I have clean water and electricity.

Wednesday:
Lots of service. Almost all day. Nothing too special except that I
totally ate concrete on my bike. I was peddling without gripping on
the handlebars because I'm cool like that. Then my bike hit a bump
causing my front tire to skid on a curb and I flew off and slapped the
ground and slid and rolled a couple times. But I've taken so many
falls with my ridiculous stunts that I know how to fall with whatever
grace is still available. So it didn't hurt, just looked bad and was
flipping hilarious. I was just talking to my companion the other day
about how often missionaries fall. He said he has never heard of one
falling (except for those who get hit by cars which is surprisingly
often here)...until now. Now how can you relate that to the gospel?
You have to grip with both hands to the iron rod. If we don't firmly
grasp to the word of God then we may seem cool at first, and then we
will fall.

Thursday:
We went tracting and literally every single person was Muslim. I don't
know why but there's as many Muslims here as there are white people. I
thought there'd be half black and half white here, but there's more
Muslims than blacks. And they don't like our beliefs much nor do they
want to hear about Jesus. But at night on our way home someone in the
Walmart parking lot yelled to us, "hey are you missionaries?" Then we
taught him the restoration. He apparently goes to our church to play
basketball so already is familiar. He isn't in our ward so we have to
refer him but we gave him a Book of Mormon.

Friday:
We gave a church tour today. Basically you just go around the church
and explain things and bear testimonies. It went well. But the guy was
trying to figure it out intellectually. It's the most annoying thing
in the world. I can prove all this is true with facts but it won't
stick. He needs to feel it but he isn't trying to pay attention to the
spirit. We can't ever fully understand the gospel because we are men
trying to understand God. It won't ever happen. We will never come
close to comprehending it.

Jacob 4:8 says:
"Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How
unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is
impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth
of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise
not the revelations of God."

Mosiah 4:9 says:
"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things,
both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all
power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not
comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."

Saturday:
I fell asleep on my knees his morning so there's a missionary
achievement. We did service and got cancelled on a lot again so we
went tracting. I learned earlier this week that sacrifice brings
blessings because it shows our dedication to God and that we are
willing to give up something. I wanted to experiment and I applied
that and gave something up this week. I prayed that in return I'd find
someone solid that we could maybe baptize. I was nervous though
because we were busy and didn't have time to find anyone new. Well we
are at the last day of the week and because of cancellations we went
tracting. We found no one. Then we went to dinner and had more people
fall through afterwards. So we prayed where we should go and went
there. Still nothing. But God works in cool ways. On the way home I
stopped someone, not too far from the complex. He was interested,
wanting to get into religion and willingly gave us all his info and
said to come to his house. That doesn't happen very often. So sweet!

Sunday:
Well I know what kind of car I'm getting when I'm older. I rode to
church today in a tesla that parks itself, unparks itself and drives
to you, drives itself, uses no gas, goes 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, gets 300
miles per 20 minute charge (soon to be 500 miles) is controlled by
your phone, and on an official safety scale from 0-100 was ranked 103
because it exceeds everything. So that's my new dream. I got on a
trampoline for the first time again and I slayed it. I forgot how much
I love doing flips and for the most part I was still shredding the
rubber.