And just like that, another week flys by. This week we had zone training meeting in Colchester, a wonderful lesson with Bernadette (the one visiting from Ireland), a bonfire, and so on. Overall, a pretty good week.
I think a lot of missionary blogs, including mine, tend to only highlight the good points of the week. Missionary work is NOT easy. We are faced with a lot of opposition each day, and we do have some pretty bad days once in a while. Sometimes we even get a few bad days in a row, luckily that didn't happen this week. Friday was one of those not so good days. Everyone we talked to (or tried to, sometimes people pretend we don't exist when we say hello) rejected us. Honestly I found it pretty hard to carry on at times through out the day. I think what frustrated me the most is when people think they know so much about the Church, and all they really know are false facts they probably read off some sketchy website they found by googling "Mormons". If anyone is curious about anything we believe or do, please just ask one of us. It'll be much easier.
Never the less, we did finish out the day, and the following day was much better. I know that for every rejection, bad day, or F bomb we get, it is just one step closer to a good experience, which are much easier to remember than the bad ones. Luckily the bad experiences fade away fast and are replaced by good ones.
This week we got to have Zone Training Meeting in Ipswich, which got to be a "family reunion" with my brothers. My brothers are the other elders Elder Seely has trained. They are Elder Van Den Broek and Elder Chatora. That, of course, would make Elder Seely my dad, and I was "born" here in the Whitham area. When I end my two year service I will "die", and my companion I have when I die "kills" me, but that is a long ways away.
We had a great lesson with Bernadette this week as well! We brought along Tom Sagripanti from our ward, who is leaving at the end of the month to serve his mission in Argentina. We taught about the role of Joseph Smith and his vision, the Book of Mormon, and praying to know. She accepted what we taught well, and I'm sure the missionaries in Ireland will be very happy to meet her.
Saturday was definitely a good day. We stopped by Phillip, a guy from Jamaica who has been investigating for something like 10 years. All we had planned to do with him was read from the Book of Mormon, but we walked in and to make a long story shorter, he basically said "I want to be baptised as soon as possible because I haven't been able to get it off my mind the past few weeks". I was so excited and happy to hear this! He is ready, the only hurdle we have to overcome is getting him to church. He currently has a job that requires him to work on Sunday, and he would switch it but he would need to drive to work, which he can't currently do. After talking with him, he figured out a way that he can change his schedule to get Sunday off, and work out his transportation. It takes four weeks to get the work change papers through, so our goal with him is a baptismal date of September 13. He is super excited and super motivated and we are too.
What I learned from the bad day on Friday, and turning around on Saturday to put Philip on date, is the promise in Ether 12:6 in the Book of Mormon, which says "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (italics added). I know we are given challenges in life to grow from, even though the challenges might not seem worth it at the time.
Until next week,
Elder Ammermon