Well hello!
Just
like that, it's been another week in Kitimat. Well, it's been a week
everywhere. But in my world, it's just been a week in Kitimat.Life has
been good, though! The work has been moving forward in Kitimat, and
we've been blessed. It's also finally getting dark at 10:30, so it
doesn't feel like it's eternally daytime because you're sleeping during
the few hours of darkness. Can't complain.
This week, we had a
pretty awesome miracle at the end of one of our dinner appointments at
the Syphus home. (Mother D, do you look at her food blog? If so, you
should try to make the fluffy brown sugar icing. It's called something
like that. Apparently it's pretty popular, and she found the recipe from
Sis. Bonnell, who is a widow in the branch whose attic we have been
cleaning because she's planning on moving soon. Sis. Bonnell was pretty
happy that it became popular.) We were just wrapping up our spiritual
thought and were about to leave, when there was a knock at the door. It
was Ron, who was apparently someone who Sis. Syphus wasn't necessarily
friends with, but they always would run into each other around town and
their kids were friends from school. So, his father in law had just
died, and his wife was at work trying to finish her shift, and he said
that he was having a really hard time with it and just didn't know where
to go. So... he "randomly" just felt like he should go to the Syphus
home. Right when we were there. As we were leaving, we talked to him
about what we do as missionaries and invited him to meet with us, and he
said that him and his wife would be "very interested". It's a miracle
how they've been prepared. They aren't very religious, but they have
faith in God, and apparently the members of the church in Terrace did a
lot of nice things for them, so they have a high opinion of the church.
And now, in this time of need, they are ready for the gospel. It's very
cool to see how God prepares people and then puts them in your path. All
of the variables that need to be in place for that to happen really are
too great for that to just be some coincidence.
In areas they keep
track of how many lessons you teach each week, and if you look in the
history of really small areas you can tell that missionaries get into
death spirals where they don't have anybody to teach, there aren't a lot
of members to do member work with, so they're left with nothing to do
but tract all day. And there aren't that many doors to knock, and so
you're left visiting the same people over and over again, who, if not
given enough time between visits, can start to get annoyed, and so the
missionaries get discouraged and... well. It's not productive. And so
it's very cool to see that if you have faith and work hard, you don't
get into death spirals. God puts people in your path, and you will have
people to teach. And even in this little area, we keep on finding new
people to talk to.
We had some other
miracles in the work, as well. One former investigator we talked to when
we first got into the area, but he wasn't ready to meet with
missionaries, so we put him back in the reflecting pool. After a few
months, we dropped by, at a good discussion about agency and 2 Nephi 2
and now he's promised to sincerely find out if the Book of Mormon is
true. He's the guy who is satisfied with his Anglican beliefs, but
"doesn't want to be like the Jews who didn't think that Jesus Christ had
anything to offer them, so I keep meeting with you guys". We also found
a less active guy, Tom, who was baptized in Langley many years ago, and
doesn't remember too much about what we believe. But he's retired and
alone, and looking for something more in his life. Conveniently a few
months ago, he started living the Word of Wisdom again because he was
out of cigarettes when all the stores were closed and he started looking
for butts in ashtrays to try to use to get a nicotine fix. He took a
step back, said "I'm better than this" and quit. So he's been prepared
to start coming back to church too! The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Missions
are awesome. Too many experiences to pick from... one shirtless tattooed
former drug dealer that we talked to on a more run-down street started
talking to us about our faith, and then insisted on feeding us dinner.
We told him we were going to be busy, but could come back when we had
made some time to eat, and when we came back he was pounding steaks to
tenderize them, and he made us this gourmet steak dinner. We ate it
sitting on his front lawn as people walked by, kind of weirded out. Good
times. The guy wasn't ready to hear our message, but the world is
filled with good people!
Well, the church is
true! We see miracles every day. It's good to hear that there's lots of
exciting stuff at home. Is it really time for school to start already?
No way. Jed; good luck at football! Jacey: keep tickling the ivories.
You'll be a great pianist. Talk to you all next week!
Elder Blotter
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| Beautiful Kitimat |
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