First Door Slammed In Evan's Face

My last question was more of a personal interpretation one

Why does God love us?

So we were knocking around a members home, and one time the door opened, we started talking, the person said not intrested and closed the door in our face. It was the first one like that, most people are religious so they at least say, we really think what you are doing is cool. But as we decided in the MTC, YES ADVERSITY! If it was easy, it would not be good, we are given difficulties in life so we can grow.

 Also in that neighborhood we knocked on a door and heard, "it's the pizza man!" And we were like, what a disappointment, could we interest you in eternal life?. They were pretty good at hiding their disappointment though. 

Than we had district meeting [missionary training], we talked about how Jesus Christ was our cornerstone and prophets was our foundation. Joseph Smith was a prophet and we can know that by reading the Book of Mormon, "by their fruits he shall know them", I have read it and know it is another testament of Jesus Christ. We also are having interviews next Tuesday. [meet with the Misison President who is in charge of everything]

On Tuesday, Natalie called and said she wasn't sure about getting baptized, and so we said pray about it until our next meeting and call back. So Natalie called back, about 10 minutes later and said she called off everything, she said she was talking to her mother, and she doesn't want to do it.  Elder B set a 5 minute timer to mope. Than she called us again and said she will keep thinking about it, so who knows, we get to keep praying!

We met with the P family and they are progressing nicely. They came to church again and they are loving it. Alicia still keeps asking us if she can get baptized. The mom is less active and so Bishop wants to have her kids help her remember how great church was, and so he is making us hold off until the mom gets back to being active. But if 2 months of work pays off, than we are going to be SO excited.

We than had dinner at the B family and they were AWESOME. They are ward missionaries, they have been married for a year, and they are hilarious. Also they cook really well. We had chicken breast cooked in cheese and salsa verde. It was so good. Then for dessert they made 3 layer bars, with crushed pretzels, butter and sugar, whooped cream, and on top strawberries and jello. It was delicious to the taste. Also they were cracking jokes and telling stories the whole entire time. They are great. Than we started exchanges. I went with Elder K to his area, Highlands. Elder K is from Minnesota and he also had a sense of humor, he also is really good at his studies, he can really look where he is at and study so he can make changes to improve. We had a great day, we walked a lot and saved them a lot of miles, we talked to a guy who asked us why is there so many hurricanes and suffering if God loves us. So we tried to help him understand that we have suffering to help us grow, we learn when we make tough choices in tough circumstances. And those that do die, if they were good people get to go to heaven which is a much happier place than the craziness we live in. We also talked to a guy who is on date [scheduled for baptism], but he relapsed and has been drinking a lot, he was so sad, he was asking why do bad things happen to him even though all he does is sit in the apartment? We shared that we can't hide from our problems, we will all face challenges no matter where we are at. He was afraid to go outside and do stuff, but the only way you can beat fear is by facing it head on.

We also learned about the 7th day Adventists, they had left fliers at the doors in the neighborhood where we were checking up on people. They made some good points and some interesting points. They talked a lot about three angels, also about the apostasy. Apparently that they are also based in Silver Spring MD, I didn't know that. The ones I have met seem like really nice people. So far I have met three nonreligious people, the rest are Christian of some shape or size. 

Also I read Helaman 5 and it talked about our names and how we need to try to live up to them. I don't want to let the Bearman name down. Also in our baptismal covenant we take Christ's name on ourselves so we need to try to not let him down by our actions either. We won't be perfect but we should try our best to be like him.

Also on exchanges I had one of the best meals I have ever had. She made taco bell tacos, but everything was fresher and tastier. Also the meat was chorizo which is the STUFF! 

Thursday was temple day! I love the temple, so pretty so calming. I also saw lots of famous missionaries. Lots of stories and now I know which missionary did what crazy thing. Also we learned we are having a zone activity next pday. It was 70 degrees Thursday and Friday, I think, and it was almost cold, and Sunday was beautiful weather, 80 with a light breeze. Everyone was mowing their lawns. Also we are now at war with Verizon. We were teaching Charlene a lesson and one knocked on the door and started selling them cable. The spirit was gone so we ended up leaving. We saw them another time near a house of an investigator so we hustled over and waited to knock until they passed by.

Also we have another set of missionaries in our complex so every once in a while they stop over. One is a district leader as well so they come over and the other companion and I just mess around while they do their leadership call in stuff. Elder N and I kicked a ball around and tried to do crazy juggling and spin kicks, we were using a toy ball so we didn't even break anything! But they have this weird popcorn ceiling paint so whenever the ball hit the ceiling the paint chips would fall down. I had to do quite a bit of vacuuming this morning.

ATTENTION PEOPLE WHO KNOW MY BASKETBALL SKILLS, I HIT 2 THREES IN THE RUN OF PLAY THURSDAY MORNING, MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!

Than we did some gardening which is nice. I love helping people move and gardening. Hopefully that continues after my mission as well, the elders quorum would love me. Then the craziness began...

We had lessons with investigators at 3, 4, 5, dinner at 6, stopped by an investigator at 6:30, and at 7. All of the lessons were good. We invited 2 to church, one to see if she can get Sunday's off so she can come to church. Unfortunately none did come to church, but maybe next time! Every Sunday you never know who is going to walk in the doors. Dinner we had pot roast but the real star of the show was these cheese garlic biscuits. They are beautiful. Than during 12 week at 8 [not sure what this is] the youth had an activity so I got some ice cream, it had been a while. We then had a door knocking blitz where I would knock on the door and Elder B would be some random character, it was very similar to that one cabin pressure [British Radio comedy show], mystery passenger. It was alot of fun and challenged me to think of how to talk to people. I am still working on the whole talking to strangers thing. 

Saturday the stake had a huge family expo thing and we went and helped out so people got to see us a bit and not think that we are inhuman robots. Also they had funnel cake, and some really good watermelon.

Also I have this thing where I hate bothering people, but Elder B put me straight, he said I need to be bold (which is true), because we are trying to have these people change to be more like Christ, you need to not hold back and worry, we are working for the Lord, I can't just be passive. So humility and boldness are what I am working on for this week.

Sunday was a bit disheartening, only one person came to sacrament [church meeting], I am happy for them but so many others are missing out. If you add up our key indicators you get 2, for you returned missionaries, 4 key indicators added up equal 2. We also taught a full restoration to the nicest family, but they wouldn't even try reading the Book of Mormon, they were fine with just the Bible. It was that sort of week. But we were out there setting a good example and good image so hopefully, we planted the seeds for down the road.

I now know why their is a sealed portion of the Book of Mormon. Or at least a theory, it's because it would distract us and confuse us. I think it might be a lot like revelations, hard to understand stuff that really leads people down crazy roads, and distracts them from Jesus Christ. We met a guy who was so focused on the end of the world and other stuff in Revelations, he didn't care about much else scripturewise. One thing I have learned is that the Gospel is simple and can be understood by children. Luke 18:17, that is something that I had to work on. I like making things complicated for fun, with the Gospel, there is no need to make it complicate, it actually hinders people's learning. 

We also had dinner with a really cool family, the B Family. They have a son and a married daughter living with them. The son played for San Diego State football. He was a large man. There was also three girls running around. It was pandemonium, and it was awesome. They also gave us salad which is something I really appreciated. The football guy also cooked a MEAN steak. It was just an enjoyable, relaxing, and happy experience, family is wonderful!

I read Helaman this week, and I have realized that Nephi the son of Helaman is awesome, I also like Helaman 11:19, I hope that if Josh somehow becomes more famous than me, I don't get extremely jealous and do nothing but complain, I hope that like Lehi I will try to be awesome as I can be.

We played a fun game called 42 this morning, you have teams one shoots THREES and every make is 2 points, if the other team taps it each person can touch it once, than they get one point. Also an airball is an automatic point for the other team. We played this because our Elder Everson twisted his ankle when we were playing regular basketball.

 

I don't think I forgot anything,

Elder Bearman

PS if anyone needs to send an email, there is someone who could use an email, 

I don't like Verizon's competition

Here it was somewhere sunny and 75

Sorry but there's no pizza