Oh my. It has been a way too exciting week at home. Way too exciting. I wish I could be there for the excitement of it all. But I'm kinda grateful I wasn't there for some of the excitement. I had a hard enough time taking in the information about Kara's hair experience just reading it. Yikes! I'm glad I didn't have to live through that one. How is she doing? How are you doing Kara? Let me just say that you are a blessed girl to not have to be paying that speeding ticket. Nathan was in the car too when she got pulled over? Nice. I'm expecting a run down from Nathan's point of view on how Kara sweet talked her way out of a ticket. ;)
Holy Smokes! I honestly can't even imagine all that is in store for you guys this coming weekend! I wish I could be a part of it. But its ok. I'm where I need to be. Don't have too much fun without me!
Utah must be the place to hang out at on the 4th of July! Our wonderful investigator family I have told you about are going to Salt Lake City to visit their Mormon family this weekend too. They plan on going to the visitors center again while they are there. They loved the spirit they felt there. We haven't taught them in over 3 weeks. But they promise us that it isn't because they don't want to continue and that it is just because they haven't had the time. They haven't been progressing. So their baptismal date has been put on hold. Honestly, it makes me sad because I know they are the Lord's prepared. I know it. They are just allowing other good and better things on their list of things to do slip above their best things. We are teaching a sweet priorities lesson tonight that is going to spring board us into Sabbath Day observance. I have been brushing it up occasionally here and there and even changing it (due to new needs we learned from each one of our cancelled appointments with them) for the past 3 weeks. Having more than three weeks to prepare this lesson might have not been such a bad thing after all. Ok...actually that's just me trying to look on the bright side of things. But I'm excited for tonight's lesson. Then they will go on vacation and we won't see them till they come back in a little more than a week.
We are finding the Lord's prepared. I love it. But we are also finding people who are a little less prepared...yet at the same time still prepared to at least some extent. And I love the experiences we have with some of these lesser prepared people. It's comical.
Last night, we met a man and began teaching him. He had drank a few beers before we came (I could smell it on his breath) but was very happy and willing to speak with us (who knows how much of his happiness was influenced by the beer and how much was genuine, but we shall see later) on his front porch about what we believe and what we teach. He was especially excited because he loves soccer and we had invited him to come play soccer with us this coming Saturday. Anyways, the back pocket plan was to share a 5-7 min message that explains what we do, get a return appointment and get out of there. It's not that I am scared to speak with drunk people. Truly, I love it (I will explain why in a second), it's just that I know you can only get so far with people who are under the influence (or at least in my experience).
Anyways, about 2 min into our little visit with this man. Right when he was sharing and explaining to us his most recent spiritual experience that God had blessed him with (he was driving absolutely hammered drunk last week, got pulled over, said a prayer to God, and God answered his prayer by helping him pass all the tests the police officer gave him) his friends came back from the store. They walked up, put the beer packs down on the ground and then made some joke about how its the devil's drink before proceeding to ask us, "So, what's the big difference between you guys and everyone else. There are so many churches out there? WHY? Tell me? You can't tell me huh?"
Those are dream questions for a missionary. But like I said earlier. You can only get so far with people under the influence (they were also drunk...and probably even more so than the first guy we were talking to). But my companion hasn't quite figured out that concept yet. So Elder B began going for the restoration message on them (to answer their "golden questions") I tried to come in and smoothly put the lesson on pause for next time, but Elder B wasn't really catching on (I actually think he didn't want to catch on). Things started getting a bit messy between Elder B and our two new guests. He was in over his head. And he turned to me when he realized he had now idea what to do. It was a tough situation he threw me into. But it all worked out all right. Our first drunk friend, the original person we had met, actually ended up coming in for me before I had even said more than a couple sentences and began defending us. It was so funny listening to our drunk amigo try to tell these other drunk guys what we do. Some things were right on and other things couldn't have been farther from the truth.
It was awesome. Not only was he defending us, but he was inviting his friends to sit down, shut up, and learn with him the short lesson we wanted to share. Somehow, they started debating the difference between us and catholics (All without us saying a word). During their debate they decided that the only difference is that they, the Catholics, don't believe in God. They believe in the saints and that is probably bad. And we, the missionaries, believe in God, not the saints, and that is probably better. I wish I could have had it on recording. I had right in front of my face, 3 catholics telling us that they don't believe in God or Jesus Christ. It was ridiculous. And I loved it.
Well,
Till next week!
Have a wonderful 4th of July!
Elder Ostler
