May 3, 2006

This week has been somewhat of an eventful one. I was rifling through my planner picking out the fun things that have happened since last time I wrote, and all the cool stuff has happened since Sunday. The end of last week was good too- appointments and what not, but nothing worth making you all read through. But the rest of the stuff is pretty good. Or at least I think so.

Sunday was my first time taking an investigator to Kirtland. That's the only time we can go, and I've really been wanting to see the Joseph Smith movie again. They showed it at the MTC the last night I was there. It's powerful. We went with a family in our ward, and their brother that's not a member. His 3 siblings are all members in our ward (they're grown, not kids). Anyway, we saw the movie which was exelente, but it was stifling hot up there and I may have nodded off for 1.5 seconds. Afterward on of the sisters took us on a tour of the sites. It's all amazing, and for those of you that haven't been in the last 8 months, it's totally redone. They took out the road through the middle and put nice paths through it so it's a lot quieter and nicer. Come check it out sometime and maybe someone I know will give you a tour. Sis. Clove goes out there for 6 months starting June 1. She knows me. Anyway, it was a good experience. Sis. Clove talked to the brother in the car on the way home and it was awesome. Kirtland's amazing for feeling the spirit. It's in the air.

On Monday we had the pleasure of taking our mission president's wife, Sister Motzkus, tracting for her first time in the almost-3 years that she's been here. Elder Dickson came for our last Zone Conference and told her she had to go before she left. She came willingly at first but we picked a dead street and had no success, and she was wearing a sweater and it was sweltering hot. We went back to change and pick another street and we had to drag her out the door to come the second time. Then she wouldn't say anything at the doors until the very last one. It was really cool because I did the approach and said something and she wasn't really interested, we talked for a second and then Sis. Motzkus testified a little about the Book of Mormon and convinced the lady to take a copy. It was cool too cuz the lady's name was Joan, and so is Sister Motzkus'. The lady softened up and it turned out really well, and if Sister Motzkus wasn't there we know we wouldn't have been able to give her a book. Sis. Motzkus was proud of herself too. So now she'll always remember me as one of the sisters that took her tracting. That's a perk of being by the mission home, I never would have gotten to know them since they leave in July.

That night was I think the most awkward experience of my mission yet. We had a appointment to teach Patty. Patty's the mom and Will's her 24 yr old son who we also teach, but this time we were mostly coming for Patty. It's always really sketchy if it'll actually go through, or where we'll teach etc. so haven't dare bring a member with us. First off, Will has a girlfriend, Michelle, that has never really expressed any form of liking us. When we walked up she was sitting outside eating with some friends (this is at an apt.) and she said, "Will's in the shower." We asked about Patty and she said she was sleeping on the couch, so we went in and knocked. Patty woke up and answered but said to come back in 15 min so she could wake more and Will would be out. La dad ah.so we came back, and they didn't answer and Michelle had to come let us in, while not really speaking to us. We get in and Patty's crashed on the couch and Will's apparently in his bedroom getting dressed with loud music on. We awkwardly sit there.and eventually Will comes out and sits down to talk. In the midst of small talk he mentions how Michelle calls us his girlfriends, but he says it's no big deal and declines having the Elders instead. Patty and the other son Kevin (7) are usually there, so it's not a big deal. But the plan was to watch Finding Faith in Christ, so we start putting that on, and Michelle walks in and says, "What ya doing?" to which Will says "watching a movie." Awkward. That didn't sound so good and she ran out w/out an explanation. But she comes back in a few minutes later and demands to talk to Will in the other room. He says "No, I just started the movie." Eventually he talks to her, meanwhile Patty's still crashed on the couch & Sis. Clove and I are sitting there praying our guts out that this won't turn out ugly. Anyway, I don't know what was said, and there were a few more awkward moments that night, but the appointment continued half way normally without interruptions, and we left in one piece. We don't really know what to do with the situation. but Will says he's coming to church. Who knows.

Tuesday, we got kicked out of an apartment complex, and for no good reason this time. It was actually incredibly lame reason to which I wish I had someway to prove my right to be there by the law. But I don't know anything about that, so we had to leave. The story is, we went to visit James (the 85 yr old baptized in Feb) to help him unpack his stuff in his new apartment. We had helped on Saturday with his son Robert who has tried really hard to keep James away from the church. He was actually semi-respectful that day. Anyway, you have to get buzzed in at these apartments, and James didn't have a code yet b/c his phone wasn't hooked up. We buzzed the leasing agent who's been working with James to have her let us in. We explain the situation and she asks who we are and says that Robert had warned her about us and said that we're trouble and not to let us in because James doesn't want to see us. We stood there dumbfounded and then a man walked out the door so we went in anyway. The lady must have suspected that and she runs down the hall and shoos us out. She says something about how there's no soliciting.which we weren't going to do.and says if we don't leave she's gonna call the cops. We told her to ask James if he wanted to see us but she wouldn't. We tried to explain to no avail, and a man pokes out that's a friend of the lady and says he's calling the cops right now. So we got pushed out the front door. I was kindof wishing I had waited for the cops to come and see what they'd say, but we played submissive and left. It's kindof a cool experience when bad things happen but you weren't doing anything wrong. Then you don't have to feel bad about it, other than how wrong people are by doing that. We still haven't been back... we need to get it resolved somehow first.

Lastly, yesterday was our first extra bold tracting day. We read the talk "Challenging and Testifying Missionary" and gave it a shot and it was awesome. We said something along the lines of.we are called by God to share that God has called a prophet for our day and Christ's church has been restored to the earth through him. God loves you and wants you to enjoy the blessings of the fullness of His gospel. Will you repent and prepare yourself to be baptized into Christ's church? More or less. You could tell that people were stunned and a few people actually listened because of that. It made tracting so much more fun because the spirit was there so strong.

That's most of the lively experiences. We're going to the Cleveland Zoo today, so we have 2 hours to do all our random errands. I think 4 other companionships are coming too, so it'll be fun. That's it for now. Hey, and let me know how you all are. That'll be fun to read.