Week #39 - Tubular Tubes

Good day to everyone!
This will be quite the packed email. Lots to write home about. For starters, my greenie is getting transferred...and my new companion will be yet another greenie. Prayers would be greatly appreciated. I'm a little nervous.

Next up, I hate to burst everyone's bubble (mine burst this week as well) about the reverend, but here's the story which was actually a pretty spiritual experience albeit pretty disappointing: Turns out the "member of the Seventy" was someone who used to be a seventy (back when that was a calling a lot of men had in the church...not the actual quorum of the Seventy) and he's kind of one of those guys who's WAY gung-ho about missionary work and very "everybody's ready." Not that that's a bad thing...it can sometimes prove to be a bit of a disappointment to missionaries however. So, my Ward Mission Leader talked to the man that referred the reverend on the phone, and was told for about twenty minutes how ready the reverend was and how the missionaries just needed to be bold and get in the door and how they just love missionaries. Anyway, we went to the house ready to baptize this man and having said many prayers that we'd say the right things. His wife answered the door and was friendly- but she told us how they told their friend (the seventy) NOT to send us (he had given them a heads up that we were coming) and politely told us not to come back. So, having been sufficiently humbled, we walked to the car wondering if we just weren't following the spirit well enough and if we went about it the wrong way. I felt really impressed to go back the next day at five o'clock. I knew that at the very least we had to catch HIM there and not his wife (kind of a long shot...how often are ninety year old couples separated?). The next day, after again- MANY prayers that this would all work out- that the reverend would be the only one home, that he would answer the door, that we would say the right things, and his heart would be softened, we went to the door. I had no idea what I was going to say to this guy when I rang the doorbell. He came to the door, I introduced myself, and he flipped out and told us he was a minister and we were told NEVER to come back so DON'T come back- and then he slammed the door.The reason this was a spiritual experience for me (even though it was difficult) is because absolutely everything that we prayed for that Heavenly Father actually had full control over was granted. He was home, his wife was not, he answered the door...but sadly, agency was the only thing God couldn't control, and obviously, the reverend didn't use it in the way we were hoping him to. And, what's even better, is we had NO chance to convince him to let us in. He gave us no room to talk or explain, and thus we left that house knowing for sure that there was absolutely no way that was going to work out. We weren't left wondering if we could have said something different that would have gotten us in or anything. So yeah. Didn't work out, but my testimony has been strengthened.

Nine months out on the second of April. I could have had a baby by now. We're way close to baptism with ol' Jim P. Pretty exciting. He's 74 years old and he's made a TON of progress. His son's going to fly out from North Carolina to do the baptism (whenever that might be). Speaking of baptisms, I attended probably the best one ever on Saturday. The spirit was way strong and I got to sing Come Thou Font which was a nice plus. It went really well. Pants. Anyway, that about wraps it up. Write me letters. I've gotten very little mail for about three weeks now.

Please make sure it's very evident on the blog that I need a LOT of mail. Hee.

Elder B