Dear Family,
Grandpa mentioned the guy in testimony meeting and about his touching testimony. He also mentioned that he bore his testimony and that it was his usual unorthodox testimony. He also said that I should ask you about it. So what did he end up saying?
That's funny about James. Yes it gets cold up there and the fact that there is already snow in the ground probably isn't a good sign. We thankfully have had a really good fall season. It hasn't been too cold lately, no snow yet, although it’s overcast today and has been sprinkling off and on.
The mission home is three stories, so the elders stayed in basement and I slept on the ground level. As for the panic attack, I was really confused why she was stressed out and was a little amazed that she wouldn't try. But then again maybe we weren't supposed to knock on that door- I don't know, I didn't feel anything. I tried to understand her feelings. We decided to drive back and contact people in an area she was more familiar with and she was fine the rest of the day.
We had a real cool week, starting off with preparation day. We did our shopping early and fast so that we could get to the church building. We played soccer and volleyball for a good three or four hour. Elder Nelson (really good) taught me the fundamentals on how to jump serve so that was pretty sweet. Then that night because our president didn't want us out and about we and two other companionship's (elders) went to the institute building. We originally had planned to watch the Joseph Smith movie, but ended up playing ping pong, writing letters and talking. It was a really fun night. The elders are funny as well as great examples. I was over at the piano playing Christmas songs and Elder Merkley came over and gave me a piano lesson. It’s funny, he's not the greatest at reading notes, we're both at the same level as far as reading notes but he's kind of a composer. So if he hears something he can usually figure it out. And then he'll also goof around on the piano playing and it always sounds amazing. Anyways, he tried to teach me how to count notes. Kind of helped. But I still need practice at it. Then later that night we were talking about dreams that we had and Elder Merkley told us a dream he had the other night. There were three elders and then I was there. We were doing exchanges in a hotel. (Ya that could never happen) We were practicing our door approaches and it was my turn to go. I knock and this big black lady answers the door. And I say "Hi, we locked our keys in the car, our piano is still inside, would you be interested in learning more about our church?" Supposedly I thought this was a great door approach. (Haven't tried it yet). Don't know if it would go over too well.
Wednesday Sister Shutt and I attended a Pentecostal church bible study. Way cool! We have a former investigator who attends and he invited us. Very very different from anything I have ever experienced. Everyone had a title that they went by, evangelist so and so, deacon, elder... We started off with a prayer/sermon from the youth pastor. I lost count of how many times he used amen in a sentence. It was a filler word. And then his son who is 5 started rocking out on the drums. Ya I think we'll go back. They were all very friendly and it was a great discussion. They talked about modesty. I know all about that. We had lessons on modesty all the time in YW.
Thursday we blitzed our area. So the Elders in our zone came and helped us tract our area. It was an awesome day, minus the weather. I think that Satan was trying to deter us because it rained most of the time. I don't even remember when I lost feeling in my toes. But the work but most go on. Sister Shutt and I are doing much better on our door approaches, in fact maybe a little too good. Saturday night after dinner we went out tracting because we hadn't reached our goal for street lessons. The first door we knocked on we feel easily into a conversation and then Sister Shutt asked the man if he believed in God. He kind of looked at us and asked us why we were interrogating him? Took us a both a second to respond to that, but then we explained that we didn't mean to offend him, but that we are both so passionate about the gospel and want everyone to feel the happiness and joy that comes when they follow God.
Sunday we finally had one of our investigators come to church. Ed our homeless guy, who we found out isn't really homeless. He has a family out in North Carolina but can't leave Champaign until he cleans up a few things here. He actually called Sunday morning trying to cancel, but I was able to call him back and reassure him that coming to church would be the best thing he could do for himself. He has a lot of baggage that he is carrying around on his shoulders and I know that it’s only through our Savior Jesus Christ that he can relieve that weight. After the block I talked with Bro. Lee our fellowshiper about how Ed enjoyed Priesthood, he seemed to enjoy it and actually participated. Which is awesome. The only incident we had with Ed was that we lost him after Sacrament. We couldn't find him for five minutes, turned out he was outside having a smoke. We haven't talked to him about the word of wisdom yet. That's this week’s lesson. And also on Sunday Sister Shutt and I had the privilege to attend High Priest group meeting. They invited us and our WML to come and speak, our bishop is hoping that that would help get the members in the ward more excited about missionary work.
Love Hans
