This halloween on the mission was a lot different from the one last year in the Mexico City MTC. Last time we had Mexican candy, and there were a lot of fireworks and police sirens. This year, the Barneys had invited us over to dinner, and invited us to get to know some of their neighbors afterwards. The Barneys served missions in Russia and Washington State, so they were a really cool young couple. Their friends were even more interesting. The man was from the Chzek Republic and is finishing up his PhD at UTSA, his wife was from the Congo and managed a bank somewhere in Austin. They were both Catholic, and were just really open to talking about it. They said, so you have 88,000 missionaries serving 2 year missions. So what's the mission, what's the goal? They seemed to know their books pretty well, so I said, We believe Christ leads our church through revelation just as he did through his apostles shortly following his earthly ministry, we also believe in the prophecies of the gathering of israel in the last days; we have been called by Christ to gather Israel from all parts of the earth in preparation for his second coming as testified in the introduction to the Book of Mormon.
They thought that made sense. I love that it just makes such good sense. Another neighbor came halfway through who was from Germany and asked us for a book of Mormon in German she could have before she went back to the mother land. It was great that we had that appointment because otherwise we would've had to have been in our aprtment by 6 on halloween.
They thought that made sense. I love that it just makes such good sense. Another neighbor came halfway through who was from Germany and asked us for a book of Mormon in German she could have before she went back to the mother land. It was great that we had that appointment because otherwise we would've had to have been in our aprtment by 6 on halloween.
There was a confusion with some of the transfers (oh yeah, it was real transfers last week and Elder Dewitt and I are staying in Anderson Mill) as 3 companionships were doubled out of the zone. The sisters in the McNeil ward passed off an investigator to us who was attending their ward named John. He has a lot of qualms with the church. He believes God wants him to keep studying and learning about it, he's reading the Book of Mormon for the second time, but there are a lot of things he feels he can't fully assimilate to, not out of physical disability, but out of the principle. One such being the Word of Wisdom. Why would that be a requirement for baptism if it was not given by way of commandment? Another is, Why are people so irreverent in the chapel - and not in the catholic chapel? Things like that. So he's getting nit-picky, but it is making me study more thoroughly. I think he has a point about irreverence. The Word of Wisdom is a calibrater to determine how willing a person is to become a desciple of Jesus Christ, since we've also been taught that God gives us no temporal but only spiritual commandmentes, and that were are commanded to live by every word that comes form the mouth of God and whether it comes by the mouth of God or his servants it is the same.
We taught 4 female college roommates from Concordia Lutheran School with a recently returned missionary named Paul. We said, paul, we won't say anything, just smile at them and everything will work out alright. He did great.
They actually did have a lot of really good questions for us and all accepted reading and praying about the Book of Mormon so we'll check back in on that this Tuesday. When we transfer them over to the sister missionaries we'll see how interested they really are.
I interviewed 2 people for baptism for the Mt Bonnell ward. One was really ready, the other was not. It was the first time i'd had to indicate that, and help a person to take additional time and preparation to accept the baptismal covenant. She was really angry at me, but it sounds like she's had some good experiences this week in continuing to prepare.
I appreciate your prayers!
We taught 4 female college roommates from Concordia Lutheran School with a recently returned missionary named Paul. We said, paul, we won't say anything, just smile at them and everything will work out alright. He did great.
They actually did have a lot of really good questions for us and all accepted reading and praying about the Book of Mormon so we'll check back in on that this Tuesday. When we transfer them over to the sister missionaries we'll see how interested they really are.
I interviewed 2 people for baptism for the Mt Bonnell ward. One was really ready, the other was not. It was the first time i'd had to indicate that, and help a person to take additional time and preparation to accept the baptismal covenant. She was really angry at me, but it sounds like she's had some good experiences this week in continuing to prepare.
I appreciate your prayers!
I love you!
Stay Salty!
Stay Salty!
Elder Tyler Meidell
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