Well, this week has been a pretty good week I think! We have had some ups and downs and some funny events, and I have a pretty good story to tell.
So, lets start with the good first. Sister M. and her 3 kids came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time and totally loved it! So that was super exciting! They are all excited to get baptized, but because this was the first time coming to church, they have to come one more time before they can be baptized, so their baptismal date is now for the 9th of February. But we are fairly certain it is going to happen, so that is awesome! We were able to go out to her house this week with Bishop and his wife to teach them a lesson, and they immediately bonded a friendship together, so that was awesome and so helpful! Now Sister M. can feel like she has some friends and support in the church other than just the missionaries, which is so important, especially for when we transfer. So that is super exciting!
So, for the not so good part, but the funny/sad story. So, we had stopped teaching Pak D. for a little while, but went back last week to try again. He had become a lot better and began to progress again. He even tried to come to church last week. So we went and visited him again this week. Well, this week, things quickly changed. We showed up and saw him with a bunch of Anti-Mormon literature, and immediately knew the lesson was not going to go well. Well, we started and he asked us what we wanted to teach. We started teaching about the Priesthood, but after less than 5 minutes, he just went off on all these things that he had found out were wrong about the church. He had all these verses from the Bible to back his stuff up, but the only problem was that he didn't understand the background information behind the verses, or he misunderstood the church's stand on things, or he strewed things out of context and did not want to listen to our explanation. So we just stood there and testified to him, because we could have argued but with him it would not have gotten us anywhere. Well, at the end of his rant, he went on to tell us how wrong we were and that he hoped maybe someday we would realize the error of our ways. But if not, he said, and these are his words as close as I can remember and translate: "At the great and final day of Judgement, God will judge you and tell you that you were wrong and had been led astray. Then, when He asks you if anyone ever told you or showed you that you were wrong according to the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will have to honestly answer yes. And God will want witnesses, and I will stand as a witness against you before God at your judgment, and testify against you that I told you and showed you the error of your ways, and God will judge you accordingly." He said some other stuff along with it, in the same sort of context, but I can't remember it all. But basically he just condemned us and told us that we were damned. So that was interesting. But the cool thing was that after hearing that all and still testifying, I left with a stronger testimony than I went in with, even though some of his points almost seemed to make sense. But we left there and laughed almost the whole way home, because we were just so incredulous at what had just happened, and we couldn't believe how quickly things there turned for the worse. But I feel bad for him as well, because oh how sad he will be when in all reality the tables are turned. Only the difference is I don't want to stand as a witness against him, that is not something that would make me happy or bring me joy, so I hope that doesn't happen. I hope somewhere down the road he realizes the error of his ways and comes to see the light. But I don't think visits from us anytime soon are going to help him with that...
So ya, those were the biggest events of this week, the rest of the week was pretty normal - lots of proselyting, which is funny here. We just ride up to people on the street in neighborhoods and tell them we are missionaries and ask where the Christians live, then go where they tell us to go. It doesn't bring much success usually, but every once in a while we find someone open to meet with us.
I got the package this week. Thank you guys so much! It was awesome! So much good junk food and whatnot! I am set on good food for a while now! In fact, it will be a problem if I transfer too soon, so I better start sharing! But the best part is always the letters! Those are what I most look forward to each week in emailing and in the packages! I'm sorry it is taking me so long, but I am getting some snail mail letters written as well to each of you to send off with the SD Card, so hopefully that gets there in the next few weeks!
I'm glad things are going well at home! Sounds like the film festival was fun, and it sounds like Elder Oaks' talk was awesome today! Thanks for sharing parts of it with me! I hope you guys have a great week again! Get some good skiing in and whatnot! Hopefully we get some snow!
I love you all and miss you, but in a good way! Talk to you next week! Love you!
Love Elder Wood!!!
