So I just want to start off by saying that this church it true. It's just that simple this church has everything going for it probably because it's the Lord's church and whenever he's in charge of things it's pretty sweet stuff.
Our week started with another p-day full of stuff that made it stressful and crazy. We left Peoria Monday evening and didn't get back into town until Friday afternoon ( that takes a hit on your area). We started off with our class on Tuesday morning which was the teacher presenting some factual stuff about the church and our beliefs which made it all look like a big joke and there wasn't any spirit there at all. It was disappointing and the way that she directed her questions towards us made it just really not spiritual, and without the background knowledge of the "why" behind everything it just makes it look really weird and unattractive. We were in there for the whole class and after talked to a girl that was doing her research paper on "Mormonism" and we got to explain more of our beliefs and why it's actually important to us. So she understood a little more why we believe the way that we do. There is this paper that they passed out that had info on it about us and it's all true as far as I can see but really puts things that have to be understood spiritually and not intellectually out there. I'm sure a lot of the students thought that we mormons are so weird and strange with our practice that they will never want to listen to our faith again after that class. I was very disappointed with the results of the first class.
When we went back on Thursday, Elder Sauer and I presented a very brief Restoration lesson to them and wow it was a night and difference change with the spirit. As we taught them for probably 20 minutes we had their attention completely. The spirit was there for sure and it was guiding the lesson. Even though the class was at 8 in the morning and these students were half asleep the first time that was not the case with the 2nd class. We had an open questions and answers session after the presentation which ended with the video on lds.org " Our Eternal Life" and it was sweet. The questions at first started off slow because I think people were nervous but then it turned into a ton of doctrinal questions mostly because I'm sure the majority of the class is christian. I loved it and the spirit was very strong when Elder Sauer and I shared our testimonies about the truths that were discussed over the 2 days of class and it all just made sense. The teacher of the class who is a Presbyterian Minister, took a copy of the Book of Mormon with ease and said she was interested in the "historical part of it" but wants to know if what we said is true, because with the Great Apostasy facts that we mentioned we probably shook her little faith that she had about the authenticity of her religion hahaa she deserved it because she didn't have the appreciation that she should've had for mormons in her teaching about it. I loved the class and the students sure are interested about it so we'll see how many referrals come the the elders serving out there.
We did a ton of exchanges including my hometown of Bloomington and then to Pontiac Illinois. Pontiac hadn't seen a new investigator since April 30th and they were complaining about not being able to teach anyone and so we went to blitz their area and found 2 new for them just like that. There's investigators everywhere, you just need to be the fisher of man that you need to be. You don't catch fish with bad bait so you need to talk to people about something first and then hook them with a 2 sentence statement about the church and boom hooked and in the water.
I don't have much time to email and so I do need to sign off. We as a Zone Leader Council are setting the new baptismal goal for next year tomorrow and it will be a very revelatory experience. President will come and teach with us on Thusday after he joins us for zone meeting.
I love yall and I'll cya later do some missionary work in Utah will ya!!! Christmas is coming soon!!!
Elder GONZALEZ PEORIA ILLINOIS..... DA BEST!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment