Yesterday
this investigator who we have been meeting for a little while attended
church for the first time! Kind of an unfortunate day to attend (no heat), but
he said he really liked it. We had planned on teaching him the Plan of
Salvation during the hour of class,
but because it was literally so cold that you could see your breath I
had the bright idea of skipping out on that class period and going to a
cafe where they had a working heater. Sound like 16 year old me? And,
yup, e did just that. Rest assured, we didn't buy anything, we just needed some warmth! So as
we met during church, in that cafe, we had a flipping crazy lesson. It was full of surprises and extremely hard questions, and it was so fun. My
favorite part was when we asked him if he had been thinking about the
message at all, and he told us that he had not only had pre-read the entire
Plan of Salvation pamphlet, but that as he read it tears came to his
eyes. Struck by the Spirit! Cool experience... just don't judge me
for the location that is took place.
Another of my favorite things from this week: On Saturday,
we met with this Less Active guy for the first time and just tried to
get to know him a little bit. He told us about his conversion 15 years
ago and the effect the church has had in his life. Then basically he told
us that he didn't need the church anymore. "It's too hard to be Mormon"
is what he said, "Too many rules." Whenever someone says that, I
make fun of them and say "You only lived according to the standards for a
few months! I have been doing this for 20 years!!!" When I say that, they stop
trashing us and listen. That's when the fun begins! 회개하라!! So we
talked to him for a while about the importance of keeping the
commandments and how that can also bless others around us. He still
kept fighting us though. Finally a thought came to my mind,that
honestly made me just a little bit emotional as I delivered it to him. I told him,
"You not keeping the commandments is not necessarily the thing that is the
hardest for me to hear. Knowing the church is true, and
knowing that God is real, and denying all of that is really hard for me to
hear. Imagine how hard it would be for you if your beloved son who had accepted, loved and relied on
you, suddenly left you and then threw away everything that you had done
for him. I imagine that is
so hard for God, the one that loves you more than ANYONE else." God does love
us, and He is our Father. Please don't forget that, or throw that away.
No more time! Have a splendid week!
Elder Jenkins
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