Well, yesterday was quite the little experience. Maybe I'll share some things. Maybe not. Ok, I will....So... first, if you didn't already know, it was Sunday. Which means, if you didn''t already know, that we have church. We showed up and Elder Pymm was looking fresh so you know it was going to be a good day. Only one of our investiators came, Laura. So that's not the good part. One of our investigators was sick... I"ll tell you more later in the letter. Spoiler alert: still getting baptized on Saturday. Sorry to blow the anticipation!
While stalking the congregation for new faces we recognized two people who we didn't recognize. How confusing. We didn't get a chance to talk to them before the meeting so we waited for the perfect time to pounce. Like a lion on the prowl. We sat quietly across from them in the next class and thought through the possible approaches. I'm only slightly exaggerating this story. The time came when the amen was heard and everyone arose from their seats. They were the first to leave and as they passed us said something like, "have a good day.." So in a split-second decision I reached out my hand and said, "Well thank you, what do you have going on tonight?" It wasn't as creepy or choppy as it may seem. It just worked beautifully. You'll see... No they didn't have anything going on. So we invited them to cottage meeting. Which is everyone's favorite, am I right? Yep. I am... and then we talked to them for a good ten minutes and had some good ole laughs. It was the perfect start to a relationship: The man, raised a member and his non-member girl friendl. We all clicked right toff the bat. Especially Elder Pymm and the guy... they both wrestled and had a nice connection right there. So we figured out a time and a place to meet for the sweet road trip down to the mission home. Our beloved Ward Mission Leader took us down while I talked to him about his fantasy novels and Elder Pymm was entertaining the guests in the back seat. We couldn't hear each other too well. Cottage meeting went as expected. We showed up late but still got to hear two people share their conversion stories and President Bonham give the Christmas story as found throughout the Book of Mormon. Which was cool. The member started a good conversation with a guy after the meeting and apparently might be getting hooked up with a job at Boeing. So.. that's always a good thing. We road tripped our way back home to Bellingham and built some more of our friendship. I think the girlfriend is pretty interested. We (mostly Elder Pymm) talked to her about her beliefs and ours and all that kind of stuff. We're going to Ihop with them this Tuesday... I call that a win/win situation, folks.
We had Mission Leader Council and Zone Conference this week. So we didn't have too much time to proselyte. They're both far away and took up almost two full days for us. The semester for WWU is coming to a close this week and everyone is going home till the second week of January. What are we going to do with our time? That's a good question. I'll let you know once I experience that cruel reality of an abandoned college town.
Last Monday while I was about to get off emails I got a call from someone in the Mays Pond ward, which is at the bottom of our mission. Her daughter is the girlfriend of our investigator. She is quite nice. Anyways... we talked for about a half an hour about what might be best for Him. His girl friend and her family are all members and very active. All of our investigators family are, obviously, not members and are not too supportive of the church. The semester is ending here before his baptismal date and all of his family and friends live down in Mays Pond. So after talking for a while, and with approval from President Bonham, we decided it'd be best if he was baptized there. So looks like we're taking another road trip down to dirty south this Saturday. The girlfriend's mother said when our investigator came to their house and told them he had a date set for the 14th the girls got all emotional and they were just so excited. It's been almost two years and finally he's decided to make the step to "act in faith." I love that he decided to do that.
I'm outta time, my friends. The computers didn't work too well today. I want to write to you about Joseph Smith. My topics of study and scripture memorization were all on him this week and it's been life changing. Or at least heart changing. Which seems the same sometimes.
Praise to the Man,
Elder Trent Jay Merrill
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