Week 15

This week was insane!

 

Tuesday we went down to independence so Elder Valdez could get a haircut from some other Elders who we didn't have a chance to see Monday; our Zone Leaders actually, Elder Kiene and Elder Elwood, super cool guys. We stayed their all morning, then went to lunch with them, at this Mexican restaurant in Kansas City, but right near the Independence/KC border. Then we went back to our house and visited a few people following which we did our Mormon.org time. After that we went to dinner with a member from Elder Valdez' last area, Sedalia, Missouri. After Dinner we had to rush to a meeting with the young man getting baptized that Friday. We had to do like a 2 hour lesson, which we aren't supposed to do but we had no choice, he couldn't meet any other day and we had to teach him the commandments and the laws and ordinances, and then we had to meet with his mom because he is 17, so we had to talk with her to approve  him joining the church, which she did after asking like 20 questions, which was cool because she was already talking about him going on a mission, and we told her it's not a requirement, she said, "Oh, so he doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to?" then he butted in and said, "Mom, who said I didn't want to go?!" that was pretty cool! 

 

Wednesday we spent the whole day visiting members and telling them about the Baptism, telling as many youth as we could, and getting a whole program set up. Speakers, prayers, and little entertainment when he was getting changed, he was baptized by a member of the ward, actually the dad of his girlfriend. Well we went to the library and I made the program for the baptism, which a member later printed out for us.

 

Thursday we had dinner with our ward mission leader. He and his family just moved from Mexico. We had the interview for the 17 year old being baptized at the church, everything went well, so we were good to go for the baptism the next day. Then that night we had our correlation meeting and oh boy. We found out when filling out the baptism paperwork that he doesn't live in our ward, we had always met with him at the church because the rest of his family wasn't members and we met right before mutual and he would just go to that after the lessons; so we were freaking out, calling the elders in his ward to meet with us and to have them their at the baptism not to tell him he was in the wrong ward but just to introduce him to them.

 

Friday we had zone training about many things but what I really took from it was that when we focus on the numbers of missionary work instead of the people of missionary work, that is when we falter and are not successful, the numbers aren't there to make us look good but to help us in our work, and in the end, we are accountable to God and Jesus, so if they are pleased with our work, then we are doing good. After Zone Training we had the baptism of the 17 year old young man, which went good. The best part of the day, and maybe of my mission so far, was after the baptism, almost everybody had left the room and he came up to us in the back of the room and started tearing up and said, "I just wanted to say thank you guys so much" It made everything we do worth it. It made the long days and the tiring efforts worth it, it was truly amazing.

 

Saturday we spent the time visiting active members, and just introducing ourselves and asking for referrals. Funny story though. We were going to visit a man of another faith who we talk to occasionally, he asks us questions, but is very respectful... we had forgotten the phone at one of the houses who we had visited so we showed up to his house, and he has been having a lot of health problems, so we offered a blessing and shared the scripture in James 5:14, he accepted and we gave him a blessing. It was really cool, he was very touched and grateful for it. Then he invited us to be in charge of one of the Bible studies that he does, they are on hour long and he said, "You guys have proven that you are good men, and I would like you to come to one of my Bible Studies, and I would just give you the time, about 45 minutes, and you could teach whatever you want" then he told us some cool stuff about being a disciple and things like that he said, "If you just go up to people and say 'God Loves you' they will think you are like anyone else, but you show them that you are real, that you actually care about them, not just that you want to convert them, then they will ask 'so who are you guys?' then that is your opening, they open the door themselves, they invite you in and that is when you are successful, instead of forcing yourself in, you let them open the door" it reminded me of the picture of the Savior standing outside the door, but there is no handle, we can't force ourselves into people lives they must allow us in

 

Sunday was pretty normal. We had an investigator who was at church and is planning on getting baptized May 2, so it's good we have someone to work with, but we are little worried that after him we will have trouble finding someone to teach, that's what we thought after the P. family baptism and look what happened there! Tender Mercies! So we will see how that goes! Other than that Sunday was good! It has been a stressful but good week! I hope everyone is doing well! I pray all the time for you! Take care!

 

Elder Hinrichsen