It's finally starting to feel like spring here in Bismarck! It's been like sixty degrees the past couple of days. Good thing, too, because Sister Wells and I are spending a whole lot of time planting seeds (*mission puns!*). A bunch of our regular appointments cancelled on us and so we ended up doing even more tracting than we were expecting (which is saying something, because we were expecting a lot). Most of the doors don't even open (because let's be real, if you live in ND, it's because you work in ND), which is discouraging, but we've started keeping track of our own numbers to keep our spirits up. In addition to tallying doors knocked, we now count up friend points (if you wave to a stranger and they wave back) and the number of dogs talked to (mostly by Sister Myers). I'm proud to announce that we officially spoke to more dogs than people this last week. Our District Leader was (understandably) concerned when we listed that as one of our new numbers, but the dogs aren't speaking back yet, so I think we're still okay. :)
We also practiced tracting with the elders because we don't have much experience with it, and I'm not sure how much that helped because they kept cracking us up. And then they Bible bashed us just because they could, which we did not appreciate. So anyway, lots to learn still. It was really fun, though, and they were really willing to help us out and give us some advice. I realized that I feel way more a part of my district and zone this transfer than I did last transfer. I was basically the only missionary who came in last transfer, so everyone else already knew each other and I just felt like the new kid who didn't have any friends, haha. But I love these goofy missionaries and it's such a privilege to spend so much time with them.
Remember when I wrote about Samuel, who wanted us to prove to him that the church is true? We've only met with him a couple other times, and every time we meet he just talks for like two hours. We prepare all this stuff to help him and we never get to use any of it because he will actually talk over us about the Bible and everything. It's super frustrating. He was willing to read the Book of Mormon, but he doesn't understand the role of the Spirit and prayer and humility and all that. We finally ended up with an ultimatum: we're going to try to find everything we've got about the golden plates and the Book of Mormon in the Bible, and if that doesn't work for him, he says we don't have to come back. Which is fine by me, honestly. It's really frustrating to have someone who is so close to the truth (because he's right on the money with a lot of his beliefs) but can't see it because they aren't actually willing to put in the work to listen. So we're not expecting the best ending to that story, but maybe someday Samuel will figure it out.
Things have been progressing with Doug a lot more than we thought they would. He read the first three chapters of the Book of Mormon between our visits, and we've gotten him to pray for us the last couple of times. He's not willing to come to church, and I don't know that he understands about it all being "true," because he thinks that if you believe it, it's true. So he doesn't have a reason to disbelieve, which isn't quite enough to motivate him into action with real intent. Anyway, it's going better than we thought it would, so hopefully the spirit will keep working on him. Turns out he's a really sweet guy. Every time we go over we has some sweet like caramel rolls or strawberry shortcake that he makes us eat before we leave. We tease him that he's trying to fatten us up.
We went to a baptism on Saturday. A couple that the Bismarck sisters have been working with forever finally made it to the water, which is so cool. Even cooler is that because the woman is in a wheelchair and wouldn't be able to get into our church font, we had the baptism in a Comfort Suites pool. It's amazing how the spirit can be so strong in a noisy pool room, and it was so amazing to watch them finally make that step towards Christ. Glad we got to be there. We have a picture with them and the sisters in front of the water slide and it's the best.
There's a less-active family that we're going to start meeting with regularly. Can't remember if I've mentioned them before. They haven't been to church since they left Utah like two years ago, which is a shame because they're way stellar and I already love them. The mom loves the temple and says she wants to go inside so badly, but she can't go because she smokes. It made me so sad when she was talking about it because it seemed like she didn't understand that she could change that habit and then be good to go. That's one of the most incredible things about the gospel. It's never too late to change and get back on the right path, and our faith in Christ enables us to make those personal changes in our lives that will allow us to make covenants and have the confidence that we're living in a way that is pleasing to our Father in Heaven. You have to want to do it, though, and that's going to be our challenge with this family. They have to desire the right more than their sins. Hopefully we can help them with that.
Thanks for all the support! I got a lot of little notes from people this week and I appreciate all of you. Thanks for reading my rambling emails about this little corner of the field. God bless!
Sister Myers
