The Miracle Chapters

This week has been amazing as well, things here are really picking up and me and my companion are receiving a lot of inspiration on what to do to hasten the work. This sunday was really funny because the talk that I gave last week was brought up in every single block of church and people based their lessons on it, and the branch president all he did for his talk was talk about what I said and then read like 40 scriptures on what the blessings of missionary work and how we need to get more involved in the work. The first counselor said this "it was as if a 70 was up there speaking, 100% by the spirit" h aha ha ha ha Oh man it was really highly thought of apparently. But i guess thats what happens when you fast and pray for power when you speak. And the priesthood lesson was all about that. Elder A spoke, and next week the Srs are speaking and then the district president so i set it up I hope they slam dunk it down and get every one involved in the ways we need them to be.

The Detroit temple is TINY! it's about the size of the upstairs of the snowflake maybe a bit bigger than that. We got hammered by traffic though and we made it into the session 10 minutes late when we were going to be a hour early. 

We were out door knocking and a car pulled up we started talking to them and they turned out to be straight up from Greece! I immediately asked if he knew how to cook Greek food and after he told me he did i started telling him how much I love it and his daughter ran in the house and brought me and my companion Baklava!!! Oh man we like died it was so good! 

So we followed up with a person who we door knocked into who said he would be interested and we could share a message with him. he let us in and he whooped out this manual that he had on all of these different religions in the front of the book it says "the truth about other religions from the perspective of a lutheran". It was basically a book for Ministers that was full of anti about every religion so they could keep people at their congregations.

 

He started reading us the one about "Mormonism" and in the first paragraph it said something like Mormons claim they are christains to help them with their public appearance but they are really a cult...=p ya we got him to close that book after we told him how wrong it was and then we started to get into a discussion about his church and he just kept going and going so i decided I just needed to be super bold and intrude so I did and then it almost came to a bible bash after 

 

We taught him the restoration, I am really glad i brought in the .50 cal (my quad I have been studying by topics this whole time and I have insane scripture chains that address almost every principal) He was super resistant and he would argue against us saying that Luther was this this and this and we straight up threw down. I have never taught the restoration like that at all in my time as a missionary, he was bashing on us and I felt the heat and all of these thoughts (my companion says they were from the spirit, I would agree but with the tension in the air I didn't feel the peace that comes with it) kept coming to me and my companion and we were saying stuff we never even thought of before that pertained to the restoration perfectly 

 

By the end of it he was reading the book of Mormon and was asking us sincere questions about what is what and wanting to see us again on a specific time and day. We left that lesson and we were both so glad that the church is true because it would have been impossible to have argued with that man about religion HOLY did he know his stuff!

I don't like bible bashing, but it has been happening quite a bit as we door knock people have just been trying to throw down on us and tell us that Jesus when he died on the cross and said it is done meant that every one is set if they believe in him, I get so irritated that they don't understand his teachings at all.

My companion has taken to calling the story of us being fed as by the Devout Catholic as "the feeding of the 3" 

I am really grateful for the talents that I have, we were door knocking and this lady said she would be interested in hearing a message but was busy at the moment we came back a few days later and she wakes up her boyfriend to hear us and He moved the guitar off of the couch for us to sit down since the chandelier was at my shoulders and it was only a matter of time till I hit it. (that has happened twice this week by the way). 

 

We got in a guitar conversation and he played a bit and then he let me see it and since they had a beatles poster on the wall I busted out a little 8 days a week and he thought that was cool and then I started a little "are you gonna be my girl" by jet and he started freaking out! I didn't know the little solo riff and so i stopped and he sang that part and I started freaking out that he knew it because I have never really met some one who actually knew any thing about Jet and he told me that he loved the band and he told me about them more than I knew 

 

And then we started talking about Moddest mouse, Killers, Jimmy eat world, and he brought out his ukulele and we had a jamm session. Sorry I totally messed all of this up this is two different lessons combined. But any how he basically became super tight with me and turns out he is the reason why his less active friend married his wife and has taken lessons with the missionaries before. (no record) And is really close to some active members and lives 1 door down from a Less active who loves to meet with us. Taught the restoration he read the book of Mormon on his own wanted to learn more.

That less active that lives a door down from him was super sad because her son went to prison one day and we felt like we needed to go over and so we did and she was crying and told us a lot of stuff and then mentioned her ukulele at one point and I asked her to bring it out and I started playing it for her and she stopped crying and got happy and started playing music for me and singing in Micronesian and and wanted us to come over again. 

 

She was really happy and in a good mood when we left. We came over the next time and her X husband came in in a super bad mood talking about how bad life is and how nothing good has ever came since he was born. My companion was asleep sitting next to me (I didn't know he was, i just thought he was really silent, because he would give a word here and there, but he told me after he didn't remember anything ha ha) I then just started bearing testimony to him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I whooped out several "How to begin teaching" bullet points. And he really opposed it (why has every one been doing that lately?) and then I addressed his concern and only had to battle him a little and then bore testimony on how the atonement has helped me (he's a non member) and how I could teach him how to use the atonement in his life to help him be happy and be free of every bad thing. And he agreed We're going over this week.

Things here are INSANE how the work is picking up I have a white board of investigators that had like 4 names on it 2 weeks ago and now we not only filled the whole board but are doubling up on the lines! were at like 14 now ha ha =p.

The church is so true! Bye I love you! have a good week! Don't get shot!

Love

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett