We own the sky

November 8, 2010

Oi everyone, tudo bem!

Things are getting kind of frustrating out here. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I have grown pretty tired of hearing people's excuses about why they don't want to hear what we have to say. We make contacts with people all the time who say they already have their religion, they already know everything we have to teach them, or they never stay at their houses. I guess I've been struggling with patience lately. It seems like, especially earlier this week, I just wanted people to stop talking about the "palavra" (that's what everyone calls the Bible because it's "the word of God") so that I can teach them the Restoration and get out of there. I don't know, I guess I just feel like I'm doing my best, but it's not good enough. Like, I try and try and try to get people to get it, you know? But, they just don't. People don't seem to understand what we mean when we talk about the Church of Jesus Christ, whether it be the primitive or the restored Church, or about divine authority or the Book of Mormon or any of that jazz.

I am trying not to complain, though. Something I'm going to focus on this week is having charity and love for people. Christ said that people will know us as His disciples as we love others as He loves them, so maybe that's what is lacking here. True Christlike love is a noble goal, but it's not one that is easily attained. I'm working on seeing other people as the Lord sees them, whether or not they accept us into their houses.

Most of our numbers were zeros this week. My mission leaders want us to go mark baptismal dates with people in the streets so that we meet the mission's standard of excellence, so they get mad when I have zero investigators with dates marked. Maybe if I marked five baptismal dates with some punk kids in the street, the Lord would see my desire and then I'd baptize people. Oh well.

We did have an investigator at church yesterday, which was pretty wonderful. The Relief Society president in my ward here brought a young women who lives across the street from her to church. It was great! Because a member brought her, she and her family were introducing this girl to other members and making her feel welcome there; it works so much better when someone besides us does it. We're going to start teaching her at the Relief Society president's house tomorrow, and it is going to be perfect! My zone leaders want me to mark a baptism interview with her already!

Anyway, things are going well. I played piano in sacrament meeting again yesterday. I was super nervous, but all the hymns sounded just fine. Even though it's such a simple thing to accompany the congregation like that, I really feel like it's helping me grow a lot and allow myself to accept my imperfections while doing something that I love. I'm actually going to the chapel after this to practice next week's hymns. Fun!

Sorry for writing boring emails lately! I'll contact more drunks and voodoo ladies this week to try to get some interesting stories!

(sorry for not having time to write back to you guys individually. thanks so much for the emails.)

luv

booooooga