So I had quite the entertaining week. We contacted on campus and met this guy who seemed interested in our message. On our return appointment we quickly realized he was there to try and disprove the existence of God through math and philosophy. I learned quite a few good arguments to keep in the back of my mind for the future, but needless to say things didn't go super well. We have had roughly 8 lessons in the last 3 weeks with bible/belief bashers. We must be magnets to these people or something, ha ha.
On Tuesday we went off looking for this man named Jim that we met in a parking lot like 3 months ago. His house was pretty close to ours (1.5 miles) so we took off on bikes after studying the GPS. Two hours later we were lost in the middle of the woods with a bunch of dairy farms and horses around us. It was quite beautiful, but we had absolutely no clue where this house was, ha ha. Our district leader happened to call us and he then looked up the address on his GPS. We had taken a wrong turn like 4 miles previous. WE basically we got quite the scenic ride. And a lot of time wasted. The guy wasnt even home when we finally got to his house... Elder Cole just kept on muttering things about me not bringing the GPS. ha ha
While teaching a woman that we have been meeting for about 4 months, she went off on a 20 minute tangent about how she was mad that Christ's second coming did not occur in the year 2000. She told us that was the millennium! That is when He needed to come! WE tried to explain what the millennium actually was but it didn't go well.
We went on 48 hour exchanges withe Zone Leaders this week. Basically we just switched companions for 2 days. We blitzed their area and just stayed at their house with them. I have not had a more interesting 48 hours on my mission. As I said earlier I am a bible bashing magnet and of course we had 3 bible basher moments in that time period. Elder Mattison told me he had never met a missionary who gets himself in these positions more. Anyway, one of these instances was a family, the Bots. We walked in and they had their bible on the table. That is never a good sign. They wanted to hear our message "in case they got something wrong." After every principle we taught the husband would say "only if it is in accordance with the bible." After we finished the restoration they were like alright, question time. They grilled us. Elder Farnes is a good example of how to handle these situations. He didn't argue a single question. He just kept telling them to pray about it, over and over and over. It was powerful. At one point the husband picked up the BoM and said he couldnt accept the book because it contradicted the bible. He tried looking up a scripture in Alma, but couldnt remember where it was. Then he told us that Alma says there was 3 days of darkness when Christ died, but the bible says 3 hours. Therefore, our book must be rejected. Elder Farnes and I just looked at him with faces that said, "honestly? THAT is your issue?" THis is where the lesson got amusing. I turned to 3 Ne 8 and read the verse that talks about the destruction ended in 3 hours. I told him the BoM totally agrees with the bible (yes I know which passage in Alma says 3 days and later in 3 Ne 8 it says 3 days, but I wont go on that tangent now). His face was priceless. He stammered a little bit, totally confounded. He didn't try to bash the BoM the rest of the lesson. Hilarious? Yes. Should I have done that? Probably not.
Elder Mattison has a tiny little bike (he isnt very tall) that I used while on the exchange. The brakes didnt work, my knees almost hit my chest as I pedaled, and the chain came off like 3 times. I looked like a clown riding one of those mini cars. At one point E. Farnes stopped to talk to someone and I hit my brakes to talk to him too. Usually when you hit the brakes you expect to stop, right? Well I managed to say a hello to the man and then just kept going for like 40 feet. Dumb bike. Elder Farnes found that pretty amusing.
Last night we rode our bikes 6 miles out of town to do some member drop bys to commit people to invite people they know to the primary program. On the way back we were riding our bikes through the woods in pitch darkness with our little bike lights. It was super pretty! One thing I am not used to yet is the whole no mountains thing out here. I could see the horizon for the whole 360 degrees. So many stars! I still miss mountains, though.
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