Finding with Cats and Chinese Take Out #9

Okay, so this may sound slightly strange but it seems even stranger how it happened, 

Where we live there is a really good Chinese takeout/delivery place so the first time we ordered it for dinner, we were just knocking doors to find people in the area (as well as we didn't want to be in the house, we wanted to work, but we also didn't really want to cook for dinner that night).  

We knocked into a less active family's house just because my companion Elder Hopkins asked what door we should knock on and I said the first one with lights on- that was the less active family's house and they were like "We have wanted to come back to church but never found a good reason... looks like you are it!" so we were cheering inside and talked with them about Christmas and the New Years and stuff and then said that we had dinner to eat so we went home, had Chinese food. No big deal right?

Photo texted to us by a member

Well this week (that was 2 or so weeks ago) we had another situation where we didn't want to cook and so decided on Chinese takeout place again (same one) and were knocking doors again waiting for our food and lo and behold we knocked on the door of a different less active member and their spouse who wasn't a member and they both wanted to come to church. The husband who wasn't a member wasn't really interested a few years back when the missionaries stopped by, but because he had 3 different experiences this hunting season where in his mind he literally thought these words "if I get a deer I’ll go to church" and each and every time he shot a deer, so he was basically telling us that someone wanted him to go and when we knocked on his door, he was on the couch thinking about it. Strange things happen with Chinese delivery... He came to church and had a super good experience each time!

Miracles are amazing -when we see those whom the Lord has prepared, how he prepares them and how we find out about them as missionaries.

Another crazy story was again when we were knocking doors and I was thinking in my head "dang, I wish we had a guide we could see to lead us to places we could knock and they will talk with us" and not 2 minutes later did a tail-less stray cat bolt out from under a car and stood right in front of us, we kind of looked at it and we started walking, then it waked ahead of us and walked straight up to an apartment door. we knocked and it was someone that became a potential investigator right off the bat. It was crazy! This happened the 2hrs we were tracting where we'd follow the cat (we named it Doug) and every like 5th or 6th door they kept saying come back, its cool to see how things are put in our lives to give us hope.

Another day we went street contacting in downtown Richmond with mission president’s approval and we talked to a ton of people! There was a man named Fred who said his New Year’s resolution was to be more close to God and to find a religion that could do that. So we taught him about God's plan of happiness and why we are here on earth. It was a great lesson and he said he wanted to get baptized! So we set up the 31st and then gave him a Book of Mormon and then said goodbye, this was all one street contact.

Crazy stuff, I had my first zone meeting and it was really a boost of encouragement. That’s where the leaders of a big area that many missionaries give training conferences to everyone in that "zone" (about like 20 missionaries total). We always have good foodstuffs that the members of the ward feed us so that’s a good sign.  Here me and Doug.

Elder Day

Hugging Christmas #8

December 22, 2014

Hey mom (and those who read this letter) I am going to go through a quick week for what we did, Monday we helped a lady for a few hours setting up her Christmas decorations and she gave us a Christmas tree! (Its the one in the photo I am hugging)- its an awesome tree and the only decoration we have on it is a cheap plastic foam airplane.  After that was all done we went finding for a few hours and met this Afghani father named Aqa with his wife and 3 kids, he got a visa for him and his family to come to the us from a raffle and there were a bunch of neighbors that gave him free stuff and we offered him a TV that one of the members was getting rid of because they got a new one during black Friday.  We then went to the Hartons for dinner and we had some really good food .... I don't even remember what it was, but it was good.

After that we went “finding” some more. Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president President Wilson, he is a super nice and funny and sweet guy, we talked about the progress that we were having in the area and in individual interviews we talked about how I was developing, interesting conversations because I don't even know what has changed yet I know everything has. I feel like people don't know they have truly changed for themselves until they look back at a time that they weren't like that.

It seems that it is the case even with temptations we have that we are tempted to do bad things, its by small and simple things in which great things are brought to pass, the little things in life, like maybe raking someone’s yard or saying hello for being good, or in the instance of bad, lying about a little thing or maybe going a way that you shouldn't have or something like that sort. All that I know is that good things are always better, stronger, and outlast any bad thing that will happen. It reminds me of the quote by a dude named Iroh, "if you look for the light, you shall always be able to find it, but if you look for darkness that is all you will ever see".

view from the car in Virginia 

I’m constantly praying for so many people that they can be looking for and going to the goodness that life has to offer in no matter what situation one may be in We ran into a lady who had that where she was trapped in a very bad place for a long time, stuck in a rut. then she looked for positive things little by little and over a process of a year or two was able to be completely out of the dark places she had been in before, kind of like the growth thing mentioned earlier, you never know how much you have grown (or even progressed) in life until you look back at where you were, and when you take a look back and see the challenges that you have faced and the trials you have accomplished (whether they range from something big, to something very small) you can even look to the future with hope in all that you can accomplish and face in life. The dude we took a pic with is Mr. Christmas.  (oops did not get this photo!) 

Hope all is doing well and sorry I didn't get to talk much about my week but I can feel the thoughts and prayers for while I am out here and my thoughts and prayers go to you all as well.

Jeremy with Elder Hudson, Bryce Forbes cousin! 

Let everyone know I am doing well and feasting upon the words of The Bible, The Book of Mormon, those that I meet and also feasting upon Chinese takeout food and packets of chicken flavored ramen (plus a box of mac and cheese a day because I got 45 packs of them from my mom (really my uncle) which all expire in March, so we had a gathering of Missionaries to help finish off one box of 15 in 2 meals, all 6 of us)

Missionary Christmas #7

December 29, 2014

Hey dad and mom!

So this week I won't really send a photo ‘cuz I left my camera at home but I will say this, we had a lots of fun this week. We had a huge Christmas Eve dinner and stuff so we got to see like half the ward in 2 houses and I ate so much food again, I was gunna explode! We also played some foosball with the youth and I beat one kid but everyone else whooped my butt in it, like 10-4 usually. That was Christmas Eve, for Christmas we opened our gifts and thank you so much for the gratitude journal and the ties/utility knife and the socks, we always love getting socks. We went over to the zone leaders place and played “rock ‘em sock ‘em robots” with remote control moving robots and that was hardcore, then we went to see some less active and other ward members, skyped, got some freaking glorious southern cooking meal from an investigator and then went to go see another member and talk with her about her job and how she loves the scriptures and the stories we shared.

When we were tracting we knocked into a family and they asked about the way we can find truth and I don't even remember what happened but I talked about (from what my comp said) the role of the scriptures and the holy ghost and its role, the next day we got a text that said she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon so we are going over today to get the mom one. I’m so excited! We are seeing Leon, an investigator we have who is really good at the piano and we are giving him a hymnbook and writing our testimonies in it. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to come to church but wasn't in town this past Sunday but he said "as a man of my word I will come" so we are praying for him to be able to come and always checking up with him.

We went to Shoney's all you can eat buffet with a member and I kind of ate way too much cheap seafood ‘cuz it was seafood night but we managed to pull through the night and get back with no bad stuff happening. We also have another investigator who is a Sunday school teacher in another church and every time we teach him I feel like the questions he asks always help me learn more and more about the bible and its history and stuff. Its really crazy how the Lord helps us with our weaknesses just by putting people in our path.

Today is zone p-day (preparation day) where from 1:30-5pm we are playing Oompa in the stake center gym (its ultimate Frisbee in a gym with a football and to score a point the football's got to go in the basketball hoop.) so I’m kind of nervous about how long I can go and play but it'll be good and fun cuz I’ll take breaks and stuff.

I realized something in church yesterday with Christmas and New Years being so close together and thought how that might not be a coincidence because Christmas is a holiday of remembering something new (the birth of a child) and the beginning of a long foreseen event that will bring new hope to the world with the beginning of the ministry and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ so that we may all start anew, as well as new years, something that we can see months in advance and for many the symbol of a new chance or new age where we can have that opportunity to work on fixing the past or setting goals to help us change and be better people, just with the atonement and repentance process.

Everything seems to happen for a reason, and new opportunities are always possible and change for whatever goals we want to achieve (whether they be setting a goal of losing a few pounds [or in my case gaining] or just being better people in our society in little ways here and there). Just a bit of thoughts that went on in my head. Thank you for the photos! And here is one for the holidays of a picture of me, my trainer (we call our first companion and trainer father) and his trainer (so this would be my grandpa for the mission)

Love

 Elder Day