Week 9
Date
November 7, 2016
Area
First Area - Woodburn, OR
Companion
Elder Patterson
Week 9
This has been a pretty humbling week, to say the least. Not in any bad way, we've just had our eyes opened in a manner that was really instructive. :) So setting the stage here: we share a car between the two companionships of elders living in our apartment. The complex where we live gives you a colored sticker based on where you can park. Either in the street every night or in the garage. It depends on the sticker color. With the sticker that we have, we are only able to park in the garage, which we do every night. Last Monday was Halloween, and P-day was a little different because of it. P-day usually ends at 6:00 P.M and we then get back to proselyting. So we're always in the mindset of parking the car on the street and coming in to eat. Then, whoever has the car will take it until we have to be inside at 9:00 and we'll park in the garage then. Since last Monday was slightly different, we had to be in by six like normal, but we didn't leave the apartment for the rest of the night. The end result was that the car stayed in the parking spot overnight. All of us were still in the mindset that after we came home to eat, we'd end up using the car again. That's what stemmed that thought process. We leave the car out overnight and in the morning when the other elders went to get the car, it wasn't in the garage where it normally was, and they didn't see it in the street. Guess what happened? Yep. It got towed! The one night we left it out all night by accident on Halloween night, a tow truck driver came by at some point and towed us! The other companionship ended up getting the car that day (Tuesday) with the senior missionary in charge of finances. It was fun though seeing four missionaries in white shirts in a bike train! ;)
I also ran into my first Bible-basher this week!! That was a really strange experience for sure! Elder Patterson and I had just finished teaching a lesson to one of our investigators, in Silverton. We've only been to Silverton a couple times so far because there aren't very many Latino's there for us to teach, even though it's in our area. Basically, we didn't know the area very well, though we had been warned that this guy likes to bash with everyone, not just us LDS missionaries. We figured something fishy was up when he walked outside with two bottles of water for us, and had on an old army surplus jacket with the words "repent or burn!" in red sharpie on the breast pocket, and the first words out of his mouth were: "enlighten me". We immediately tried to walk away, but he said that he had a few questions, and we knew right away he was going to try to use a rehearsed script on us. He started pulling bible verses on us and combining them together to try to prove points of our doctrine false. The jumps that he made from a verse he quoted to something else he would say had me totally confused. We didn't say much to him, but honestly the whole time he was going off on us I was standing there with what I'm sure now was a really confused look on my face. I seriously had no idea what he was saying and what was going on. I do remember he said something like: "and that means that your Mormon bible contradicts the King James Bible!" and elder Patterson and I looked at each other, already confused and told him that we USE the King James version of the Bible. He then stopped in mid-sentence and started a whole new point to try to go off on. We ended up thanking him for the water and leaving. Looking back I am so thankful for the opportunity we had to talk to him because it shows to me how confused the rest of the world is on points of religious doctrine. I am so thankful that we have a very clear and precise doctrine that not only has been restored to the earth from the original church of Jesus Christ, but we have modern prophets to give us additional information and guidance twice a year! It was a great testimony builder to me. I'm sure Dad knows exactly what I'm talking about and has had many experiences of his own with Bible-bashers.
Other than that it's been a good week for talking to people! We've had our eye on a certain house for a while to go talk to, and last week a miracle gave us a really great opportunity to start teaching them a little! We were walking in our area and just passed the house where a bunch of kids were outside playing, and one had a red balloon that somehow got out of his hands. We turned around when he started crying as it was flying into the sky and I said to elder Patterson: "How awesome would it be if that balloon just floats right to us and we can go back and teach that family? It would be a great way to start a conversation with them." He replied with: "Yeah that would be great!". As soon as he finished his sentence we watched the balloon reverse courses and flew right to us. It went from floating straight up to straight down and right at us. We looked at each other and said "wow". We ended up meeting the mom and giving her a spanish The Family: A Proclamation to the World. When we went back yesterday, she was in the middle of cooking but her daughter said she had read it and that we could come back another time to talk with her about it! That never happens!\
I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the love and support you give!
Love,
Elder Kehl
I also ran into my first Bible-basher this week!! That was a really strange experience for sure! Elder Patterson and I had just finished teaching a lesson to one of our investigators, in Silverton. We've only been to Silverton a couple times so far because there aren't very many Latino's there for us to teach, even though it's in our area. Basically, we didn't know the area very well, though we had been warned that this guy likes to bash with everyone, not just us LDS missionaries. We figured something fishy was up when he walked outside with two bottles of water for us, and had on an old army surplus jacket with the words "repent or burn!" in red sharpie on the breast pocket, and the first words out of his mouth were: "enlighten me". We immediately tried to walk away, but he said that he had a few questions, and we knew right away he was going to try to use a rehearsed script on us. He started pulling bible verses on us and combining them together to try to prove points of our doctrine false. The jumps that he made from a verse he quoted to something else he would say had me totally confused. We didn't say much to him, but honestly the whole time he was going off on us I was standing there with what I'm sure now was a really confused look on my face. I seriously had no idea what he was saying and what was going on. I do remember he said something like: "and that means that your Mormon bible contradicts the King James Bible!" and elder Patterson and I looked at each other, already confused and told him that we USE the King James version of the Bible. He then stopped in mid-sentence and started a whole new point to try to go off on. We ended up thanking him for the water and leaving. Looking back I am so thankful for the opportunity we had to talk to him because it shows to me how confused the rest of the world is on points of religious doctrine. I am so thankful that we have a very clear and precise doctrine that not only has been restored to the earth from the original church of Jesus Christ, but we have modern prophets to give us additional information and guidance twice a year! It was a great testimony builder to me. I'm sure Dad knows exactly what I'm talking about and has had many experiences of his own with Bible-bashers.
Other than that it's been a good week for talking to people! We've had our eye on a certain house for a while to go talk to, and last week a miracle gave us a really great opportunity to start teaching them a little! We were walking in our area and just passed the house where a bunch of kids were outside playing, and one had a red balloon that somehow got out of his hands. We turned around when he started crying as it was flying into the sky and I said to elder Patterson: "How awesome would it be if that balloon just floats right to us and we can go back and teach that family? It would be a great way to start a conversation with them." He replied with: "Yeah that would be great!". As soon as he finished his sentence we watched the balloon reverse courses and flew right to us. It went from floating straight up to straight down and right at us. We looked at each other and said "wow". We ended up meeting the mom and giving her a spanish The Family: A Proclamation to the World. When we went back yesterday, she was in the middle of cooking but her daughter said she had read it and that we could come back another time to talk with her about it! That never happens!\
I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the love and support you give!
Love,
Elder Kehl
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