So last Monday was Zone Conference (my first one) which was pretty sweet. It's always a great experience because you see all the things that you can change to improve your ministry. One of the things that our mission does, which makes us the highest baptizing mission in the central USA is that we commit to baptism on the very first lesson. And so we have been improving our method of doing that, and helping to make it less of a scary imposing thing. This actually came into play during a lesson this week. Another funny thing from zone conference, was a Zone Leader was talking about how Peter denied Christ because he was afraid, and finished with a "Are we willing to die for the cause of Christ?" Very loudly and scarily. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing to ask, because it's a good tool for evaluating ones personal conversion, but the way he said it, just made it kind of funny.
So heres a funny from this week: We were tracting this guy let us in. He was watching oceans 13 (sigh), but we ignored it and started teaching him a bit of a first. He was agreeing with everything, but suddenly stopped us and walked over to the door, where a black guy, and a Mexican guy were standing. He let them in. So we were all excited because we were teaching 3 guys a first lesson. Note: They all looked homeless. Then this woman walks in, and starts swearing at the main guy saying "This Isn't your #$%$@ house!!!" So apparently he was babysitting and just let random people into someone else's house. And then she looked at all of us and was all like "Get out. Now." So we got out of there very quickly. It wasn't funny, but it also kind of was, because I think the main guy was drunk.
A little info about Alamosa: It's in the San Luis Valley, which is apparently one of the top 3 welfare capitals of the USA. There are a lot of unemployed people here, a lot of homeless people here. There is a "corrections" facility, which is a lot like house arrest, so a lot of people we talk to are all like "Sorry, i gotta be inside in 5 minutes, and to visit me you need a permit etc." Which is good because a lot of people are really humble and ready to receive the gospel. Also, there are 75 active families in the church here, and about 100 less active/part member families. in a town of 8000. So a lot of people we work with are less actives/part members because we can get a lot of referrals that way. For example, we were planning to teach this one 22 year old woman, and when we showed up, she had her non member boyfriend there too. His only knowledge of the Church comes from South Park, so it makes teaching really funny. Especially since he's a really funny guy, and he's a math teacher. They agreed to let us teach them the lessons! So now I've thought up a whole bunch of math analogies for the gospel eg. When the apostles died, it was like the church got divided by zero. Look, i think it's funny. But the analogies are really hard to think of, mostly because it's like as soon as I got set apart, I forgot pretty much everything I knew before my mission. School stuff, actors, movies, sports, quotes, all got deleted. Probably for a good reason though.
So my companion got bit by a Pit Bull this week. We were tracting out in the country, and went down this long driveway, and he was all like "Oh, I've been to this house before, they have 2 nice dogs" But this time, there was a third dog...which turned out to be not so nice. And so as we were parking our bikes, he felt a big pinch in the back of his leg, and got mad. He hit the dog with his bike, and then the dog came after me, so I kicked it in the face. We decided to ditch the place, and as we were slowly walking away, the dog kept trying to get behind us, and as it would get close, we would swing our bikes at it. Then my comp pulled out his extendable bike pump out of his bag, and we managed to keep the dog at bay before it retreated. It was so scary, the dog got pretty close to biting me as well. After we finished planning and stuff that night, we fashioned clubs out of an old broom handle for future dog encounters. But I already felt guilty for kicking it, and didn't feel comfortable clubbing a dog, so now I'm trying to figure out a non-lethal alternative. Any suggestions? a sound gun would be cool if it existed...
So last week I talked about how we did service for a guy that wanted us to come back. We finally got in contact with him, and taught him a first. He agreed with it all, and we gave him a baptismal date for November 14th. He seemed super excited about it all, and felt like it was true. He committed to come to church on Sunday, but unfortunately wasn't there and we haven't been able to talk to him yet. So his date will probably be pushed back, but we have faith in him that he will get baptized!
Also, this week it was Halloween. For us, we had to be inside at 6:00 and we got some candy which was good because about 15 kids showed up. Then, at 9:10 PM, We hear the doorbell ring like 5 times very quickly. So I go to the door and this Mexican guy is standing there with a sleeping toddler in a stroller, all like "Trick or Treat!" As I'm grabbing some candy, he's all like, "Ya, ya, just empty the bags in there..ya, we'll take it all" So basically he just went around trying to get all the candy that people were trying to get rid of. Well I felt bad for him, so I gave him all the stuff we had left.
And me and Elder Terry took some Epsom Salts last night to "clean out the old colon" It tasted really bad, I threw up the first time, but managed to keep round 2 down. And i didn't really feel any effects until I sat down at my computer at the library. Funny how that works out.
Also, it's weird. I've had crazy camera troubles on my mission. When I did The Incline a couple weeks ago, I did an air kick right before we started, and slipped and fell on my back and broke the screen of my camera. I can still take pictures, but the screen was black. So I ordered a new screen for $40 (it's a nice camera!) and it arrived last week, so last P day, me and my companion had a 2 hour operation (screwdriver....scalpel...phillips...wire...) to install the new screen. It was nerve wracking, and very difficult, but I'm happy to report that the new screen was successfully installed, and the camera runs like a dream. BUT last night, I was going through old pictures, and accidentally hit the "reformat" button on my camera, so all my pictures from the MTC, and my last area got deleted. Probably the biggest loss is the picture of the "save the date: Return of Christ May 12, 2011" park bench outside the Presbyterian church. So I'll send my memory card home and see if my father can't get em back. I've heard you can recover them after that, so ya.
Also, next week, Russell M. Nelson is doing a mission conference here, and I GET TO SHAKE HIS HAND, so ya, that'll be pretty awesome. Then after that it will be leadership conference, so I'll be on exchanges for 3 days, and so my p day will be Thursday. So don't freak out when you don't here from me...I'm safe...
The water tastes funny here.
Elder Gibb
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