Saying Goodbye & New Investigators

Wow another week. The time goes by way too fast. We are already 2 weeks into the second transfer and I still feel like I just left the MTC yesterday. My companion and I have not had a week yet that was completly boring. I guess if you are constantly talking to different people and going to random peoples houses every day you are bound to get an experience here and there.
I got my debit card, credit card and military ID card in the mail this week. Also a temporary driver's license from the state of NM, I sent back the signed application right away so you should be getting it in the mail soon. When our mail comes we get it at our apartment but not in our apartment. We go down to the bottom and get it on the way out and I don't read any mail till I am on a train or back home so that is why I didn't include my patriartical blessing.
Oh yeah. If you ever send another package here that is big could you put in reeses? I don't really eat beef Jerky even though my companion likes it. But they do not sell Reeses out here and since I have found that out I have missed them way bad. Someone left a big bag of them in the freezer which was way good but now it's gone. So sorry but just a thought. The peanut butter was good but if you send more I like the creamy better. Not to complain, it was great but if I had a choice I would choose creamy. Next Monday we are going to go to Stuggart for zone p-day and try to go on base.
Well on Tuesday we had district meeting. It was a little sad because two missionaries were getting transfered and we had to say bye to them. Elder Byers went down to Switzerland and Elder Länge went to Autria. We still had fun. We are way excited to meet the new people in our district though. Especially since we should be doing companion exchanges with them on Wendsday.
But after district meeting we came back and went to visit a less active investigator. She wasn't home so we went door to door to talk to people. We ran into a quacker organzation by accident. A lot of churches and organizations do not label the building. So that was kind of awkward but afterwards we found two people who wanted to listen to us. So we talked and set up appointments for next week. After that we went home and got ready for the next day.
One of our investigators, Emmanuel, is a little crazy but very intelligent. He had said before that he had thought about baptism. So on Wensday we had an appointment. We talked through the first lesson again and asked him about baptism. Since he had brought it up, we asked if he wanted to be baptized. He said yes! I was so happy. He had been going to church on his own for a year now and it was an hour there and back with the three hours of church. But we knew that he had not really been taught the word of wisdom because we knew that he drank alchol still. So on Friday we visited him again. He prefers to only speak English with us so we were speaking English. We talked about our life on the earth and about how we have now guidance over how we can live healthier. We showed him the Word of Wisdom in Doctorine and Covenants and challenged him to it. He agreed but was a little unsure. Afterwards we told him it was necassary for him to obey it for him to get baptized. Then he got really defensive. He decided he didn't see why he should get baptized again (He was baptized in the Evangelish church) and he did not really want to talk about baptism anymore. So we did not really bring it up again and let it be.
He told us later he wanted to read out of Doctorine and Covenants before he decided about baptism. So we told him that was ok but that we still wanted to meet with him twice a week and for him to come on Sunday. He told us that was ok. If he is willing to follow the commandments and get baptized who is anyone to say keep him out of the church simply because he is not fully sane. At least after this life he will be greatful that he did have a strong testimony in what is right and know that some stuff was just crazy.
So then on Saturday we did our usual thing of study, lunch, help a young guy named Abdula take down his cheese stand and talk to him. Then later we decided to contact some referals we had just recieved. So we rode around on buses and trains going from one house to the next. Some were there, some were not. Many did not want to talk to us.
But we got to one house and an older man let us in. The place stung badly of smoke but we went in and talked to him. He was very kind. His family had apparently all converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints not too long ago. He was the only one in his family not in the Mormons. He had a wife and his wife and him were very interested in the church but then she passed away and he didn't care as much. I think he was a little sad about his wife. Even though he loved talking to us about her he was smoking a very large amount while he talked about it. He called up his brother to tell them that missionaries were at his house. His brother is a stake president somwhere north of here. He talked to my companion on the phone and told him to teach him about the plan of Salvation. My companion agreed and hung up the phone. About 10 minutes later we told the man we would like to talk to him about God for a little bit. He told us that he didn't usually talk about too religious stuff with people and his brother would tell him whatever he wanted to know. It was quite for a moment. Then my companion said flat out 'Well your brother told me to tell you about God and his plan'.
It was quite for a second more and my companion and I were way scared because it was kind of a bold thing to say. Then the man said 'Well ok cool then tell me about it'. So we taught him about the plan of salvation. He got pretty into some stuff. He said at one point he was old and it was too late for him. Then I just said 'Well it's never to late' and then he was like 'Wow! Your right' It was weird what seemed to hit this guy. But I was way grateful that my comp and I were saying things we felt we needed to say and that this guy was listening. We set up a day to come back and left. The next day was Sunday.
We went to church and sure enough Emmanuel did not show up. We were a bit dissapointed. But 2 less active families we had spoken with both showed up to church and wanted to become more active. And also 1 other investigator we had been talking with showed up. We like to greet everyone, but that week we were busy and did not have time. We did not get to speak with her until after the meeting. Her name is Frau Loske. She is aweome. As soon as it ended we went over to her. Her eyes with red and she was wiping away a ton of tears. The talks had been about pride and humility and she said it was a very moving topic and that the talks were very well made and spoken. Two of the three had been done by youth and the other one was actually much shorter and done by one of our Ward missionaries. She then went with us to Sunday school for investigators.
Another woman came with us and we talked about prophets and the plan of salvation. She had a ton of questions and was very into everything. She had tons of questions about life, where we are going, where we came from. We were able to answer almost all of them but we did not have a lot of time and had to end it at one point. She was still very curious and excited. So we set up an appointment with her for Monday. The rest of church went great. After wards we went by a members home for lunch. They cooked us a ton of good food. As always. The members however do not really like it when we leave. They love to talk with us and do not understand why we still work on Sunday. But this week after playing chess with the man while we waited for the food and ate. We told them we had to go somewhere. We showed them the address and the man offered to take us there. It was way far. About 30 Kilometers.
So we drove out and he decided he would come with us. We rang the bell and no one was there. Then he suggested seeing some of his friends. So he drove us around to his friends and other less active people we did not even know about. It was way exciting seeing him get all into it. Then he dropped us off at our house after about 3 hours of going around with us. So then we have today. We woke up and did our normal study, and ate lunch while we played some chess. Then we went out to do doors for a few hours before we met with the investigator. Not much sucess on the doors but the meeting went great!
A member came and we all sat around and talked for a little bit. Then we started the lesson. We actually had waited and did the first lesson this time. We talked about were the church comes from, what the book of mormon is, about Joseph Smith and the Prophets we have today, and Prayer. She loved everything! She had questions here and there but the member helped us clear everything up. She loved hearing about everything and everything made sense to her. She even asked us about why we don't drink alchol or smoke. We explained about the Word of Wisdom. She said she would follow it! Even about not drinking coffee, even though she did not understand it.
She also wanted to know more about the book of mormon so we gave her some chapters in the book of mormon she could read to better understand it. She was so excited and had no problem meeting with us again this week. She loves hearing everything and feels the spirit very strongly. She cried at least three times during the lesson when me and my companion spoke about Jesus Christ. She also wanted to know more about Joseph Smith so we told her a little about him. She wanted to know his birth to death and was suprised when it was not very long. We explained that Joseph Smith was killed, and before he had times where he was tar and feathered and other trials he had. She told us about how wrong she though that was and wished to know more so the member suggested a book about Joseph Smith. She explained it wasn't scriputures only a book about him. She was so excited and extremly sad when we left. She hugged the member and shook both of our hands very hard and started to cry again when we left.
I felt kind of bad leaving but at the same time we had already taken up and hour and we are not supposed to be at a house for longer then 45 minutes and we had to get to the store before it closed so we could get food for the week. So another week has passed and I feel as though it hasn't. Its sad how fast it is going but way exciting having the experineces day to day. Even though at the time sometimes they are hard by the end of the day I am alway happy for the day I just had. Well I hope everyone else is doing great. I wish I had some cool quote or something to go out on but I don't.
I love you all. Bye Elder Hargett
P.S. Grandma I will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers today for a sucessful surgery. Grandpa I am glad to hear that you are doing much better, I keep you in my prayers.