Our job as missionaries is to invite people to do
things. We obviously can't force anyone to act, so we just invite.
And it's frustrating when people don't keep their commitments because it means
we're not progressing with them. Lots of disappointments on missions!
The interesting thing about having gone to a year of college
before my mission is that I'm around lots of people who only know what high
school is like – all good fun.
I was at the mission office the other day for interviews
with the mission president, and it was so funny listening to the senior
missionaries talking about their "grandbabies". Each of them were
sharing pictures. At the mission office I got a chance to watch
"Meet the Mormons", a new documentary that is out in theaters.
EVERYONE GO SEE IT. It was so good, it was just like a documentary about
6 very different but very interesting people. I loved it!
One funny thing about the church buildings is that police
cars seem to gravitate to them, to just chill out in the back where nobody can
see them. One time we walked out of an empty church building on a
weekday, and there were two police cars just chilling out back, they were just
talking. I guess Mormon churches are the place to be!
We got to visit the temple this past week. So we drove
out to Redlands and got to visit the Temple. I spent a lot of time in the
Celestial room, beautiful. I was there for a long time just pondering,
beautiful interior and you can really feel the spirit! Afterwards we went to
Cafe Rio and I got to try it for the first time! It was good!
When we walk around neighborhoods, we talk to a lot of
people and ask if we can pray with them. One house had the parents and
two small girls (the older one 5). When we asked them if there was
anything in particular they wanted to pray about. The older one blurted out,
"I want to be a mermaid with a real mermaid tail" (Halloween's coming
up). Her mom explained she can dress up as Ariel, but it won't be a real
mermaid, so she said "fine I want to be Elsa [from Frozen] with all her powers."
It's funny the imaginations of children.
We went to a senior center to feed a bunch of old people
(around 60 or 70), and it was super fun. We started in the kitchen,
prepping food and getting it ready to serve. Then we had a food line where we dished
it all up. It reminded me of summer music festivals at Sisters' Pantry (I
was really fast). There was some congressman there and the mayor of
Riverside. When they had us go to the front to thank us, they had us say
where we were from. When I said China, they started cheering. It was pretty
funny.
Our work with our progressing investigators is slow. K.,
the one who's been in remission from cancer for 4 months fell and hit her
head. She had a minor concussion, chipped tooth, and half her face was
black and blue. Crazy... Then she was back in the emergency room a
couple days later for something else. So lots of work with her if she's
going to make her November 1st baptism date. We're going to give her a
Priesthood blessing, so hopefully it helps!
Elder Johansen and Dyer at the Redlands temple
Elder Jacob Dyer's language study notebook, a great conversation starter (and
yes he got the two sides of the river flipped, but he wanted Pudong on the front
cover).
Redlands California temple
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