Week Eight - He shook my hand!

To everyone,
 
This week has been awesome! We have started to see the benefits of
hard work! It is awesome. I love it out here!  This week we were in a
lesson with our investigator Dave. And he told us he wanted to be
baptized. It was awesome!  He told us that he just needed to receive
conformation and then he will be baptized. We will try to get him on
date this week and hopefully he will get baptized in two or three. He
is awesome. I love him. I feel like it's because of our work.  He has
been investigating for over a year. And now he is starting to pick up
speed and keep commitments! And we have found a couple more people to
teach. It's awesome. When I got here we didn't have any one. And now
we are teaching consistently two families, two single people and a
less active.  The work in Falls Church is picking up! We are teaching
a older lady named Sharon. She is super funny. She loves to feed us
ice cream bars. Let's just say that lessons with Sharon are the best.
We have to kinda take things slow with her. I don't know how much she
remembers between visits. But hey, she remembers the spirt we bring.
And she actually reads the scriptures!  I love it. And she always
wants us to come over. It is super awesome! We have a ton of lessons
this week. And it was awesome. We taught 3 different less actives and
I loved it. We also did a bunch of street contacting. I love street
contacting. It's so fun to learn about people. There are a bunch of
people out here who are struggling. You can see it in there eyes. When
you look in someone's eyes there is no hiding how they are doing. And
I know that the gospel will help them. There are a bunch people that
won't listen to us.  And they tell us we believe in a different Jesus.
But the ones that will, it's magical. We gave away three copies of the
Book of Mormon in less then an hour. It was pretty sweet. There are
always people out on the street. I hope we get an investigator or two
from them. That would be sweet.
 
This week I have learned that the Lord is mindful of our needs. And it
seems that we will be rejected and rejected and we are feeling kinda
down. But then the next person we talk to is humble enough to listen.
And it gives us the hope again and makes us able to keep moving on. It
gets hard out here. There are a bunch of people who don't like us. And
we have never talked to them. Just because we have a name tag they
don't like us. And it sucks to get yelled at or rejected pretty hard.
But hey there are still some people who are humble enough to listen.
And it makes it worth it.
 
I have been thinking about this. How can I be more humble as a
missionary? It is hard to think of how you can be more humble. But I
challenge you to try to be a little more humble this week. I know it
will make life so much better.
 
We talked to a guy named Paul who seemed pretty broken. He seemed down
in the dirt. You could just see it in his eyes. So we talked to him.
After talking for about a minute he started to open up. And so I
introduced myself and put my hand out to shake it. He had his
cigarette in his right hand. But he dropped it to shake my hand. It
felt like a sign that he was ready to change! As we kept talking he
really opened up to me.  He had gotten in the wrong group of friends.
He meet a girl and she kinda led him down a wrong path. He had gotten
into drugs and some other bad things. And he was having a rough go.
But he seemed interested. He wanted to be better. He said he was just
coming back from a addiction recovery thing. And he is ready to
change. He has been humbled and that's what makes someone able to
change. I told him that it is our job as missionaries to spread joy
and to try to help make others feel happy. He said that we did that
for him. I feel like that was one of the best missionary moments of
our week! I hope he accepts the gospel. It will help him turn his life
around. I know it. I connected with him. I feel like I have known him
for a while. He was a definite tender mercy in my day. I looked in his
eyes and felt the love that Jesus has for him. I felt that this is a
beloved son of our Lord. And he is the lost sheep right now. It feels
weird. Bud I hope I can help him come to the fold.
 
I love the work. There isn't any other place I would like to be. I am
grateful we are starting to see the fruit of our labor. I know that it
was definitely needed! I love it out here. The colors are changing  and
it is so beautiful.  The weather is flawless and I am loving it.
Until next week. Remember that there is someone up above watching you.
And he is mindful of all your needs:)
 
Love,
      Elder Bigelow
Elder Havens (in Black coat) and Elder Bigelow at a Ward Member's Halloween Party




Ward Halloween Party