HAPPY PIONEER DAY!!!
It's unreal seeing and hearing about all these changes back home. I'm in a
completely different world!
To get into town, it takes an hour by taxi. And there's a
supermarket here called Harbels, that sells everything you need. The only one
until you get in town. Also, you have all the Liberian shops in Cotton Tree
that we buy food from. So, its still civilized and not completely bush! its LIB's
independence day on the 26th, so we'll be getting fed LOTS of food! or I should
say lots of RICE.
This week we had a unique experience which we were able to learn
something from. As we were brushing our teeth, one of the little kids yelled
into the house that someone was coming to us. We walked to the front door and
saw two ladies headed in our direction. One was younger in her mid 20-30's and
the other was an older woman. They both were dressed in Church clothes and
we're carrying what looked like a Bible. Both of them stopped once they reached
the stairs to the porch and stayed on the grass. Elder Haas and I looked at
each other.... The younger woman then went into asking us a question about
tragedies in life and then went on a spill about it. At this point we knew they
were Jehovah Witness members going around. At the end of their spill, Elder
Haas and I looked at each other, smiled, then he thanked them for their message,
and I went inside to get a Restoration pamphlet. When I came out, he had begun
to introduce himself and the church, then we turned their "contact" situation,
into one for us! We testified boldly about the Atonement, Jesus Christs Church,
and how it was taken away. The Spirit was there! It went into Joseph Smith and
the Priesthood, and that is when the Spirit got even stronger as we both
testified that the Church has been restored to earth once more. We invited them
to pray for themselves to know if this is true. They said they would, but as we
went to give the pamphlet to them, they denied it and left. Even though they
denied our pamphlet, we know that the testimonies we bore, will be stuck with
them. I mentioned earlier how we learned from this.... Well, Elder Haas and I
did a small evaluation of how they did contacting us! We've never been on the
other end before, so we took it as an opportunity to see where they could
improve and like wise see what we could take from it. At the beginning of their
contact, they didn't introduce themselves or the church they were coming from.
Left us hanging just like that. We felt more like she was reciting something
to us that she memorized to her church. That was the first thing. Her
recitation wasn't spiritual at all. The Spirit was not felt. This strengthened
our testimony on how important it is to teach by the Spirit and not to impart
knowledge. Next, was how they didn't have a member with them. How are we
suppose to know anyone in the community to speak to about the church when they
are out contacting other people and don't have time for us? Because when they
left, we had questions! She had shared a scripture with us and applied it
which made us sound like we were wrong. When we went inside to read the rest of
the scriptures around it, we found out that it was speaking about something
completely different! Having a member with you is crucial!!! Something they
did do good though, was how they kept themselves up beat and excited about what
they were sharing. Having a smile on your face makes all the difference! That's
something as missionaries we need to do, put a smile on when we leave the
apartment! People will want to have that same happiness they see in us. These
two woman did a great job at being enthusiastic about what they were sharing.
That was our unique learning experience we had this week.
There was a guy we sat with this week, who was referred to us by Brother S. We went to his house and sat with him and his wife. At the beginning of the lesson, we were asking questions getting to know him better, and he went into telling us about his past few weeks. He said he had been in the bush looking for job and something to make money, but nothing was happening. He told us that God told him to come back home and everything will be okay. When he came back home, it was Sunday and he decided to go for a walk on the main road. He just so happened to walk past the church when Brother S. saw him and told him to come visit with us. We introduced ourselves and set a time to come back. Thats what then led to this visit. As we went through the lesson, you could see how he was soaking in the Spirit. Toward the end of the lesson, we invited him to pray to know if these things are true, and he stops us,"My prayers the last few days have been that God will show me if the Latter Day Saint church is true. I want this to be my church." He told us that he's already been praying about it and wants to become a member. The sad part.... He's not legally married and he's not working to bring in money to even pay for a marriage certificate. The man is prepared, but lifes challenges is trying him. We'll keep praying for him!
That's all for this week.
Love Elder Zaugg
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