Dear family and friends,
Well... I never thought this would happen. Now I'm officially old. July 20, 2012 was three days ago (in case you didn't know), and that means that I have been a missionary for more than an entire year. Wow! I've gained a lot of fun, exciting, happy, scary, sad, crazy, and amazing experiences so far and I know the future has great things in store. I still feel so inadequate and inexperienced but I know that it's going to be a great next year.
I don't have much time so this is going to be short and sweet.
As far as the work goes, it's been really interesting. Our most solid investigator, John, dropped us, and he dropped us hard. He told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that he needs to be baptized and that the priesthood is restored and all of that. He knows Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Church. But he said he can't get baptized because of some other obligations. It crushed us. After that, our teaching pool kind of blew up in our faces. In about a week we went from having 14 or so investigators to having 5. And 4 of those 5 are close to getting dropped.
On the bright side of things, this gives us way more time to find more people to teach and re-evaluate what's been going on in our area. It's like a new start that is exciting and refreshing and we know there's a lot of potential. We found a new investigator this last week and, even though we're still not too sure how interested Julia is, we are seeing things going in the right direction, and we're really happy about that. We know the Lord is blessing us as we seek out His help. Also, Destiny is on track for baptism on 4 Aug and her family is excited for her and we think they will be more serious about taking the lessons once she sets the example. (Plus, they're taking us out to Golden Corral tonight. I can't wait to get a hold of their chocolate "wonderfall". Haha)
We had some fun experiences, some more interesting than others. We had a couple doors slammed in our faces, which is actually pretty rare. And they happened on the same day! Oddly enough I get a kick out of it when that happens. I'd obviously rather have them let us in and be willing to learn, but it's pretty humorous how that happens. Also, we've killed three massive brown spiders throughout the week, one of which was hiding in the corner on the wall about 4 inches away from Elder Simmons pillow at 10:30 the other night. Fun stuff. Another funny instance was the end of our first lesson with Julia, our new investigator. She's a really nice but very confident and rambunctious middle-aged lady. We ended with a prayer. She reached out to hold hands so the four of us (her, us, and one of the young men who came with us) held hands in a circle while she prayed a very unique yet kind prayer. She paused as she began to close the prayer, and I thought the next word out of her mouth would have been "amen", but instead I heard "I just love you boys!" I looked up and saw her inches away from me in just enough time to be ready for her to give me a big hug! Haha that's not something we're used to out here. We hug the other missionaries all the time but I haven't hugged or been hugged by a woman in over a year. Haha good times. I'm sure I've got quite a good amount of other stories I could share but I gotta run!
I know that the fulness of the gospel has been restored and that the church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Prophets, Seers, and Revelators (Ephesians 2:19-22). I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ lives and loves us. His Atonement is perfect, saving, and eternal.
With love,
Elder Schank
