Dear friends and family,
This one will probably be short because Elder Clegg and I have to share one computer we found in the family history library in the church. So I got my package this morning. My presents are sitting under our ghetto Christmas tree, along with Elder Clegg's gifts. Tomorrow we are having Christmas breakfast with the Sutherland family and dinner with Bishop Reese's family. The area is really great. We've had some great lessons with Carlos and his family. Two of his kids got baptized last month, his wife is returning from less-activity (well... we think so... no one can find her records but she remembers her baptism and obviously is familiar with LDS culture), and the other kids are younger than 8. He is trying to quit smoking because that's all that is keeping him from being baptized. We had a few other lessons with Ted, a 21-year old grunt Marine. He told us that he knows our message and the Book of Mormon are true and he wants to be baptized. Most of our investigators (6 or so) are gone for Christmas so I haven't even met half of our teaching pool. Good stuff is happening.
One funny story is we went to contact a referral named Marco. Church headquarters told us he wanted a missionary visit. So we went and we were really excited to meet him! We knocked on the door and a really abrasive, large Hispanic man in shiny blue silk pajamas (belly button clearly visible) opened the door. He told us he knew who we were, that we didn't believe the truth, and that he believes we're a cult. He seemed surprised that we weren't shocked at all when he said that (we get it all the time). We tried to clear up any misconceptions but he didn't want us to tell him what we really believe. He accosted us with the whole "don't add or take away from this book" problem in Revelations, and then quickly changed the subject when we had a completely sensible explanation and told him the correct interpretation of that verse. (We get that one all the time, too.) Then he targeted me and started testing my Bible knowledge by quoting obscure Bible verses and challenging me to fill-in-the-blank and judge our beliefs in God. I got most of them right, but after I missed one he told me that I was totally unfit to be an elder because I didn't know the Bible well enough. We kept trying to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and things to him but he always went back to how I didn't have the Bible memorized and was a terrible missionary because of it. It was hilarious. We were pretty fed up with him trying to keep provoking us into argument so we struggled for the next 5 minutes to leave. We asked him if there was anyone in his area who was lonely for Christmas or who we could help. He said he did, but he wouldn't tell us because if we were really ministers of God then the Spirit would direct us to them. I guess he doesn't know how the Spirit really works---through people. It's always sad to see how some people completely harden their hearts to the truth. It does, however, make me grateful that I have the gospel in my life, and it motivates me to find those who are ready to accept it for themselves.
I invite everyone this Christmas season to watch a video about the birth of Christ. I love the Savior and I know He is the Messiah. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true. I love that book!
I hope that all of y'all have a very merry Christmas! I love you and hope to hear from you soon!
With love,
Elder Schank
